After all that is a full time job. ;)

I've been happy w/ Marriott overall. As a lowly Plat, I can't say I've gotten all that many upgrades, though they did go above and beyond for a NYE reservation I made. Unfortunately I had to cancel the trip, but it was the effort that counted to me. Still my favorite program for me.

Odd that so many people obsess about upgrades. For about 80% of the time that I spend in a hotel room my upgraded room looks the same as my non-upgraded room...dark. :confused:

That is fine when you are alone on business 97% of the time. When you travel with a kid or significant other, the upgrades really count...

The pool table was quite nice in one UG.

If the upgrade you are referring to was at the New Orleans Marriott, I received the same upgrade!

Regards,

RIP...

Cleveland Marriott.

IMO Marriott benefits are pretty lame at the top level and sadly well behind SPG, Hyatt and even IC. More specifically here is a short list of what Marriott needs to do to remain competitive:

(1) Either offer SPG 24-hour flexible checkin/out or guaranteed early checkin (IC 8am) and guaranteed late checkout (SPG 4pm) . None of this "subject to availability" crap or "excluding resorts" (where I need it most).

(2) Offer upgrades to suites as SPG and Hyatt do - at the very least guaranteed for a certain # of "important" stays selected by member.

(3) A real "no capacity controls" on awards for top elites, like SPG does for all elites. Not the BS we have now where hotel has plenty of standard rooms for sale but no "award inventory"

In my opinion these are the 3 most valuable features that any program can offer me. Unfortunately I can't easily qualify for top status with SPG because Hyatt, Hilton and yes Marriott have better properties for most of my business trips. But I would gladly trade away my Plat status for SPG Plat or Hyatt Diamond in a NY minute. And don't get me started on how useful SPG cash+points are.

I too think its silly to have a level that doesn't mean anything. Talking to some people in SLC, I still don't understand the purpose of the PP level. Seems like there are a lot of things they could do at minimal cost to incentive those who can hit top tier in multiple hotel programs to devote all their stays to Marriott. The first thing might be to have the Front Desk people recognize the difference between PP and P.

With all that being said, Marriott takes pretty good care of me. I get my share of suite upgrades, although the luck has it for upgrades when I'm just sleeping in the room rather than with a friend. The front desk treats me well and GM's call or leave messages for me in the room thanking me for staying at the hotel. I don't think I see any more of that now than when I was a Plat but its still good to great service on a consistent basis.

Property: Aberdeen Marriott
Length of stay (repeat stays?): 1 night, 1st stay, redemption
Greeting: Nothing whatsoever apart from the usual hello; no recognition of status; no arrival gift offered
Room upgrade: Don't think so, was given a family room when there were only 2 of us
Suite upgrade: No
Special requests filled: None asked, none given


Property: Boscolo Palace Rome
Length of stay (repeat stays?): 2 nights, 1st stay, redemption for 3 couples
Greeting: Thanks for being PP; check-in staff really friendly, taking time to show us where hotel was in relation to all the major sites on a map; guest relations manager showed us all to our respective rooms; I was offered welcome gift of points or other; chose 'other' and got a decent bottle of wine and some nuts
Room upgrade: Yes (all of us)
Suite upgrade: Yes, Junior Suite (for me and the other half)
Special requests filled: Asked for high floor and quiet room; free breakfast for myself and wife, but not others, which was fair enough, ate out anyway; great hotel

All three of these are good ideas and could be implemented without having to retrain the staff (or train them properly in the first place on how to treat elite members).

If I had to vote it would be for:

Provide PP's with a handful of 'awards' that would guarantee a suite UG if a suite was available. When I'm on vacation with my family that's when I need the UG, I'm not as 'concerned' when I have a one night stop over on business. If they further wanted to drive revenue with this they could offer them to Plat who stay 150 nights (or some other arbitrary number).

No capacity controls would be great, but I could see some resistance from that. Besides I thought the whole 'benefit' of the 'new' program was they were getting rid of capacity control for awards. I never saw it in practices but I thought when MR raised the redemption rates and levels that was one of the 'bones' they tossed us. Of course if they provided the benefit to at least PP's it would be a real benefit.

For early/late check in, I've rarely been denied this. I've checked in at 8am in Europe and SA with no hassles. I've also checked out at 6pm in SA when catching the overnight flight back to the US.

I once checked in at 8 am and out at 6pm and they didn't charge me anything!

I had that in Buenos Aires as well. No hassles, they were fine with it.

I had an extremely late check out (versus 4pm guaranteed under FHR) at Ritz Carlton Hong Kong on a day when they were not close to being full. It was partly the result of a serious issue that was handled extremely well, in a very generous, classy, and professional way, although I think it helped that I insisted on speaking with the manager on duty that day and not just supervisors for the implicated department. In the end I felt very well treated and definitely want to return. It gave me some interesting insight into not only the way a top hotel should handle problems but also how Asian culture interacts with this.

Platinum Premier
 

Any of you have this problem?

The platinum premier used to upgrade to best in house including the Presidential Suite. Lately it has gotten the same perks at the regular platinum with "no upgrade to suites" per the brochure that came with the card this year and per hotel staff?