Property: CY Ft Meade, MD at National Business Park
Length of stay : 2 nights
Greeting: Hello. No acknowledgement of being a plat.
Room upgrade: None.
Suite upgrade: see above
Special requests : My profile has feather free room. Room had feather pillows.
Other: No room key waiting upon checkin; seemed to have simply gotten a random room.
No breakfast for plats.
I requested a microwave for my room. I was told that there was one in the lobby. I stated that I wanted one in my room. The desk clerk said I could get one 'if they had one available.' The hotel was practically empty. A couple of hours later, a microwave was delivered to my room.

The hotel's fine if you don't have any status at all. But if you're a gold or plat, you're not going to be treated any different than someone staying on a priceline rate. ... I booked my room through the marriott.com website.


So far, being a platinum premier has been a total bust. Hopefully the Meadowlands Rennaissance and Marriott Marquis can do better; I'll be staying there next week. The Meadowlands Rennaissance has always been good to me. When my family stayed at the Marriott Marquis a couple of years ago (I made the reservations), they were treated very well also.

Property:Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel
Length of stay (repeat stays?):Several stays of 1-3 nights
Greeting:Thank you for being a PP member
Room upgrade:Yes
Suite upgrade: yes
Special requests filled: None requested
Other: No problems at this hotel, no doubt they knew what PP is.

Property: IAH Marriott
Length of stay (repeat stays?): 1 night/1st stay
Greeting: "Thank you for your loyalty to Marriott as a Platinum Premier Member."
Room upgrade: no
Suite upgrade: Yes (2 level)
Special requests filled: extra feather pillows
Other: N/A

Property: Renaissance Boston Waterfront
Length of stay (repeat stays?): 5 nights/1st stay
Greeting: "Thank you for your loyalty to Marriott as a Platinum Premier Member."
Room upgrade: Yes, to a top floor corner room
Suite upgrade: No
Special requests filled: yes, high floor
Other: For once I would have preferred NOT to be on the top floor (21), as the concierge lounge is actually down on 20 making it pretty inconvenient.

Property: Marriott Marina FS
Length of stay (repeat stays?): 4 nights / non-repeat
Greeting: "We have your MR number on record, no PP or even Plat greeting."
Room upgrade: Yes, to a top floor concierge room, non balcony
Suite upgrade: No
Special requests filled: yes, high floor
Other: Ironically, after being Plat for the past 5 years averaging over 100 nights at mostly FS properties I have never actually not been greeted as a Plat and provided with the Welcome Gift. This was my first stay after achieving PP this year and also the first time I didn't receive the greeting or arrival gift. I did mention this to the front desk during my stay and they did honor the guarantee of $100 and the amenity but just thought it was pretty ironic that this finally happened on my first stay as a PP.

Property: Springfield, MA Marriott
Length of stay (repeat stays?): 2 nights/ have stayed here before
Greeting: Asked if I wanted points or welcome gift - no mention of PP
Room upgrade: concierge floor
Suite upgrade: No
Special requests filled: yes, near elevator, foam pillows
Other:

Plat Premier - a bit too much of a carrot w/out any taste
 

I hate that i even had to email Marriott last night for a small "gripe" - but it really did upset me.

I made PlatPremier this year and typically i stay at Fairfield Inns, so i don't expect too much for 'above the plat' service - no probs at all there.

But i had a stay at the flagship Marriott in downtown Chicago last Thursday and i was honestly so excited to see what the 'hype was all about!' I booked with plenty of advance notice and even early confirmed my stay just to set the stage.

Anyway, in summary: arrived to get no plat premier greeting (not even a plat greeting!) and my room was just a standard room. in fact, my 3 co-workers all got the exact same room. (room xx37 just different floors). I have stayed there on Priceline before and gotten a better room in the corner with multiple city views, not just a single window.

So i really don't mean to sound like a whiner, but i was just so sad. (yes, disheartened for real!!) i was so darn excited to get recognized as this new status and see what happened to me ... that to get nothing was just a big downer to be honest.

So i wrote a note last night just to let them know the situation and my punchline (~in my opinion) was that if you're going to recognize someone as your top 3% and worse - REMIND THEM DAILY that they are never home and always on the road ... then you better be ready to back it up! Don't just give out status and then assume that i'm just going to be happy. Marriott set the bar and IMO did nothing different about it than my previous world.

I know my tone or intent likely doesn't come out properly with a post, but i basically asked them to just return me to normal Platinum because if you don't do anything different to those members, then i'd rather not 1) get my hopes up for no reason of different service and 2) i don't want to be reminded that i live 175+nights/year on the road.

Platinum was just an arbitrary status that i ipreviously gnored, but with this new one, i really thought i would be a 5-star ... now all i feel is that it's just fluff from MR corporate and honestly, they had a chance to absolutely rope me in for life with a cool room or just a friendy smile & thank-you at checkin. I got neither and now i hate to sound like that guy ... but i'm very disappointed.

Sorry for the long post > but does anyone kinda get where i'm coming from??

I do. It's tough to be led to expect that you're going to get something extra in terms of recognition & then just get what the non-elite traveler does. And we've all been there at some point where we get excited & hope for a great experience, it turns out to be mundane, and then the disappointment is worse.

BTW - not sure where your travels take you, but someone started a thread re: Plat Premier & how properties are in terms of acknowledgment etc. Some do take care of their customers; you might want to read that thread & if you're in a location w/ one of the hotels who does, book there. Also, there are anecdotal reports that PP is indeed just fluff, but I'm not one so I'll let others go yes/no on that.

Cheers.

I really couldn't agree with you more. I don't know what I expected in my first couple of stays as a Platinum Premier but I did expect a step-up from regular Platinum. My first stay was great until the last day when they decided to give someone the key to my room while I was still there. Then, I get my credit card receipt only to see that they overcharge me hundreds of dollars. They admit to the mistake but two weeks later and there is still no credit for the overcharge. To top that off, I didn't get any points for the stay. I faxed the receipts to Marriott a week ago and still no points. I had to fax them again today.

My second stay was no different than any other stay I've had at the same hotel. There was no mention of PP status or Platinum status for that matter.

Why even bother having this status is there is no difference between it and Platinum? And, if you are going to have this status, make sure associates know what it is and means.

I've always been good with the service and my experience as Platinum and I will stay with Marriott because it works for in terms of locations and awards.

I would be very interested to hear Marriott's response to your email. Be sure and keep us posted.

It is unfortunate that you did not get the Ryan Bingham experience to be sure! No, I am not joking about that! I agree with you 100% that you should have been recognized as a PP! As a matter of fact, how could they not recognize you as a Plat? Did you even get your welcome amenity or points? As far as a better room, I cannot judge on that, because I do not know what time you checked in or how full the hotel was on that particular night. However, as I said, that is no excuse for the hotel not recognizing your status immediately, and treating you accordingly. Shame, shame on them!

thanks SkiAdcock & dionnec123 ... it really is hard to put into words what i was feeling.

but the consensus from me and my co-workers is that Marriott puts that status out there ... so if they don't do anything about it > then they're just going to upset more people then actually lure in more Road Warriors.

I was very happy with my basic Plat ... so if you're not going to 'up the ante'; all you've now done is upset me.

It was important enough to identify me as a PlatPrem ... so why not important enough to do something.

oh well - i digress.

I have a stay for a weekend in NYC and that will be my final litmus test ... if it's mundane, i'll be beyond disappointed.

One more thing....
 

I have always been aware of the fact that about 20-25% of front desk personnel at the various hotels across the company (all brands, from FS to LS) are not familiar with the elite programs, and are just plain and simply clueless about what to say or do when it comes to elite members checking in. Of course, IMO, if they are not fully trained, they should not be dealing with guests, because the risk of offending the guests is so very high. However, I am not sure whether this is real world reality or not, since I am sure that turnover/churn for staff is very high, and it can sometimes be difficult to keep some positions filled at all.

Chicago Marriott
 

Property: Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile
Length of stay (repeat stays?): 1 night
Greeting: Nothing! No Plat Premier or even Plat. All he said at the end was (Quote) "Would you like points or an amenity?" (IMO - that is not a status greeting)
Room upgrade: nope (and my 3 co-workers [2 plat - 1 silver] all got the same room)
Suite upgrade: nope
Special requests filled: N/A
Other: was given a small box of white chocolate pretzels in my room. - i assume that was my PlatPremer recognition?

While I would agree with you in principle regarding the whole of the front desk staff, I would also point out that this should absolutely not be the case at properties that have dedicate "Elite Member" check-in lines. If a property has one of these lines they should staff it with someone familiar with the program and various levels within it.

I wouldn't make NYC a litmus test, especially if you're at the Marquis which is a convention hotel.

BTW - there is some long thread in this forum about Plat Premier & what (if anything) it gets you. You might want to do a search & read through it. And the recent thread on PP's experiences at dif properties.

I think your point re: if they're going to offer up a PP level, then there should be more than goes w/ it is valid. Otherwise, why bother? However, if it were me at this point I'd go into my next few stays just expecting Plat service & then the disappointment won't be as large. Easier to be pleasantly surprised if someone does go the extra step vs vastly disappointed.

Cheers.