Compensation for Lack of Housekeeping Services
 

Hi All,

I'm seeking the advice of you Marriott experts. I recently had a two-night stay at the Torrance/Redondo Beach, CA Residence Inn property. While I wasn't satisfied with the checkin experience, insufficient vehicle parking, and weak wifi signal, the icing on the cake was that my room was not serviced by housekeeping on the full middle day. Out of the room from 12 noon until 11 p.m., without a 'do not disturb' sign on the door, I returned to a room that wasn't touched. Not the end of the world, of course…it happens. I've experienced before at every type of property all the way from a 2.5-star to 5-star. My question is regarding the compensation. At checkout, I was offered 5,000 MR points. While it sounded semi-weak, I wasn't in the mood to deal with asking for more. Do you think 5,000 points is fair for a room that wasn't made up one day at a Residence Inn? I definitely wouldn't accept this at say a JW or St. Regis. Just curious if I got jipped the easy way out or not.

Thanks for your insights!

More than fair. That is a lot of points and what is the Category of that hotel -- Cat 4?

By the way, 5,000 points is 5,000 points and is more than fair compensation even at a JW.

Not really a Marriott guy, but I would have to say that seems more than fair. Most Starwood properties give you option of declining housekeeping for 500 points per night, while the lower tiered Four Points only offers 250 per night.

Besides, did you really need housekeeping that day, or was it just going to be a light refreshening of the room?

I might have been annoyed & would have asked the next day that someone have a conversation w/ the housekeeping mgr about making sure mistakes like that don't happen again/tweak their process, but it never in a million years would have occurred to me to ask for compensation for something so minor. Actually I've occasionally experienced the same situation at a FS hotel & I didn't ask for compensation, just shrugged it off.

I mean seriously, unless you trashed the place, you returned to an unmade bed, maybe some towels or papers still strewn around. A minor annoyance sure, but that's about it. Take the 5,000 points & be glad you got them.

Cheers.

Remember that 500 SPG points are much more valuable than 500 MR points. For a top tier elite, it takes about $35 or $70 of Marriott spend, depending on the brand, to earn 500 MR points, while with Starwood, about $166 would be required. On the redemption side, folks often report 2.5 cents or more per SPG point without much difficulty, while Marriott/RC redemptions seem closer to one cent per point. These numbers are estimates and do not include promos or bonuses other than those due to elite status.

Isn't Residence Inn one of those that only services every other day or something like that?

That's Towneplace.

This.

Question: would you happily give up housekeeping for a day in exchange for 5,000 points?

I certainly would.

I think most of them provide daily housekeeping for short term guests but service rooms only every several days or twice a week for extended stay guests. It might depend on one's particular contract for a longer stay.

Hand' t thought of it this way but heck yeah!

Cheers

+1 :D

5k is a lot for something so minor.

I got 15k recently for having an acceptable stay. I was woken up several times that night when the next door guest flushes the toilet. Also there were thousand of ants eating my cookies in the room when I woke up. I told the FD and she said that she could deduct 20% off my bill for the inconvenience. It was like a slap on my face so I contacted corporate and the GM offered 15k points as compensation. I don't think it was good enough since I had to spend time to make sure that there is no ant in my belongings. Plus the fact that the poor sleep made me not functioning well on the next day.

I think my stay was more than 3 times worse than no housekeeping.

Gosh people some of you had better be careful lest Marriott decides to fire you as customers, these are minor issues to be making a fuss about. How often do you complain? I save my complaints for the biggies, but I do not think I've ever had more than 1 issue to complain about every couple of years.

Agree with this!
Definitely worth 5,000 points to me.

Seems like a minor issue and the "I need compensation for everything" mentality is part of what has led to people on FT refering to "devaluation".

If every minor thing means tossing points to someone, those points eventually become worthless.