hockeyinsider

I was walked Sunday night.

Arrived at a full-service Marriott property around 9:30 p.m. to be told my reservation was "canceled" (their words, not mine) because the hotel had been without power since 1 p.m. They only offered to rebook me at a nearby limited-service hotel, which presumably was also managed by them. I insisted on a full-service hotel. They relented, but booked me at my own expense at the closest full-service Marriott. They also wouldn't pay the Uber to the new hotel. Adding insult, they booked me at the highest public rate.

While in the Uber to the new hotel, I called Marriott. Of course, it took forever to get someone, but when I did they agreed the property didn't follow Marriott's terms and conditions. A lengthy report was taken. The agent told me they didn't understand why the property didn't alert Marriott so corporate could stop people from making bookings and proactively rebook or contact customers. The agent told me he was shutting the property down on Marriott's booking channels to prevent anyone else from booking it. The property also didn't have a manager on-duty. You would have thought the general manager would be there. The corporate Marriott customer care agent said they would reimburse my Uber and I would be contacted within a week to resolve the compensation.

So, according to Marriott customer care, I'm owed reimbursement of my hotel stay, the Uber ride, $200 compensation and 90,000 points.

RogerD408

Yes, as a Plat (let alone PP) there is a lot owed and the property should have stepped up. So they were able to sell out that night without knowing this happened? Having no management available, especially hours after a site problem the "cancelled all reservations", is unbelievable. I'd guess there is a way to recover, had they known what to do.

This is a learning experience for the property. Hold their feet to the fire and make sure they make everything right. Also, help others here to know what to expect from this property by naming them. Going in armed with facts make the fight so much easier.

MSPeconomist

hockeyinsider

Moments ago, the general manager called me. He claimed there was a communication "misunderstanding" and the property didn't think they were walking me. I told him the front desk was very clear to me and other arriving guests that all reservations had been "canceled." I also told him corporate Marriott agreed with me. I also told him I couldn't believe he personally wasn't there, given the seriousness of the issue. Apparently, the property or its management company didn't even notify corporate, which could have presumably proactively contacted incoming guests about rebooking options.

Anyways, he said he would reimburse the Uber ride, send me a check for $200 and post the 90,000 points. I then said I expect my stay at the replacement hotel to be covered. He asked me to email the receipts.

The property is the Chicago Marriott Southwest at Burr Ridge.

The general manager claimed "management was there," but if they were they were hiding. I told him the only employees I saw were a bellman, a front desk clerk and a front desk supervisor. Maybe he considers a supervisor to be management, but I told him if it was my property and this happened I would be there personally, regardless of it being a Sunday night on a long holiday weekend.

RogerD408

Yes, a major miscommunication occurred, mostly between the staff on duty and the property management! I'm sure the knowledge of the "cancelled reservations" was known much earlier in the day. Something as serious as this should have prompted management to be onsite to work out the details. Sounds like the GM is stepping up and will make things right. Keep track of all communications and make sure they deliver on all that is due (transportation, accommodation, points, and reservation guarantee). I am presuming the property you ended up at is posting night credit and room points, if not the original property would be on the hook for that too.

C17PSGR

Thanks for the update. Glad the property is making it right.

But ... what was the misunderstanding ... what did the property think they were doing, if not walking you?

I suspect properties have business interruption insurance that might cover this, albeit with a retention.

hockeyinsider

He thought they were merely "re-accomodating" me. When I said "canceled" is being walked he agreed. I probably could have demanded more, like reimbursement of my Uber from the airport to the hotel. We both agreed that this was a "learning experience," though he wouldn't concede my point that he himself should have been there as general manager.

This property is managed by a large, third-party management company. I actually do a lot of business with the company through events at a couple of other properties. I will certainly keep this in mind for the future because those properties are in hurricane or earthquake areas. This didn't give me a lot of confidence that this particular management company has policies and procedures to handle emergency situations.

CJKatl

If the power outage closes the entire hotel, you are not technically walked and are not eligible for the compensation. The hotel should be going above and beyond to make the situation right, IMO, but you are not covered by the T&Cs, which state (emphasis added):

hockeyinsider

They were open and operational to existing guests. And beyond that, they were still taking reservations so that's open and operational.

CJKatl

If the hotel was operational and only turning away certain guests, then the policy is in play. The point of the guaranty is to discourage the hotel from doing this to elite guests.

RogerD408

Expecting the GM himself may not be the right one to respond, but I'd guess there is at least one or two levels of management between him and a lowly FDC, especially an undertrained FDC at that.

If you are doing a fair amount of business with the management group, get to know some of the people there, and not just the individual properties, so you have someone to contact when there's an issue. Jumping from FDC to corporate may be an overkill, but don't hesitate if needed.

swanscn

Interesting thread it has taught me many things I was not aware of. I have been a Lifetime Platinum member since they started that program (in other words longer than I care to admit) and many things in this thread I did not know, so thank you. What I find interesting is the way Marriott handles disability requests and the assignment of accessible rooms. Let me state I do not require such a room and yet have been given one many times. My last stay a few weeks backs I was assigned a room that a disabled person would find helpful but I did not. I went back to the front desk and requested a standard room and was assigned one, makes one wonder what the front desk people are thinking.

I had never been walked from a Marriott property before this year. When I arrived I was told the good news was they had my reservation the bad news was I did not have a room. But they had a room for me at a Hampton Inn 18+ miles away, I asked if they could walk me to one of the hotels that we could laterally see and walk too. They declined this request while continuing to check in quests (14 at a minimum), I requested a manager and was told no. At this point they started speaking as if I was now cancelling my reservation voluntarily. I asked them if this is how they treat a lifetime platinum member to which I got no response. I then called Marriott customer service who called the front desk to try to get this straight and they even kept getting NO for a answer. Marriott CS agreed with me that the behavior was not proper and then they noticed that my room was part of a large group reservation. One thing I learned was that the rules within Marriott is that you never walk a person who is part of a group reservation. Our company had over 1500 rooms in various Marriott properties around the city for 3 nights per room in most cases, 2 in my case. We eventually worked out a full service Marriott location of my choosing to spend the night at. Moral of the story property owners did not want to spend the money to walk someone to the hotels across the street of on either side of them (yes, room were available my travel department checked) . They trained their front desk staff to answer NO to most ever request even when it was Marriott CS.
According to Marriott CS this property was not following the corporate procedures, specifically:
1) Never break up, walk a member a group reservation
2) Never walk a person to a inferior and/or distant property
3) Never walk a Platinum member before walking a lower on non-status tier member (over 20 people were checked in while I was on with the Platinum desk) and they had a stack of on-line check-in paper work printed up.

I even involved our corporate liaison with Marriott and they involved the Marriott sales person assigned to our account since we were planning on having this event in 9 more locations around the world(another 15,000 rooms for a average of 3 nights per room). This made Marriott very concerned but they could still not get the property to move off of their position one bit. I was not aware of the 90K and $100 benefit, but because of the visibility I ended up with 250k and no money.

The GM did not like this level of compensation one bit and we did have a chance to speak a few days later. He attempted to explain the facts to me and I actually cut him off and explained what I believe the facts were.
1) They depend on people not know what they are entitled too and have instructed the front desk staff to say no.
2) They have instructed the staff to not contact anyone who in not on the property to resolve anything.
3) They have instructed the staff to try to get a guest who does not like the walk to turn it down to get them off the hook completely.

I also explained to them that the Marriott CS desk agreed with me that the only way they may start flying right was to make it hurt, and we did this with the 250k (I forgot to mention that we also contributed another 250k to charity) points and the price of the FS Marriott I booked in.

SightseeMC

I used to be a Front Office Supervisor at Marriott 10 years ago. These stories depress me, as I considered customer service at Marriott to be about as good as it gets when I worked there. IIRC, the walk policies you stated are the same as when I worked there, meaning they are long-standing policy.

1. Never walk an elite when you can walk a non-elite. Especially a Platinum. This is pretty much the number 1 rule.
2. Never walk group guests; always walk *anybody* else. You endanger a massive contract because even if you're just walking a random member of the group, that person might be presenting key information at 8 am the next morning. Thus, a non-group elite could be walked if non-group non-elite walks didn't clear enough rooms. But that was pretty rare in my experience, and we handled plenty of groups and sports teams.
3. Walk to the nearest matching-service hotel, preferably within Marriott footprint. If absolutely necessary, walk to a competitor. Eventually, it will even out as they walk people to you.
4. Pay for the transportation, but usually we just literally walked you down the street if possible of course.
5. Offer voluntary walks to single night non-elites starting with late second shift if walks are still a probability.
6. A FO Supervisor was completely capable of making the calls/covering the expense of walks. There should have been no need to call an actual "manager" on a day off; we were given responsibility and trust to deal with this.

We'd know at 6 am if walking guests that night was a possibility; we'd know sometime in the afternoon if it were probable. By 9:30 they should have walked every non-group non-elite and you should have been pre-checked in with a room waiting. Given 10 years of technological advancement, there is simply no excuse for not having your room ready at night. That's a *ridiculously* terrible breach of Marriott protocol, and I hope the management company gets a review (and the GM is definitely getting one), given that this property just endangered a multi-property, multi-event contract in about the dumbest way possible to save a few bucks (the hotel isn't compensating the other hotel rack rate, or even a published rate, for your walked stay).

Ross0

I'm getting walked tonight. It's an inconvenience, but more importantly, I need one more qualifying night to hit PLT as part of an Elite challenge. Is there anyway to get the property that is walking me to post the stay for stay credit purposes?

CLEguy

Why not use the cash to book a cheap room somewhere?