edgewood49

Interesting. but did the OP actually sleep in her car? Call me cynical but

CJKatl

In Post #90 @margarita girl directly responded to one of your posts informing you the OP is male. She pointed out that the OP posted a pic of himself in Post #44 . It appears you think this happened to some Meg Butler because she posted about the OP's situation somewhere. The word "cynical" would not apply; Maybe "confused" is more apt.

Old Hickory

I've read that there is a lot of sleeping outdoors (cars, boxes, alleys) in the city by the bay.

edgewood49

That was predominate years ago and many "commuted" this way. Does anyone here really think she slept in her car? True the Bay Area ( I am a former resident) is costly and sadly there are many that live in their cars or campers

dulciusexasperis

LOL, well someone accused me earlier in the thread of being condescending. Now it seems I should be accusing you of that when you say you don't think I understand how things work.

FDAs are people, not computers. As such, an FDA can act in whatever way s/he wants within the restraints that affect him/her. Your second sentence makes me laugh. FDAs are not paid on commission is true but when you then go on to say they don't 'care', you are not only painting every FDA with the same brush, you are insulting them all with that brush. People 'care' if they feel they have reason to care. You write as if every FDA sees their job as 'just a job'. That they all take no pride whatsoever in what they do and have no interest whatsoever in giving the best Customer Service that they can give to each and every Customer they deal with. While I can agree that some are that 'uncaring', I cannot agree that they all are. That would be a very sad thing indeed if it were true.

I deal with people, it is what I have done all my life and in my working life, it is what I did as a professional salesperson. Understanding human behaviour and how to get someone 'on my side', is like breathing to me. Even those who are in general 'uncaring' can in fact be brought to care quite often. When I call and speak to an FDA, that is the first thing I want to do, 'get them on my side'. If I can do that, they will do all they can to help me. It becomes a personal connection, not just a name and number in a reservation system as you seem to think it must always be.

Now you may be sceptical and question just how often that can actually happen and I can't make you believe me obviously. But I can say to you that whether you believe me or not, it happens more often than not for me. I could give you all kinds of examples of how making that 'connection' with an FDA has resulted in my getting a better room or extra perks or whatever. Never underestimate the power of an FDA, it exists.

Let me give you one example that I got a lot of pleasure from that didn't even involve my staying in the hotel. My wife attended a business conference in Orlando, Florida some time ago and I called the hotel to leave a message for her to be given on arrival. (It pays to be nice to your wife) So I called the hotel and got an FDA. I asked if my wife had checked in yet(knowing she wouldn't have) and when the FDA told me she hadn't, I asked to leave a message. Then I said, 'It's a bit embarrassing and I want to apologize to you for asking you to take this message but the message I want to leave is that I miss her already.' The FDA replied with something like, Oh, that's OK Mr. X, I think it's wonderful that you would want to tell your wife that. I will be happy to write down that message and will make sure that Mrs. X gets it.

No doubt some readers will think that is pretty hokey or whatever. But here is what happened when my wife arrived to check in. When she gave her name to one of the FDA's on duty, (a big chain hotel with multiple FDAs), she was greeted with a big smile and told there was a message waiting for her. Then she was given the message slip to read. Then she was told that she had been upgraded to a superior room. She was one of 4 attendees from her organization and the only 1 of the 4 who was upgraded. Who do you think made that happen? The FDA made that happen because the FDA took a personal interest in doing so.

dulciusexasperis

As you are an owner paagal12, I would be interested in hearing whether FDAs at your hotel do take reservations directly from a phone call without transferring the caller to central reservations? Or do you insist that they transfer all requests for a reservation?

Second, do your FDAs have some discretionary power to enhance (or detract from) the guest's stay? Or are they just machines with no interest or ability to affect the outcome whatsoever?

jjmoore

I know for fact that I can call a hotel anywhere in the Marriott chain and make / modify a reservation, and in some cases this is easier because I can change a reservation without repricing the entire reservation to a higher rate (in the cases where I need to add or subtract a night off my original res).

I also know that, just like the airlines, you can book a reservation with Marriott through Marriott's website / online reservation system or directly through the hotel (don't know why anyone would call to make reservations these days...... online is too easy and offers the same rates you will find by calling).

Also, just like the airlines, many hotels will opt to sell one or two more rooms on a particular night than they actually have in inventory. Many of those times, there are last minute cancellations and no-shows that result in everything balancing and the hotel maximizes revenue as a result.

In this particular instance, Marriott's inventory in their system showed the hotel to be wide open for a period of a couple hours on the particular day that this happened, even though the hotel staff knew there was no availability. To add more detail, they have a contact number for Marriott corporate reservations that they can work with when there are booking issues / inventory issues. They could not get a response in time from those guys to rectify the discrepancy between the hotel's system and corporate inventory. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter who was at fault here... the hotel in question is liable to compensate the customers that were impacted. Upon rectifying the situations with their customers, the franchise owner of the Tracy Fairfield Inn can then work out the details with Marriott to adjust the balance sheets once they establish that Marriott IT was likely at fault for the oversale situation, and they can then compensate the hotel for their losses.

This is just what my gut is telling me based on what I know of the particular situation and how some of the franchises deal with the Marriott corporation.

paagal12

GoSh4rks

I've walked into a limited service hotel before (forget which) and have been directed to call the global reservation desk because they could not handle an in-person booking for the Friends and Family rate. Couldn't book online because reservations had closed for that date already.

KRSW

I think my biggest beef is with the FDA. When the moment that the customer is standing at the front desk, the FDA *is* the company representative at that point, for both the property and Marriott. It's up to the FDA to do everything possible to make things right, or as close to it as possible. It sounds like the FDA failed to do her job. As soon as they realized there would be an issue, they should have proactively been figuring out how to accommodate these guests elsewhere rather than wait for them to show up. If need be, bring some of your off-line rooms back on-line and apologize for the non-conforming room. Even in Florida, a hotel room with broken AC and a fan is more desirable than sleeping in a car.

Not always true... I rang a SpringHill on Monday after Marriott's site said there were no available rooms in the city, including that SpringHill and they managed to get me a room for 4 nights. The reservation showed up on my Marriott account by the time I hung up.

dsquared37

:facepalm:
/shrug.

The 10K pts in lieu of $100 strikes me as a poor tradeoff.

rny321

I would not be so presumptuous as to tell the OP what to do, but I will share how I handle significant fails by a counterpart. If the problem can be resolved quickly and with minimal effort, I am willing to accept less than I might be entitled to. Although I wouldn't even consider litigation, I think the saying that a bad settlement is better than a good lawsuit is an appropriate analogy.

If I have to spend considerable time and effort to get something I was promised, then I am less likely to accept a lesser outcome. In this case, the OP is going to get at least 90,000 points plus either additional points or cash. If the hotel doesn't want to provided the required $100, I would ask for 25K in points and be willing to accept less. My guess is that that everyone wants this to be resolved and the hotel presumably would rather not go another round with Marriott because they failed to honor a guarantee.

In any case, it is helpful when bad behavior is called out and I am glad the OP is getting compensation for a problem he didn't initiate.

dulciusexasperis

Thank you for replying to my questions paagal12.

Now that you have confirmed that an FDA can take a reservation over the phone and has the discretionary power to impact the guest's stay, I have no doubt some will still continue to believe that isn't true. Amazing how some people can hold a belief even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

I particularly liked this comment by one poster, "(don't know why anyone would call to make reservations these days...... online is too easy and offers the same rates you will find by calling)." Umm, because a person can do things that an online computer booking cannot?

I also find it interesting that you mention, "( optimal because we wouldn’t have to pay a booking fee to franchise and save a few dollars)" So clearly, that is an actual reason why a hotel would prefer to take a phone reservation directly and not simply transfer the call to Central Reservations. But again, some people will no doubt simply refuse to believe it. LOL

phltraveler

100% agreed. I've had hotels I've stayed at frequently (think every other week for over a year) go a couple times a year and book me a room at my corporate rate ($160 a night) rather than the rack rate ($600 a night) when the hotel was sold out due to a large event (convention, golf tournament, etc.).

Practically with the platinum override a room was "available" to me. My employer would never pay for the rack rate. Without the FDC checking with the sales manager and then booking it for me from their side, I would never have been able to stay during those weeks.

Online booking is great when the relevant rate you want is available and the system will technically permit the booking. But if you need more flexibility on how a rate rule is applied (e.g. generally minimum 5 nights, you're only staying four) or if you're a good guest but the GDS won't expose the rate you want - front desk often has latitude to go outside the box a little.

Best example of this is one of my relatives who has top status on Air canada (Altitude 100K). When he travels throughout the US and Canada, he'll take a look at Booking.com and the hotel directly. He'll then show up on the day of arrival sans reservation and ask if they'll give him a room for $X/night. A lot of the time, the FDC will provide a rate that beats the 3rd party TA & the official website to him. If they decline on the rate, he'll either walk out, or then immediately book the 3TA rate or hotel direct rate (whichever is better) from his phone.

(I'm not that risk inclined to possibly get stuck far from my intended location, and my employer refuses to reimburse any booking made "out of channel" [Concur] without pre-authorizing an exception as of late so this strategy would not be feasible for me anyways.)

CJKatl

No. Nobody thinks she slept in her car because we have all read the posts and know there is no she involved, as has been pointed out to you over and over again by different posters. We all believe that he slept in his car. Why would anyone believe the baseless hunch of a befuddled poster who thinks because a female blogger posted what happened it must have happened to the blogger? While some question whether he needed to sleep in the car and/or should have pushed harder, nobody thinks he is making this up except for one very mixed up poster who seemingly cannot understand basic facts about what happened.