After many years of being a loyal Marriott cusomer, I'm walking.

Why? Well strangely enough it's mot because of the standard of their hotels, which is generally high, nor is to do with their staff who are normally very good and friendly. It's also not about an isolated incident where they've screwed something up so badly that I vowed never to return.

The reason is quite simple, they're totally lousy at getting points to post. I live and travel mainly in Europe, so maybe this issue doesn't arise in the US, but I'm sick and tired of chasing and hassling them to get points to post.

This year, I've made 16 stays in Marriotts (it would have been more, but I spent the first three months of the year in Dublin which has no Marriott property). Of those 16 stays, no fewer than 9 have had an issue of some sort with the points posting.

One 4 occasions, the points didn't post, 3 times the platinum arrival bonus didn't post and twice the points didn't post, and after I contacted them they added the points, but forgot the platinum arrival bonus so I had to contact them again.

At the moment, I still have 3 plat arrival bonuses outstanding (I contacted the US helpdesk via email, they told me they had posted them three weeks ago and I'm still waiting), and I have one stay (Marriott Regent's Park in London) where the points still have not posted despite five separate requests to a combination of the hotel, the UK rewards desk and the US helpdesk.

Life's too short to have to deal with this level of incompetence, so those nice people at Starwood have comped me Plat status and I'm starting a new life as a preferred guest tonight. First I have something like 40 nights of reservations at various Marriott properties to cancel.

I would suggest you send a snail mail letter to Marriott HQ outlining just what you've posted here, along with a printout of your cancellations and subsequent re-bookings with *wood. With all of Marriott's fine print regarding the earning and burning of MRP's, the least they can do is make sure they post in a timely fashion without guest input.

I found IHG to have properties better situated for our useage, so I moved our business over there for this year as a trial. Zero nights at Marriott this year and burned my points down to under 20K. So far I'm very satisfied with the service at IHG. Hopefully Marriott will someday again become our accomodation of choice....

Pat

Imagine how many points fall through the cracks that marriott doesn't have to record on its books. They platinum arrival bonus rarely posts.

They never forget to charge my credit card though. You can't think this is intentional, could you?

But Marriott has never cared for its elite members or its elite program. Now that they are making money hand over fist, why would they start now

I thought it was b/c he was going to say he was a smoker

I can only speak for myself, but I've never had problems with my points posting promptly and correctly. As for charging my credit card, let me put it this way....I've been on the road since '79 and have yet to encounter a hotel...any brand anywhere...that's forgotten to do this!

Yes, even for award stays (Marriott, twice last year)

I really didn't start having trouble until last year, when I had to start checking out at the desk (instead of in our room) because of issues with improper billing/points not posting correctly and having to fax our documentation in to guest services to deal with it. That got old quickly. Combined with a marked variability in room and service quality, it drove our decision to change brands for this year (at least).

Pat

my $.02 on this issue...not only do i have to chase down points and platinum arrival gifts, but today i noticed that the Renaissance Chicago double charged me for parking for 1 night...an extra $39. I called to have it removed...

I have only had one or two incidents of points not posting properly with Marriott, though I stay mostly at US-based hotels. With SPG, however, I have had to email and ask for the Platinum Arrival gift points on probably 75% of my stays. So I'm afraid to say that you may be disappointed if accurate points posting is the main reason for your move.

To each their own, I suppose. Like the OP, almost all of my Marriot stays abroad yet, unlike the OP, I only have occasional posting problems, perhaps 10-20% at most.

I can appreciate the frustration, however, and in this game it's every man, woman and child for themselves, so good luck at your new SPG home.

Yeah not to jump on the bandwagon but I left Marriott the first of the year after 4 years of Gold or Plat for two reasons. One was a couple of bad stays in the US but this alone wasn't enough to chase me away, the kicker was several stays over a year in Australia. Every single stay posted as one point per dollar (270 AUS per night posted as 270 points). Each one of these required a call to the US to fix, the OZ number told me I was wrong. The first time or two were ok but it got old after a few stays.

Exactly...it gets old after a few days...

So now I log onto Marriott Rewards every few days to see if my "issues" are resolved...and check my bank statement to see if the 2 credits I called about have posted...

it gets old after a few days...

As a standard business practice, whenever mistaken charges are posted to our credit cards (like those award stay billings), I call guest services, get a resolution, reduce that to writing, send it in to our credit card company along with a statement of dispute and prospective resolution. The charges go away immediately. That way, if Marriott or the hotel are lazy, their finance department kicks them in the @ss because their merchant account gets hit.

Points are another matter....and one not so easily resolved...

Pat

About 30% of my UK stays don't get posted within 10 business days and I have to send in a "missing stay request" form. I just recently started checking the actual # of points posted (after converting to US$) and have found major discrepancies there too.

I have actualy spoken with Bethesda about this issue as well as several others - including Marriott sending a 195,000 point electronic award certificate for a 20,000 point stay and that HM property accepting and keeping it causing me to spend over an hour trying to get it fixed on the phone.

Frankly, it is all emblematic of what several collegues, as well as myself, see as a downward spiral in Marriott service over the past 6 months. I know 3 people who have moved all of their business from Marriott to either Starwood or Hilton. I myself have stayed at Hiltons during the past for the first time in years.

When I spoke with a woman in "Mr. Marriott's office," she was immediately defensive. She said that it was already straightened out so what did I expect her to do and kept asking what I wanted. I told her all I wanted was an explanation and, more importantly, to point out some deficienciess in service. I know when i ran a company, I'd want to hear such stuff especially if the person wasn't asking for compensation. She proceeded to advise me that it was "just human error" and that her investigation would just show that and nothing else.

The ball was dropped at least 3 seperate times by Marriott on this one, yet corporate really could care less to hear about it. In fact, I only called because Kathy Larsen at MR CS said she would have someone from corporate call me. When that didn't happen for several days, I figured I better do it myself. I've also noticed that you now have 10-15 minute hold times when you call MR CS, telling me that I am far from the only person with complaints or issues about Marriott and MR

Frankly, the woman in "Mr Marriott's office" said it all for me. I have at least 80 more nights to stay in hotels this year. Hilton has already made me a Diamond so I'll be working to send as many over to them as possible. Like others here, I don't have the time to follow up on Marriott's mistakes any longer. The fact is I called to let them know that they have issues and "Mr. Marriott's office," in sum, didn't care to hear it.

I've rarely had a problem with points posting and I stay at Marriotts a lot. Maybe it's a Europe thing, as you suggested. Something you might want to do is to visit their website and sign up for email confirmations. They will email you a copy of your bill for each stay you have with them. It's very handy since I have to turn in the original to corporate for reimbursement and don't want to file away paper copies. If you notice that points are missing then just retreive the email and print out the bill or just forward it on to Marriott. It's also a good way to verify that when your company reimburses you that you're getting the correct amount back.