It would be nice if a Marriott rep could provide us with a step-by-step, keystroke by keystroke process of entering these successfully into the antiquated MARSHA system. We could print them out and take them when we travel.

Doesn't Marriott pride itself on having Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for everything? I recall reading how the proper way to deliver food was to quickly and exactly knock 3 times and announce "room service" in a loud voice (sleeping neighbors be damned).

I paid with a gift card last weekend at a CY in Las Vegas. The front desk clerk had never seen one before, and wasn't sure how to use it.

After she looked at it for a moment she said - "I'll try it as a Visa". Sure enough it worked.

I'm curious, what makes MARSHA antiquated?

OT, but same here.

Issues are:

DHL S*CKS. They are the worst for delivery (or NONdelivery I should say)

Most FS Marriotts have NO IDEA how to redeem them

Some want to KEEP the card, even with a balance, and look at me like I have 2 heads when I say "no, it still has $380 on it, please give it back to me!":confused:

I now keep a sharpie marker and mark EACH AND EVERY amount down as I have had them DOUBLE and TRIPLE swiped!

But...it is still 10% off, or a free suitcase, or extra points! :D:D

Honestly, I have no way of truly evaluating their system, its just my opinion given:

1. The feeling I'm getting from reading the boards with respects to reservation and gift card entry problems.
2. The time, amount of keyboarding and looks of frustration from desk clerks when making simple requests such as changing rooms or making the same reservation for the following week at check out.
3. Small talk about the system and its limitations with front desk clerks and the number of times someone else needs to be brought over for help.
4. The apparent DOS/AS 400 based "green screen" interface shown to me by a desk clerk.
5. The amount of billing errors experienced in the past 10 years.

I could be totally off base here using the term "antiquated". In my company, we have a green screen AS 400 system that bills $750 million annually, we call it the best of 1980's technology, but it works flawlessly.

It sounds to me like the money they make from the float and breakage of this item isn't being reinvested in human training, notwithstanding Univac/Marsha/whatever. Maximum input + minimum output = pissed off customers. Not a good recipe.

Nothing like people paying way in advance for a service and then having trouble settling the "bill"...... Maybe Bill needs to get home from Morroco :)

Pat

1) Has nothing to do with either function (Reservation agents use a windows based application based upon their needs, ie sight impared agents would have the system read them the prompts as they are conversing with the caller) gift cards are processed through a different system entirely
2) those functions aren't handled in MARSHA but the hotel's PMS system
3) the system is extremely flexible which often times confuses those who have limited knowledge and experience in it
4) it's actually run on an S/390, an AS/400 would crash under the weight - but again reservation agents dont use it, their windows application works on top of it
5) billing isn't handled by the system, that is handled by the hotel's PMS system

IMO MARSHA is one of the best systems out there, superior to Hilton's R & I and way more advanced than Starwoods current system*, the closest thing out there would be IHG's and it's not as advance either....remember, unfortunately it's human nature to blame things we dont understand when infact we might be the cause of the issue

BTW: Marriott was never a big user of AS/400's, they weren't much of an improvement from S/36's

So-again-lack of proper training on Marriotts part is to blame for this.
Just when will the suits get the message that this penny pinching lack of training is pi##ing of their best customers?

I've never had a problem with a gift card. I've used them at four different Marriott properties. Never had to educate anyone. In fact, the employees have educated me: "Sir, we can put all of your charges on the card, no additional credit card is required."

Having said that, I wouldn't mind having an official sheet of instructions/information that I could hand a desk clerk if needed. I'll slip into my briefcase, right next to my United Airlines Contract of Carriage

Nobody doubts that sometimes they get it right. The issue is how often they get it wrong, or are simply befuddled.

"Sometimes" implies about a 50% average, right? For me, they're 4 for 4. Guess my point is that its much easier (and lots more fun) to write unsubstantiated posts that simply pile on:

than to simply describe the specific instances of failure, and mechanisms for remediation.

In this thread and in other threads there have been posts explicitly detailing the failures of named Marriott properties to properly process gift cards. Some of the posts were, to me, breathtaking in their descriptions of the failure of front desk personnel to know what to do with the cards; some properties flatly refused to even accept the cards. Some posters here, kindly I thought, put the blame on the Marriott computer systems rather than on the training of hotel personnel. Socrates, our resident expert, seemed to say that the computers are up to snuff.

You had good results four times. That's great. That's what we all would hope for. My own results are mixed. At one property there was no problem. At a second there was much confusion.

I had my first failure at the Schaumburg Marriott this Monday when the front desk clerk was unable to process my gift card. She lied about being able to take payment from it, and I found out today when I checked my gift card balance.

I apologize profusously for the "antiquated" term above and perhaps it took away from the message I was trying to put accross.

Deleting that poorly choosen word, is there any value in what I proposed?