Today I was quickly summoned up to Farmington, CT, a suburb of Hartford, where I visit at least 2x year and always stay at the Farmington FS Marriott.

On the 3 hour car/ferry trip up, I tried constantly to book a room on marriott.com but it kept switching from "sold out" to only a $289 concirge lounge level room available, a far cry from my $139 corporate rate (and I am a PLT anyway.)

As a backup, I looked at other Marriott properties and found a RI about 10 hard traffic miles away for a 1BR at my corporate rate at $129. I didn't book it as I was hoping for some pre-6pm cancellations at the FS and didn't think there would be a problem with availability being some 20 miles in the country.

At 6:15 pm, I pulled into the parking lot of the RI Southerington and checked again on the laptop. Nothing at the FS, the RI now only has a 2BR at $209. I go inside ask the Assistant GM (per her name tag) extremely niicely if any rooms were availablle. Only a 2 BR left at $209 was the reply, apologtic at for the obvious rate gouge. I ask if anything could be done with my corporate code and/or my PLT status to bring the rate down a bit. Some key punching to check out the rate code and the response was no, sorry. I leave feeling unloved by my once favorite brand of Marriott properties dispite the 1/2 points.

I drive to the FS, hoping to get lucky or have them refer me somewhere else as I am quickly running out of options. 2 big coach buses out front indicate multiple conferences are going on, the place is busy and it doesn't look good.

I politely ask the young desk agent if she could help a platuim out as I'm stranded without a room. "We're overbooked but I'll see what I can do." She finds a room, on the conceirge level for $199 ! I give her my corporate ID and now its $139 !! I am estantic and overly thankful, asking for a guest comment card to fill out on her behalf immediately. "We are here to serve you" she says. I am overjoyed and now see the advantage of the PLT benefit. This is why God/Mr. Marriott created the FS brands.

I drive around to the 3 story separate structure that houses the conceirge level. Get to my room (access to the entire floor is through the CL), open the door and the stench smell of stale smokes hits me like a wall. Obviously, I'm in no postion to complain at this point. My immediate worry is that they are going to think its me and charge the $250. A few minutes later room service delivers the arrival gift and I ask if she can smell smoke. She agrees its bad and offers to call housekeeping to deal with it, which I watch her do. I'm glad I now have an employee to back me up.

I leave and go to dinner, no one ever came, I don't know what they could have done anyway. I happen to notice that my room door and the 3 other rooms next to me at the very end of the CL floor are suspicoulsy missing the "non smoking room" plauque that every other room door has. In fact, the glue residue on the doors indicate that the plaque was once in place.

Well, my eyes are burning, the stench is in the rugs/bedding and its now apparent that this room is some sort of "unoffical" smoking room, obviously undisclosed and in violation of the new non smoking policy?

And as a final insult, my room is next to an stairwell whose door slams so, so hard and loud that it shakes the room beyond belief. Due to the layout of the building, parking lot and a slow elevator, a steady stream of guests unknowingly jar the room's walls. I much fear how many times I'll be jarred awake tonight and early tomorrow morning.

Well, I've experienced the low then high then low of the Marriott experience in a short hour. I hope tomorrow is better. Thanks for listening.

I think a letter to HQ is in order here.
If everything is as you write then either the previous guests decided to change the NS policy on their own(and housekeeping was lax in deodorising your room)or worse case the hotel itself is to blame.
Either one is not acceptable.
Did you make the issue known to someone a little higher up than a room service person?

I would NOT escalte this beyond the Hotel itself, since they did get the OP a room being Sold-out and maybe the person who found the room didnt know of the previous smoking that took place.

Id also mention to the GM or whomever that I wasnt interested in any comps due to it, and had I had a reg res and not been ushered in with a sold-out standing I would have escalted it to Corp, w/o having dealt with the Hotel itself.

I think a letter to HQ is over the top here. (Why not Congress and the President, maybe even UN? ) I would sort it out with the hotel staff.

Thank you for the responses, I brought it to their attention (again) at checkout this morning and got the card of the GM. They seemed surprized and were going to check it out.

I was not staying in that room again and found another FS some 15 miles away from where I need to be.

I think I was victim to a bigger issue, perhaps a possible "unauthorized" smoking section of the hotel despite the new smoking ban and signs all over the hotel touting the 100% smoke free experience.

1. The room stunk so bad that it wasn't just the previous weekend guest. There was a huge full size window that could be opened fully if someone was trying to sneak it. The smoke was imbeded in the bedding, rug and drapes and was long term.

2. Housekeeping should have easily detected and reported it if it wasn't permitted.

3. This room and 3 others immediately adjacent obviously had their door "no smoking signs" removed while every other room on the floor had one. Why?

4. The immediate hallway where the 4 rooms were clusted smelled stale and unfresh.

5. Twice at check-in, I was told by the very nice desk agent who was going out of her way to get me a room, "I'm not supposed to do this".

I think that they set aside these rooms to placate smoking customers that might have otherwise lost inspite of Marriott policy?

FWIW, my eyes were bloodshot this morning and I did not sleep well at all and am dragging today. Should have paid the $209 in retrospect.

Because the whole point of having the whole chain going smoke free is so this sort of thing does not happen.
The room can be scrubbed free of smoking smells in a day.It does cost quite a bit-but that is the cost of complience with a chain wide policy.Remember the little signs about the $250 penalty for smoking in a Marriott room$That is just about 1/2 of what it would cost to properly scrub a hotel room free of such smells(or other such imbedded dirt/smells)

I have known several different properties (not just one chain) to "forever reserve" rooms for "family" of the owners. It is entirely possible that these rooms were "family" rooms and that is why she "was not supposed" to give you that room. (and if for family, then an the family was a smoking family, then it would make sense as no guest would be placed in the room)

Not saying that this is the case here, but it is at least one possible explanation

Family or not; smoking at a North American property is a violation of Marriott's stated policy.

Regarding the non-smoking rooms, I recently stayed in a room that smelled of smoke and had cigarette burns in the furniture. Based on the response I got, it indicated that Marriott is re-using furniture and bedding from the former smoking rooms after a "cleaning". This is after they denied that this room was ever used as a smoking room.

Here is the response from the manager:

"I further apologize that the room you were in still had residue of smoke. We have cleaned and scrubbed everything in the former smoking rooms, removed items as we were able, and will continue to do so. We are not satisfied with the result and are continuing to address the situation."

One night of 3 was refunded due to this and several other issues. I am using the remainder of my points this summer...then I am switching hotel chains. I can't believe that after instituting the policy the chain did not think about replacing the bedding. They couldn't find me a room that did not smell like smoke.

That's true.

Also true: If the property is franchised by an owner who (by his right, probably written in the franchise operating agreement) has blocked certain rooms for his/her use and smokes within the room of his own rightfully owned property, Marriott can indeed yank the flag.

...and then struggle to find any comparable property to franchise in the area for a year or two.

Which do you think would upset more guests overall?

I know this property very well. Was a Marriott O & O up to a few years ago and I thought it was a gem.

It was sold to Columbia Sussex Corporation which self-manages it and while I wouldn't call it a dud, I certainly can tell the differences between their operating/managing philosophy and MI's. (IMO the property has gone from 'excellent' to 'acceptable'.)

For instance, they took the area (just off the lobby) that was their gift shop and converted it into their health club and replaced the gift shop with a very inadequate sundries "stand" adjacent to check-in ( watched over by front desk associates when not occupied elsewhere and far less adequate than what you'd find in a CY and certainly not what you'd expect in a FS hotel).

Also, for some inexplicable reason they altered the CL (3rd Fl. in the 'E Building' from the conventional 'room' to 'open archictecture so it's now incorporated into the elevator lobby. Since the building's elevator has it's "card-key restriction feature immobolized anyone and everyone has free access to the CL (which is not operative on the weekends). And, nothing prevents it from becoming a 'kids hangout' on weekends.

Rooms have been completely redone with one exception (as of a couple of months ago). That exception is that the old TVs remain.

Here's the property's webpage from the Columbia Sussex site:

http://www.columbiasussex.com/cscdet...o?property=097

From it you'll be able to email the hotel's GM if you wish. (Which is what I did some time ago, in order to forward some kudos but I never received a reply.)

I will say this, when they screw up they're quick to concede it and make amends with points (an in one case with the crediting of a couple of days worth room charges.)

The franchise committee has agreed to make it a brand standard that all hotels be non-smoking....all hotels regardless of ownership must comply, to disregard the brand standards is a serious violation of the franchise agreement

Thank you Mr. Rahmanbar for the contact info and the historical details on the property. I've been staying here since 1999 and have to agree with your assessment. I did have a newer wide screen flat TV in my smoke filled room. And its crazy how now the fitness room is right in the main lobby, nothing like have to walk through a busy lobby at 8am dripping sweat in gym clothes.

I do like the goose neck lamps (2) over the bed and haven't seen those before. But the doors were overlooked in the renovation, they look pretty ratty and slam with tremedous velocity and noise.

I spent my 2nd night at the Rocky Hill Marriott and was very, very impressed.