I was indeed a kid - but I sure didn't go to drunken weekends at hotels either. Bitter? Nope, just really annoyed that some people feel it's ok to just turn their teenagers loose and let everyone else deal with the consequenses. A group of adults behaving the same way is also unacceptable. If you want to get smoke where ever you want, scream, get drunk and puke in hallways do it in your own house...... not out where other people are paying for a decent night's sleep.
Also don't assume that just because it's a Saturday night it's ok.... many people work schedules other than Monday-Friday.

While nobody can guarantee quiet, the hotel has a responsibility to me as a paying (and very frequent) customerr to provide an environment that is conducive to a decent night's sleep. That's what I'm paying for.

This hotel failed to live up to that....in several different ways.

I say 20-something year olds negatively, because IMO once you're old enough to be married, you ought to be old enough to understand what is and what isn't proper behavior.

Noise in and of itself can be tolerated.

I didn't blame those kids for making a racket at the indoor pool in Farmington (since they were croweded into it because the hotel gave away their rights to enjoy swimming in fresh air). And anyway, it was day time.

But when it comes to safety, I hardly think it's unreasonable to expect a property to enforce their own rules.

Kids will be kids - but if there's a sign saying no horseplay, no running, no diving into the pool they shouldn't be permitted to do it; Period.

And for management to literally stand by and ignore a kid playing with his bow and arrow in a public place? Or a manager allowing his own kids to break the rules that he himself has a responsibility to (in theory) uphold?

Someone wants to make a racket in the middle of the night -- why does it have to be in the hallways?

Suggestion: Why not make in a win-win situation by engaging in it in the hotel lobby where everyone's awake anyway and hotel management (which apparently sees nothing wrong with such behavior) will not have to deal with complaint phone calls from cranky guests who think they have a right to peace and quiet in the late evening hours.

Well, when making reservation for this weekend at the Mt. Laurel, NJ FS Marriott, I did indeed ask the plat desk to put "Don't put me on the same floor as drunk wedding guest." on the notes of the reservation.

The agent chuckled, and I even called back to be certain it really was there. Wonder what retribution the hotel will bestow upon me for that one ;-)

Oh well...

Can you put 'please don't put me next to the VERY LOUD convention couples (no idea if married or just getting lucky) having sex at 3am room' in the comments section???? Had to deal w/ that 3x at my stay at the AMS Marriott this week. Luckily they give you 6 pillows so UA earplugs & pillows helped a tad, but I was tempted to yell out finish it already for goodness' sake!

Cheers.

It's certainly not just a Marriott problem. Maybe it's New Jersey. A few years ago I had a series of horrible stays at the Hyatt in New Brunswick, which was a seven-day loud-n'-crazy wedding mill built like a basketball arena -- every room opened onto an atrium which was a kind of staging area for all the ballrooms.

Sometimes the wedding guests would actually take up all the hotel parking, forcing regular hotel guests to park blocks away and hike through the rain with their luggage... and of course the drunken screamin' and slammin' with full-boat Noo Joisey accents went on till sunup. A terrible, terrible hotel.

The problem with properties that are also social/community anchors in the center of less-than-large towns is, the traveling guests are of peripheral importance. It's local trade that counts.

Just stay off the 4th floor...

I think sometimes the hotels forget that the weekend folks, especially elites, stay there during the week too...and have memories.

I'll have to save that one for another time. Though you had me ROTF LMAO.

You guys do crack me up, but the sad part is, I can relate to all of these!

Hotels are gathering places
 

Hotels are public venues open to . . . the public. And John Q Public is not a homogenous creature.

You've got businessmen, families, individuals, and groups utilizing hotel facilities. And hotels are in the business of rooms, food, and gatherings for conventions, meetings, and weddings and other private functions. Marriott is no better or no worse than any other chain in this regard. We're all gonna run into this sooner or later, especially if you're a Gold or Plat traveller.

We too have on occassion been stuck at a hotel when night turns to wee hours and inebreiated revellers are a bit noisy in the hallways and there's little to do about them except grin and bear it or call the desk if they get out of hand. OTOH, we've watched a couple of good office Christmas parties at the London Marble Arch -- we didn't need the TV for entertainment, we simply watched the drunken guests ring up a £6000 bar tab on the boss.

It's a different story if you're stuck on the same floor as the event. I'm unclear as to me whether the OP presents themselves at the desk and demands a different room. Lacking space, another option at this location would have been to move to the nearby CY, FF, RI, or TPS located literally around the corner. But this Mt. Laurel area is often booked to capacity on weekends, so this may not have been an option.

My own take on things would be that if I'm an elite who is stuck on the events floor and they can't move me away from the chaos, then I'm entitled to compensation and I make this known then and there, not after the fact. However all I'd really want is to be be on a different floor. In this instance as an elite, it's worth chatting with the manager while discretely pointing out your regular patronage. Then ask why the party goers were not assigned to this floor leaving better options for regular guests. Management can learn from constructive comments such as this.

It's always a juggling act trying to accomodate all sorts of different guests and different groups. Sometimes they drop the ball and you've gotta try to help them pick it up. But one must also be firm when the guest experience is not close to what it should be.

Barry

In general, I do believe that most hotels will try to put persons from the same group/gathering/event close together (i.e. same floor, wing, etc). This way they just cause themselves problems not everyone else. The issue is that unless the hotel is pretty empty, others not a part of the party may be placed close by. I would think that a "good" hotel though will put the elite members somewhere else. That way they should hopefully be effected less by these types of issues and definitely not on the same floor as the party ballrooms. @:-)

Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like the hotel did any type of planning for their elite members at all. :td:

Hhoope01 makes a good point about what good hotels do. I have been put on higher floors at the Fairview Park Marriott when there are large wedding parties or other groups of boisterous guests at the hotel. The Schaumburg Marriott did the same thing in late June for me.

I consider it poor design to have the ballrooms on the same level as guest rooms. It seems like it will cause problems, especially with loud guests.

I would not be in a good mood if I got stuck with a bunch of loud guests while trying to sleep at 3 am. Frankly, I would make sure that they had no chance to sleep in by disturbing their peace and quiet at 8 am when they are trying to sleep.

hhoope01 makes a GREAT point. Without trying to stir the ashes further, a better hotel will be proactive in many regards, including the handling the "special needs" of groups, whether weddings and sports teams. Sometimes not extracting every nickle and dime from your guest (i.e. steep meeting space charges to kill 3 hours and eat pizza) can pay handsome intangible dividends down the road. And folks do need to remember that once they were kids, were young, had younger kids, etc...

If it is only one night, you can live with a loss of some sleep. And just make sure, which it has already been commented, to make sure to receive compenstiaon at the time of your stay during the inconvience or when checking out.

Just because you're a paying and somewhat frequent Marriott customer does not give you the right to consider yourself superior to others. I agree with the fact that they should have allowed you to move or make some sort of effort to accommodate you in a room where you could sleep. I, too would complain about their failure to take action. I disagree with your arrogant comments towards younger people. Neither the fact that you're older, nor the fact that you're gold elite doesn't warrant your attitude.

So I was right, you do hate people in their 20's.:) You may have been in your 20's way too long ago to remember what it was like (or even the fact that it happened), but that's not a good excuse. Your age and marriage argument makes no sense whatsoever. That may have been a nice slogan in the 1950's, but nowadays it's just silly.

The last one for me that got my craw was when the CY Glenridge-Perimeter in northern Atlanta stuck me next to a conference room as a Platinum. Not only did I have to suffer through a kids birthday party (while having the pizza lady knocking on my door at midnight as apparently someone from the party called for pizza and gave my room number instead of leaving it at the front desk :rolleyes:)

Following that I got a rude awakening by the very boisterous Baptist church group with the full drum kit and bass guitar / organ they brought in Sunday morning................

To put it mildly I havent been back to that property since.

--DD73