I hate weekends @ Marriott...
 

The wedding parties are killing me.

Saturday night we were (as a gold....??) stuck on the 4th floor. The 4th is where the ballrooms are, and thus have the wedding parties on there as well.

After a long night, checking in at 12:30 am, we just wanted some sleep at the Mt. Laurel, NJ FS Marriott (normally a nice place). We had spent 4 nights there last month and it was great.

Well......it was such a mess the hallway smelled like cigarette smoke and alcohol. There were so many drunk 23 year olds running up and down the halls and slamming the (trademark loud Marriott) doors. The next door wife was drunk off her you-know-what and loudly accusing her husband of cheating on her.

After a 2 am trip to the front desk to complain - the desk clerk told security to go up to the 4th floor "again". I was not afforded the opportunity to move rooms, even after asking how it was, as a gold, I was stuck on the lowly 4th floor in the first place.

After next door finally calmed down after 2 visits from security and a threat to be removed from the property, I almost drifted off to sleep at 4 am....Only to be awaken by the screaming 20-something drunk chicks in the hall.

First, I don't know how I ended up stuck on the wedding party floor. Second, why was I allowed to move rooms? Third, why the hell does Marriott let its wedding party guests behave this way????

Oh - the final straw was when I checked out, I was told that I didn't get the $50 Bonus Buck coupon, even though I had reserved that promotion. 2 calls to various departments didn't get it resolved either. On 3 hours sleep, I finally trudged out and decided to hammer it out with corporate.

If it weren't for the additional points gained by FS Marriotts, I'd avoid them like the plague on weekends. The Courtyards seem quieter since they're not having wedding parties and such.

My wife and I will be sending a very detailed e-mail to Marriott. I expect higher than this given the amount of business I send their way. I expect to make Platinum this year FWIW....

You have my sympathies. Out of curiousity, did you actually request to be moved?

Did you get breakfast certs? :D:D:D

We had a similar experience in Manchester England in July. Doors slamming all night on our floor. When we went to check out the next morning, many of the wedding party were still hanging out in the courtyard.

I complained mildly at the desk, but didn't go any farther as I had a plane to catch.

Sheila

Yes - we were told that if we had room preferences, that we should note it upon reserving the room or checking in.

Personally I don't think the guy felt like moving us at 3 am.

Heck no. They have a gooooood buffet there too.

Of course I had to load up on the coffee in the lobby just to stay awake. :mad:

Funny, I checked my profile and there was no option for "Don't put me on the same floor as drunk wedding guests." :)

Mike

More disrespect from Marriott?
I do hope you plan on writing a letter to HQ telling them why you are moving your buisness to another chain.

That's the thing - I already have enough nights in, coupled with my existing reservations, to hit Plat. this year. I don't really feel like moving, as 99% of the time my experience is pretty good. I don't want to start from scratch with another vendor....unless somebody will status match me perhaps.

Because of those trade mark Marriott slamming doors, I find the need to sleep and Marriott FS hotels an oxymoron. Even Mr. Marriott himself will not sleep at his own hotels because he cannot get a good night's sleep.

I've been in your situations many times, due to weddings and traveling with youth sports teams.

Take people to whom staying one night at a hotel is a major event/treat and a weekend staff streched too thin and pissed off because they work weekends, and you have a dangerous mix.

The sales staff are only glad to book weddings and group events but the operations staff are clueless or uncaring how to treat them. And the hotel will insist on squeezing every penny like its a corporate event.

Ten year olds are going to run, roam and play floor hockey in the halls to kill time yet very few hotels will open up an unused meeting room or small ballroom to allow the group to gather and entertain themselves. One hotel insisted we buy another room (at $150+) and buy their pizza at $20 a pie to feed a 30 kids on New Years Eve. A big deal to parents scraping by.

I suspect you were on the 4th floor because that's where the other guest are, for the convience of housekeeping, not your peace, quiet and comfort. There were probably floors of empty rooms.

Next time you are in a Marriott hotel that is obviously empty (dead time of the year, parking lot empty, Sunday night, etc), get up early and look at the newspapers by the doors. I guarentee you are clustered together unnecessarily.

Just my opinion from many years of observations both business and weekend travel.

What proof do you have of this? I have actually stayed in the same FS marriott as the man himself was staying at.

When you are hired you sign up to either work the 9-5 or work weekends....its no surprise nor would it piss them off.

I used to work for Marriott...and we would make a point NOT to do this, and for this exact reason. Now that i travel it is my experience that this is the exception, not the rule.

No homerism in these quotes :rolleyes:

We're an urban couple who'll steal away a few times every summer for a getaway weekend and have experienced all of the above (and more) at suburban hotels (and it hasn't been limited to FS Marriotts).

About three years ago someone in sales at the Marriott Farmington actually reserved the outdoor pool area for weddings on two of three weekend afternoons and had the audacity to distribute a letter to guests asking them to "join in celebrating the union of two wonderful couples" and telling them that they still had alternative ways to entertain themselves (like pay per view movies, at the game room, and taking advantage of the walking trail.

This on a weekend when they were also hosting multiple sub-teen soccer teams.

You can imagine the resultant havoc at the single remaining remaining recreational facility, the indoor pool (which of course, was, in the traditiion of modern hospitality administration, unsupervised).

Oh yeah, when the kids became bored of the over-populated swimming pool they amused themselves by practicing soccer in interior public areas.

Security?

The security staff consisted on one (1) bellman.

This summer, at a Hyatt in New Jersey we were treated to older adolescent males soccer players disrupting the pool via their "cannon-balling" into it (along with other horseplay in defiance of the posted rules). Parents had to remove their young children from the pool and adjacent areas.

In the evening we experienced thundering hordes running through the hallways (and discovered in the morning that all doors had been stripped of their "do not disturb signs").

Staff reaction?

A shrug.

This past Labor Day weekend in the Trumbull Ct. Marriott it was a mixed bag -

We and a couple with two young children were the only ones situated in one section of the CL level, well away from two wedding parties' accomodations. (Of course, in adjacent rooms.)

While there weren't many children in the hotel and not a lot of horseplay on the part of most of them, we did see a manager stand by and not react when one brat was shooting arrows (foam rubber, but annoying nonetheless) around the pool (and into seating areas and into adjacent outdoor bar's patio (as his indulgent father observed).

But, that was nothing -- two kids were yelling and running wild around the pool, hymping ftom one unoccupied chaise to another, annoying those seated in lounges, while the parents were entertaining. The parents seemed to be the center of attention for two fawning Marriott Associates (their badges and suits) were a dead giveaway.

We found out, after they'd left (from a thoroughly disgusted bartender after they'd left) that the party's host that the kids' father who was also the hotel's GM -- he'd removed his name tag, (and the two associates notorious brown-nosers).

I can't say that we've had any bad experiences due to the behavior of the wedding guests, but I've run out of patence with hotel managements whose attitude seems to be one of indifference with regards to the behavior of some and the effect it has on other guests' experience.

In the future when I complain to management about extreme behavior and lack of civility I will tell them they have a choice - address it themselves, or I will -- via a call to 911 report drunk, disorderly, dangerous behavior to the local authorities- whatever best describes what's going on.

Let them explain that to their head office superiors.

Don't worry, i seldom get my requested room as a platnium either.

What extra points do you get by staying at the FS Marriott. I think i stayed at the Fairfield or townplace in Mt Laurel when we had an office in Lumberton.

The only extra points is the higher per night room rate.

One could get a 500 pt arrival bonus if a Plat. Incidentals charged to the room at FS properties receive pts just like the rate does (and if you charge quite a bit to the room like activities, food, laundry, etc, this can add up.) Also, some lower end brands (RI and TP) only accrue 5 pts/$ spent, not 10.

I have never had the "good fortune" of staying at a FS over the weekend and having a youth sports team there, although I have had an enjoyable weekend at a SHS with an entire soccer tournament line up on the premises.

I have a question for someone who has been on the team side - why would you take an entire team of kids to a FS? I would think there are places where you can get cheaper rooms, and also get the free breakfast, such as a SHS or even some of the other brands like Choice or La Quinta. If there is a FS, I would have to think there are several other hotels in the immediate area.

I am sure there is a specific reason for it (points, or a special price deal, or a tournament requirement) and am just curious. I can see why a wedding party would go there, as opposed to an Econo Lodge, but why a kids sports team?

I just meant that when my employer is paying for it, I prefer the FS and 99 times out of 100 end up with more points out of it.

Funny...I was expecting another Closed Concierge Level thread... :)

Then I realized that I was actually at a Marriott this weekend, staying there with a bunch of family & friends for a wedding. :eek: There were no liquored-up 23-year-olds at this one though: we were a much mellower crowd. (The wedding/reception were also not at the Marriott itself.)

In any case, I suppose this could happen at any chain. I stayed at a Hilton once where a whole bunch of high-school volleyball teams were there. Holy crap. Talk about noisy. Also, there is nothing worse than the big convention hotels during the week when you're staying there and not part of the convention. Especially if you have to do actual work the next day and are therefore the only sober person in the building. Once I even had a couple of h@@kers knock on my door at 1AM - they got the wrong room number.

(And no, I didn't invite them in. I figure it's sort of like when the pizza guy gets your house by mistake...it's kind of dirty pool to accept the pizza and hose the guys actually waiting for it.)

It's certainally not my first preference given that better & larger accomodations can be had at RI's & Homewood Suites plus the free breakfast. But sometimes price, location and availability come into play. Also the personal preferences of the person in charge, i.e. the team's Coach or Manager, often a more "business" type guy than the other blue collar parents.

When I did it for a season, I thought the team's comfort was more important than my personal Marriott preferences and booked into Homewood Suites where a living area was separate from the bed room giving families a place to spread out, put smaller kids on the pull out and give the team room to gather entertain themselves. And the free food.

But more common is someone else who insists on the points of his preference and a group $89 FS Marriott weekend rate and disaster is looming. Sales at a FS are glad to give that rate to an otherwise empty business hotel but a RI is probably not.

And usually these kids are gathering to play in tournaments where many other travel teams need places to stay so it can be an availabilty issue too.

I've seen sports teams at both f/s properties and at RIs. They seemed to be much better off at the RIs. It's not just the bigger rooms and free breakfast. They also had the pool all to themselves and a sports court. Plus, they could park their luggage-filled SUVs right outside their room door. When you figure in the usual cost difference, it seems like a no-brainer.

But this is also my direct observation, especially on weekends and travel during dead weeks. Why do I have direct neighboors in an otherwise empty hotel? Newspapers don't lie when entire floors and wings are empty.

Its also impossible to paint a broad brush concerning these items. I've had great staff who would go out of their way to accomodate groups and get the kids out of the halls with a free movie, VCR or room. But less than 1 in 10 weekend stays.

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be just a Marriot problem (HH too in our experience). If not weddings its sports teams... the worst is SWEET 16 parties. Who the H@LL lets a bunch of trampy teenagers loose at a hotel for the weekend? Not an adult in sight by the way. To add insult to injury several were on the Exec. level. Wow what a mess. Forget using the pool or workout area. All night long rampages up and down the hall way, slamming doors, crying, cussing (male and female)... yeah they were sweet alright. Dressed like hookers and acted worse.
The next morning the place smelled like a subway station - puke, cigarette smoke, and booze. Can't remember if it was Mar or HH. Either way it was a horror show. We had a plane to catch so we didn't say much... wish we'd taken the time to write a letter.

I submit it's not just a Marriott problem, nor is it kids.

I had the misfortune to be in a room next to a woman who - when she got in at 2 AM - had the audacity to yell over the phone at her SO, who was not taking the calls. After 45 minutes of this cr*p, she finally reached him and chewed him a new one for not being home at 2 Am when she called (we'll forget the fact that she, herself, was out until 2.

Loud doesn't even describe it.

This problem certainly is not unique to Marriott....my chief complaint is that this particular Marriott did very little to prevent it from happening - placing me on the same floor as the drunks, not moving me, not even saying "I'm sorry" in the form of points or something. Nope, they allowed it to happen and did very little to make sure that those of us who just wanted a decent night's sleep, and paid for it, got what we paid for.

That is very true! We get lost in the details sometimes I guess but bottom line is you paid for a place to get a decent night's sleep and they really didn't provide that or offer alternatives when it was obvious you weren't going to get it in the room you had.

I wouldn't be happy either. I hope you got comped for breakfast! Also, I want you to know that not all Marriotts are like this on the weekends. I've had good luck in SF, Portland, Seattle and Denver. Let us know what corporate does for you.

take a chill pill
 

You really seem to HATE 20 year olds.

Wow... this is a very bitter thread! Some people here forget that they too were once kids, teenagers, young adults in their early 20's, etc. Why take it so personal? I too get annoyed when I try to relax quietly by the pool and 5 families with kids of different ages show up. But what can you do? I just leave and find some other way to relax. Why get all bitter about it?! A swimming pool is not exactly a library. Let the kids have fun. I know I did when I was a kid and I remember I hated boring, bitter old people who got annoyed and complained about everything.

"Trampy teenagers"!? That's a ridiculous way to put it.:td:

As long as there are people around nobody can guarantee quiet. If quiet is what you want, go camping in the woods or something. I'm a 200+ nights/year person and I understand very well the value of a good night sleep before work the next day (even though the OP was complaining about a Saturday night, so the point wasn't even having to work the next day). But I also believe that we should try to be more understanding. Once in a while you will have to deal with some kind of event, a bunch of loud kids, drunk people, etc. Deal with it. Tolerating others is part of living in a society. Hotels are businesses. They're in it to make money and weddings are profitable for them.

However, people arguing loudly in the middle of the night is totally inappropriate. I also think the OP should have been given a different room. Sometimes the person at the front desk (much like some GA's, TA's, etc.) is just lazy and would much rather come up with a dumb lie than actually do something. That, I think, is the real problem here, and a complaint is well warranted.

You're supposed to be responsible for your own kids. The hotel has no obligation to provide free rooms and food for the etertainment of your kids. Also, if I want to use a meeting room, I have to pay. Why should your kids get it for free?

You could always have asked them to come by in half an hour :D

A Great Post!!!
 

THIS is the BEST post I have seen in a long time!!! ^^^

The rants in this thread are pretty entertaining.

There's a HUGE difference between (1) a bunch of supervised kids in the hotel using the facilities; (2) a large number of unsupervised kids abusing the facilities; and (3) a bunch of loud, obnoxious people of any age screaming in the hallway and slamming doors at 2 a.m.

#1 is fine, though some people find it annoying at times. In the RI example I referenced, the kids completely took over the pool, the sportscourt, and the breakfast area, simply due to their sheer numbers. I'm sure that some of the adult guests were annoyed, but the kids were supervised and didn't act inappropriately.

#2 and #3 are unacceptable, abusive behavior.

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: