I have to say of all my 78 nights with Marriott my upgrade success has been about 60%
With my 54 nights with Starwood it's close to 90% which includes suites ^

I Spoke with the GM and...
 

She basically supported her front desk staff. She told me that central reservations must not have real time data because the concierge level was not available last night and is sold out for the remainder of the week. According to her, if I was staying just one night an upgrade would not be a problem, but because I was staying for 4 nights they could not offer an upgrade. When I explained that I called central reservations and was told that Concierge Level Rooms were available for 4 nights for 5 people at the rate of $179, she said, "I don't know where the problem is, but that is not correct and I will have to call Marriott HQ and have them figure out what is going on between our system and central reservations."

I have a real hard time believing central reservations would be able to sell 5 rooms for 4 nights when they are not available.

RIP...

Thats exactly the problem I said I ran into where the Hotels computer wasnt talking with the res computer.

You can call the front desk from a non hotel phone and see if you can make a res for 1 CL room, dont go with the 5 since they might put 1 & 1 together and get You. See what they say .

OP want not call them on it

Make a res for the CL make sure you can cancel it, then show up since youre a Plat if they dont have it and the GM said they didnt then they owe you $100. If they do have it you Got them.

Of cause you have to be able to cancel out the res you have now w/o any penalties. either way you Win

It is possible the information was incorrect....however it is the hotels responsibility to ensure that it is correct (there are hiccups at times between the interfaces)

I don't travel a great deal but when I do I have been faithful to Marriott wherever possible because of the expected quality of my stay and the expectation of "rewards" for said loyalty. I got the Marriott Visa to boot.

The recent deterioration of the point redemptions and this thread is causing me to re-think my choice of Marriott. I think its time to take my business elsewhere.

This sort of thing really makes me question the integrity of Marriott Rewards.

Marriott should be ensuring that each hotel worldwide is living up to it's end of the deal with the Marriott Rewards program. I have heard all too often that "Marriott does not own the hotel we are a franchise" :rolleyes:

Don't play the franchise card when it's convenient. I don't care if you are a franchise hotel, if you have the Marriott sign mounted on the building remember that is the only reason I'm a guest at your hotel in the first place.

It's up to MI to ensure that franchisees live up to brand standards and their franchise agreements. When the franchisee has contracted with MI for management I would think that thres' less chance of a snafu, that compliance with Ts and Cs (like those in MR pertaining to Elites) are nnot only more likely to be adhered to, but also that in the event they weren't that corrective action would be more prompt.

But the key is that MI, not guests are responsible for both the policing as well as holding offending parties accountable.

I don't remember exactly when "Virtual Concierge" (though it had to have been over a two years ago) was introduced but I can state, for a fact that I can name at least one property that doesn't include a link to it in their "reminder emails." (And I don't even want to get into the subject of providing what preferences are part of a guest's MR profile or for that matter, the difficulty a guest canl experience in the administration of promotions such as BBs and EEOs).

Few corrections 1) just because MI doesn't own a building doesn't mean it's a franchise, actually the opposite is true if it's operated by Marriott Hotel Services Inc. 2) All operators of MI brands must be managed by preferred management companies, Interstate has been one of the largest operators of MHR (outside of MI) for many decades and has won numerious awards over the years from MI 3) the only difference on who actually owns the building is who the asset manager is 4) as a % both Starwood and Hilton have a higher % of franchised full service hotels than MI however MI is catching up (as is Hyatt)

As I have said on numerous occasions - if you have a bad stay I would encourage you to complete the Guest Satisfaction Survey if you receive one in addition to contacting the appropriate person to make them aware of your displeasure as all operators of MI brands including Marriott Hotel Services Inc are held to the stand standards

I don't know about everyone else, but all the who owns, who franchises, who manages just hurts my head. All I know is the name on the hotel says Marriott. ;)

Totally agree: if the building says "Marriott" on it, then I have expectations based on my relationship with that brand. Nobody has brand relationships with any of the companies who manage hotels or any of the other people who lease space inside the building or subcontract with the owner to do work there. If somebody is interacting with me as part of normal business as a hotel guest - eating, parking, whatever - they represent "Marriott". Therefore, if I have any kind problem with any of these vendors/subcontractors/franchisees/whatever, I look to Marriott to solve it.

(In fairness, Marriott usually does a fairly decent job of this. I've had minor issues with parking vendors on occasion where I think Marriott could have done a better job of helping me resolve an issue, but I'm talking maybe 2 or 3 of these in 15 years. IMHO, the worst abusers of this kind of dodge are in the rental car industry.)

I don't keep track of what Marriott owns and what it doesn't, I think we all have better things to worry about when we check-in to our hotel. (But thank you for the heads up) :)

My point is there are times when I've encountered a problem and even after contacting Marriott Customer Service and Bill Marriott's office the hotel decided to do what they felt was right... why? Because I was told "we are a franchise hotel." :td:

Let me give you an example:

Two years ago I checked in to the Montreal Chateau Champlain, when I arrived I was greeted by hotel employee's on strike who were picketing outside the hotel. As I got out of my taxi, they hurled insults at me for staying at the hotel and in fact shouted out short-giving's regarding the hotel's cleanliness among other things. Keep in mind, I was not aware of the situation until I arrived. When I approached the front desk I was told there was no room service, no lounge, house keeping will be every other day and the restaurant was closed as was the pool and fitness area... When I asked to be moved to another hotel since they were still charging me $209 a night. They said I could make my own arrangements! I called Marriott Customer Service and in the end I had to find my own hotel... Why? because they could not force the hotel to do anything because they were a franchise.

I should mention I am a Platinum member.