It almost sounds like the manager took pleasure in telling you this.

Drew,
Thanks for letting us know that. Much appreciated!

If I have a choice of hotels when attending a conference, presence of a nicely stocked lounge is the deciding point.

Was in the NY Marriott Eastside last weekend - lovely hotel. Stopped in for a drink in the evening and only cookies were available. Never had nor want to mix wine ($8.50) and cookies

Well Marriott, your actions is costing you more money than what you realize. yes, this is a rant.

I am currently staying a a very nice Marriott OWNED FS property. I have stayed here for many nights (20) last year, and would have stayed here again another 20+ nights again this year. However, I found out this evening, that this hotel will not give a Breakfast coupon for the weekend during my stay.( I just checked even though I checked in on Monday) Last year this hotel did give me breakfast coupons for during the weekends, I am very appreciative for that.

So, I am now checking out first thing in the morning, my original stay was for another 7 nights, and checking in to the Hilton across the street for the remaining of my stay in this city. On top of that, I did have another reservation for this hotel again next month for another 10 nights. Guess what, that reservation is now canceled and again I am going to your competitors, Hilton. (If you could provide me with an address, I would gladly send a copy of the folio to Marriotts HQ to show them.) So with your amazing actions of closing your C lounge on weekends and not giving this loyal Plat member the breakfast coupons for weekend stays, it will cost you, at this property, 17 nights at $250.00 a night, for a total of $4250. for a few breakfast coupons. That is some pretty expensive breakfast coupons. Not only that, I will not anymore utilize any of the services that are available from your FS hotels. I will not order room service, instead, I will go out to the local community, I will also not utilize your in house bar for a few drinks, I have found that the local community again offers this option for me.

So this "enhancement" of closing your c lounge on weekends and not offering any elite benefits for your loyal members is costing you approximately $5000.00 from this "loyal" member in the next 30 days.

I also will be exploring other options for my hotel programs, I did stay with you for over 125 nights last year. I had a total of over 190 nights total paid stays in hotels last year. I will now be exploring how SPG would treat me and see if a status match would be in my future. I just don't appreciate the way you now want to treat me, and I will vote with my wallet.

I would to again thank Marriott for the opportunity to show me how they really feel about my loyal stays with them, and wish them success in the future, even though the news has just reported that they are expecting an additional 17% decrease in revenue for the 1st quarter of this year.
I wounder why

The Marriott site says that the corporate rate for the upcoming week at the Sea-Tac full service Marriott is $179 per night (weekday) and $129 (weekend)This same property, yes, right across from the Hilton, has furloughed much of its staff - they are each taking off one day without pay. So you think you have problems, eh.

Why the heck can't you wrap your arms around the concept that since the weekend rate is so much less expensive than the weekday rate, you can buy a full buffet breakfast (The salmon scramble on the buffet is fantastic and the buffet features eggs benedict as well) and still come out ahead.

As you probably know, most of the serving staff in the dining room have served customers there for years. Besides depriving yourself of a great breakfast, who are you really hurting by "voting" with your feet. These people have had their hours cut back, income derived from tips has been unsteady.

I agree with you. This is a great property. What great point are you really making by marching over to Hilton ? Are you really saving money? Since you're so familiar with the Sea-Tac property, what "cuts" in service would you recommend other than the ones which impact you directly?

Look, I really like this property. I will be there tomorrow night, myself. I always thought the weekend coupons were overly generous compared to what many other Marriotts offered. In these times, Corporate has required certain steps be taken.

If you've been going to this property as long as you say, I'm certain you will miss it. I have heard that the Hilton isn't up to the Marriott standards. I would hope that you would reconsider. Things, hopefully, will get better in time. Perhaps free weekend breakfasts will as well.

Good luck.

I was at HV for 4 days last week; oatmeal was available 2 of them, the other 2 they had pancakes or french toast. What is always funny to me is that he forgets to bring the raisins about 50% of the time...

I'm with the sentiment though - and I don't think deleting oatmeal is going to save them much money!

rln wrote"If you've been going to this property as long as you say, I'm certain you will miss it. I have heard that the Hilton isn't up to the Marriott standards"

Well if what you wrote in the post is true(service cutbacks-workers being furloughed)is true then I am guessing that the Marriott sea-tac "isn't up to the Marriott standards"

PS-not our job really to come up with the suggestions for cuts.If Marriott really wanted to know what we think they would do a focus group of regular business customers and then go forward with the feedback instead of twisting the feedback to fit their already set plans which is what they have been doing for the past few years.

I'm also a bit curious what Marriott thinks about so many of the hotels rln stays at, providing him the % of employees that are getting unpaid furloughs, hours being cut, staff being let go, etc. Of course I'm assuming he's asking them (not something I would do, so to each their own) so he can continue to explain to the rest of us how horrible we are by not sticking with Marriott when benefits are being taken away.

And yes, once again he's missing the bigger picture , which is that the other hotel chains are facing the same economic situation as Marriott, yet they continue to offer benefits that Marriott is cutting back on, and that's why people are moving their stays to those chains. For some reason he doesn't seem to want to address that

Cheers.

The lounge issues are not so much about money as about convenience and service. Restaurants are not made for popping in an out, relaxing, having a little snack of something, reading papers, watching TV, casual conversation with strangers, or eating a quick breakfast, etc. The well-run lounges serve as a kind of haven or refueling stop for body and soul--relaxing, away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the hotel, casual, available as needed whether for 5 minutes or 50 minutes. Some of the better models (mostly overseas) are outstanding for the purposes I mention.

My main criticism is that there seems to be no corporate philosophy or mission statement that guides management's decisions about the CL. What is there about the CLs' purpose that allows them to be closed on weekends? Why are some open? Why is the quality of food so variable? Why would management at some hotels seem to assume that a breakfast coupon makes up for a closed lounge? Why are hotels permitted to close lounges with no advance announcement on the Web site and via e-mail. Why give away soft drinks and charge exorbitant prices for a glass of wine at some and not others? Why do resorts have no lounges?
All of these questions say something about the contradictory corporate view of the lounges. On the one hand they are marketed as an important (and sometimes expensive if one pays to be on a lounge floor) benefit to customers but on the other hand their operation is treated as if they are inconsequential to customers. It is no wonder customers such as myself are confused and annoyed. It is time for corporate to spell out the purpose of the lounges for managers and for customers.
Maybe Marriott Concierge can address this with corporate headquarters to lead to some coherent policies regarding the lounges.
In the meantime Marriott is losing revenue from this long-time platinum member, revenue that I would gladly give them if they fixed the lounge problems.

I too have stopped MR 100% on F/S@/Su stays; its not even worth the effort now to try to figure out who has what open and who is cutting what benefits. I've moved all F/S/S stays to SPG and Hyatt. I'm a good month + into this process. I really don't care about Marriotts concerns and cuts; if the service they provide me is not of value to me;then I'll go elsewhere. I'm not on travel to worry about whether furloughs of CL staff is something I need to consider. Im looking for the best bang for MY dollar, not marriotts.

What this is doing though is making me move some weekday stays to SPG and Hyatt. Now that I'm finding that cut backs in the lounges even when open are greater than those at SPG and Hyatt, I just find myself dropping Marriott more and more often. The funniest thing is that I'm not paying more at the other places, i'm paying the same or less in some instances.

I had to lmao at the rln comment about going to the restaurant. Why would I do that? to pay some outrageous rate and choose to allow MR to gouge me with the cost of one of their buffets? or is it to have to waste an hour in the restaurant when I'd rather get a quick bite and some Joe and go back to my room all within 15 minutes? I'm not staying at hotels to provide them revenue for anything more than the room rate I'm charged. they can milk someone else if they so choose.

voting with ones feet hurts the company you are leaving in general. it also helps you the customer find alternatives to make YOUR dollar go further; its not up to me to make MR profitable. If I do by choosing their room rate its b/c I think I receive value from the transaction. If that helps MR fine.. so be it and its win win.. yet lately its become a lose/lose proposition to stay at MR properties

Exactly. I read this the other night and I just couldn't respond anymore. Not worth it. Might rln be upset with all of us because he/she might own stock in Marriott?

I think this is a GREAT idea!!!

I will stay ~170 nights this year. I will stay with MR to keep the megabonus qualifications...but other then MB points, SPG it is!!

Does anyone have a fax #? I really feel it would help if we CLOGGED the fax line on a specific day! What about a saturday/sunday, so when they arrive on Monday the fax is overflowing?

No, I don't have stock in Marriott.

I do feel that the feelings of being somehow "cheated," "abused," or "mistreated" on this (and other related threads) are really overblown.

I recall that, some years ago, the concierge breakfast was 'strictly Continental' - no real hot dishes. At the Sea Tac property referenced above, elites were offered the "healthy breakfast" option at the dining room on weekends. This "limitation" to the dining room equivalent of the "continental breakfast" was largely ignored and morphed into complimentary access to the full buffet.

Its a great buffet. Eggs cooked to order - including the fantastic salmon scramble and Pikes Peak, eggs benedict, vanilla malted waffles, terrific bacon and other breakfast meats, oatmeal and so on. Really, one of Marriott's best!

Well, the gravy train is over. Times are tough. Marriott, at least, is cutting to the bone (worker furloughs) as well as the fat (weekend breakfast).

As noted in my last post, both weekday and weekend rates appear to be much lower than last year at this time. My rate last Saturday was $119 compared to the weekday corporate rate of $179 (I had AAA rate; corporate weekend rate was $10 higher.)

I had absolutely no problem in paying for my breakfast Sunday morning. I was greeted by the dining staff I have gotten to know over the years and made to feel quite welcome. And the breakfast was great. In no way was I "ripped off." I felt no sense of "entitlement" to a freebie.

Hey, I realize you guys find it absurd when I refer to "real world" troubles, but dontcha think that those things complained about in these threads concerning level of service (i.e. Wall St. Journal less availaable, no mouthwash, no oatmeal) are kinda small compared to the actual and real pain being visited on so many people these days - including employees.

Yes, employees have shared stories with me from time to time. It usually starts with a simple "how goes it" from me. When a dining room in a large hotel is closed on a Saturday night and the staff supervisor is waiting on a few empty tables (Not Sea Tac) one should not be surprised at the answer.

And the troubling situation is not the result of elites leaving in droves for "greener pastures." I don't believe corporate has made decisions like removing some hot items from lounges in the morning just to generate hate and discontent. It may be, simply, they can't afford what they have, in fact, offered in recent years.

We don't know and, I guess, don't need to know what the cuts would be in lieu of those which pain those posting on this thread so much. But can't you entertain the thought that they might actually cause some real pain instead of the faux pain expressed in these threads?

Perhaps some "protest" will bring back the oatmeal. Good luck with that or good luck at Starwood. Yup. Its a great strategy. Milk Marriott all ya can when they're offering Megarewards. Then go milk Starwood.

Marriott, apparently, is watching these threads. Sorry, I'm not prepared to march in lockstep with ya'll . Perhaps some of the things you crave for so much will come back. I still believe that its a tempest in a teapot.

Ditto here !!!
I have had 0 MR nights this year and 32 SPG nights so far. I earned Platinum the hard way and then had a status match with SPG last november (after Marriott came out with the wonderful Enhancements to the MR program). I really don't care much abt the Megabonus anymore. Starwood is offering huge bonuses (I get almost 2300 Points a night for a rate of 119$/Night due to all the Bonuses added up) and there are a tonne of nice hotels at SPG that start at 2000 to 3000 points per night. So in essence, I am getting 1 night free for every 1 night I stay. Now you can add all your Megabonus at Marriott and see where it gets you. Plus, I use my Reward stays on Weekends and that is where Marriott is screwing us with the Amenities cuts. I will not stay at Marriotts unless they come to their senses and understand that in tough times, they need to come up with more incentives to attract the scarce travelling population. The number of rooms is not changing and will be almost constant, but the number of travellers has come down drastically. Thus, everybody has more options and obviously I want my Dollar to reach the farthest. I will be more than glad to send my folios from my last 8 stays to whoever is interested and to prove my point that, somebody else did get my business from last november, since their changes came into effect.

hey rln why don't you go book a banquet at a FS Marriott property so you can do something that will actually keep those employees working

didn't I read in yesterday's (or was it Thurs) paper (LA Times or USA) that a Marriott spokesperson stated that 40% of a FS Property's revenue was from banquets, conventions and/or meetings

ya see.. if you set up a FT meeting (and foot the bill of course) you can do your part to actually do something to keep these guys working

I for one.. well its a starwood week next week.. i'm pretty much giving up on the mega bonus; its not worth the effort at this point.. i cx'd my MR rez for next week.