Thank you, IRA. I am glad Marriott Management will be meeting to evaluate the food in the concierge lounges.

I also hope at the meeting Marriott management will consider offering breakfast to Plats and Golds on weekends when the lounge is closed. The incremental cost of providing the breakfast is marginal, at hotels offering breakfast buffets it is even smaller, because a lot of food is wasted! The good will extended to Marriott's most loyal customers would have a significant return on a small investment as it would result in us continuing to book not only our business travel stays there, but our personal stays there on weekends as well. When Marriott announces what truly would be an enhancement to the Gold and Plat benefits, it would truly look as if Marriott is trying to help their most loyal guests in these tough economic times. As a result, Marriott may actually get more loyalty and win over some travelers from other programs.

Regards,

RIP...

speaking of rates, is it me or are rates going UP????

It seems that, in the last few months, the best rates are advance purchase....now sometimes i am not sure i am going someplace.....

places we used to go to run away from home are getting 20-30 bucks MORE per night to have flexibility to cancel! Frankly thats nuts...especially in West Conshohocken, on a weekend with nothing going on!?!?!?!

ah well...........

maybe the marriott concierge can bring one of the suits over here for a q&a session?? or a suggestion session???? we'd all have to be NICE!

Exactly.

No more $300+ weekend rates at empty hotels with closed lounges and no b'fast coupons.

Ira, many thanks and it is a step in the right direction;however it doesn't do any good for those of us who also would like the weekend lounges opened again. It doesn't address the "over and beyond" concept that Marriott is trying to (and successfuly so) squash.

addressing this issue to the customers satisfaction will be what brings me back to FS Marriott properties

Until then, I've abandoned the FS marriott completely.

Regarding the poster of rates; I agree Marriott is rising yet I'm finding that Starwood is going down; and Hyatt seems to be staying even

Agree with the above. Cheers.

Ira-thanks for your willingness to be the bearer of the news that this has proven to be an incredibly unpopular decision.

Many of us stay at Marriotts on weekends for business as well as pleasure-as I witnessed this past weekend in Las Vegas.

The lack of a staffed and stocked lounge really made a bad impression on several of those at the hotel I was staying at.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If necessary to cut costs, reassign the full time lounge attendant and take of the restocking and cleanup via other means and methods. Perhaps if admittance was truly restricted to elites, there would be the need to feel that it has to be babysitted for fear of being cleaned out. Someone paying up-wards of $30 per night extra as a one time treat is going to extract their monies worth...

No lounge on weekends is bad enough.
Now no breakfast.
I could have booked a different rate on my last stay for an extra $10 - buffet breakfast included.
I opted out because I'm Gold and didn't even think of it.
I mentioned it at check-in and got the run around.

Yes... I'm Gold and yes I have been away from Marriott for most of the year.
My last 3 stays... not many... I know... have been very sub-par.

as they well should.. I know I would if I shelled out the dough

Since the Marriott Concierge is watching and listening to this thread, I would just like to say something to you and the people who make decisions at Marriott.

My husband travels for business and they pay his expenses. He has complete choice over where he stays. He had 80+ nights at Marriott last year and the vast majority were at FS properties in the US.

The absolute only reason we choose Marriott for business is to accumulate points to take nice vacations together.

What makes a Marriott vacation stay nice? A decent room, of course, and the extras that up until now have been provided to Platinum Rewards members on a leisure stay.

If, the next time we check into a Marriott on points, there is no lounge on the weekend, no breakfast, and only a few chips and limp veggies during the weeknights we will have no reason to continue to choose Marriott for business stays. It is that simple for us. Our leisure stay experience drives the business purchase.

Please return the lounge experience to a reason to come through Marriott's door.

Ira,
Thank you for taking our concerns and feedback to Marriott management. I know many of us are hopeful that positive changes will be forthcoming.

HappyCheeseHead I believe you are my twin sister. Ditto, ditto and ditto.

I echo much (if not all) of what HappyCheesehead said. I travel for business about 150-180 nights a year and have complete control over my own hotel expenditures. When I first started traveling, I opted for Marriott due to the great rewards program, consistency of product across the different brands, and great worldwide footprint, etc.

The recent gutting of the MR program is what pushed me out the door to SPG, though. Cat 7 travel packages being 270k now going to 360k? Excuse me? A 33% increase in award cost? Right... Before the change went into effect, I booked some expensive hotels under the old scheme. I will enjoy my stay at the JW Capri this summer and then it's goodbye Marriott - at least until they get their act together.

I continue to keep an eye on the program and on comments here. However, the evident drop in service levels you are all reporting has only bolstered my confidence in my decision to drop Marriott. YTD I've only done 30 nights or so, but SPG has gotten them all. The particular Westin property where I spend my weeks has an awesome lounge with free booze - contrasted with Marriott's nickel and dime "honor bar" and lackluster or infrequently restocked lounge offerings.

It's too bad we couldn't make this relationship last, Marriott. We had some good times together.

THIS is what Marriott has to worry about, and pardon my cynicism, is why I believe they're re-evaluating their changes.

"Remember $$ talk - the rest walks."

I have no idea if Marriott can track you from your posts here, but if they can & they have realized you're dropping them big time/losing revenue (and extrapolate that), then that's a good reason they're re-considerating. Not due to wanting to do the 'right' thing by us (or they wouldn't have cut it in the first place).

But re-considerating what? A few more munchies, later hours, opening up on the weekends, offering b-fast certs?

And are they hoping that, by restoring stuff that didn't cost much but we expected due to our status/the program bennies, that it's being re-instated, we'll suddenly be grateful????

I have no problem w/ Marriott doing well by us, but I have a problem by them yanking away when they shouldn't have & then we fall all over ourselves saying thank you, thank you, as though they were the 2nd coming when they instituted stuff they took away.

And - oh yeah - lest we forget - the other chains are still doing. Is anyone naive enough to believe that Marriott would have kept these things if the others hadn't? No way.

I think they started to realize that they were indeed losing their best customers to other chains who offered the same or more for the same price, and this (whatever they offer) is an effort to offset that/get the customers back

OVMV. Cheers.

Marriott just needs to pull my account

See how many nights I have YTD; how many future bookings and compare with years past

that should tell them something

but knowing these guys; they will blame it on the economy thinking I'm not traveling. WRONG, I'm traveling more; just not with you