If this is indeed coming from HQ,as it seems to be,I have two questions.1)Has anyone written a letter of complaint to Marriott?And 2)Why are you still giving them your money?A company ordering individual properties to underachieve reaching levels of guest satisfaction-what kind of business model is that?

come on big guy, you know the form letter response

let me write it for MR right now

thank you BGP for your interest in the marriott brand. We really do appreciate your loyalty and appreciate you as a customer. We are always striving to keep the customer such as yourself happy and as a returning customer. We are here to make your stay enjoyable.

Regarding your question as to why are our properties underachieving and why did corporate dictate to our properties and franchisees to reduce our customer service. As you are aware, the economy is taking a big toll on Marriott and its franchisee's. As any business must do to succeed in the future it must curtail certain expenses. You can be assured that we have reduced costs in areas that do not have any or much visibility to customers such as yourself. We have done everything that we can reasonbly do to cut costs. However the continuing down turn of business travel is greater than we expected and we are forced to reduce our expenses even further. One of these is to reduce our CL hours to the minimum standards set by the corporation which are Sun Eve through Friday a.m. (or whatever it is)

As you can see we started this at the Res Inn brand by cutting the evening happy hour from four to three days and have continued this unfortunate cost cutting to our full service brands.

We must say though that we are not underachieving at all. We are merely providing what we stated we would provide. We are continuing to provide a top level service to our best customers even in this economy. We do not condone any under achieving in any of our marriott brands.

thank you for your loyalty and continued patronage.

And one last thing Big Guy, Please pass this on to your fellow cheapskates on Flyertalk

I stayed at the Manchester Airport Marriott last weekend. We were on a Stay For Breakfast rate so had breakfast in the restaurant. Despite the hotel being fully booked, we had no problems like those mentioned above. The coffee machine in the CL was out of order but complimentary coffee was available from the lobby bar. The fridges were pretty well stocked with soft drinks, fruit was available and at one point when we went in (about 10.30 on the Sunday morning) there were plates of cookies out. We went out to eat on the Saturday night so I don't know what, if any, snack offerings were available at that time.

I was at my favorite Seattle area full service Marriott today. They, per corporate directive, have discontinued bacon/sausage from the morning lounge fare.

According to the assistant manager, this directive is expected to save Marriott International six million dollars a year.

At this same property, all of the managers and many other service personnel have been put on four day week schedules - due to this mandatory "furlough," their wages have been proportionately reduced.

As I remember, lounges didn't always include hot dishes. I recall they popped up a few years ago seemingly so a sign acknowledging "low carb" could be attached somewhere.

So these are bad economic times. Many of you want Marriott to make some other cuts but not to reduce any "bennies" to elites. Marriott seems to have "scrubbed" operations and - in light of the economic realities - are making any number of meaningful cuts to minimize losses. I have observed many room rates - this weekend's rate included - also go down.

I was at the Reaissance Chancery in London last weekend. I don't recall any hot dishes during breakfast in the lounge either - but no one seemed to mind. It was very nice.

Without perfect knowledge, please don't throw "Starwood" out as what Marriott should be doing. For all we know, to continue to cater to the "us's" over there, they've gone beyond "furloughs" and have actually "fired." If not, maybe they've made a short term decision which will lead to more extreme cuts to elites in the future.

I don't believe that Marriott has engaged in any recent decisions without careful attention to consequences. If any of you can come up with a way for Marriott to save six million dollars painlessly, maybe we'll get our bacon back. If not, I believe that Marriott has engaged in the kind of priority budgeting that we would want from business - not to mention government.

how can you throw this crap out there; first of all you don't know whether marriott has or has not fired anyone. Second as a guest, its up to the hotel along with the chain to make the stay as pleasant as possible if they want repeat customers. Marriott is not doing this so many are moving to places that they can have a better experience whether at a lower or similar cost

marriott seems to be screwing the customer AND employee

Quick questions - were you only there for the weekend, or was the lounge offering different for weekend vs weekday? Also, I have been reading trip advisor reports mentioning "tired" rooms and that the Chancery may be due for upgrades - your opinion?

Treat your high revenue repeat customers well and they will continue to give your property business.
Marriott does not pay for these breakfasts Items(for the most part)-the franchisee does.So some suit throwing a speculative number like"$6 million"is pure BS.
An easy way to save $6 million?Fire the whiz kids in suits who are ruining Marriot.
"I don't believe that Marriott has engaged in any recent decisions without careful attention to consequences."I believe you are very mistaken in this belief.I see the whiz kids in suits as chimps throwing their you know what at a pie chart on the wall-If it sticks that must be the answer.

So they are saving 6 million (which I doubt) by these cutbacks? They are also losing business. Look at this board. I will throw Starwood out (you can't tell me how to post) - I am spending more and more money at SPG and less and less at MR. I hope that 6 mil was well spent.

I was just at the Chancery on the weekend. I had a club level room - they're on the third floor. It was perfectly fine. The evening offerings at the lounge seemed to square with what's been reported here. Several really fancy hot "canapes," several fancy cold canapes. The desserts were fantastic!! Lounge was open all day. I don't know whether you can score bacon (or bangers) on weekdays.

Gosh. Seems like Donut Guy and Dayone aren't keen on my comments. Hope the day never comes when economic necessity causes one or both of them to forego precious cooked meats in the morning for cereal.

I simply wonder what cut - and Marriott has already gone to furloughs (don't know about firings, but I hope not) would be imposed in order to bring back the bacon.

With painful cuts already implimented (and would these guys figure the bacon was more painful than furloughs) I can only surmise that for elites to get their bacon, it would have to adversely impact employees or non elites.

The Donut Guy says it all: "up in front or in the suite." I was castigated once upon a time for remarking "Let 'em eat cake." Donut Guy sure puts it better.

They might be saving 6 million but they are losing much much more with all the bad PR. It's going to take more than 6 million to "fix" it.

I'm in the same boat SPG has been getting more of my money.

BTW. The Renaissance Downtown Toronto is no longer providing breakfast vouchers on weekends.

For purely nonreligious reasons, I don't eat pork. However, my condolences on the loss of a favored breakfast item.

In many cases, I'm now paying less per night than last year so I can understand and handle a slight cut in amenities. YMMV.

Thank you, Day One. I much favor cereal myself. Like you, I find myself getting lower rates than, say, last year.

Until recently, I received a free breakfast on weekends at my favorite local full service Marriott. They were, like other properties, advised to stop this practice.

My rate today was probably $15 or so less than what it was last year at this time. By paying for my own breakfast, the sum total was probably close to the same. And, hey, more points with the increased platinum bonus. Not too bad.

Many Marriotts closed their lounges on weekends some years ago. The Marriott with an open weekend lounge was, truly, the exception. I doubt that Marriott is losing customers in droves because of the change. Perhaps they did miscalculate about the bacon. The assistant manager I spoke with indicated that she has had to field many complaints about the change.

Still, I don't buy much into conspiracies at this level. I don't believe that Marriott came up with this new change just to generate hate and discontent and somehow pulled the six million dollar figure out of the air. And, all other things being equal, if headquarters is overstaffed, cuts can and should be made. But if the staffing positions can be justified, I still put a valued employmee's job security ahead of a little extra choice at breakfast.

You guys are probably keen to get the waste, fraud, and abuse out of government. If the government can get rid of its "pork," why can't Marriott?

My problem with these cutbacks is that the good CL serves as a valuable resource for me that is not provided by the hotel restaurant. I like being able to slip in an out of the lounge on my own schedule and have some decent breakfast and evening snacks. I often don't want to have to go to a restaurant and take the time to be waited on, etc. And in the evening there is no place in most hotels for one person to have a variety of hors d'ouevres and maybe a glass of wine. Sure I could go down to the restaurant or bar and order a plate of one kind of hors d'ouevre and sit there and eat them, but that's not how I like to spend my evening. I like to be able to walk down the hall, stop in the lounge and have a choice of different items in the evening, maybe read a paper or watch TV and relax. Or in some cases I like to take a little bit of food back to my room and work and go back and forth to the lounge as I wish.
For those hotels that have good lounges I don't mind paying a larger daily room rate. But I see no reason to stick with Marriott when the lounge food has diminished so much in quality and the lounges are closed on weekends (and too often other times).
The JW Marriott in DC is a good example of a lounge in which the quality of food in the evening had badly deteriorated at my last stay in January. This month I switched to a different (and much cheaper) DC Marriott with a lounge that in some ways is now better than the JW. Next month I'm making my first stay at a Starwood hotel in years and I'm looking into a status comp with Starwood.
Add the CL deterioration along with cutbacks on newspapers, no mouthwash or other amenities, etc., I don't see much reason to stick with Marriott.

I have rarely(if ever)have seen bacon or sausage in a CL breakfast spread.And that is just fine by me.We really are not talking about that-we CAN use that as an example of Marriott justifying its cuts by pulling BS numbers out of the air to justify service cuts.
Trust me-the chimps in suits at MI are very good at BS and spin-they are much more adapt at spin and BS than at running a hospitalty business.

Speaking of spinWhy are you dropping the "save the American worker"and "boo to big guvment" mantra into this?That really is not what is being discussed here.If I were a suspicious sort(which I can be at times)I might suspect a "conspiracies at this level" as you put it(another time tested deflection-suggesting any dissenters to be fans of tin foil hats)in your above thread.

I, too, don't eat bacon or sausage (though family members who sometimes travel with me do - I've seen it at a few CL, but it has not been the norm) but my complaint about my stay last week was that there was no cereal in addition to all the other cuts. A bit extreme, no?

rln is still missing the bigger picture in my mind.

Marriott's competitors are facing the same economic issues that Marriott is, yet are keeping the lounges open amongst other things. So biz travelers who have the option of choosing where they choose to stay are starting to stay more with the competitors whose room rates are the same as Marriotts, but still offer more items such as open lounges. The competitors are getting the revenue and Marriott is not. So, Marriott is saving some $$ and losing more $$.

And what's troubling is Marriott's directive to not 'over-achieve'. rln's beloved Ren Stamford Court could be told to discontinue all the items it offered to be 'consistent' with the rest of Marriott, for example.

My feeling is, if a GM of a hotel can keep a lounge open or offer some bennies and still stay within his budget, then s/he should be allowed to do so.

OVMV. Cheers.

^^^

Well said - these are my thoughts exactly. The lounge is more than just "I gotta eat" food, it is convenience and relaxing once eating 3 meals out daily for weeks/years on end has gotten old... But if its not stocked appropriately, what's the point?

Point 1-They should be charging less. Expenses were due in a large part to oil and its effect on most all products manufactured or delivered.Now that oil is down around $100 per barrel, it only makes sense to proportionately lower lodging prices(remember those fuel surcharges?).

Point 2-If you want to pay for breakfast, thats fine. I don't like the fact that Marriott has advertised, and in some cases charged a premium for access to a concierge lounge which is closed on a weekend.Check out the Dulles Marriott on the 7th of March. Concierge Rate is $279.00 with absolutely no access because the lounge is closed.It shouldn't even be offered on the room price schedule. There are a lot of other hotels that do the same thing. The fare offered in many of the CL's has deteriorated to the extent that its just not worth the effort to go for elite status with this hotel chain, especially when you look at the disparity between Marriott and other hotel chains to achieve elite status.

Point 3-Marriott used 9/11 as a reason to close CL's in the aftermath of this tragic event. As the economy began to recover, a lot of those lounges never reopened on weekends.

Point 4-Marriott has lost all of my business so far this year because they, in my opinion, are not providing the same quality product I have enjoyed for years.Hilton has been the benefactor.

Point 5-Exactly what "pork" has the government gotten rid of?:D

I agree with all your points but maybe the news hasn't got that far north yet;). Oil has been under $40 for quite sometime now. Yet most businesses that imposed fuel surcharges have yet to reduce/invoke them. I know becasue I ship UPS weekly and still have surcharges upon surcharges. Such a scam...

Sorry, an error in wording has occured.:) My explanation was meant to state that oil is down $100.00 per barrel since its high. Thanks for picking up on that.Thats what happens when you write something late at night and than read what you wrote the next morning.;)

For many folks, the prime benefit of elite status is the concierge lounge. I absolutely agree that at many properties the concierge lounge fare has been so diluted that the only reason I go to the lounge is out of sheer curiousity as to what new way the property or Marriott has decided to diminish the lounge. At one Marriott, the breakfast offering was so meager and the restaurant buffet so expensive, that I actually went to the nearby Courtyard (God forgive me) and paid for their breakfast buffet in order to get some protein.

Service is deteriorating rapidly. Moving stays to (gasp!) Fairfield Inns, Residence Inns, Courtyards, etc. when I can now. The vibe is changing in the FS properties and I don't feel as welcome as a Platinum Elite as I used to.

Went back to a Suites property last week and a front desk manager made a special point of telling me they were no longer offering a free breakfast on saturday "to be consistent with other Marriotts". :mad: As it turns out, Saturday was the only morning I had time to sit down and eat breakfast in the restaurant, I just said forget about it. It's more the availability of the lounge and being treated special that seems to appeal to me than actually partaking - I probably only make it to the lounge for anything substantive on about half of my days there. But I really like to have it there when I need it.

I wish Marriott would at least sent out something to their Elite members telling what they were doing and why. I don't understand how this makes good business sense (other than more restrictions on the hours when they offer prepared foods, I guess that aspect might offer more substantial savings without irritating too many of their customers too much).

I'm skeptical whether there are very many properties right now where the CL offerings are worth the cost commonly be assigned to it in reservations.

Well, I can say a few things.....

I have had 0 MR nights this year.

10 SPG nights and 4 HH nights.

Last 2 stays were SPG, including last night. This morning, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and typical continental items at the BWI Sheraton.

Do we think anyone from MR HQ is reading this or are we going to have a "Fax your other hotel receipts" to Marriott day?

they (Marriott Management) don't care enough to read this

it appears that they really just don't give a ....

I assure you this thread is being actively followed and is generating discussion in multiple levels throughout Marriott. We do appreciate the feedback you have shared and continue to share.

Best regards,

Drew

what I'd give to be a fly on that wall

Thanks, Drew.

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

No More Weekends for Me
 

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

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:rolleyes:

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! :D

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 :rolleyes:, 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