Are they making you pay as much as before all these cutbacks? If so, this sort of stuff is unfair, wrong, and inexcusable.

Fewer guests are showing up...presumably because of economic conditions. So the "solution" is to penalize those who continue to give them their business.

This is nuts!

Stayed here for the first time this year, after 6 stays in winter 2008. In 2008 breakfast was served in the CL on weekends and drinks and snacks in the evening. This weekend: zero. The coffee machine was out of order and the fridge mostly empty. I asked when I checked out and they said there should have been evening offerings, but not breakfast. Not sure whether this was correct or whether they are following HQ advice.

Had breakfast in the restaurant, what a nightmare. It is not much larger than the CL and was full of children in full cry and a large family who insisted on shouting to each other at full volume across the restaurant. I can't understand why no breakfast in the CL when the restaurant is so tiny. We were on B&B rate, but planned to sit in the CL for coffee, fruit etc and nip across the lobby to get cooked stuff to take back, but alas not.

Will probably be back there this weekend for a night, so will report back. Mr HP not impressed as he says it is unfair on people who only use hotels at weekends and along with other FTers cannot understand how cutting down on amenities will attract return guests.

Tonight's desserts at the Ontario Marriott consisted of 12 oatmeal raisin cookies. The CL person brought the cookies in at 8:30 pm and they were gone in about 5 minutes. There's been about 10 guests stop in since looking for desserts - and her answer is "the cookies are all gone and there aren't any more".

I stayed at Christmas and the Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Malaysia had a great morning and evening spread. Breakfast was eggs, sausage, cereals, yoghurts and brteads. Evening was finger foods and sandwiches and free bar for 2 hours. I was upgraded to Club room as a gold (not huge but great views). Sounds like Asia is much better than North America for offerings.

I am booked into Renaissance LAX on a weekend soon and understand the lounge is not open. Is it open on a Friday night? Is anything available to a gold on a weekend-ie help your self lounge drinks or breakfast coupons for the restaurant?

Cheers

SYD/YYZ

This doesn't reflect a Marriott-wide policy, but I received the following report from Mrs. Big Mo, who was staying at the Schaumburg, IL Marriott.

Posted hours say that breakfast is served in the lounge until 10:00 a.m., but the attendant was taking everything down when she walked in at 8:45 a.m. When confronted with the posted hours, the attendant said that she gets off work at 1:00 p.m. and wanted to get a head start.

now this is the new Marriott we are coming to know and love

The cutbacks in service are focused mainly with North American properties and certain European markets. I would expect no cuts in London, Asia, Australia and in certain hotels in North America where competitors are keeping lounges open on weekends or comping breakfast to mid-tier and higher elite members.

The lounge at the Ren LAX is open on the weekends for drinks and free internet (wireless and one wired connection near a window). They start serving hot food Sunday evenings. Dessert offerings have been pared back a large amount, and there is no more oatmeal for breakfast. Ask for a breakfast coupon for the weekend.


I would have asked the attendant for a free breakfast coupon. If she said no, I would have called customer care right then and asked for them to intervene.

PITY...Marco the old attendant who left for a different full time job wouldn't have done that......in fact there were times when i was there that when i walked in at 10 past 10 for a water or soda he asked me if i wanted anything...

hmm..takes someone 4 hours to clean up breakfast??? in that CL, the PM concierge pretty much sets everything up....unless Loretta left too!

Dublin, where managment has eviscerated the wonderful Heritage Lounge at the Shelbourne according to various FTers, would obviously be placed in your category of "certain European markets."

Stayed this past weekend. Hotel was still providing breakfast vouchers. ^

Lounge was closed so I am not able to give any details about possible cutbacks there.

After 14 years staying at the New York Marriott Marquis, this is my last stay. I was shocked at the downgrades (I had read there were downgrades, but was not expecting it to be this bad!). No cereal in the a.m., only scrambled eggs, small bagels, asst. other breads and bakery items (small selection), fruit, juice and coffee bar. No more bottled water - there is San Pellegrino in the cooler but the only water is from a dispenser

The evening spread was amazingly bad, yet the drink prices are still amazingly high. I wish I would have kept my res for the Westin TS instead and that will certainly be my choice on my next stay in NYC.

Alas, it is unfortunately true. I should have stated that FS properties in Paris and London would be spared from cuts. Maybe some additional properties in Switzerland and Germany have not had cutbacks, but it seems like the UK (ex-London) and the low countries (Brussels and the Netherlands) have not escaped the recent downgrades.

I have had one stay at the NYC Marriott Marquis in 2006, when they had a good offering. I will not go back until it is restored. Well, I might go back in its downgraded state if Marriott's website offers a room rate of $110.

If it had been $110, I wouldn't have complained either, but since it was much more, well . . .

I did speak to someone in the CL and expressed my disappointment. He said they had been sent a letter by Marriott and had no choice in the matter. He said they had to have consistant standards throughout all Marriott CL so that is the reason. He also said something about how sad it was not to have the local flavors, etc. Very nice, we spent time discussing it and it sounds like he feels the same way. The service was great, but I don't know that it's enough to keep me! Anyway, what he said was pretty consistant with other comments here on this thread and what we've heard at other properties.

I am hearing this over and over in hotels where I know the CL staff or hotel management. They do not like what is happening and they especially do not like the fact that corporate did not communicate changes to members, so they are left to do so.

And it appears if they are willing to make exceptions, they are pretty well forced to hide it - one guy actually told me "there are severe consequences for those who do not follow the mandate".

the other victim in this is the CL staff who loses two evenings and two mornings of work per week as well; I'm sure they aren't too thrilled about this either and thats before factoring in the way that the monkeys at Marriott HQ are making them take the brunt of the customers complaints while the fat guys sit in their offices in Bethesda like a couple of chimps in a tree all fat and happy