Ok, this is a second-hand story, but would like to know what others would do...

Sister and Brother-in-law were just at a Fairfield Inn on a 4-night reward stay. Their first night the room sprung a leak and they were moved to another room. The next day they met with the GM and was told since they were on a reward stay she couldn't do anything and had no ability to credit points to their account. Also, due to being on a reward stay, an upgrade was not possible. By the time they got back to the room there was a call from the GM saying they could upgrade to a suite for one of the three nights remaining. Not wanting to move two more times, they turned that down and then the GM offered the suite for the remaining three nights, which they did accept.

Last I knew, a GM has pretty much carte-blanche when it comes to their property, and unless expecting Marriott to reimburse them for the upgrade, they should be allowed to do what they want, especially when dealing with a customer satisfaction issue. But to repeatedly contradict themselves is poor customer relations. I can see that from a front deck clerk, but a GM? I have advised my Brother-in-law to write a letter to Marriott Customer Service stating the facts as he knows them.

Any other recommendations?

I would agree that having them contact Marriott's Customer Service center is a good approach.

As for your question around what a GM can and can't do, the award stay shouldn't be an issue. If there is a problem, the GM can upgrade them to any available room the GM chooses. And yes, the GM could, if s/he chooses, give them points.

Sounds like a big load of BS. The GM could have credited a MR account with compensation points and most certainly provide an upgrade. I 'd contact Customer Service.

GMs can do what they want. I was on a reward stay at a CY in FLL and they gave me a room overlooking nothing. The person next to me...who admittedly got his room for 75 bucks on PL got a junior suite.

I explained to the MOD and various others how much money i spent with marriott to earn the points to use for the stay and that as a PP i should at LEAST get a room equal to what a marriott nobody who paid less than half the going rate on an opaque website got.

Customer care agreed, and I got an oceanfront room...one manager gave me all my points back and the GM contacted me a few days later with an additional 50K..yes 50K points. (the place was never really cleaned, our room had to be recleaned when we checked in....towels and trash around the pool were not picked up for 2 days...and so on............)

Another GM at a CY in NJ gave me 2 free nights at ANY CY when construction and lousy attitudes,etc made a disaster out of another stay (paid....those are just the highlights)

So yes........GMs can take care of customers...sometimes people forget that even though a hotel gets minimal revenue from Marriott for a rewards stay that the COMPANY got a LOT of money as the guest earned the points.

Since the 2 GMs above obviously GET IT...i will return to those hotels!

The hotels have to pay for the points when they buy them but believe me, i have gotten enough extra points when hotels have p!$$ed me off to know.

(sounds like i am complaining, but there are times when you must...stuff doesn't work, lousy attitudes, being ignored etc etc.....)

[QUOTE=megtravels;11814233]
The hotels have to pay for the points when they buy them but believe me, i have gotten enough extra points when hotels have p!$$ed me off to know.
QUOTE]

Anyone know how much the properties pay for the points?

The GM was playing them and lost ... she didn't want to have to give up the suite for 3 nights and wanted to get off easy, but knew she owed them "something". I would definitely call her behaviour deceptive and indicate how it reflected on them, their stay and the property when they write in.

Few things here

1) second hand stories often inadvertantly are missing a small items or two

2) GM's do have authority to do what they want (with the exceptions of TS) however ALL Fairfield Inns except 1 are franchised so it's quite possible the franchise company has put some restrictions on their GM's (not sure why they would but quite possible)

3) I'm not sure I understand the reason for writing a letter here...it's possible the room wasn't avail for the entire stay at first and because of a number of reasons I can think of off the top of my head the room became available

[QUOTE=davidash;11814673]Yes

[QUOTE=socrates;11817237]Well how much???

[QUOTE=davidash;11817331]yes I was being a sa but yes I do know...unfortunately I can not ethically (or legally) disclose it

Yis, I was not present during the conversation hence the notation, but do believe I was told the salient points.

I believe it was during the same phone call that the three-day upgrade was offered. Yes, they could have been online looking at their status but it was one of many statements that contradicted what they had said earlier. What would your trust factor be in such a situation?

As GoingAway stated it reflects upon the company, and they represent Marriott even if just a franchisee, and Marriott should know why this and other properties may be loosing revenue to other hotels. If it was my company, I'd want to know. Customer perception, right or wrong, can make or break a company especially in today's economy.

I'm just trying to understand why having to move rooms because of a leak is worthy of a suite upgrade. It was certainly nice of the GM to make that happen (although if he was going to he should have just done it instead of the whole shady runaround), but I've been in that situation and just moved my stuff to a new room. No big deal.

I stay at Marriott's primarily for two reasons:
1) They are usually consistent and I usually know what to expect from the brand chosen. Not perfect of course but much better than some others.
2) When things don't go well it is usually resolved to my satisfaction in the end.

I'm not a chronic complainer but I've found that hotel and Marriott management are empowered to make the customer happy in the end. This has proven true on both paid and reward stays. I'm not very picky on business trips but family vacations are another story. This is opposed to a problem with a Hilton Reward stay where they really couldn't give a dam in the end that the hotel turned out to be a dump. I have yet to contact Marriott with an issue that wasn't ultimately resolved.

I'm in agreement with megtravels that the hotels should consider that customers spend thousands of $$ in their hotels accumulating enough points for a reward stay and don't want to overlook a dumpster on the family vacation if there are better rooms available. I know points reserve a garden view or other basic room but taking care of the customer on a reward stay keeps the cycle going and the hotel chain will continue to get their business.

Because this is FlyerTalk, where some feel a burned out light bulb merits 10K points (20K if the bulb should burn out while you are reading).

Depends on the nature of the leak, I think. A window leak puddling up against the wall is definitely no big deal. The sister getting ready in the bathroom when the toilet upstairs explodes might be suite-worthy.