Marriott CEO Asks Unhappy Members To Hold Tight, Platform Is Stabilized
#181
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2001
Posts: 10,969
Serious question, have you considered a life without pursuing hotel status? You know, just stay where you want?
My question is genuine. I'm beginning to find the obsession with hotel elite status a bit bizarre to be honest. There is more to life than "free" breakfast.
Regards
My question is genuine. I'm beginning to find the obsession with hotel elite status a bit bizarre to be honest. There is more to life than "free" breakfast.
Regards
#182
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Somewhere in Florida
Posts: 2,622
In the e-mail I mentioned that no reply was necessary; I really wanted the execs to see what life is like for the customer rather than just hearing whatever department heads had to say about things. There's a company wherein the CEO hasn't set foot in one of their properties in over a decade and goes solely by what he's told by his managerial staff. His name is Eddie Lampert. The company? K-Mart/Sears. We all see how well that's working out for him. Marriott isn't going to be filing bankruptcy anytime soon. BUT, if this keeps up, business travelers will eventually go for greener pastures, leaving the leisure market to Marriott.
After Aug 18 I haven’t had any problems booking or cancelling reservations either online or with the app. Everything goes smoothly and I always got a prompt confirmation email.
I’ve done it several times since without any issue. I see a few complaints over here from other FTers but I really find odd that the system would work in such radically different ways depending on the user.
I’ve done it several times since without any issue. I see a few complaints over here from other FTers but I really find odd that the system would work in such radically different ways depending on the user.
I had issues with booking hotels many times this year before before 8/18 (Never Forget™) and have had them since then. I have multiple computers in my office, each running on different OSs (Win/OSX/Linux) and still experience problems. When I can't book a hotel, I'll wait 30 mins, try again. If that fails, I'll usually head over to Hilton.com, where 100% of the bookings I've attempted to make this year went through, no fuss, no muss. Time is money. How much do you bill per hour? How much is it worth to you? I'm not going to spend 45 minutes on hold with Marriott when I can go to a competitor's website and have a trouble-free experience.
In many ways, it's like buying a car. The car is the actual product you use (hotel). The dealership is what handles the servicing (Marriott.com). If you love the car, but the dealership you have to use sucks, it may not be worth using that brand of car, even if you like the car itself.
#183
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: MIA, VIE and DPS
Programs: DL Plat 1MM, AA EXP 3MM, SQ Krisflyer Gold, UA Silver, Marriott LTT, HH Gold
Posts: 1,132
At this point SPG and whatever it will become is like a bad investment. Many of us put some effort, time and money into it and it feels hard to write it off. It's not unlike the stock you bought at too high a price - and one is torn between cutting losses or buying more at the now lower price - or the early round investment where the company has burnt through the money and now needs more - and you can either throw more money at it or cut your losses.
Much like with the examples above, deciding what to do is troublingly little based on facts and way more on emotion than it should be - at least it is so in my case - but it doesn't look like I am alone with this issue.
Without that history of previous "investments", I wouldn't be wasting a second thought on whether I should keep trying Starriott here or there - I'd be long gone. I wouldn't be wasting time complaining or writing forum posts in the morning.
I think there is a legitimate chance that Marriott's gamble will pay off - they cut benefits, take away anything remotely resembling customer service - and if they then just make it a little - just a little better again - most of us will probably indeed stay because otherwise we'd just have been too wrong with our investment.
Much like with the examples above, deciding what to do is troublingly little based on facts and way more on emotion than it should be - at least it is so in my case - but it doesn't look like I am alone with this issue.
Without that history of previous "investments", I wouldn't be wasting a second thought on whether I should keep trying Starriott here or there - I'd be long gone. I wouldn't be wasting time complaining or writing forum posts in the morning.
I think there is a legitimate chance that Marriott's gamble will pay off - they cut benefits, take away anything remotely resembling customer service - and if they then just make it a little - just a little better again - most of us will probably indeed stay because otherwise we'd just have been too wrong with our investment.
#184
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
This is a fair point. Yes, FT is a frequent traveler forum. However, that doesn't mean that every participant subscribes to blind loyalty when the "playing field" has clearly changed. At some point, folks should be questioning what this game has become and not just continue to feel they are a victim . In a free market economy, people should vote with their wallet. If people are not legitimately willing to take their business elsewhere, then really they have no one to blame than themselves if they feel taken advantage of or screwed over by a corporate "loyalty" scheme.
Regards
Regards
#185
Not a huge issue in the scheme of things but I really miss the room descriptions. The majority of SPG properties I looked at would have detailed descriptions of the room types. Now it is often just the room title and a generic photo - it use to be nice to be able to see what the difference was between say a Premier vs Deluxe is at a nicer view, bigger size etc, really difficult to make informed purchasing decisions. Also miss the restaurant menus that many properties had on the website as well.
Recently had an interesting quirk as well. Cancelled a stay, a few days later got an invite to check in online - ignored it - three days later got my invitation to check out and yesterday got my post stay survey. Didn't get charged so no damage done but quite bizarre. Tempted to fill in the survey and inform them that I found my stay so ethereal it was like I wasn't even there.
Recently had an interesting quirk as well. Cancelled a stay, a few days later got an invite to check in online - ignored it - three days later got my invitation to check out and yesterday got my post stay survey. Didn't get charged so no damage done but quite bizarre. Tempted to fill in the survey and inform them that I found my stay so ethereal it was like I wasn't even there.
#186
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: ORD
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Platinum/LT Platinum, Hilton Gold
Posts: 5,594
I think there is a legitimate chance that Marriott's gamble will pay off - they cut benefits, take away anything remotely resembling customer service - and if they then just make it a little - just a little better again - most of us will probably indeed stay because otherwise we'd just have been too wrong with our investment.
As far as benefit cuts, I think it's a bit of a give and take. Wins and losses. For example, I was still several million points away from making LT Silver with Marriott at the time of the merger. Now, I'm about 29 nights away from making LT Plat (formerly Marriott Gold). Huge win for me. There ARE some take aways though. Different changes affect different people, positively and negatively. One person being unhappy with "cuts" may not be material if the changes make 2 other people happier.
#187
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Chicago
Programs: Hyatt Glob; UA 1K; BonVoyage LTT (RIP SPG); HH Dia; JX Insighter
Posts: 1,643
#188
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: SLC/HEL/Anywhere with a Beach
Programs: Marriott Ambassador; AA EXP 3MM; AS MVP, Hilton Gold, CH-47/UH-60/C-23/C-130 VET
Posts: 5,234
But does seem like they are out of touch, although I presume the reservation system will be fixed. It's been a mess for months -- if you look, many of us were irritated that ORD provided hotels in Ordu Turkey but not near the Chicago airport! It's clear they have been making progress but seems like much of the work is being designed by someone who doesn't travel and the work is being done overseas by the lowest responsive bidder.
#189
Moderator: Mileage Run, InterContinental Hotels
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 5,916
I'm not saying it's an ideal situation. All channels should work. I hope soon they will. But a "horror" because you have to book the room on the website is maybe just a slight exaggeration??? I think you should perhaps consider that you've been slightly inconvenienced by the merger.
First, I have breakfast with a friend (at a JW club lounge, no less). He tells me that he's pretty happy with the Marriott app. Can even apply suite nights to reservations now. Say what? We look at all 12 of my upcoming reservations and not a single one has the SNA option. We have the exact same version of the app installed, and mine correctly shows the number of SNAs I have. Just can't do anything with them.
I then head back to my room to call the BRG line. Emailed to cancel two reservations a few days ago (conveniently, this now involves sending an email, because they no longer allow us to cancel them online). One email received a response within 3-4 hours, the other was ignored. Thankfully a friendly BRG agent picks up right away, cancels the reservation, and apologizes that email didn't receive a response.
While I wait on the phone, I try to make a reservation in Hong Kong. SPG website shows Courtyard, Sheraton, and Ovolo sold out, app has all of them available.
After dinner, the morning's SNA discussion comes back to mind -- I have several with Dec 2018 expiration left -- so I log in to the SPG website. I want to look at available options, and three legacy SPG hotels work just fine; I click "apply SNA" and it shows me available room types. Two Marriotts have a "SNAs can't be used for this reservation" message, and one yields "Unfortunately there's an issue displaying some of your reservations. Please check back later." Most maddening, a Sheraton reservation takes me to the dreaded eternal "Sign in or Join" loop when I want to start my upgrade request.
That's 45 minutes wasted on Starriott today -- with nothing accomplished. If I'd chosen to call about the SNA, it would have easily been another hour. And I bet even if I'd gotten a semi-competent agent, they couldn't have applied a SNA to the troubled reservations.
Not a horror, obviously (not my words anyways), but "slightly inconvenienced" does not adequately describe what's going on. Maybe we can agree on "well-oiled dumpster fire?" For reference, I made a Hyatt reservation this am in 30 seconds (imagine, the hotel immediately showed up on the search, and my corp rate was displayed without coaxing), and then sent a twitter request to have a suite award applied; I was slightly inconvenienced when the response that came within 5 minutes wasn't a confirmation that the upgrade had been processed, but rather a request to verify some personal information for security purposes. Still, even with that inconvenience, my suite was confirmed within 10 minutes. But I guess I must be mad for straying from Starriott.
#190
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: ORD
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Platinum/LT Platinum, Hilton Gold
Posts: 5,594
Yikes! Somehow "several hundred thousand" became "several million" when it left my head. I was around 800k points I believe. LOL.
I don't disagree with any of that. They certainly have some problems to fix. But the incessant whining (in writing) about how Marriott is a horrible company that will never recover and will never be SPG is unfounded. Well, maybe not the last part. If they wanted to be SPG, the acquisition would have gone the other way.
Not a horror, obviously (not my words anyways), but "slightly inconvenienced" does not adequately describe what's going on. Maybe we can agree on "well-oiled dumpster fire?" For reference, I made a Hyatt reservation this am in 30 seconds (imagine, the hotel immediately showed up on the search, and my corp rate was displayed without coaxing), and then sent a twitter request to have a suite award applied; I was slightly inconvenienced when the response that came within 5 minutes wasn't a confirmation that the upgrade had been processed, but rather a request to verify some personal information for security purposes. Still, even with that inconvenience, my suite was confirmed within 10 minutes. But I guess I must be mad for straying from Starriott.
It's perspective. If I can book a room, check-in, get my PPE benefits (really just care about the lounge), and get my points afterward, that's what I need. It's an inconvenience if I have trouble doing other things that aren't critical to my stay.
If that's a major inconvenience for you or a "dumpster fire", then you should book away until they get those issues fixed. That would not be mad, in your case. For me, not getting an upgrade is a shoulder shrug. If it's because of a technology error, it's an inconvenience. It's not a dumpster fire. I've spent hundreds of nights in regular rooms, the world doesn't end for me.
Again, you have to do what you have to do. But the vast majority of customers, like your friend, are not even experiencing inconveniences. I'm simply making the point that there's a lot of hyberbole here that is also being projected across Marriott's customer base, rather than acknowledging that (other than CS wait times) it probably impacts a certain number of elites that are very active within their accounts. Outside of us, looking in, it probably doesn't seem like much worse than any other large IT merger. It's certainly not getting the attention an airline does when they experience a system fail.
And for some of us, it looks like we are having cuts to the Marriott experience to align with SPG! It's all a matter of perspective.
But does seem like they are out of touch, although I presume the reservation system will be fixed. It's been a mess for months -- if you look, many of us were irritated that ORD provided hotels in Ordu Turkey but not near the Chicago airport! It's clear they have been making progress but seems like much of the work is being designed by someone who doesn't travel and the work is being done overseas by the lowest responsive bidder.
But does seem like they are out of touch, although I presume the reservation system will be fixed. It's been a mess for months -- if you look, many of us were irritated that ORD provided hotels in Ordu Turkey but not near the Chicago airport! It's clear they have been making progress but seems like much of the work is being designed by someone who doesn't travel and the work is being done overseas by the lowest responsive bidder.
Not a horror, obviously (not my words anyways), but "slightly inconvenienced" does not adequately describe what's going on. Maybe we can agree on "well-oiled dumpster fire?" For reference, I made a Hyatt reservation this am in 30 seconds (imagine, the hotel immediately showed up on the search, and my corp rate was displayed without coaxing), and then sent a twitter request to have a suite award applied; I was slightly inconvenienced when the response that came within 5 minutes wasn't a confirmation that the upgrade had been processed, but rather a request to verify some personal information for security purposes. Still, even with that inconvenience, my suite was confirmed within 10 minutes. But I guess I must be mad for straying from Starriott.
If that's a major inconvenience for you or a "dumpster fire", then you should book away until they get those issues fixed. That would not be mad, in your case. For me, not getting an upgrade is a shoulder shrug. If it's because of a technology error, it's an inconvenience. It's not a dumpster fire. I've spent hundreds of nights in regular rooms, the world doesn't end for me.
Again, you have to do what you have to do. But the vast majority of customers, like your friend, are not even experiencing inconveniences. I'm simply making the point that there's a lot of hyberbole here that is also being projected across Marriott's customer base, rather than acknowledging that (other than CS wait times) it probably impacts a certain number of elites that are very active within their accounts. Outside of us, looking in, it probably doesn't seem like much worse than any other large IT merger. It's certainly not getting the attention an airline does when they experience a system fail.
#191
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: In the air
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, Bonvoy LT Plat, Hilton Gold, GHA Tit, BA Gold, Turkish Elite
Posts: 8,720
This is surely exactly the point. Speaking from my own experience, I can't always book the room I want, I usually don't get PPE benefits (though I don't care too much about a lounge) and have not got my points afterwards 50% of the time and customer services is either unavailable or unreliable when I'm made to escalate to them at the various points along the process. This is all far too difficult, and not sustainable.
#192
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: ORD
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Platinum/LT Platinum, Hilton Gold
Posts: 5,594
This is surely exactly the point. Speaking from my own experience, I can't always book the room I want, I usually don't get PPE benefits (though I don't care too much about a lounge) and have not got my points afterwards 50% of the time and customer services is either unavailable or unreliable when I'm made to escalate to them at the various points along the process. This is all far too difficult, and not sustainable.
My first post-IT-merger stay at a SPG (Westin) tonight. As a member of both programs, but only high level elite at Marriott, it will be interesting to see how I'm recognized this evening when I check in, if I'll have lounge access, etc. If they don't recognize my PPE status, will showing them the app fix things? It doesn't matter to me much for this stay as it's a quick in and out and I won't even be using the lounge, but it's a good test since most of the problems seem to be happening to legacy SPG customers.
#193
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: SLC/HEL/Anywhere with a Beach
Programs: Marriott Ambassador; AA EXP 3MM; AS MVP, Hilton Gold, CH-47/UH-60/C-23/C-130 VET
Posts: 5,234
Fair enough. It would be interesting to know how many people are experiencing this. Hard to tell from the 25 vocal people here on FT. We each can only speak of direct experiences. Mine have been fine so far, and I realize others have not. I still don't think things like not getting points on time or having to use the web instead of mobile are "a horror", but if I book a room and can't get it, or can't prove my status by showing the app at a hotel, those are problems. Not life and death, but annoying problems.
My first post-IT-merger stay at a SPG (Westin) tonight. As a member of both programs, but only high level elite at Marriott, it will be interesting to see how I'm recognized this evening when I check in, if I'll have lounge access, etc. If they don't recognize my PPE status, will showing them the app fix things? It doesn't matter to me much for this stay as it's a quick in and out and I won't even be using the lounge, but it's a good test since most of the problems seem to be happening to legacy SPG customers.
My first post-IT-merger stay at a SPG (Westin) tonight. As a member of both programs, but only high level elite at Marriott, it will be interesting to see how I'm recognized this evening when I check in, if I'll have lounge access, etc. If they don't recognize my PPE status, will showing them the app fix things? It doesn't matter to me much for this stay as it's a quick in and out and I won't even be using the lounge, but it's a good test since most of the problems seem to be happening to legacy SPG customers.
This is surely exactly the point. Speaking from my own experience, I can't always book the room I want, I usually don't get PPE benefits (though I don't care too much about a lounge) and have not got my points afterwards 50% of the time and customer services is either unavailable or unreliable when I'm made to escalate to them at the various points along the process. This is all far too difficult, and not sustainable.
But points keep posting appropriately. I was curious about the W since I had a lot of non-room spend but I received points using the more generous Marriott system for all spend rather than the less generous former SPG system.
The only issue is that it takes a couple of more clicks to get to an SPG property on the website and the SET/MR corporate rate codes don't easily translate.
#194
Join Date: Mar 2012
Programs: Mileage Plus 1K; Marriott Platinum; Hilton Gold
Posts: 6,355
Just tried to check my reservations on the Marriott web site, and got the following message:
This doesn't sound like a stabilized platform to me,
Unfortunately there's an issue displaying some of your reservations. Please check back later. We apologize for any inconvenience.
#195
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: SLC/HEL/Anywhere with a Beach
Programs: Marriott Ambassador; AA EXP 3MM; AS MVP, Hilton Gold, CH-47/UH-60/C-23/C-130 VET
Posts: 5,234
And ... that's been the banner there for weeks even though all my reservations show. I think the issue is fixed but they haven't taken the banner down.