kaizen7

GUWonder

The Marriott IT team did not create this mess. This mess was created by the top of the C-suites at Marriott HQ who wanted to push out the loyalty program devaluations as fast as possible and try to get the other cost-cutting measures in place sooner than later. The so-called IT mess for legacy and new Marriott Rewards program members is the direct result of the most senior management decisions possible at Marriott. The Marriott IT team is a casualty of a senior corporate management that thinks that the customers in the beds don't count for as much as before. Unfortunately, this is not unique to Marriott when it comes to the major lodging service companies.

At this point, Marriott management has created such a big mess for its loyalty programs customers that maybe they are resigned to just doing patchwork, unstable as it may be, until the new program systems are up and running for data to be migrated to that instead?

RogerD408

Yes, nor is it unique to any company in any industry. My guess is the IT portion was thrown over the wall to the IT group with an impossible completion date and that's why we have what we have. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the timing was forced so they have a diversion (the worker strike) to blame for a slump in bookings instead of inept management. The board knows how to deal with incompetence, but not so much with labor issues.

christianj

This is getting so old! If the Marriott Management Team thinks there are no issues maybe they should try to make a simple reservation!

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Was trying to book a Marriott/Starwood property in Athens, Greece. Tried 3 times and went to Hilton site to book the very nice Hilton Athens! I just upgraded my HH Ascend to the Aspire and I will be out in 2019 as a LTPPE after years of loyalty to Starwood. Simple tasks are just too frustrating!

CCIE_Flyer

Nice location (in terms of views of Acropolis, etc), and kind of a cool bar on the top floor (if you can stand the noise and the crowds - not to mention the expense!). But right next to several night clubs (believe one of them is actually in the Hilton), and very nearby to a hospital with an emergency room - constant, non-stop sirens at all hours of the night and day.

Not so nice, actually.

paulsalem

I haven't been able to view the "overview" section of my account for 3-4 days so I can't see my YTD spending. All I get is "General Error We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again."

lilpisher

Kacee

Bingo. They don't even want to be lodging companies, they want to be corporate event sponsors that offer beds as an adjunct.

This will change next time the economy crashes and corporate event budgets are once again slashed.

raunow

damon88

uanj

Well, let me share with you the followup I received when I emailed that I have not been able to see my account since the merger. The form email said that such problems are known and they are working on them. They gave me a link so that I could view their progress on fixing the issues. The link said that all systems are go and now functioning normally. I am so frustrated, such a waste of my time.

christianj

I had another issue this past weekend that is really baffling.

Background.....have been trying to book the Santa Marina Mykonos for dates in June 2019 for the last couple of months. There has been absolutely NO dates loaded in the system every time I have checked for availability (either paid or award). I know the hotel loads the rates for next year relatively late but I have kept checking dates almost daily to no avail.

On the weekend SPG posted a picture of the resort on their FB page and said something about booking it. I commented that I would love to book it but there are no dates loaded. Suprisingly I got a messenger reply from SPG saying dates were indeed loaded for June 2019 and that they saw availability on certain dates. I immediately did another search and again NO dates at all available. Responded back to them saying I saw NO dates at all. They then sent me a link to look at available dates and the link did indeed show just a few dates in June 2019 that were available for award bookings (naturally not the dates I wanted).

This brings up the BIG issue for me....why would the SPG reps get different results when searching specific dates? Why did I not get anything when I search my specific dates and even when I clicked on the link to pull up the calendar that normally shows the entire month? Strange thing is that when I clicked on the "edit" tab on the link they sent me and did another search I again got NO AVAILABILITY!!!!

I just cannot understand what is going on over there! I'm just about fed up and all the 2019 hotel bookings that I have made so far have been with Hilton since I am sick of this crap!

RogerD408

I don't know if this is happening for your selection, but some properties (especially popular locations) will apply an MLOS (minimum and/or maximum length of stay) to availability. So unless you pick the specific dates loaded then they show no availability. For example, the Sheraton SF Fisherman's Wharf has loaded rates that require Friday and Saturday arrivals must be at least two nights. So no one-night stays starting on Fridays or Saturdays. The Sheraton in New Orleans had rooms that couldn't be booked for more than three days preventing (or at least making it difficult to) book Fifth-Night-Free stays. The current Marriott.com booking engine leaves a lot to be desired and hopefully we will see major improvements soon, but the CSRs do have a more robust system and it's looking at the internal database that is different than what feeds Marriott.com. In the meantime, if you haven't already, try looking for single days and multiple day stays moving start date a day or two before/after what you want. Bookings are the lifeblood of hotels, you've got to believe they take loading inventory seriously.

bgriff

MLOS restrictions were possible under SPG's systems too, though they may not have been used as widely. I once ran into them trying to use points at 4Pts in a popular weekend trip destination. Was able to book 2 nights on points on the website (and the cash rate happened to be so high for the first night that I was still happy to spend the second night's worth of points to get the room for just one night, if needed), and then got a phone CSR to drop the second night and refund the points. Not sure if that actually should have been allowed or not, but it worked ... also not sure if it would be possible nowadays, and good luck tracking and chasing whether you ever got the second night's points back.

I don't hate the Marriott website and app as much as many, but I have noticed how sparse the information available about room types, etc., is compared to the old SPG site. I suspect this is in part because Marriott had a much smaller percentage of properties where the room types were anything worth caring about (i.e. no one really needs to see detailed pictures of different room types at a Fairfield Inn).

I am also perplexed as to why Marriott seems to have taken down most / all of the "independent" websites that many of the top SPG hotels used to run, which allowed the hotels to present themselves more clearly and comprehensively than the Marriott cookie-cutter format allows. For example the W Amsterdam still has its own domain name site, but now links to a Marriott.com-format site, whereas before it was a more unique site in the spirit of the property which better explained its unusual arrangement split across two buildings, etc. I hope Marriott lets some of those sites come back once the booking engine is stabilized, and I suspect it's strongly in their revenue interests to let some of these high-end hotels really market themselves properly.

Cledaybuck

Made two reservations yesterday. Haven't received an e-mail confirmation for either. Both show in my account.