RobOnLI

Hi all,
Just wondering what I should have done differently in this situation and what I may expect and/or ask for.

This past weekend I was in the Northeast and hadn't booked a hotel room. At 11:58pm and after having scoured Marriott app for a points redemption room I bit the bullet and booked a 50K room at an Autograph Collection hotel. I booked the room, got the confirmation email and drove off to the hotel. I got to the hotel about 12:10am. When I gave my name and ID/credit card to the check-in agent she told me that I had no reservation and that the hotel was fully booked. OK, no problem; I've been in this situation before when the reservations system at the hotel doesn't update immediately. I wait 5 minutes and the other check-in agent suddenly says she sees my reservation but still doesn't understand how I made it since the hotel is fully booked. Cue the manager who happened to come from somewhere else in the hotel. She mutters something to the check-in agent, says nothing to me and goes to the back with one of the agents. Five minutes later the agent comes out and says, "We have no housekeeping here as it's after midnight. I'm going to get your room ready and I'll be right back."

One hour later the agent comes back and tells me my room is ready but "don't expect housekeeping-like quality" and she laughs. I got to my room at 1:18am, 68 minutes after arriving at the hotel. I asked for half my points back and the check-in agent said, "Yeah, I'm going to talk to my manager and we'll figure something out for you." The bed and pillow and bathroom were all clean. Shampoo, bath gel, etc. were all missing. No water either.

The next morning on check out the agent tells me my bill is zero (of course, it's a points redemption). Oddly she doesn't see breakfast on the bill so she said she'd take care of it once it hit the folio. OK. I inquire about how many points are being refunded and I have to re-tell my story of earlier that morning. She goes to talk to her manager and comes back and said, "Yeah, we saw a note written in a book somewhere. My manager can't do anything so I'll talk to the night manager and contact you today."

This was days ago. I've heard nothing from the hotel, no one has emailed or called me, the folio was never emailed to me (which tells me they either didn't close it out when I checked out or at all since then).

Am I unreasonable to expect half my points back? I figure I start with the negotiations there and see what I ultimately get. But this is unacceptable. How is the Marriott app offering rooms that aren't technically available? I stayed in a room that was barely clean and I waited over an hour at the check-in desk for the room to be ready.

I also have no contact info for anyone at the hotel other than to call the general hotel number.

Thoughts? I'm not so interested in hearing "you should have had a deal with the night manager before you went to your room". I'm more interested in hearing what I should ask for and/or expect. And maybe at this point how to move this forward because the Platinum line is pretty useless.

Thanks,
RM

jeanie

When I stay on points, a lot of the time the hotel cannot print a bill without any total on it. So not getting a folio isn't something I would necessarily worry about.

It sounds like you need to take it up with the night manager. The longer you wait after check out, the harder it will be to get those points.

trooper

So you don't think your arrival time is relevant? Just curious.

RobOnLI

No, why would it? When I booked the room and when I arrived means nothing. If I arrived at 1pm and booked for that night then they have every right to make me wait as I'm early (though as a Plat Premier they'll likely give me a room).

But this one I booked just before midnight, arrived just after midnight and got the room after 1am. I was booked for that overnight, not for the "night" 24 hours later.

-RM

kennycrudup

OMG I think you're actually serious?!

GoPhils

kennycrudup

What I think he's getting at (and that I agree with) is that you showed for a room (that was likely only available because someone checked out late/early) long after housekeeping's been gone and expected a FDC to turn into a professionally-cleaned room.

Sometimes you've gotta realize you've got exceptional circumstances and roll with it. I personally would have been happy to to have just scored a place to sleep that night, especially since the stuff that was missing was a front-desk trip away.

... but as I keep forgetting, this is FT.

GoPhils

kennycrudup

'Cause if I'm an FDC the last thing I wanna do is play maid when I could just hit another button and give someone a room that's ready.

I'm sure the probability that someone's going to show up at O'dark :30 needing a room when there's no/few ready ones is low enough that "well, we'll clean up a room ourselves if someone shows up" is the SOP in those cases.

What I don't get is why OP just didn't call and have whatever was missing sent up?

cfischer

1/2 the points is reasonable. I understand the issue the hotel had with the last minute booking, but they sold the room ... so waiting for > 1 hour at midnight and having a half made-up room ... 50% sounds fair to me. I would press it with the hotel.

RobOnLI

Now you're making assumptions that are flat out wrong. As a paying guest in a hotel (money or points, makes no difference), I do expect a cleaned room that is ready for occupation. I never asked anyone to go make up a room; the night manager decided to do that on her own.

And there were no exceptional circumstances here. There was no earthquake or major fire that shut down every road out of town and a million people were looking for a hotel room. This was a last minute booking for a room that was supposed to be ready and available if the hotel was selling it. Or, it was a room showing in inventory to Marriott and Marriott corporate screwed up by showing me availability that didn't exist. Either way, this was not my fault.

Additionally, the hotel could have easily walked me to the next available hotel. I suspect that would have cost them money (cash most likely) so they didn't go for this option. And I've never been 'walked' from a hotel so I don't know my 'rights' if that were to happen.

-RM

kennycrudup

... and her choices were? You weren't eligible to be walked (there was a room, it just wasn't ready) so the FDC had to clean it. Again, I'll bet the odds of this happening are low enough they just punt when it happens.

So, why didn't you call down for the missing items?

SkiAdcock

My guess is it's a combo. I'd heard via a property friend that Marriott was tinkering w/ the software during the time frame the OP was making his reservation & properties couldn't see reservations or mobile app requests from 10pm-2am Eastern time Sat night - which is just what you want to have happen when you're a property, right? (not) Also, as someone noted up thread, the property might have been sold out except for the one room that checked out late/early & since housekeeping was long gone, wasn't going to sell it at the property level & figured the odds of someone coming in late on a Sat night was slim so didn't close inventory (which would have meant MARSHA couldn't sell the room).. I think the OP is due some points, but obviously not for the entire amount since he did actually stay in the room.

Cheers.

ucfjoe

Remember that the Autographs, in my experience can seem to vary the most wildly in terms of site management (sometimes great sometimes very difficult). I know it’s a pain but if it’s been a few days I’d call and ask to speak with GM (assistant managers had their chance at this point to reach out to you) try and find an email address as well. Half refund seems very reasonable. You’re even Plat, not a Priceline booking! The day manager saying they’ve gotta talk to the night manager (who originally said they need to talk to day manager) is stupid runaround. They need to figure it out and should have gone to the GM wthemselves if necessary.

In my experience, though limited, it’s substsntially more difficult to refund points than actual money being paid not sure why but the one time I recall getting a refund (room downgrade) they wanted to give me an equal amount bonus instead of “refund” I thought they were lying at first but they said it was an accounting thing and they really did post a few days later.

The missing toiletries thing thing is less of an aggrivstion to me as is the time it took the manager to turn the unit. I think just about every management program (at least higher end brands) require mgmt to know how to turn a room and if it really took an hour, I’d say 45 minutes of that was doing something other than cleaning. Maybe it was a system error, maybe it was a late checkout (that they probably charged), maybe the manager had a significant other visit earlier earlier that evening. Doesn’t really matter, they should have either gotten you a room promptly or walked you to another property promptly (which would have certainly gotten the attention of the GM who maybe as of yet is t aware of any issue). 50k points isn’t cheap. I understand you not wanting to say the exact Hotel but you’re really got me curious. Btw, I don’t suppose you got upgraded to the Presidentisl suite or something because I’d probably retract much of what I said...

As an aside, the we can’t give a receipt because you paid with points is really annoying. I’m up to about 100 nights this year and while a low percentage overall there is always a hadful of stays where something extra gets charged and not having a zero balance folio makes it more annoying to the point where I will purposefully charge something stupid to the room just to get a printout.

RobOnLI

I decided to call the hotel tonight to try and catch the night manager who was working this past weekend when I checked into the hotel. Turns out it was the same manager and while she didn't initially remember me, she did after I told her the story about what happened during check in. Here's what she had to say:

- She was never told by any of the front desk crew that I asked for points back. I'll assume she's telling the truth but either way there was going to be no movement on this without me contacting the hotel.
- She agreed that 50% points rebate was very fair. She mentioned that because it's a high amount of points she has to get her GM to sign off on the transfer. She sees no problem with it and it should be done tomorrow when the GM is in. Fair enough. I have her name and know how to contact her if I don't see the points in a few days.
- When I asked why the Marriott app allowed me to book a room when the hotel told me they were fully booked, she said that she "shut everything down at 10pm" and has no idea why Marriott would have shown any available rooms when they indeed had none ready. She said this is something that they've already taken up with Marriott to figure out how this could have happened. I think this relates to what @SkiAdcock said above.

To clarify a few other points:
- I guess I should have left out the part about the toiletries. I simply added it to show how ill-prepared the room was when I got to it. I did get shampoo and shower gel at a later time.
- I never said the night manager told me to talk to the day manager. As my OP says, the FDC who cleaned the room told me she would talk to the manager about a points rebate. Based on what I heard tonight that conversation may never have happened. Only the next morning upon checkout did that front desk clerk tell me that the day manager said it's an issue for the night manager.
- The FDC who took an hour to clean my room said, "Damn, the people who were in there were an early check out. And they trashed the room." Great.
- No, I didn't get an upgrade.

So this was an early check out situation and the hotel wasn't even *trying* to re-sell the room and make "double the money" on it that day. They had it unavailable in the system. Either way, whether you're the first, second or even third person checking into the room for that day I think everyone expects it to be clean and ready and consistent with the brand amenities. That's clearly not what I got.

-RM