The hotel itself is fine - good location, rooms nice enough - but I was taken aback by how at odds with concept of a loyalty program the management’s conduct was. I booked a two-week stay for my family here using the Marriott points I’d collected. On arrival, I asked if the upgrade sometimes offered to Gold tier members was available. There began a bizarre two-day saga in which I was handed off between three separate people, all of whom attempted to come up with creative ways to say why they wouldn’t offer the upgrade. The first person told me it didn’t look an upgrade was possible because “the room available more expensive.” Which, you may realize, is exactly the purpose of a free upgrade perk. Finally, I was told I’d need to speak to someone coming in the evening. The next person also went back and forth, and said they couldn’t do it because I’d booked using points. I pointed out this was a two-week stay, and that this would seem to suggest that it was a bad idea to collect loyalty points, if it meant I’d have to relinquish another perk that was part of the Gold package. I was told I’d need to speak to someone else arriving the following day. That conversation also went back and forth. Upgrading me when I had used points would “mess up the certificate” they issued to corporate to show the points were used, I was assured, and therefore they wouldn’t accommodate me. About five minutes into this awkward conversation, the same individual then had a brainstorm, and decided to finally tap the computer a bit and say “it looks like maybe we don’t have availability for an upgraded room for one day during your stay.” Less than convincing, given that this was person number 3, and day number 2, and that availability had not been raised as an obstacle at any previous point. I wrote a letter to Marriott Bonvoy, and they swiftly washed their hands of the whole matter by saying upgrades were up to the individual hotels. Wish I’d had the opportunity to post this on the hotel website, but I missed the survey email and the link has expired. Conclusion - save up all the Marriott points you like, but don’t plan on getting any loyalty perks if you’re thinking of using them.
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