Marriott Says A Room Without Air Conditioning Is Good Enough—Even In New York In June

A Marriott Titanium member says the Sheraton Brooklyn told him there weren’t any rooms with working air conditioning and that he was being walked to the Aloft next door. He accepted. Then he discovered that instead of compensating him, they charged him an extra 15,000 points. Marriott told him he wasn’t ‘walked’ or denied a room – he’d been offered a room at the Sheraton. And since he didn’t want to stay in a room that lacked working air conditioning (which a standard brand amenity and promised by the hotel), he wasn’t entitled to the chain’s ‘Ultimate Reservation Guarantee’ compensation for being walked. Sheraton Brooklyn, Credit: Marriott Apparently a room without working air conditioning is good enough to fulfill a reservation in New York in June, and wanting it fixed is merely a guest preference. The reader booked his one-night stay for 37,000 Bonvoy points. He arrived late in the evening. He says, They told me that I was being walked rather than accepting a room without AC. His 37,000 points were refunded and a new 52,000-point award was booked. He says nobody disclosed the higher price before making the switch. He assumed he’d pay the same 37,000 points he’d already committed to the stay. Although when you’re walked, at a minimum, he should have been refunded the night’s cost and the new room covered at the hotel’s expense. He also says he’d have been willing to let the Ultimate Reservation Guarantee compensation go if they’d simply honored the original 37,000 point price. He first asked Marriott customer service for the guarantee after discovering the refund and larger points deduction. It was the extra charge that turned this into a dispute he wasn’t willing to drop. He says he called Marriott roughly weekly for seven weeks. Marriott simply relayed the hotel’s account that another room had been offered at the Sheraton, that he declined it, and that he requested the Aloft instead. They wrote: Because an alternate room was offered at the original hotel and the offer was not accepted, this situation does not qualify for walk benefits. But another email acknowledges exactly what he was objecting to: I understand your concern that the room offered as an alternative did not have functioning air conditioning and that, given the weather conditions at the time, you did not feel it was a reasonable solution. Sheraton Brooklyn, Credit: Marriott Marriott’s published guarantee applies when a participating hotel is “unable to honor the reservation.” The hotel pays for comparable nearby accommodation that night, and Sheraton’s listed compensation is $200 and 90,000 points. Marriott’s position treats rejection of a defective room as a voluntary move. That allows a hotel to fulfill its obligation without delivering basics like air conditioning, running water, or even a bed. He didn’t request guarantee compensation at the front desk, which leaves a separate question about the timing of his claim. However, timeliness of the claim isn’t the basis for Marriott’s denial. In any case, there doesn’t appear to have been any authorization to spend another 15,000 of his points. Agreeing to a voluntary move to another property shouldn’t come at an undisclosed and unauthorized cost. Marriott eventually deposited 20,000 points as goodwill and refused to restore the original 37,000-point rate. Their final response said: …while I understand this is not the outcome you were hoping for, no additional compensation will be provided. That left him spending 5,000 fewer points than originally planned for the night after months of calls and emails – and a clear example of my experience that Marriott nearly always comes up with excuses to side with the hotel, even when the hotel fails to provide basics like air conditioning in June. Marriott wasn’t selling a room without air conditioning. According to the guest, its equipment was broken, staff called the relocation a walk, but the chain argument his desire for air conditioning was mere preference that they accommodated. Topics on this page