Full disclosure, my wife is the Marriot Bonvoy member, not me, but she was too upset to write the review.
We had booked, quite a long time ago, our dream vacation, staying at the Marriot Bonvoy in a room with a waterfall view. Knowing how much this must be in demand, we booked this way in advance. We use Marriot quite a bit, and even have (well, now had) future reservations for trips in October and beyond.
At some point recently my wife had to update her payment information on the Bonvoy app, which is part of the story here.
We left Los Angeles International Airport Friday morning very early in the morning. Around noon Pacific Coast time while we were in the air, someone tried to call my wife to say there is an issue with the credit card on file (turned out later there was some glitch that occurred due to my wife updating her payment type, we weren't totally clear on this).
Within minutes of landing in Buffalo NY, we got that voice mail and called Marriot. They said because we did not answer, they cancelled our reservation. We explained we have been Bonvoy members in good standing (spending a small fortune on Marriot hotels for a long time now) and that we didn't answer the calls because we were literally flying to Buffalo so we could get to the hotel, and why are they doing this to us just a couple HOURS before we were set to check in? They said us not answering was unacceptable and that the room is cancelled and they will not be offering any alternative due to how busy it was.
Only after being hung up on twice, did we finally get someone higher up to talk to. And only after my wife was literally crying on the phone to this higher up person, did they mention that they have another hotel in the Marriot Group farther away from the waterfalls (i.e. no falls view) and that they could see if there is any opening. My wife asked "is this something I could just as easily do if we called them" and they said "uh, yeah, basically, you won't get anything better by me calling them." Yeah we called them, they said nope, we've got nothing for you.
So we were in another country with no place to stay.
We scrambled and found other accommodations after spending quite a lot of time on Fallsview breathing car exhaust and wondering if we were going to have to either stay in a dump, or find somewhere outside of Niagara. To add insult to injury, one of the hotel personnel at the point where they drive people in, asked why we were standing there (politely suggesting we make our phone calls out on the street, not in the area where they receive guests).
I heard the entire calls with them, and heard them hang up twice, and heard them basically not care at all. There was zero concern expressed.
I don't know why this is happening, my wife has spent quite a lot in the Marriot Group and up until this trip, it has been great. read more