Marriott got me in trouble

[TravelTime]

I was staying at a marriott hotel this week. I had a horrible experience and wrote a negative review on tripadvisor. I found out that the hotel reported me to the group organizers and now they are angry at me. Is this appropriate for a hotel to report you to your group because you wrote a bad review?

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

Did the hotel resolve the issue ?

If so post an update / if not - notify the group organizers .

*******

2 can play the game

 

[DeniseM]

Did the hotel "report you" or did they reach out to the group coordinator to try to offer some compensation or an apology?

Also - does the group coordinator get freebies from this hotel for organizing groups and have a financial motivation to stay in the hotel's good graces?

 

[TravelTime]

Did the hotel resolve the issue ?

If so post an update / if not - notify the group organizers .

*******

2 can play the game

No the hotel did not even attempt to resolve the issue. So I wrote a negative TripAdvisor review. The hotel never contacted me. I found out yesterday the hotel reported me to the group leader. The group leader was angry at me. The hotel never attempted to help me. It seems inappropriate for a hotel property to retailiate against a person who is unhappy and writes a negative Tripadvisor review. They knew who I am so they could have called me on the hotel phone and discussed it with me. I deleted the negative review for now but I plan to write a much more negative review once I get my thoughts and feelings together. The hotel hurt my professional relationship with my group by reporting me.

 

[TravelTime]

Did the hotel "report you" or did they reach out to the group coordinator to try to offer some compensation or an apology?

Also - does the group coordinator get freebies from this hotel for organizing groups and have a financial motivation to stay in the hotel's good graces?

No they reported me. They never once offered any help. I was assigned to stay in a building of the hotel that had no water, no mini bar, no restaurants...only room service. So onion soup cost $20 via room service vs $10 had I been able to walk to the restaurant.

 

[TravelTime]

Did the hotel "report you" or did they reach out to the group coordinator to try to offer some compensation or an apology?

Also - does the group coordinator get freebies from this hotel for organizing groups and have a financial motivation to stay in the hotel's good graces?

Yes the group organizers did get financial benefits from organizing the conference here. They have worked with this hotel for about 6 years. So they were really angry at me for complaining. They said it has hurt their relationship with the hotel. The group organizers were pretty lame and unhelpful too since they are “in bed” with this hotel.

 

[TravelTime]

By the way, this hotel is part of The Luxury Collection. Unbelievable!

 

[DeniseM]

So, are you saying you did not get the type of room which you had booked and paid for?

Or did you have a "best available" type reservation that would be assigned by the front desk at check-in, and you were unhappy with the room that you were assigned?

What resort is this that is so huge that it's too far to walk to the resort restaurant?

 

[TravelTime]

So, are you saying you did not get the type of room which you had booked and paid for?

Or did you have a "best available" type reservation that would be assigned by the front desk at check-in, and you were unhappy with the room that you were assigned?

What resort is this that is so huge that it's too far to walk to the resort restaurant?

I was booked into the appropriate category. That was not a problem. The problem was the out building is rarely used and did not have access to any normal amenities. There was absolutely no drinking water in this part of the building. The rooms did not have mini-bars. There were no restaurants so the only option was room service, which costs double. My side of the building had relatively warm enough hot water for showers but the other side did not. This is not irrelevant to my complaint, just mentioning it because this out building apparently has plumbing problems. I heard other guests were complaining about the lack of hot water in the shower. It was a disaster from the moment I arrived. Technically it is a 5-10 min walk from the main hotel but it was raining a lot. The shuttle took about 20 min. I had terrible blisters and I could not walk. I told the front desk and they ignored it.

I would have ignored all of this and forgotten about it but yesterday the group organizers confronted me for writing a negative (but realistic and true) review on Trip Advisor.

My question is is it ethical and/or acceptable for a marriott property to report a person to a group coordinator who wrote a negative review? If they knew who I was, why not call me on the hotel phone and resolve the problem BEFORE the negative review is written? If not, why not just call me and appease the situation? Is it okay for Marriott to reveal confidential information to retailate? Is it okay for a hotel to retaliate against a guest?

I deleted the negative review on TripAdvisor under pressure.

 

[DeniseM]

It seem's like there is a lot going on here that we are not understanding:

Did you ask if you could pay for an upgrade to a higher category room, or did you ask for a free upgrade?

There was absolutely no water in this part of the building. - Do you mean there was no place to purchase bottled water in your building?

Is it okay for Marriott to ruin someone’s career because they wrote a negative review on TripAdvisor? - How would this ruin your career - was this a work trip? If so, who paid for the room?

How did you get blisters?

What was the name of the resort?

 

[Steve Fatula]

Do all those questions matter really? She is merely asking if I understand correctly:

"Is this appropriate for a hotel to report you to your group because you wrote a bad review?"

Why she thinks it was a bad stay is irrelevant to her question is it not? It almost seems as if we are trying to judge if her stay was bad or not, doesn't matter, she thinks it was. Sounds like she does not want to reveal all of the details.

It seems inappropriate to me would be my answer. I agree they could just pick up the phone and call her. Not sure why that became such a big deal, would have expected a call if I was staying there and would be angry if they would not call me. Even if it was just a lousy day for me and perhaps I was over-reacting. I would still expect someone to respond to me.

 

[DeniseM]

Steve - It sounds like this was a work trip with other employees and that adds a completely different dimension to this situation.

Why she thinks it was a bad stay is irrelevant to her question is it not?

If she got the category of room that her employer reserved for her, how is that Marriott's fault? I understand that she might have hoped for a better room, but when you travel for work, you are usually bound by the parameters set up by your employer. That's why I asked if she offered to pay for an upgrade, or she asked for a free upgrade.

Based on everything she wrote, I'm guessing that she complained about the room and was told by the front desk that she received the room her employer reserved for her. Not the response she hoped for, but a response never-the-less.

I'm asking about the blisters because I'm trying to figure out if that was somehow work related.

Hopefully, the OP will explain how her employer is involved in all this, because that is the missing piece.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I agree it was inappropriate because your complaint was a result of the hotel not responding your needs. What puzzles me is why would writing a negative review that you didn't have hot water and it was too long a walk to get food get you in trouble? And how did the hotel and organizers know for sure it was you that wrote the review?

 

[mpizza]

Perhaps when you wrote the review on TripAdvisor you “outed” yourself, and the hotel responded to the organization that paid/reserved the room?

Maria

 

[alwysonvac]

....My question is is it legal and/or ethical for a marriott property to report a person to a group coordinator who wrote a negative review? If they knew who I was, why not call me on the hotel phone and resolve the problem BEFORE the negative review is written? If not, why not just call me and appease the situation? Is it okay for Marriott to reveal confidential information to retailate? Is it okay for a hotel to retaliate? Is it okay for Marriott to ruin someone’s career because they wrote a negative review on TripAdvisor?

I deleted the negative review on TripAdvisor under pressure.

Thanks for sharing...Sorry about your situation.
I would be pissed off too for contacting the organizer. However it sounds like a slippery slope if it impacts your career.

Just my two cents.. I won’t write anything else on TripAdvisor for now. Give yourself at least a week to think things through (PROs vs CONs) especially if it can impact your career.

 

[TravelTime]

Thanks for sharing...Sorry about your situation.
I would be pissed off too for contacting the organizer. However it sounds like a slippery slope if it impacts your career.

Just my two cents.. I won’t write anything else on TripAdvisor for now. Give yourself at least a week to think things through (PROs vs CONs) especially if it can impact your career.

Good advice.

 

[controller1]

Do you write your TripAdvisor reviews under your own name or under the handle @TravelTime ? If under your handle, how did the hotel know who you were? Also, how did "Marriott [to] reveal confidential information to retailate (sic)"? What was confidential that Marriott revealed?

 

[Panina]

Putting the dots together it seems, it is one employee of Marriott that reacted to your review and knew it was you by the details and wanted it removed as it was on their watch. If this is work related, unfortunately it might not benefit you to pursue. If this is only group travel not related to work there was no reason to feel pressured to remove. If you know you are right you can pursue to a higher level of management. Whatever the situation the employee should have dealt with you.

 

[PamMo]

Perhaps Marriott discussed the negative post with your professional organization because they knew the complaint came from someone within their group, and Marriott wants to maintain a positive relationship with the group organizers. After a 6-year relationship, I think Marriott would want to discuss any problems with a valued customer. And since Marriott probably doesn't know what your TripAdvisor name is, perhaps it was someone within your professional organization that recognized it was you? I wouldn't automatically dump on Marriott.

 

[BobG7734]

Seems to me that this thread does not belong on this board...what does it have to do with Marriott timeshares. The OP is vague about the whole strange situation....OP should be on FlyerTalk, not here!

 

[icydog]

It seems to me that it is always preferable to report any irregularities in your room or stay to the group leader. That would seem like a common sense thing to do. Since you circumvented the group leader by posting a negative review on TA then you stepped on a series of toes by.. (1) criticizing the hotel in a very important forum (2)bypassing the organizer or group leader and (3) posting a negative review before waiting for a response from the group leader.

 

[DannyTS]

we do not have a lot of details but that is OK, it is understandable you do not want to give even more info in this situation. As others said, if this is impacting your work relationships it may not be worth pursuing it.

Also, you assume that the hotel retaliated because of your tripadvisor comment. That may be the case or not. It is possible the group leader was discussing less than formally with the hotel management and the hotel brought it up that it was sorry they could not do more in your case etc. I am speculating of course but it is possible that the group leader got mad in case the hotel had made several major concessions and your employer thought this was not in their best interest.

In any case, i am sorry for what happened to you, hopefully your next timeshare vacation will make you forget completely about this

 

[Steve Fatula]

Seems to me that this thread does not belong on this board...what does it have to do with Marriott timeshares. The OP is vague about the whole strange situation....OP should be on FlyerTalk, not here!

The reason it is related (at least to me) is because higher levels of ownership grant certain privileges to Marriott hotels and Bonvoy. And those privileges are very very important to some of us. For me, worth a lot of money. So, the timeshare is related to the hotel system via that ownership level. It's just as relevant as all the Bonvoy threads and credit card threads, right? since that is not MVCI either. Part of the reason some of us own what we do is this intertwined relationship. Yes, no guarantees it will forever continue, etc etc. and maybe you do not care about that part of it. To me, it does belong here for these reasons and more, else, none of those threads belong here.

Personally, I see nothing vague. Consider it as simple as, OP had a bad stay, complained more than once, got no response, wrote review, and got in trouble (retaliated). The OP asked a simple question.

 

[rthib]

Is this appropriate for a hotel to report you to your group because you wrote a bad review?

To actually answer your question. Yes.

If you were part of a group and posted a negative review, then the appropriate response would be for the hotel to reach out to find out more information.
In this case since you were part of a group, I would expect the hotel to speak to the group to find out more details and get a third view of the situation.
The problems you mention don't seem room specific, so if it was me as hotel I would ask the group if they had any other people complain or if this was just one person.
It is was me, I would not post on a public forum before speaking to the group coordinator first to see if they were aware and could resolve.

 

[Dean]

I was staying at a marriott hotel this week. I had a horrible experience and wrote a negative review on tripadvisor. I found out that the hotel reported me to the group organizers and now they are angry at me. Is this appropriate for a hotel to report you to your group because you wrote a bad review?

My short answer would be it depends on the specifics but it certainly can be appropriate to discuss it with the group organizer. You have not shared enough for us to formulate a solid opinion on the matter either about the hotel or the group situation. I'm presuming you had previously discussed this with the group organizer and hotel prior to posting the review, if not, you should have.