In yet another example of lack of service exhibited by Marriott properties, a guest at the Westin National Harbor reported an incident that horrified me. This guest was in Washington DC for a business trip. As a Gold Bonvoy member, he requested and was granted a late check out time of 2:00 pm. He returned to his room during a break in his conference (at 12:00 noon which is prior to 2:00) and found the door was propped open and all of his belongings were gone. Later, he found them in a garbage bag in a housekeeping cart down the hall.
He then tried to address this with the front desk and he received the standard corporate speak that they were very sorry and it should not have happened. He confirmed his phone number and said a manager would reach out to him. Not too surprising, this manager did not reach out to him for several days. He reported this on Marriott reddit page and only then did he hear back from this Marriott property. They once again apologized and offered him 10,000 points for this incident. For those of you who are unaware, the 10,000 costs the hotel under $100 if anything. The room cost was between $250 and $300. If you try to use Marriott Bonvoy points, it will cost between 35,000 and 40,000 for a night.
My opinion was this offer was insulting low for basically throwing away a guest clothing and toiletries when he was approved for the usage of the room for at least 2 hours more. The hotel should have comped his stay or provided him Bonvoy points that were worth more than 1 nights stay. I could argue that they should be responsible for cleaning his clothes and replacing his toiletries. No one likes taking things that have been thrown away.
Most of the people commented highlighted the fact that cleaning staff receive print outs with time and dates relating to guest departure so there should not have been any confusion on his late check out.
My question is who was at fault at this Marriott for not recognizing the late check out time, accessing this guest’s room and then throwing his possessions away?