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Let's start off by clearing one thing up: I have always loved Marriott. I think it is required of all Mormons to love Steve Young, Mitt Romney, Kevin Rollins, David Neeleman, and J.W. Marriott amongst others. I recently watched a documentary on J.W., which I loved. He was truely someone to emulate. That is why my latest experience with Marriott (the hotel chain) was so suprising. I grew up going to Marriotts on family vacations (on my Dad's points) and have had nothing but good experiences and memories. More recently, I have begun to travel more often for business; I can now see why business travelers book Marriott. You can trust the brand (and a clean hotel makes a big difference on the road). So, in short, I have always loved Marriott, but this week has definitley provided another perspective. I will never stay in the Burbank Airport Marriott again.

The Background.
With some great partners, I recently started a business. We are a start-up and thus until we cash-flow, we have to watch every penny. It is our life blood. I booked the Marriott (rather than a cheaper hotel) for two reasons):

(1) we are in Burbank for a week...a decent hotel makes a big difference over a week's time; and
(2) the online interface for Marriott allowed me to book a room with 2 double beds and a rollaway.

Perfect. We have three employees. We all know eachother really well. We will skip the luxury of having two rooms and instead spend more on one nice room. Booked.

The Issues
We arrived in good spirits on Monday morning (after all, we had just picked up our standby tickets to Conan). When we hit the Marriott, we realized the first of many offputting things that we would face. Parking was $14 per day. You may say, "that happens..." The reality is this is Burbank, not downtown in a major city. To my knowledge, no other hotel in the area charges for parking (not even the Courtyard Marriott which is less than a mile away).

No big deal. We'll ask them to reduce/waive it given that we will be here for a week. We asked when we checked in. The employees response: "We have to charge this because we are across from the airport and many commuters use our lot for airport parking." "Okay" I said, "how about you charge the commuters, but you give free parking to the patrons that stay with you for a week?" "I'm sorry," was his response. "We can't waive the parking."

Okay. Sucks, but okay. So we headed up to the room.

The room smells wierd. We ask for another room. The new room (2 doors down) smells less wierd, but still has a subtle sewerish smell. By now I knew the desk supervisor wasn't hip on us, so we didn't complain because it was getting awkward.

Problem: There wasn't a rollaway in either room...so I ask the desk supervisor about it. He says that they can't put a rollaway in a room with two queens.
"Hmmm..." I say, "well, when we booked, the online interface asked me if I wanted a rollway (after my room selection) and I selected yes. I think it's even in my confirmation."
"Yeah" he said, "I'm sorry about that, but we can't do it."
I then explained that we needed them to figure out something because we had three people and two beds. I explained that if the online reservation wouldn't have confirmed the rollaway, then I would understand his position, but given the circumstances I hoped he would figure something out. All this time, I'm fumbling through my phone to show him the email confirmation with the rollaway.
I finally find it and he says, "I don't need to see it. I know that the interface allows you to book it that way."
"Okay" I say, "then what do you propose?"
"I don't know" he said, "I don't know what we can do. I'll talk to the manager and call your room."

About 20 minutes later he calls me. "We can upgrade your room to one that has two doubles and a pull-out bed, but we can't just give it to you. You are going to have to pay extra."
"How much?"
"$50 a night"

After the call, we decided mutually that this wasn't right. We had a clear understanding (because of the online interface) and now he expects us to pay more because the interface misreprented what could actually be done? That's not right.

We walked down and told the supervisor that we were uncomfortable paying more and we asked him to refund our stay so that we could go elsewhere.

He didn't blink. He refunded the money and sent us on our way.

Follow Up
Tuesday morning, I tweeted the following:

"Horrible customer service at the Burbank @MarriottIntl yesterday (need more than 140 char), switched to the Ramada for the week <- noisy."

Suprisingly, Marriott responded with a tweet of their own:

"@Jon_Shipley We saw your msg; may we be of assistance? If so, please DM details and your contact info. Thank you!"

Good. Only one problem. I can't even send them a DM unless they are following me (which of course they weren't). Did they really intend for me to DM them or did they just want to say so publically? I respond:

"@MarriottIntl don't think I can dm without you following me...can I?"

Their response:

"@Jon_Shipley Sorry about that, we are now set up and ready to go. :)"

Okay, good. Maybe they will clear this up. I DM them:

"In meetings all day. cp:801.xxx.xxxx Conf#:8359xxxx Online int. asked if we wanted rollaway. Staff said couldn't/need more $."

Nearly a day goes by. No response. No DM (I was following them at the time, so they could have sent one). No text. No call. Finally, a DM in the late morning today:

"Thank you for the additional information, Mr. Shipley, we appreciate it."

Thank you? No help? No consideration for the crappy service? Nothing?

Again, it makes you wonder...are they using Twitter to reach out to their customers or are they just trying to give that appearance? Maybe they talked to the desk supervisor and he expressed how difficult I was...maybe they should have reached out to me as well.

Anyway, it was an interesting experience. Disappointing that it came from Marriott. A learning experience on how not to perform customer service in person or on Twitter.

2 rooms at the Ramada it is.

P.S. I know what you are thinking...and I'm not a serial customer service hater. Guess who I rented our rental car from this week?