Many people stayed at a Marriott during the evacuations of the past two years. I think the founders of Marriott - who were great Christians - would have turned over in their grave. Instead of giving discounted prices (eg even friends and family rates) many actually charged higher rates (last minute, etc). The only Marriott I know who gave a discount was the Buckhead Ritz whose manager did it during Matthew.
What happened to your founding Christian Values Marriott. For Shame!
By "increased rates" one means "current rates" which are higher than advanced rates. Marriott does have the ability to "suggest" to its brands.
cf Tourists say Marriott rescue boat left them behind because they weren’t hotel guests | KTIC Radio
By "increased rates" one means "current rates" which are higher than advanced rates.
So Marriott charged current rates when they could have upped them even more but didn't?
or they could have helped people out like verizon and others did
Marriott boat left folks behind in St Thomas because, in advance of arriving at the docks, St Thomas officials insisted Marriott provide a list of all passengers which will be departing with them, along with personal information like passport data, etc. St Thomas ONLY ALLOWED those on that list to board, period. Not Marriott's call. They tried talking with the locals, but got no where and had to depart quickly, so as not to then get hit by Jose.
If those people are upset, they should be upset at their hotels abandoning them in their time of need, not Marriott who was taking care of their customers. I find this whole argument without merit and just the usual 'let's find something wrong with the great act of kindness and customer service, because I like to complain about stuff'.
so says Marriott. The people left behind say differently. Marriott only took care of their guests
And I agree with what Marriott did
I would be interested in an example, what location? What rates are available as opposed to say, 3 weeks from now.
If you are saying that the normal $150 a night room should be cheaper and isn't, that is one thing. But if you are saying that the $150 a night room is now $450 a night, that is a very different issue.
I wish that I knew how to tag. If you search for Irma here on insiders you will see a thread referencing a Forbes article on the full story of the evacuation. It helps to have the full story.
Copy and paste the link here
Thanks seatexan and psudad. I did the copy part but didn't have to paste!
They should have hired a whole fleet of vessels, loaded them with lumber and other building supplies, chainsaws, gold, laborers, food, emptied them on the island to rebuild all the other hotels, while then loading all the inhabitants from the island for a voyage to the mainland, putting them all in Marriott hotels on their nickel, until the island is rebuilt.
They took care of 620 of their customers, stranded on the island. No other hotel, of which I am aware, did anything close. Yet you are upset they didn't do more. You are calling them out as liars when they say they tried to do more. Is that a fact that can be proven? Certainly the fact that they rescued 620 of their own guests is proven. You have two posts in 3 years, both complaints - not contributions, just complaints. It would seem apparent you are not happy with Marriott and do not trust them, yet you are a Platinum. Of the 75+ nights you had to accumulate to get status, were there any positive experiences to share? If not, why would you continue to patronize the chain? Just curious.
I'm in complete agreement psudad. I read this thread yesterday and thought, I am going to leave it alone as I'd only add sparks to the fire.
Speaking of St. Thomas, I have an acquaintance who went to St. Thomas a couple of years back to work as a bartender at the resort and loves his work. He was one who was evacuated last week from the island and arrived back here over the past weekend. If I can track him down in the next day or so I'll try and get a video of him telling exactly what happened at the resort and if Marriott did all they could or not. My guess is YES and more.
Now back to our regularly schedule OP gripes about Marriott in general.
Being from Florida and with the possibility of having to evacuate living near Clearwater Beach, we checked multiple hotels throughout the state, all Marriotts and I can say that all I checked were reasonable as compared to their regular rate. The only problem that I found was that there was a scarcity of rooms available and they went fast. Now after the storm we had no power for 5 days so we left to take my sister-in-law back to Kansas and on the way back (we stayed at 4 different hotels going up and coming back). Our last hotel checkin was in Birmingham Alabama. While checking for available rooms we noticed that the Spring Hill Suites had a room rate of over $500 a night on the Marriott site ( if i remember correctly it was $540). That was over double the price of the Autograph hotel near it. Yes, Spring Hill! Needless to say we did not stay there, no matter how many points I would have earned. Now why it was over $500 a night I do not know, but I have never seen a Spring Hill or stayed in one that had a rate to match that.
But the point of the story is, I don't believe that Marriott raised rates during or after the storm. There were just no rooms to have but the rooms that were available were pretty close to regular rate that we received.
Oh heavy hits
1) I used to own a resort managed by Marriott so am well acquainted with them. I am a lifetime RITZ platinum and normally stay with them. As I noted, the Ritz in Bucktown for Matthew did offer "friends and family" rates to those of us forced to evacuate. Guess what hotel everyone stays at in Atlanta now?
2) Why don't I post positive. Do via flyertalk, but this spot is monitored by Marriott so it is better to post negatives. If I have a positive (ie Bucktown Ritz) I write directly to Marriott. Two negative posts in three years and you say I am unhappy with Marriott?
3) There was plenty of room on the boat and people wanting to get on. Marriott says they could not, the people say that there was no legal reason why they could not after talking to the local St. Martin officials. Just a "we are only taking care of our own" I have not idea who is correct, but if the boat had lots of space and there were others stranded....
4) Rates at the Marriott I stayed at were the "high" rate on their rental rates.
5) My point is that J. Willard was a devote Christian and spent personal time and money helping others. It is my firm belief (having met him in 1980) that he would have done much more helping those people who evacuated - many of whom had their homes destroyed. He believed that the bottom line is not as important as helping your fellow man. The Alice S Marriott award is their families legacy for helping others.
That's a good background for sharing insights - stick around, we'll all gain.
heh and GoPhils on FlyerTalk said he posted here too.
I think iamhawkeye is mixing two things: in the OP, the issue seems to be the price gouging, and in a subsequent post the topic is diverted to the people left behind in St Thomas.
I would like to respond to the OP: I have a team of people working in Houston at Johnson Space Center, they have been working through Harvey and are still there. Well, different people but using the same hotels. We use several Marriott brands, Hilton and other brands (large team). I can state with certainty that none of the hotels we use around JSC Clear Lake area increased their prices after Harvey. Rooms are scarce since local families went to hotels, but if there is a room available we can still get it at our group rate.
I also received great feedback from the team regarding the hotels, they provided free water and hot food even during the harshest days of Harvey.
So, no, I do not agree with the OP - do not generalize your own perspective (was it even a personal experience?) to every Marriott hotel. Report the bad ones based on facts not hearsay, but don't generalize.
Yet another example of how good Houston and Marriott responded to Harvey mtl_traveller. As a proud resident of the 
area this is great to read about.....keep JSC up and going.
You are correct. I started this with not lowering the price - but respondent added on how great they were in St Martin.
I will leave my posts on St Martin alone as I do believe they could have taken more based on reports.
AS to the not helping evacuees - I am also not talking about those of you who went down to help. I am talking about those who had to leave their homes knowing they would be destroyed. J Williard and Alice, I believe, would have given these people the friends and family rate.
cf what verizon did: https://bestmvno.com/verizon-wireless/verizon-offers-unlimited-everything-customers-impacted-hurricane-matthew/
So what did Verizon do (as per article cited)? They offered 3 days (from Oct 8 to 11) of unlimited everything to their own customers. They did not offer this to AT&T or T-Mobile customers in the affected areas.
Why is this so different and so much better from what Marriott did in St-Thomas??
Totally different.
Verizon gave free usage Marriott charged normal (or higher "same day") rates to their own customers.
Wasn't going to go there again, but in San Thomas Marriott stranded many Americans which they could have helped.
They state "they were not allowed". Turns out it was the ST agent at the boat who said "I don't think so". Per TV interviews with those left, the boat had plenty of room and time and Marriott did not go beyond ST agent. Do you really believe the government of ST refused to let Americans leave on a boat not full with no other known way to excavate them.
I stand J Willard and Alice would have been ashamed and so should Bill and the executive team!
Moral of the story - stay at a Marriott if you are traveling somewhere prone to hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, etc. They will take care of you. Stay elsewhere at your own peril. You will be taken care of and others can complain about how well your were treated.
The JW on Marco Island is housing and feeding disaster recovery crews. Saw with my own hawkeyes So Bravo Marriott!
And I know that the Marriott in Thousand Oaks CA housed a bunch of families from Porter Rach (near LA) where they had a huge gas leak. Gave them all club access as well, (which I was not very happy about but it was the right thing to do).
Perhaps they read this????
Asked why only complaints on this forum. The reason is that they are looked at
Hey clebert,
That is great news and we will be down there in a few weeks so hope to stop by the JW and thank the crews as well as take in a drink at the Tiki Bar. Did the roof of that make it through the hurricane? Also gotta stop by CJ's on The Bay as it is open I found out yesterday.
Tiki Bar? What, where?
<3
There is a Tiki room in Disney
“You deserve medals”: Marriott guest praises the chain’s generosity during Hurricane Irma
If the price was REALLY crazy, do report them for price gouging. While the hotel's carry the Marriott name, each hotel is run by their own entity. Corporate doesn't set the prices.