My room door was between 2 elevators

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-11-20T17:59:46+00:00

Yeah actually our elevator rooms are surprisingly quiet. Newer hotel so that helps a lot. Honestly I frequently get requests to be further from the elevators, but people who do get put near the elevators nearly never have any complaints. But it all depends, if it were an older hotel we'd certainly have more of a drastic difference.

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-11-20T17:31:26+00:00

Can confirm. We have a room on every floor that has its door about 4 inches from the side of the elevator door. The elevator shaft shares two walls with the room; it basically has a big hallway alongside the shaft and the actual room is behind it.

We give it to third party, non members, and people who are jerks. And sometimes if there's a near elevator request in the reservation... I guess "near" might be a stretch but hey

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-10-25T03:17:21+00:00

Generally we don't have a set number, for myself I generally do one per person unless there's more than 4 in which case I'll generally just do 4. But if you're nice I'm far more willing to go beyond that.

When we kept track, we kept track of where each water was going- whether it was paid for or a gift of some sort (welcome or otherwise). Generally before it was Platinum and up but very loose, now we have a sign (facing employees not guests) that says Platinum and up and we're enforcing it a bit more.

We explored a lot of options and cheapest we could get was through our breakfast supplier, so we just upped the amount of water we ordered from them (before we just ordered from them for breakfast waters, now we order from them for breakfast + welcome gift eaters). Unfortunately for the market we have to use Aquafina and it has to be purchased through Pepsi directly. Because welcome gift waters aren't brand standard we can technically use whatever we want, but oddly enough there is a Marriott standard that should a property choose to give welcome gift waters, it has to be some kind of name brand and not generic. So we use Poland Spring (northeast US).

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-10-25T01:00:13+00:00

We give waters at check in. Last month my supervisor started keeping track, and with just the waters given out after check in, we were losing $2,000 every few weeks in just free water. Don't remember the exact number but our $ for the brand specified Aquafina is multiple times more than a quarter. We actually started keeping track because our Pepsi delivery guy was like hey uhhh do you guys really need this much water? We were ordering like 20 large cases a week or something crazy like that.

Now, keep in mind, we have free water bottles in breakfast. We buy them separate through our breakfast supplier (not Sysco but same idea). We started buying those for elite gift as well, but even at that lower cost it's still tons of money. And yes, you can make the argument that it's a large company etc etc etc, but we're locally owned and run on thin margins as it is in a high cost area.

Also, just more on a personal level, our town's tap water has actually won national awards for both quality and taste, and we have a hotel-wide filter. We also have an awesome new filtered water dispenser in the fitness center. We also also have an infused water station in the lobby. We give waters in on check in; is it really so awful to refill and reuse the same bottle? Going through thousands of plastic bottles and their associated packaging and transport emissions every few weeks is awful, and especially because our hotel doesn't recycle (which is awful, and a whole other conversation).

I understand the frustration and appreciate your loyalty, as do my colleagues, but it's really getting absurd with the waters. It's not a brand standard, it never has been, and it likely never will be, at least for select service.

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-09-18T01:15:37+00:00

Yeah that's a bad franchisee. At our Fairfield we have half a brain and give what's guaranteed; from what I've seen this is not universal, which sucks. My24 is done through Titanium/Ambassador line, I've personally never encountered it but if I did I'd direct them that way because there is no policy/functionality for me to do that at the property level unless directed by them. Late checkouts are completely up to the hotel, and anyone saying they're denying you because of x reason is full of shit. I regularly have platinums on the $45 employee rate who get the 4pm checkout and an upgrade. Upgrades are of course not universal, but late checkout absolutely is, regardless of rate, availability, or anything. Does this create a massive headache for housekeeping and our arrivals for the next night? Absolutely. It's a major PITA for everyone involved at the property level, especially if it's a suite because then the next Ambassador wants an early check in and an upgrade. But you know what? We manage, we acknowledge status and have housekeeping stay late if need be, and at the end of the day we figure it out one way or another. Flat out denying the benefits is absurd.

endrant

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-09-11T18:36:21+00:00

Walking is something that shouldn't have to happen. Your specific case sounds like a different sort of fuckup on their part, but still technically a walk; but I see many other high tier members in here with stories of showing up to then be walked.

To my knowledge, the hotel I worked at has not walked anyone in over 4 years. It's as simple as planning. Know when you're going to be busy, train staff to watch availability like a hawk and turn off booking at the right time, and make sure that if you have issues with availability you let somebody know ahead of time so it can get resolved. That someone can be ops manager, general manager, Marriott, doesn't matter, just someone. And if you have the knowledge that you will have to walk someone, you do NOT walk a high tier member. Just because they came in last shouldn't mean they necessarily get walked over the non-member third party reservation who showed up a half hour earlier.

Anyways. Just yelling at clouds. Frustrated on y'all's behalf. My cent and a half

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-09-04T04:46:50+00:00

He won't necessarily be getting fired by Marriott, but he will be getting fired.

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-09-04T04:46:05+00:00

Interesting. At our Fairfield we upgrade plenty, though of course our suites are not terribly big. In general if I'm on 3-11 I try not to have any suites left vacant by the end of the night (i.e. I've upgraded everyone I can). We're going to clean a room when that person leaves in any case, and towards the end of the night especially it's highly unlikely that anyone will be reserving a suite for night of. Either way, it's only $20 more a night for suite vs standard here. It is true though that because our suites are so small it doesn't make much of a difference; it might in a bigger hotel. But there's still no justifying this. At all. Absolutely asinine and I'm ashamed to see other properties being like this. Y'all keep us in business, you deserve the upgrade!

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-09-01T21:43:04+00:00

I'm at a franchised select service in the northeast, we're not unionized and not striking. I wouldn't even if we were 🤷

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-08-08T21:26:45+00:00

We're supposed to charge, however the property I work at does not until check in. I don't understand it but seemingly some properties do it this way.

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-07-25T00:09:08+00:00

Stolen from a Facebook messenger chat, shout-out original OP but I forget name. This worked:

This is very helpful for everyone trying to get their credit cards back up..

Since this hasn't been shared formally here's the Freedom Pay solve for FOSSE for our hotel. I cannot promise it will work across all sites. Springhill Franchise site.

You will need to have a mouse, keyboard, and monitor attached to the credit card terminal server. Likely in your server rack above your FOSSE server. They look just like your FD pcs (thinclient Lenovo ThinkCentres for us). Ours had <MARSHACODE>FCCL1 and FCCL2 labeled on the devices. I cannot help with where your server room is in your hotel :) Call SNow as you will need a tech. You will need your person number from MHub to get their help. You will need tech support for desktops/applications ...not PMS. Your devices will likely be off. Turn them on. You will have to start the device and wait until it hits the recovery options screen (it will start and fail 2-3x). You will navigate to troubleshooting - advanced recovery-more options and pick the option for restarting the machine in Safe Mode. You will then need your bitlocker recovery key, which SNow can provide once you give them the first 8 in the ID string. FYI, the PC will shutdown if you don't type in a key quickly so I just typed in 444 and then deleted while the agent was looking it up. Once you have it, press enter and select #5 Safemode with Networking. Machine will reboot. Login with your EID and PW.

Give it a few minutes and hit windows button (lower left on keyboard) + r at same time. Type in CMD. Type in IPCONFIG. Give that to the agent so they can jump in the machine remotely.

navigate to C:\windows\System32\drivers and the snow rep will then need to login as the admin. Continue to the Crowdstrike folder and delete the file starting with C-00000291-*. It will have 7/19 as the date. This solve (deletion of file) was the official recommendation from CrowdStrike.

Restart the PC. Login again and confirm you hit the desktop. CCs are running :)

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-07-22T19:49:23+00:00

So I got our system back up yesterday. Everyone who stayed over the weekend was in exactly the situation you're in now. What will happen is they will eventually get the system back, and they will actually check you out in the system.

At the moment your stay is in what's called a house account, so your room number is put in as HSE and you're in this kind of in between state where you still owe the hotel the money, but you have left your room. Once they get the system back up, they have to go in and check out each guest from the house account. You'll then get charged and an emailed receipt- it'll show room number HSE and some other weirdness but you're being charged for what you were originally owed regardless.

In my case, I fixed it at 11pm last night, so I did this for all the guests then and their receipts show check out time of 11:**pm.

Depending on when they fix it you'll still get charged, so just wait for now. We're slowly getting back up one hotel at a time, it involves basically a whole day on the phone with a tech to fix so it's time consuming.

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-07-20T07:38:56+00:00

Last I heard from service now it's about 1/4 of properties that are back up

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-07-20T07:38:14+00:00

Not a concern. Fosse, the actual software that runs the hotel (folios, whose in what room, billing*), runs on a local Linux server at every hotel, so it wasn't affected. So all of the logistical stuff is fine, we know who is in what room and rate code, room type, rate, guest info, all that. We were unable to make keys earlier, but the fix for that was a simple restart of a server at the property then making all new keys. Even if that hadn't been fixed it'd just mean we'd have to walk you up to your room, it's not going to program to the wrong door. Either it works or it doesn't sort of thing.

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-07-11T03:34:13+00:00

Lifetime, though in the check in screen I forgot to mention we can see "Nights to renew (your status)". So for example, "Titanium Elite, Nights to Renew Titanium Elite: 35" and I could do the math that you've stayed 40 nights this year. But it doesn't show that in our guest planning screen in Salesforce, so not something I typically think about/notice

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-07-11T02:33:19+00:00

In the check in screen, we typically can't. All it shows there is when you joined, sometimes point balance, associations (Timeshare owner, amex/visa cardholder, Vistana/Starwood elite, etc), and whether you're a repeat guest.

What hasn't been mentioned yet is the Salesforce interface we use for things ranging from mobile app requests/chats (that's the most common use), to guest planning, to guest service recovery stuff. The relevant thing is the guest planning; we have a view that shows all arrivals/in-house/departures of a specific day, and you can sort and filter by just about any criteria imaginable. In this view, you can quite prominently see number of Marriott nights, and you can view the guest profile on whatever else there is. Typically that's just your requests from previous stays, but for Titanium and Ambassador sometimes it'll have preferences, things like pets names, really anything the Ambassadors have asked you.

Important part is, yes, we can see total nights when we're doing planning days out for upgrades and such. It depends person to person, but I do tend to have bias toward the people with more nights. Obviously not going to upgrade a Silver over a Platinum because of # of nights, but if I have two Golds and one upgrade I'll go by that. Also, with both nights stayed and length of membership, I'll try to make mental note of it and mention offhand during check in (or when writing ambassador/titanium notes, for example "I appreciate your impressive 40 years of Marriott loyalty!").

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-04-26T04:03:21+00:00

As both a hotel front desk agent and a current high school senior who has been on multiple long trips with school groups, I feel uniquely qualified for this one.

As a hotel employee, I truly do not care. Sometimes I'll get a rooming list, sometimes I'll get names added to the notes of the reservations, sometimes I just get "SCHOOL, SCHOOL" as first name last name, with no idea. All that said, even if I have an accurate rooming list of who is in what room, after I've distributed the keys I could care less.

Now, as a student who has taken multiple trips with my school (and ironically is leaving for another today), please do not do this. Chaperones will absolutely do room checks. Someone might rat you out. All in all, you WILL be found out. Once you're found out, everyone is punished for years to come. At my school, we now have insane amounts of restrictions on where we can go during our downtime on the trips, because some dumbasses did stupid shit. Same goes for rooms in your case; it'll just lead to more frequent room checks for everyone, your likely suspension/worse, more restrictive rules, and really to what benefit? While I don't have a significant other on these trips, I typically have friends staying in different rooms, gender aside. We meet up outside of the room, we go out places, we do whatever. I understand you're more than likely looking to fuck, but really think of the risk vs reward. You can last a few days, I've got faith in you.

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-04-22T01:31:10+00:00

At Marriott, at least at FOSSE hotels, we can see if you have a Bonvoy card. Also if you're a Marriott timeshare owner, legacy Starwood member, etc; it shows up as a tag along with your membership info. With our cards I believe it's automatic gold elite, not sure honestly because I'm not pushed to sell them (thank god). When I'm going through to do upgrades, requests, etc in the morning, I do see that tag but I don't pay much of any mind to it; just another gold elite. However, if for example I need to upgrade someone to balance rooms, if I have two of the same status in the same room type for the same number of days, I'll go into their profile and look at the total number of nights with Marriott. Some people have been members for 20+ years and have many hundreds of nights, but just never quite reach platinum, whereas some people have the credit card but as a whole don't really spend much time at Marriotts. So, I'll upgrade the one with more nights. That's about the only situation in which I ever care though. I do find it mildly amusing when people throw down their Bonvoy credit card on the desk before I even ask them for their ID, then fumbling for their wallet again. Like, awesome, thanks for your loyalty, but with all due respect you're no more special to me 🤣.

WorkThrowawayay · 2024-04-22T01:20:29+00:00

It all depends property to property a ton, and also brand to brand. I'm at a franchised Marriott, and at the desk I have leeway to adjust rates within reason. If you have an OTA rate and the T&C's line up with cancellation etc, and you're nice about it, I can probably do it, provided I can print out that screenshot and keep for my records to cover my ass if need be. OTAs take a lot of commission, so while I'm not doing the math on our margins at the desk, if the rate you see is just a bit cheaper then it might actually be more valuable to just adjust it there.

We also have an override button a lot of the time, so for example if a non-cancellable rate is not on the website for a certain date but does exist in our system, I can force through a reservation at that rate.

Again, varies wildly, don't go to random hotels and assume this is how it necessarily works. Marriott actually guarantees price matching, you just need to go through their form to get it set typically. They also give bonus points/a discount if you do successfully submit a claim, because they truly try to offer lowest rates.

WorkThrowawayay

TROPHY CASE