Complaint Review: marriot - Other

Marriott Dispute  ,   Case #  10002137516675 ,     24 May , 2015

    To Whom It May Concern ,

                                                 It has come to my attention that Marriott Corporation has re-billed the disputed amount of 700 $  of  my 1200 $ total charged for my five day stay at the St Kitts Marriott earlier this year.   Please be advised that I restate  my claim for that amount for the following reasons:

1)  First and to be clear ,  it has been stated that Marriott has submitted an itemized list of charges as its " defense "  of this charge back.  I say directly that as far as the actual billed amounts and totals generated there are no accounting or reporting errors.   If the product had been as represented and promised , then those charges would have been acceptable and correct.  Marriott makes NO defense , explanation nor mitigation for any of the issues raised. The fact is ,  that the vast majority of the product was completely unacceptable and the staff and management were unable or unwilling to remedy any part of the situation or follow up on the promise from Marriott corporate to compensate me.

2)  I arrived on a Tuesday and was shown to a room that was still under construction.   I refused this room and was moved to another.  This room was acceptable in so much as that all systems were intact and functional .  The first thing that happened was that the door lock ( electronic ) failed and I was locked out of my room.  Management  repaired this.  Second was that the air conditioner unit was  impossibly noisy.  Management sent workers  who spent an hour doing what they could to fix it with some minimal success.  While annoying, neither of these issues were and are significant beyond their being an indicator of things to come.

3)  Almost immediately   I noticed  workers staring in the room from the deck even though I was on the 4th floor.  It turns out that my room was at  roof level of the floor below such that anyone walking on the roof was eye level with my room.  Under normal circumstances people wouldn't be walking on the roof, however, as it turned out , the rooms on either side of me and many others in close proximity as well as the hallways were under construction and that the roof area was used as a storage area for materials with workers parading by all the time.   As such there was no chance of any daytime privacy  unless the blackout curtains were drawn plus the noise from the construction made the room impossible to use during the day.  Management said the hotel was full and there were no other rooms to send me to.

4)  Tuesday evening was borderline acceptable from a noise standpoint .  There was a band playing in the downstairs bar  that was loud but they quit early.  Tuesday night was the last sleep I got for the five days.

5)  From Wednesday  on,  The noise from the lobby music that ran  late into  the evenings got so bad as that sleep was impossible .  Complaints to management were fruitless as I was told that " there was nothing they could do because the bar was a separate entity over which they had no control "

6 )  On Friday and Saturday  the Casino ( also in the lobby ) had a live band that was so loud that at 3 am the room vibrated so badly that the furniture shook and all my belongings ended up on the floor breaking my cell phone.  I went to the front desk to complain and met the night manager who said that the casino was a business unto their own and they had no control over what they did and could do nothing.  The music went on at 100 db until dawn.

7) On Saturday another room became available which reduced the noise  minimally but also had no internet and a barely operational TV and air conditioning.  I checked out on Saturday .

       Upon returning home I contacted Marriott Corporate directly and was told that the situation was clearly unacceptable and that the resort would contact me directly to arrange compensation.  Follow up calls to corporate confirmed that they had authorized the resort to compensate me and that they would follow up but that never happened.

       My claim to compensation is based on the Federal  Uniform Commercial Code that all United States Corporations operate under  ( UCC )   that details the  "  Implied Warranty of Merchantability and Suitability for Purpose " .  This section demands , in effect ,  that any and all businesses deliver what they promise or what the consumer is led to believe that they promise either explicitly or by those implied warrantees that are associated with their business model.  As example ,  when you pay your phone company for phone service "nationwide " and your phone won't work in Boston, ,  then they have violated this section and are liable for refund or compensation as a matter of law.   In this case , there are several issues in play and MANY failures of the resort to deliver what they promise.

First ,  Marriott claims to be a " High End " hotel featuring a certain level of amenities and comfort.   I knew this to be true of this resort as I have stayed there many times with no complaints what so ever.   In this case,  however, they have clearly changed the look, feel and function of the resort  in some effort to market it differently.  It has gone from a quiet and reserved High End Hotel / resort  to some low rent Vegas all night deal .  If they were changing their focus , they owed it to me to tell me this and I would have stayed elsewhere.

Second,  They had an absolute duty to tell me that the hotel was being renovated and that there was ongoing construction daily.  I would NEVER have booked there if I had known that there was going to be noise and dust and dirt all day every day making it impossible to relax or use my room in any reasonable sense.

Third ,  assuming they are not misleading me and   if , in fact ,  the bars in the lobby and the casino operate completely independently with no oversight or control,  then they had the absolute duty and responsibility to warn me that there was going to be deafening  music all night and that sleep was going to be impossible and that there would be absolutely nothing they could do to mitigate it.

They have failed totally and completely in their obligation and the contract they made with me to supply me with  " accommodations suited for purpose "  as any reasonable person would understand that to mean.  

I spent several thousand dollars to fly to St Kitts to play in an important golf tournament and while the hotel can not be directly blamed for my failure to win,  not getting any rest , sleep or relaxation for four days did nothing to help my chances.   And make no mistake... that's what I hired them for and that's what Marriott corporation promises...  a quiet and well appointed accommodation  that anyone that sees a Marriott sign by the side of the road knows and understands the standards they can expect.   I could have booked any number of lesser hotels in that immediate area for considerably less money if I had wanted a bad place to stay.  Instead ,  I booked the Marriott  at a great deal more money based on the promise that they would deliver a room and circumstances that met or exceeded their declared and promised high standard.

So...   my claim and demand is  for a 100 % refund for  four  days  of lodging including all associated taxes and fees  that represent the Wednesday through Saturday stay  which  were completely and totally and in all ways completely unacceptable .  I  remain responsible for and  will pay for Tuesday because Tuesday was at least acceptable ( albeit at a minimal standard )  and for any and all other ancillary charges associated with the full five days.  It is only the accommodation and relevant environment  that were unacceptable in the extreme.

The UCC code and U.S. Federal law holds Marriott directly liable for not delivering what they promised  and so do I.  The fact that this Marriott exists outside the U.S.  does not shield them as they operate directly under the U.S. parent corporation authority and control.

Steven Johnson