Adventures in Reservations!

[pixiekingtom.livejournal.com]

Got off the phone with the Marriott reservations

This time removing days from my reservation which I could make up at the wonderful "special event rate" of $340/night

Here is a copy of the email that I sent to customer.care@marriott.com

I write this letter in regards to reservation number ********and previous reservations that I have made over the years.

-For many years now I have made it a point to stay at the Marriott Marquis while in Atlanta on vacation, and with the exception of a few incidents - which have been handled exceptionally by the Guest Relations Manager - I have little complaint

Except when dealing with Passkey, whom your company has contracted to take the reservations for the DragonCon convention on Labor day weekend each year.

Having been in the travel industry myself (multiple year working for and with Intercontinental, Overstock hotels, and Priceline Hotels to name several) and am familiar with the overall hassle of large group reservations, and it is this experience that brings me to this letter. I can honestly say that I have never had an interaction with Passkey that has not ended in frustration. I have been hung up on, laughed at when their reservation systems were down or overloaded (the most common problem), their on line system will lose reservations, or upon completing them you will be informed that the reservation is not valid as the room that you were booking was sold WHILE you were making the reservation (apparently as simple an idea of holding the room for the potential customer while the reservation is being booked is not one that is familiar to Passkey).

 I have made reservations with an agent, confirming verbally for a specific set of dates, received a confirmation email with an entirely different set of dates and then told that due to interaction issues between the Marriott booking system and the Passkey system that there was nothing that could be done, have had entire reservations LOST, the list goes on and on, leading to an annual feeling of dread just to be able to make my vacation plans.

My wife and I honeymooned at the Marquis Atlanta, however without being able to book a room without getting up at 5:00 in the morning and fighting with undertrained agents and a buggy reservation system (their system generally crashes soon after, and the room block sold out after that) I don't know if we'll be able to continue this relationship with your property. There are hotels that happily extend the offer of the following years reservation the final day of the convention, a practice that leads to happy guests and good return visitors.

I am sad to say that I am not seeing much incentive to continue staying at the Marquis, the hassle of making the reservations has become more work that it is worth.

I thank you for taking the time to read this and hope for a response

Ye olde bringer of honey rum

Comments

[elvishtard.livejournal.com]

I didn't even mess with that garbage this year -_-. I just waited until a friend didn't need a room anymore. But this post worries me, since we just did the transfer, and it was the first time I had ever transferred using the Passkey site. -_-. I'm going to be checking up on it every week now, to make sure that the reservation is still intact.

They just need to FIRE this company. Can they not see that?? This year was at least slightly more smooth than last year's reservation change over that I did with a friend. Last year it wouldn't even let us change all the information on the site; we had to call. When we called, these idiots were using the SAME SITE I had just tried and knew of no way around it. I had to beg to be transferred to someone with a little more authority. They then said I had to actually call the Marriott Marquis front desk. The front desk told me to call a specific person in reservations. Called that person, they didn't pick up and I had to leave several messages, which were never returned. I had to eventually just call obsessively until someone FINALLY picked up and I was able to switch the room into my name.

Really? REALLY??! Was that at all necessary? It's unprofessional and makes them look like complete and utter dolts. Just go back to the way they used to take reservations and hire extra staff if it's that much of a damned pain. Why hire a company, such as Passkey, that doesn't know their ass from a hole in the wall??

[pixiekingtom.livejournal.com]

"Why hire a company, such as Passkey, that doesn't know their ass from a hole in the wall??"

That's pretty much it.

[malruniel11.livejournal.com]

By the way, I've still not been able to get a hold of the right person in reservation services or what ever it's called to get *MY* credit card on the room. So it's still your card right now. I'm trying, but I seem to call on the days that the person who can help me is out sick or left early or she's on another call and I wait on hold until they hang up on me and by the time I call back, I'm put back in hold hell, and can't spend another 25 minutes doing nothing before my next thing I have to do. They were able to confirm that the room is in my name and yours (they won't let me take your name off until my card is on the room) and confirm the number of people in the room and confirm that I will get a room with two beds vs the one they had on the reservation originally, but only one person can put my credit card on the reservation, apparently. (Figured I'd tell you here, since I keep forgetting to elsewhere, and I don't mind other people knowing that fuckery.)

[pixiekingtom.livejournal.com]

We'll talk later, I'll call the hotel on my next day off and raise a stink

[deborak]

I certainly agree with your sentiments about Passkey in general, but it's not clear to me from this post exactly what happened with your reservation this time around. Did something just go haywire out of the blue, were you transferring, etc.?

[earendilgrey.livejournal.com]

Days got removed from their reservation and they were offered back at a "special event rate' which if I am remembering is higher than the D*C rate.

[pixiekingtom.livejournal.com]

Ayup.
Their special event rate is $340/night. (I just edited that into the original post, it's good for people to know)
The passkey agent set up my res checking in Thursday instead of Friday, and was supposed to have fixed that.
Luckily I have friends that live in Norcross, so the wife and I can crash on Thursday night, but not everyone is so lucky

[littledrow.livejournal.com]

After the fiasco experience we had with the Marriott from reservations through Passkey to the atrocious valet system of getting your car at the end of the con we will never stay with the Marriott again. Their customer service to their guests was sub-par compared to how you are treated at the bar(s), the elevator wait was far worse than the Hyatt and we had to wait two hours IN THE GARAGE for our car to be brought out. Not to the front of the hotel, in the garage, and people who came down after us got their cars before we did. Never again.

The Hilton was better, but the rooms were smaller. The Hyatt was our best experience ever.

[shadoefyre.livejournal.com]

We vastly prefer the Hilton over any of the other host hotels - it is my hotel of choice in Atlanta for non-con times, too. The service was significantly better (other than Trader Vic's, but what you gonna do?), and although the rooms are smaller, they were cleaner, quieter, and easier to reach at the height of the con. When we get back for D*C, there isn't even a discussion about which hotel we'll use.

[littledrow.livejournal.com]

We would prefer the Hyatt, but will be staying at the Hilton again this year as we were on the road driving at the time of the land grab. I'm satisfied. :)

[pixiekingtom.livejournal.com]

Wow. We've never had issues with the valet and such.
Glad your happy with the Hyatt, though. After all, it's our vacation, everyone should be where they're most comfortable :)

[delle.livejournal.com]

I go to D*C every year with a group of 6-8, taking 3-4 rooms (married couples staying seperate) We *LOVE* the Marriott.

However.

Due to Passkey, and the fact that everyone of us actually has a Job that requires us to be working and not hanging out on the phone for some indefinate period of time, we have opted to go to the Hilton. Room was smaller, same elevator wait, but they actually offered us reservations for this year as we were checking out last year! Are we coming back to them? Hell yes.