Marriott Canceled Guest’s Prepaid Stay After Her Flight Diverted — Refused To Give Her A Receipt And Ordered Her Out

A Marriott Platinum member arrived at the AC Hotel Kansas City Plaza after weather first diverted her flight there to Omaha. She had paid $596.76 in advance for four nights. The hotel had already canceled her as a no-show, released the room and, she says, kept the entire payment. When she asked the front desk for a receipt, the employee did not hand her one. She told her, “Get the f@$! out of my lobby.” The 67-second video had nearly one million views, more than 54,000 likes and over 10,000 comments as of this writing. It contains language that is very much not safe for work, or for work from home. You can see the front desk employee repeatedly ordering the guest to leave, calls her “sweetheart,” tells her to “face the consequences” and says she can leave willingly or by force. When the customer says the charge and receipt are not showing in her Marriott account, the employee directs her to Marriott support. In the video the customer remains calm, but we don’t see what happened before this. She says she paid in full and simply wants documentation for the money the hotel took. She also invokes her Marriott Platinum status, which the employee correctly says doesn’t change the issue. A no show doesn’t trigger Marriott’s ‘Ultimate Reservation Guarantee’. The employee calls Westport Security, identifies herself as “Catherine” at the Westport AC Hotel and describes the woman as unruly and not a guest. What Happened Before The Camera Was Turned On According to the guest’s detailed follow-up: She booked directly with Marriott and prepaid a four-night stay beginning August 18 using an American Express Business Platinum Card. Her flight to Kansas City was delayed and then diverted to Omaha because of severe weather. There was a major overnight storm, including as much as three inches of hail at Kansas City’s downtown airport. She drove from Omaha to a Kansas City work site the next day and reached the hotel that evening. The desk told her that the room had been given to someone else because she missed the first night, and that the reservation was canceled even though it still appeared active in her Bonvoy account. She went outside to call Marriott, noticed what she says were mice entering a hole in the hotel wall, returned to tell the desk, went outside again and then entered the lobby a third time with her phone recording. She says she initially hoped to capture a mouse on video. A Hotel Employee Offers A Different Account An Instagram commenter who identifies herself as the bartender at this hotel says the guest belittled several employees, repeatedly entered and left before police or security could arrive and acted calm only after she started recording. The commenter says the hotel was sold out, the guest had been warned that a no show would be charged (presumably this refers to the booking terms) and her room was properly released. The guest may have been difficult before the camera came out, but the front desk’s behavior in the video remains indefensible. AC Hotel Westport, Credit: Marriott The Hotel Probably Could Cancel The Room Marriott tells customers that if they do not arrive by 6 a.m. after the scheduled arrival date, the reservation is canceled and a no show fee is charged. The woman arrived the following evening, and she doesn’t say that she notified the hotel before that deadline. The desk reportedly described a one-night no-show fee, while the guest says Marriott corporate later told her that her prepaid rate meant the full four-night forfeiture of $596.76. She then says a second identical $596.76 appeared on the same card. That seems like a pending authorization that may disappear, so it’s not clear she was actually charged twice. But there’s little reason for the desk not to print a folio, email one, explain when one would be created or tell her exactly how to obtain one. AC Hotel Westport, Credit: Marriott Marriott Is Rarely Helpful In These Situations The 123-room hotel carries Marriott’s AC brand, but it is managed by HHM Hotels. That likely makes the local employee an HHM employee rather than a Marriott one. That doesn’t matter to the guest. They booked the room through Marriott and the hotel carries Marriott’s name. Marriott licensed the brand and sold the booking. That they have a weak franchise model, failing to do enough to enforce standards on owners in their quest to get more owners under their brand and earn more fees for more rooms, doesn’t absolve them of responsibility. The guest’s latest update says Marriott’s consumer affairs office directed her back to the hotel’s general manager, whom she says stopped responding. AC Hotel Westport, Credit: Marriott Most People Are Focusing On The Receipt And The Profanity Social media reaction overwhelmingly sides with the guest. The Marriott reddit forum is more skeptical, focusing on the missing beginning, standard no show policies, and that the guest returned after being asked to leave. Nonetheless, even if the hotel correctly treated the guest as a no show, charged them, and the guest was being hostile they should have called for security and waited, not cursed at the customer. Topics on this page