Why Does Marriott Allow Its Hotels To Engage In Fraud (By Denying Breakfast Benefits)?

As far as I can see, Marriott properties that deny breakfast benefits are engaging in fraud…the short of bait-and-switch that should be intolerable to the Marriott brand.

Dear Marriott, Denying Breakfast Benefits Is Engaging In Fraud

The premise of the Marriott Bonvoy program is simple: in exchange for loyalty to Marriott-affiliated properties, you will be rewarded with perks like room upgrades or free breakfast. But we are seeing more and more hotels seek to “have their cake and eat it too” by taking advantage of the Marriott brand but denying the benefits that are commensurate with that brand.

Fraud is “a deliberate act (or failure to act) with the intention of obtaining an unauthorized benefit, either for oneself or for the institution, by using deception or false suggestions or suppression of truth or other unethical means, which are believed and relied upon by others.”

By my estimation, this is exactly what hotels engage in when they deny breakfast benefits. While Marriott Bonvoy breakfast benefits are already more arcane than reading The Canterbury Tales in Middle English, we do not know that Aloft and St. Regis hotels are obligated to provide breakfast among elite check-in choices…there is no fine print that I find that would spare these hotels from offering this benefit.

Yet recently the St. Regis Macao and the Aloft Dublin have unilaterally eliminated breakfast benefits.

And thus far, Marriott has not forced these properties to honor its commitment under the Marriott brand.

Bait and switch…that’s what this is.

I won’t even get into the mind-numbing justification these hotels use to justify the elimination of breakfast except to say that Marriott cannot and should not tolerate this.

CONCLUSION

Let’s all monitor this together, push back at properties that try to engage in fraud, and put Marriott on notice that it is playing a dangerous game. A class action lawsuit is not the goal here, but is an option on the table if Marriott continues to allow its properties to rip off Platinum and Titanium elites.

image: St. Regis Macao