Naked Rate Negotiations At LAX Marriott Mar Stay
Written: Dec 07 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Proximity to the airport
Cons: Indifferent staff and inconsistent rates
The Bottom Line: There are many hotels in the area. Most will be cheaper and the service attitude couldn't be much worse.
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| Joubert's Full Review: Marriott Los Angeles Airport |
Airport hotels are notoriously weak on amenities, knowing that their traditional guest base is more interested in convenience than culture and proximity rather than pools. Many are no-frills affairs with an average stay of one night and a cattle-car mentality that can infiltrate even top brands.
The Los Angeles Airport Marriott is no exception.
Now Auctioning Off Room 347 To The Highest Bidder…
Traveling to the hotel recently with two colleagues, I was shocked to find that rates were negotiable at the desk in front of other guests. As an elite Marriott cardholder, I asked for a complimentary upgrade, which was declined. I could only move to the concierge floor, I was told, for an upgrade charge of approximately $50 a night. I did, however, have a lower rate than one of my colleagues, who subsequently asked for and received a lower rate because she “was told that she could get that rate”. The clerk gave her the lower rate – about $15 cheaper than mine. I then asked for the same rate and was declined again. I have yet to see such naked negotiation take place at a front desk anywhere in the United States and can’t imagine ever experiencing this again. By the time we were through, the three of us had rooms on the same floor at different rates.
Strange pricing was not limited to the room rate. The hotel’s Starbucks franchise was overpriced even by that chain’s overpriced standards. And while I’m aware that Los Angeles suffers through higher than average costs, I travel enough to cities that index higher to know that the rates at the hotel and in its restaurants were excessive. This was a premium charged for location and convenience – gouging whatever the market would bear.
We Would Have A Great Hotel If The Guests Would Stop Bothering Us
Sleepily trudging through the lobby to a bland and overpriced breakfast the next morning, my eye caught a sign that a commercial was being shot on the premises that day. Guests in common areas were advised that they could be shown in the commercial’s background without remuneration or signing an agreement. Mind you, the organization for which the commercial was being filmed was unidentified. We later learned that the commercial was for shoe manufacturer Reebok, but still resented the blanket release allegedly granted by being in a common area. Besides, what if a guest didn’t want to be associated with the unnamed product in the commercial? This complete disregard for guest relations was very annoying.
The situation was made worse when I was meeting with someone near the pool (which had been blissfully quiet that morning) and was asked to move because the camera crew was going to be shooting in that area. Denying guests access to common areas such as the swimming pool is unconscionable.
I was actually meeting folks in a common area because we were not provided keys for the conference room I had reserved. I requested keys several times and was told that providing them was not possible and to simply let the door close on its deadbolt. Aside from the fact that this was plain silly, the lack of a key meant that I had to be let into the room twice when I forgot to prop the door open. The servers on the banquet staff were polite, but absolutely inflexible on this point.
Inside The Room
The guest room itself was relatively unremarkable – a midrange Marriott with standard amenities. There were two annoying problems, however, that marred the stay. The first was the absence of a broadband connection in the room. This is bad enough in small cities, but one expects a large chain at one of the world’s busiest airports to have fast net access. Worse, the hotel’s antique telephone switch limited data speeds to a crawl – well under 20K – regardless of access numbers used. The hotel also dropped the connection more often than a cell phone in a remote area.
Just as annoying was the coffeemaker hidden in the television/bureau armoire. It was the missing coffeemaker that sent me in search of an overpriced Starbucks coffee. I only found the coffeemaker by accident when I opened the television cabinet’s doors to check CNN while I was packing to leave.
Aside from those issues, the room was functional if a bit spartan. Surprisingly, airport noise was minimal and free shuttles ran constantly between the hotel and LAX terminals.
The Bottom Line
I can’t imagine staying here again and paying a premium price for sloppy service and pedestrian amenities. There are enough hotels serving LAX to allow travelers a less expensive choice where the guest may not be regarded as an imposition.
Five Things To Remember From This Review
1. Shuttles run day and night to the various LAX terminals
2. The restaurants are ordinary at best – standard Marriott fare down to the themes.
3. Push for a cheaper rate at the front desk. You probably won’t even need a club membership to get one.
4. Unless you’re Marriott Platinum or a bigwig, you’ll pay extra for the concierge floor.
5. Go find the coffeemaker. Why pay triple market rate for a cup of coffee?
Joubert’s FunLink
Author Gerald Michaelson (The Art of Sun Tzu For Managers) writes a terrific travel column on the web and offers advice for haggling over hotel rates at this URL:
http://www.teammichaelson.com/hotel_rates.html
© 2002 Joubert
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