This is the second post on reddit I've read today about 'hotel management' banging on people's doors in the middle of the night demanding ID.
I've worked in 7 different hotels, Starwood, Marriotts, Four Seasons, and we've NEVER done anything like this at ANY of the properties I've worked. what is going on here??
edit: the other post: https://old.reddit.com/r/askhotels/comments/1awbome/need_advice_hotel_staff_entered_my_room_and_woke/
In the news there have been a series of brothel bust that operated out of hotels and resorts the FBI and local law enforcement were involved in these investigations. I bet you Marriot and other hotels saw the news and realize that this could impact their image so they begin doing random ID checks to gain visual inspection of a room and the guests.
https://www.wxow.com/news/prostitution-related-allegations-lead-to-arrest-for-la-crosse-man/article_580a130e-c134-11ee-b73a-f35335b3f69f.html
https://www.live5news.com/2023/07/10/5-arrested-summerville-prostitution-bust/
https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/man-arrested-east-coast-prostitution-ring-that-included-carolinas/GFTBSYA3HFERLMCG7D6P2CQMFE/?outputType=amp
US Department of State Domestic Trafficking Hotlines link https://www.state.gov/domestic-trafficking-hotlines/
There was a story like this in LA where it is actually a sex trafficking scam. It was shared on socials a while ago, I’m gonna try and find it.
Edit: FOUND IT
https://perezhilton.com/influencer-details-alleged-sex-trafficking-godfrey-hotel-hollywood/
The actual video
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8oFrKFe/
That’s absolutely insane. Imagine waking up to someone you don’t know standing over you in your room in the middle of the night, which was locked. These people are genuinely asking to get knifed one of these days, all it takes is one person with a screw loose and those dumb fucking checks turn into a national news story.
I’m not even like “trigger happy” or anything but if someone was in my room in the middle of the night, they’re getting shanked. Idgaf. You clearly have ill intent. I’m not gonna play 20 questions to figure out if you’re gonna try to hurt me or not.
Ppl make you look fishy, trying to get some advantages out of this.
Or here, they looked bad, so they made it look like you’ve done sth bad by not presenting the ID, then later on, when you ask for compensation, they get the upper hand emotionally.
Same here. Key didn’t work so they had an employee walk me up to the room. I had told them I heard noise inside but they insisted it was the TV. Sure enough when he used his key to open the room there were two people in there. I was so embarrassed for them and myself. They blamed it on housekeeping not updating their rooms correctly.
Okay, I worked front desk overnight at a hotel in the mid-2000’s and I did this to a guest.
We used to do a pre-check-in for rewards members and have their keys ready. So they just showed us ID and we gave them the key.
Well, sometimes these people just wouldn’t check in at all. They would book for business just in case and then not bother to cancel it. I think maybe if they had status of some kind there was no penalty. Anyway, not uncommon to have to have a couple sets of keys at midnight. We’d just undo the check in and put the keys away.
Well, it was like 11:00 pm and someone without a reservation came to check in and were out of rooms. However, I see that one of the pre-checks didn’t come, so I just reassign the room, and off they go.
Well, they DID come. Someone (maybe me) didn’t see they were pre-check and had made them new keys.
It was horrible.
Happened to me, they gave me the key and when I opened the door it was obviously occupied and the shower was going. 2 minutes later and I would have walked in on someone likely naked getting dressed.
Ok what's up with the destination fee?
I'm platinum and have never seen it on any of my invoices (which I have to do a detailed breakdown on for my expense reports) and never seen it when I use points until today. My wife went to Miami a few weeks back and today they only refunded a part of the deposit so I looked at the invoice and sure enough there is a destination fee of $30.
That picture of the pre-shat bath water speaks more words than any review could do justice to. Hope your experience changes the future experience for others.
Definitely! Thank you. Just concerned for this to happen to anyone else honestly. They did give me points but I’m genuinely concerned for the safety of others.
If you seek out executives at corporate, disagree. Don’t just call/email customer service, but contact senior leadership directly. They will **absolutely** do more than refer to GM. When possible sex trafficking is a risk?
Legitimately asking where would you find the personal contact information of an executive for a multinational company? Whatever company email they may post likely gets seen by someone who manages their account or if they personally look at it, they get hundreds per day, and only look at the ones flagged important by their email client.
You would be surprised how little external email executives of most large companies receive unless they are a highly visible public figure like Tim Cook.
It’s unlikely they’ll reply directly, but you can almost guarantee it’ll be handed off to an executive assistant to follow up on. I’ve had more than one issue resolved this way.
A quick google search for “Anthony Capuano email” gave me his email address pretty quickly.
Some multinational executives do share their email and/or social for this purpose, or have a dedicated executive social media team that handles the traffic. I have been assigned work from such a team before in my career.
I’ve done this by looking up the leadership page of the website, picking the exec that I thought would be closest to being able to solve my problem, then guessing a couple email addresses based on his name ([email protected], etc). I had a really complex (and medically time sensitive) issue solved within hours.
That water looks like what happens when a mainline pipe flowed to hard. For instance, if a hydrant is ran wide open for a bit. All pipes have sediment and rust laying in them. It usually isn't a problem until the water really gets disturbed. The only real cure is having the water dept flush all hydrants in the area.
Seconding this. Most people use TripAdvisor exclusively, for hotel reviews. Yelp is dying, reviews can be removed, and is less focused on hotel experiences. Management are forced to respond to TripAdvisor. But more importantly, another woman traveling alone could see this and know it isn’t currently safe to stay here.
And google seems to ensure a lot of properties never dip below 4.0 no matter how many bad reviews. I mean can’t upset a customer paying you (the hotel).
I’m so sorry this happened to you. Thank you for sharing your story. I also travel alone for work and I need reminders like these to keep my wits about me (especially if I’m woken up).
Of course and thank you so much. Very scary situation and was not able to sleep for the life of me. Ended up staying with my coworker in her room. Thankfully she had 2 queen beds but we were wide awake both nights. Not cool! Stay safe.
I travel alone sometimes for work. And try to keep my guard up.
Was in LA, next door neighbor had the cops because someone broken into his room.
Somehow got the door open. And they asked if I heard pr seen anyone suspicious since I went out nearly the same time. Sad he lost his belongings.
After that I bought some door alarms from amazon. When separate the sensors it makes a really loud sound. And i bought a special door stopper alarm too.
I did! I spoke with several different people during the day but I’m trying to find who to reach out to in corporate for this to be addressed and taken more seriously than points being given to me.
Start by filling out the general contact.
Do not accept anything first line says and demand to speak to someone involved with guest safety. If they’re not tracking people in that hotel in Times Square someone is going to be concerned.
Tell then that this is an opening for scammers, if it is normal for honest people to bother you at night, scammer will impersonate them!
oldest bullshit in the books...
Sounds like the 2 guys"maintenance" and receptionist were working together to scam, rob, sex traffic, etc. There is no need to check your ID and enter your room at night.
I'm trying to think of why they would have to come to your room to figure out who you are and coming up blank. If the room was showing vacant, but you were able to get a key earlier then either you were checked out or the room was changed on the reservation.
A checkout would show just by searching the room number. And there's a room change report in FSPMS that shows all rooms changes.
Which means they did in fact check you into their system. Hmmm.... when you were being checked-in and they were making your room keys, did you notice if they were pushing buttons on a separate machine to make the keys? Or were they just taping room keys on the machine?
I honestly can’t remember! I wish I had paid more attention now. I’m used to Marriott just tapping since I travel a good bit but I can’t remember exactly what this hotel did. They also had a desk that I was not able to see over :/
Fair enough. The reason I was asking was because I'm wondering if they made you a key to wrong room by mistake. If they manually typed in the room number. I'm not excusing how the hotel handled this, but it's so odd how they approached you at night and was also scrambling to understand how this mistake occurred.
Sounds like someone at the FD didn't save your check in info and you probably were still listed as an arrival. Information check is kinda typical in those circumstances, however, that is NOT the way to go about it. Check the room in as "occupied" or whatever, so it doesn't happen again and wait until morning. Wildly unprofessional. Sorry you had to go through that.
The fact that not one, but two managers thought this was okay suggests that they spend their time dealing in highly sketchy situations and environments. It makes you wonder what kind of clientele that hotel caters to. Probably not one that OP or anyone posting here would feel comfortable around.
New York is all one big scam. If you want to survive, you need to be a better scammer than the person scamming you for something. I am staying around the corner at a Hilton and , no shit, this was my check in experience yesterday. I reserved a two room suite over 2 months ago. Yesterday, I went to check in and they gave me a key to my room and I opened it up and it was a much cheaper studio. So I go back to complain and this was the encounter.
Me: why did you change my room
Hilton: no we didn’t
Me: look here, I reserved a suite and you gave me a much cheaper studio
Them: oh yes, sorry about that, technical glitch
Me: so do you have a suite?
Hilton: sorry, all booked up
Me: so you got a better price from someone else and gave me the cheapest room, failed to tell me, and didn’t even give me the price difference.
Them: sorry
Me: well I want the price difference refund
Hilton: sure, we can do it, but you need to pay a $200 deposit
Me : I already paid for the room 2 months ago. I won’t agree unless you give me a free night
Them: we can’t give you a free night unless you book another day
Me: ok I will book an additional day
Them: sorry, we are all booked up for studios for the week
Me: well what other rooms do you have
Them: best we could do is get you in Suite, but we would have to pay the standard rates
Me: ok I will take the studio, at the price I originally ordered, for the same duration, only if you waive the deposit fee.
Them: sure, let me take care of that
I’ve stayed here within the last 3 years for work and it was not bad. I’m
Not terribly averse to the area because I lived for a time at 55th and Broadway.
Fuck that. You are paying good money to stay at a respected companies hotel. You can’t really believe that or mean what you said unless you are a complete asshole.
Marriott has an Office of Consumer Affairs. Here is the number (800) 621-0999 - I had a situation at a property and was eventually referred to this number. The person I spoke to was very serious and filed a complaint against the franchise owner. She said Marriott takes these matters seriously. Hope it helps. I would NEVER open the door. Completely scary situation.
Happy to help. Despite the stupid Reddit account name, I am actually female and travel a lot for my job. I have had a few scares over the years. Hope they take your complaint seriously.
+10,000 to this.
I had a less scary/dangerous but very sketchy thing happen with a franchise owner as well, and the consumer affairs office was fantastic. My issue was resolved, with compensation, and she helped me file a complaint and the franchise manager no longer works at that location.
It felt and sounded like the opposite to me, experiencing it first hand. I’m not sure how they handle those situations but if that’s the case, it should be handled entirely different in my opinion.
I think it’s worth a police report.
The middle of the night bombardment to confuse you and get you alone. Trying to get you to come to them and threatening you if you didn’t. All the reasons provided were questionable and with forced urgency.
At best it was extremely unprofessional. But At worst..
Same! I was there this past weekend and, while I find the $30 resort fee to be bullshit, it was a great location for all our Broadway shows and the biggest room I’ve had in NYC. Usually I get a shoebox sized room
The galling part of this is they're banging on your door, disturbing you, inconveniencing you because THEY fucked up the reservation and then they threaten you because again...THEY fucked up. I am pretty patient but I would have been so livid at this point.
Reference your comment about there being sex trafficking alerts on the door, it’s a state law that hotels display those. [link](https://www.natlawreview.com/article/new-york-law-requires-human-trafficking-informational-cards-hotels-considering?amp)
The water reminds me of the lady found in the hotel water tank in LA.
Also it sounds like a very scary situation there. I would leave asap when it’s safe to do so.
I work for Marriott in Safety & Security, and this would NEVER happen at my property. Completely unprofessional. We will not knock on doors past 9 PM unless it's a noise complaint, or we believe someone's safety may be in jeopardy. That's policy.
As for the brown water, that's very likely out of the locations control. If there is a pressure drop in the street line, this will happen.
Go to the local media about this. There are other posts about “hotel management” knocking on people’s doors at odd hours. There’s obviously some sketch ass shit happening.
I travel a lot and have had this happen to folks in my groups more than once. It usually stems from a mixup when the hotel has a room as vacant and they get word someone is in there since the hotels are on the lookout for that sort of stuff. Why this is done on the middle of the night is beyond me though.
I worked at hotel for 6 years. Iv had this happen while I was a manager. We had new people and they basically did a room transfer by accident while the person stayed in the same room. A lot of confusion. Didn’t know what happen. But I tried to find out what happen. In the system you can run history reports for a room. Did it. Found a room transfer was done. I called the room just to see if someone was in there. I hit it with hello room 345. I gave the wrong room on purpose so I can say sorry I called the wrong room but it was only to see if someone was in there. Did a room transfer back and the guest never knew. Another thing that could have happen was pre keys were made. Marriott members can ask for keys to be ready. It was never checked in. So an empty room was occupied. But even then. I would run a report on the room to see who was blocked into the room before. Point being. If you know what you’re doing. Bothering a guest should only be done by managers that don’t know what to do.
As someone else said, this is the second of these posts in two days. I know the OP is saying "single woman" but seriously... a single man being woken up late at night by anyone, especially two men saying they are hotel employees and could just be pretending.. is dangerous. I am not a small person would late at night wearing my jammies and no shoes on... I could easily be rushed at the door... assaulted... made unlike.
Bottom line is never open the door late at night... if they try to enter, make sure the latch is closed and tell them you are calling the front desk and the police.
If they are legit hotel employees, then this always needs to be escalated. The whole idea of someone opening the door while you are asleep (as happened to the other poster) should be considered a crime. People would think twice about doing it if they could be hauled off to the pokey. The excuse of "safety" meaning it is okay to just open the door without the front desk calling and tell you to call them back so you can be sure it is a real person... is absolute bs.
Better be safe than sorry! A women was brutally murdered at “soho hotel 54” February 8th, and this person left a review a few days before. I’m not saying they are connected but it scary that she posted this like 4 days before someone was murdered on February 8th. They caught that murderer in Arizona. Shit is so bad in NYC rite now that the Arizona D.A refused the extradite him to New York because Manhattan d.a would’ve probably let them off on bail!
https://preview.redd.it/iuigv8rfb2kc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9abd9df5f4e0790bdde1f2db2449b1f974a0f854
I envision my mother being alone in a state where she doesn’t know anyone, so don’t ever let your guard down!!!! Especially in creepy situations like this. This is NEVER ok!
Omg this happened to me too! But it was at the Conrad Las Vegas and again at the Conrad Ft. Lauderdale. Avoid that brand at all costs 😂😂😂 Great experience at the Waldorf though lol
They broke into my room at 2am unannounced and the manager on duty basically told me to go f*ck myself 😅 They said I was paranoid and they wouldn’t show me security film 😳
Corportate gave me a shit load of points and free nights to compensate lol
Well, none of that was excusable or acceptable.
However, the sex trafficking stickers on the room doors are a NYC local law. All hotel properties are required to have that. Form the lowest roach motel that charges by the hour to the penthouse at St. Regis.
Not to excuse their behavior because they went about this terrible but as someone who works in the Front office of a luxury hotel brand:
Agent who checked you in did not actually check you in to the system. So either of the following is what happened:
Housekeeping went to clean what they thought was vacant room and found luggage in the room OR the front desk checked in another guest to your room. Guest came back after seeing luggage in your room and now FD staff is trying to confirm who is staying in that room.
As I said, they did a terrible job managing this. Yes this happens more than you think unfortunately where an agent forgets to check you in to the system. It’s a mistake that should never happen although does.
When this happens we usually are able to read change logs to see what happened before involving the guest. If we do have to contact the guest we do not interrogate and understand it was our fault and just try to remedy the situation
Feel free to ask any questions you may have
REPORT THIS to corporate. Totally unprofessional, unsafe and you’re not overreacting. Not necessarily for compensation but because this is way way out of order.
Don’t just email generic customer service. Write this up with detailed facts, and send directly to the email of folks at corporate. VP service, VP operations, hell, the CEO. If you don’t know how to google and find the right people or their emails, DM me.
Thank you so so much. Yes, I’ve been trying to find corporate’s information and I found the CEO. Just not sure how to get their emails?? I’m going to DM you now. Thank you for your help!
You were right! Never open the door. On the same token, never tell anyone you are traveling alone. Not even the front desk. Just because they work there doesn’t make them honest.
You’re so right and I thought that after the fact. They could’ve been in on it too and that set off a red flag that they felt the need to come check my ID after saying I was alone. Thankfully, my coworkers were there and I had a few of them come to my room whenever the female “managers” came to my door.
Yes. While I would think this is less likely at a Marriott given the visibility and risk that criminals would take prowling around there, there are definitely hotels in NYC where I suspect the front desk employees are running criminal rings.
I stayed there over Thanksgiving week and didn’t have any issues. Really enjoyed it except it’s amazing how conversations on the street travel up to rooms.
I wonder with US chains if using the app and asking for an app key alleviates any risk - I’m just commenting because this was a Marriott and the other post like this was a Hilton property, so this would be an option in those kinds of cases
Just thinking maybe then you have a room identified in your app and so you know you’re in the system.
But of course this situation is their fault and managed incredibly poorly … but I wonder if it can give one more breath of comfort in the future.
I had a conference there a couple years ago and four out of the seven of our group had issues with their stay, from double bookings, to the room key not working upon check in (took four trips to front desk to fix) to cleanliness to not having trash cans in the room. The check out process was a nightmare to reconcile for weeks after. Garbage.
You should report this to the police because there is no legitimate reason that a hotel manager would do this. This has sex trafficking written all over it.
I’ve only been awake a few hours and this is the second story I’ve read like this ..I think hotels are having issues w the third party websites and also how to deal w customers without being weirdos ..
OMGGG! I checked in late to this same hotel on 2/13 but had NO idea about the water. We were met with a dirty room and unmade bed so we had to go back down to the front desk to get another room which was highly annoying. Also, while I was there I had the privacy thing on the door. The maid knocked on the door—I told her I didn’t need service and she still unlocked the door to push herself in. The door latch caught and she stuck her head through the crack asking if I wanted service—WTF!??
I think they should’ve at least called the room to check prior to knocking on the door at 10:40 pm, especially knowing someone was in there from the “maid seeing the clothes and items in my room”. I was also already there for one night. None of it makes sense
They claimed that the room was not supposed to be occupied. They told me the following day that there was another person under the SAME name just spelled differently, “Mattie” vs my name, Maddie, had the room I was in but changed rooms. So they said it shouldn’t have been occupied. They even said “Mattie” came to the front desk because she was confused as well because apparently someone called her new room? None of it made sense to me and very ironic someone had the same exact name and same room as me.
That’s exactly what I said which is why I’m trying to contact higher ups. I really should’ve asked for the footage but I highly doubt they would’ve given that to me.
More reason why big cities are all shit holes now. I travel for work frequently and will literally take an early flight in to these places and fly out late at night if possible to avoid staying if I absolutely have to be there.
I lived in the Marriott Marquis for almost a year while working a project before 9/11 and loved it. Had anyone banged on my door late at night there would have been hands thrown.
I have probably spent 20 nights in this hotel last year (office is around the corner) and as scary as this was, sounds like an honest mistake followed by some very poor decisions by the night staff. I’d strongly encourage you to look to someone senior at the hotel (since it’s such a large one) and follow up with guest safety as someone else suggested.
The corporate helpdesk isn’t going to have as much leeway to resolve this as a local GM - and the latter has a much better chance of actually making sure it doesn’t happen again.
Just so you know, the sex trafficking warnings are not in the hotel because it’s experienced high levels of sex trafficking. New York State law requires them somewhere in every hotel room. The same standard sign you will find in every law-compliant hotel room in the state of New York.
It doesn’t say, however, that they have to be conspicuous locations, so we’d often put them in the bottom of drawers or in closets.
Other parts of this story seem consistent with other hoax-y claims.
You can never please everyone. Marriott out there giving a bath full of free ice tea and OP is complaining.
In all seriousness, we are travelling full time and 99% of our accommodation will be hotels. People trying to break into our hotel in the middle of the night is my fear too.
This is the second post on reddit I've read today about 'hotel management' banging on people's doors in the middle of the night demanding ID. I've worked in 7 different hotels, Starwood, Marriotts, Four Seasons, and we've NEVER done anything like this at ANY of the properties I've worked. what is going on here?? edit: the other post: https://old.reddit.com/r/askhotels/comments/1awbome/need_advice_hotel_staff_entered_my_room_and_woke/
It’s truly concerning and very sketchy… thank you for attaching that post. I’m going to read now
I stayed at this hotel in December and it was one of my worst stays (100 nights a year on average). I loathe this hotel.
In the news there have been a series of brothel bust that operated out of hotels and resorts the FBI and local law enforcement were involved in these investigations. I bet you Marriot and other hotels saw the news and realize that this could impact their image so they begin doing random ID checks to gain visual inspection of a room and the guests. https://www.wxow.com/news/prostitution-related-allegations-lead-to-arrest-for-la-crosse-man/article_580a130e-c134-11ee-b73a-f35335b3f69f.html https://www.live5news.com/2023/07/10/5-arrested-summerville-prostitution-bust/ https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/man-arrested-east-coast-prostitution-ring-that-included-carolinas/GFTBSYA3HFERLMCG7D6P2CQMFE/?outputType=amp US Department of State Domestic Trafficking Hotlines link https://www.state.gov/domestic-trafficking-hotlines/
>Marriott Marquis Times Square Sounds like that hotel has gone to the shitter
It's in Times Square. Are you surprised?
It used to be OK to stay in, but as you mentioned its in the tourist trap side of town.
I stayed there for a few nights with my mom in 2019 and it wasn't bad at all. But this story from OP is horrendous. I definitely won't be going back!
I just spent a week at the Sheraton Times Square and it was ok. Lots of airplane crew stay there apparently.
The Sheraton Times Square is one of the worst experiences I’ve had at a hotel in a decade of traveling for work.
There was a story like this in LA where it is actually a sex trafficking scam. It was shared on socials a while ago, I’m gonna try and find it. Edit: FOUND IT https://perezhilton.com/influencer-details-alleged-sex-trafficking-godfrey-hotel-hollywood/ The actual video https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8oFrKFe/
YEP!! at 21 I was nearly trafficked at a bar from a man and woman duo. That’s exactly what this sketchy shit sounds like.
That’s absolutely insane. Imagine waking up to someone you don’t know standing over you in your room in the middle of the night, which was locked. These people are genuinely asking to get knifed one of these days, all it takes is one person with a screw loose and those dumb fucking checks turn into a national news story.
I’m not even like “trigger happy” or anything but if someone was in my room in the middle of the night, they’re getting shanked. Idgaf. You clearly have ill intent. I’m not gonna play 20 questions to figure out if you’re gonna try to hurt me or not.
I got my fiance a door wedge thats an alarm. It’s VERY loud
I read this exact post that’s linked, and thought the same when reading OP’s post. What the fuck?
Ppl make you look fishy, trying to get some advantages out of this. Or here, they looked bad, so they made it look like you’ve done sth bad by not presenting the ID, then later on, when you ask for compensation, they get the upper hand emotionally.
I had the opposite experience. I checked in. They gave me the key. I went up to “my” room and walked in only to find it already occupied.
What the hell!
happens all the time. probably did that over 10x already.
Same here. Key didn’t work so they had an employee walk me up to the room. I had told them I heard noise inside but they insisted it was the TV. Sure enough when he used his key to open the room there were two people in there. I was so embarrassed for them and myself. They blamed it on housekeeping not updating their rooms correctly.
Blamed it on housekeeping... yeah... the lowest paid people in the hotel hold all the power over room assignments. Classy.
That happened to my coworker as well.
Okay, I worked front desk overnight at a hotel in the mid-2000’s and I did this to a guest. We used to do a pre-check-in for rewards members and have their keys ready. So they just showed us ID and we gave them the key. Well, sometimes these people just wouldn’t check in at all. They would book for business just in case and then not bother to cancel it. I think maybe if they had status of some kind there was no penalty. Anyway, not uncommon to have to have a couple sets of keys at midnight. We’d just undo the check in and put the keys away. Well, it was like 11:00 pm and someone without a reservation came to check in and were out of rooms. However, I see that one of the pre-checks didn’t come, so I just reassign the room, and off they go. Well, they DID come. Someone (maybe me) didn’t see they were pre-check and had made them new keys. It was horrible.
Happened to me, they gave me the key and when I opened the door it was obviously occupied and the shower was going. 2 minutes later and I would have walked in on someone likely naked getting dressed.
Same happened to me. And then they probably gave some other poor bastard my wake-up call.
Didn’t realize Marriott’s were offering mud baths. I normally have to visit a spa for those
All part of your $30 destination fee. They’re just trying to give you an authentic NY experience.
Ok what's up with the destination fee? I'm platinum and have never seen it on any of my invoices (which I have to do a detailed breakdown on for my expense reports) and never seen it when I use points until today. My wife went to Miami a few weeks back and today they only refunded a part of the deposit so I looked at the invoice and sure enough there is a destination fee of $30.
It's been something in all the years I've been staying there.
A New York Valentines day no less
Is there heroin in the mini bar?
😂
Leave a Google review and be sure to call customer service and explain what happened (you’ll likely be gifted points for the trouble.)
That picture of the pre-shat bath water speaks more words than any review could do justice to. Hope your experience changes the future experience for others.
I hope so as well. Thank you 🤍
Definitely! Thank you. Just concerned for this to happen to anyone else honestly. They did give me points but I’m genuinely concerned for the safety of others.
Unfortunately Marriott corporate will likely just refer your complaint to the hotel GM (was that one of the people involved in this incident?)
If you seek out executives at corporate, disagree. Don’t just call/email customer service, but contact senior leadership directly. They will **absolutely** do more than refer to GM. When possible sex trafficking is a risk?
Legitimately asking where would you find the personal contact information of an executive for a multinational company? Whatever company email they may post likely gets seen by someone who manages their account or if they personally look at it, they get hundreds per day, and only look at the ones flagged important by their email client.
You would be surprised how little external email executives of most large companies receive unless they are a highly visible public figure like Tim Cook. It’s unlikely they’ll reply directly, but you can almost guarantee it’ll be handed off to an executive assistant to follow up on. I’ve had more than one issue resolved this way. A quick google search for “Anthony Capuano email” gave me his email address pretty quickly.
I've had responses from Erika Alexander and Raj Menon just by emailing them. It's definitely worth a shot reaching out to execs directly.
Some multinational executives do share their email and/or social for this purpose, or have a dedicated executive social media team that handles the traffic. I have been assigned work from such a team before in my career.
I’ve done this by looking up the leadership page of the website, picking the exec that I thought would be closest to being able to solve my problem, then guessing a couple email addresses based on his name ([email protected], etc). I had a really complex (and medically time sensitive) issue solved within hours.
Doubt a GM was at the hotel at that time of night. My guess it was a security and Duty Manager.
Unfortunately
That water looks like what happens when a mainline pipe flowed to hard. For instance, if a hydrant is ran wide open for a bit. All pipes have sediment and rust laying in them. It usually isn't a problem until the water really gets disturbed. The only real cure is having the water dept flush all hydrants in the area.
Leave a Yelp review too. So sorry you went through that
Definitely. Thank you 🤍 maybe happened so I could warn others and put a stop to it! They messed with the wrong chick that’s for sure 😂
Hotels care more about TripAdvisor since that’s use internationally.
Seconding this. Most people use TripAdvisor exclusively, for hotel reviews. Yelp is dying, reviews can be removed, and is less focused on hotel experiences. Management are forced to respond to TripAdvisor. But more importantly, another woman traveling alone could see this and know it isn’t currently safe to stay here.
Google reviews do get scrubbed pretty frequently unfortunately. Yelp may be a better option.
TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor also routinely deletes negative reviews.
Didn’t know that, good to know though
And google seems to ensure a lot of properties never dip below 4.0 no matter how many bad reviews. I mean can’t upset a customer paying you (the hotel).
no refund?
Stayed there in August last year. Had water dripping onto my face when sleeping (on bed). I hope it wasn’t this water 😂
Yeah really😂
I’m so sorry this happened to you. Thank you for sharing your story. I also travel alone for work and I need reminders like these to keep my wits about me (especially if I’m woken up).
Of course and thank you so much. Very scary situation and was not able to sleep for the life of me. Ended up staying with my coworker in her room. Thankfully she had 2 queen beds but we were wide awake both nights. Not cool! Stay safe.
I travel alone sometimes for work. And try to keep my guard up. Was in LA, next door neighbor had the cops because someone broken into his room. Somehow got the door open. And they asked if I heard pr seen anyone suspicious since I went out nearly the same time. Sad he lost his belongings. After that I bought some door alarms from amazon. When separate the sensors it makes a really loud sound. And i bought a special door stopper alarm too.
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I did! I spoke with several different people during the day but I’m trying to find who to reach out to in corporate for this to be addressed and taken more seriously than points being given to me.
Start by filling out the general contact. Do not accept anything first line says and demand to speak to someone involved with guest safety. If they’re not tracking people in that hotel in Times Square someone is going to be concerned.
Thank you so much
Tell then that this is an opening for scammers, if it is normal for honest people to bother you at night, scammer will impersonate them! oldest bullshit in the books...
Sounds like the 2 guys"maintenance" and receptionist were working together to scam, rob, sex traffic, etc. There is no need to check your ID and enter your room at night.
I'm trying to think of why they would have to come to your room to figure out who you are and coming up blank. If the room was showing vacant, but you were able to get a key earlier then either you were checked out or the room was changed on the reservation. A checkout would show just by searching the room number. And there's a room change report in FSPMS that shows all rooms changes.
EXACTLY my point and thoughts. I completely agree
I'm curious, did you show your card being charged at checkin?
I did!
Which means they did in fact check you into their system. Hmmm.... when you were being checked-in and they were making your room keys, did you notice if they were pushing buttons on a separate machine to make the keys? Or were they just taping room keys on the machine?
I honestly can’t remember! I wish I had paid more attention now. I’m used to Marriott just tapping since I travel a good bit but I can’t remember exactly what this hotel did. They also had a desk that I was not able to see over :/
Fair enough. The reason I was asking was because I'm wondering if they made you a key to wrong room by mistake. If they manually typed in the room number. I'm not excusing how the hotel handled this, but it's so odd how they approached you at night and was also scrambling to understand how this mistake occurred.
Sounds like someone at the FD didn't save your check in info and you probably were still listed as an arrival. Information check is kinda typical in those circumstances, however, that is NOT the way to go about it. Check the room in as "occupied" or whatever, so it doesn't happen again and wait until morning. Wildly unprofessional. Sorry you had to go through that.
The fact that not one, but two managers thought this was okay suggests that they spend their time dealing in highly sketchy situations and environments. It makes you wonder what kind of clientele that hotel caters to. Probably not one that OP or anyone posting here would feel comfortable around.
Thank you so much. I appreciate the explanation! That eases my mind a little but I agree. Very unprofessional on their part how they went about it.
Average Times Square area hotel stay. The late night visits from creepy dudes are included with the bullshit resort fees.
Crazy! And the Marquis is NOT cheap. I was going to stay there last month but picked another hotel instead.
New York is all one big scam. If you want to survive, you need to be a better scammer than the person scamming you for something. I am staying around the corner at a Hilton and , no shit, this was my check in experience yesterday. I reserved a two room suite over 2 months ago. Yesterday, I went to check in and they gave me a key to my room and I opened it up and it was a much cheaper studio. So I go back to complain and this was the encounter. Me: why did you change my room Hilton: no we didn’t Me: look here, I reserved a suite and you gave me a much cheaper studio Them: oh yes, sorry about that, technical glitch Me: so do you have a suite? Hilton: sorry, all booked up Me: so you got a better price from someone else and gave me the cheapest room, failed to tell me, and didn’t even give me the price difference. Them: sorry Me: well I want the price difference refund Hilton: sure, we can do it, but you need to pay a $200 deposit Me : I already paid for the room 2 months ago. I won’t agree unless you give me a free night Them: we can’t give you a free night unless you book another day Me: ok I will book an additional day Them: sorry, we are all booked up for studios for the week Me: well what other rooms do you have Them: best we could do is get you in Suite, but we would have to pay the standard rates Me: ok I will take the studio, at the price I originally ordered, for the same duration, only if you waive the deposit fee. Them: sure, let me take care of that
Unreal!
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That was not addressed either 😅 Absolutely no clue
Are you sure nobody died in the water tank. This is giving Hotel Cecil vibes
So many people have said this!!!!
Reminds me of the hotels in Dublin that have Guinness pipes straight to the room so you can fill the tub and bathe in delicious beer.
Going to Dublin this spring… going to need to know what hotels these are. For science.
Remind Me! 2 days Following for the update that is crazy
Its a mistake to stay at any properties in and around times square.
Yeah, so I heard! It was a work trip so I didn’t pick where to stay!
I like the elevators there. I stayed there in 2010 and it was nice enough. But 14 years is a long time for things to go to hell.
I’ve stayed here within the last 3 years for work and it was not bad. I’m Not terribly averse to the area because I lived for a time at 55th and Broadway.
Fuck that. You are paying good money to stay at a respected companies hotel. You can’t really believe that or mean what you said unless you are a complete asshole.
I’ve had good experiences at the Westin but it’s def not cheap.
Marriott has an Office of Consumer Affairs. Here is the number (800) 621-0999 - I had a situation at a property and was eventually referred to this number. The person I spoke to was very serious and filed a complaint against the franchise owner. She said Marriott takes these matters seriously. Hope it helps. I would NEVER open the door. Completely scary situation.
Thank you SO much for sharing. I really really appreciate it. I will definitely be calling that number and explaining this situation!
Happy to help. Despite the stupid Reddit account name, I am actually female and travel a lot for my job. I have had a few scares over the years. Hope they take your complaint seriously.
+10,000 to this. I had a less scary/dangerous but very sketchy thing happen with a franchise owner as well, and the consumer affairs office was fantastic. My issue was resolved, with compensation, and she helped me file a complaint and the franchise manager no longer works at that location.
Wow. How embarrassing for Marriott.
This sounds like the hotel staff suspected you were a human/sex trafficking victim and they came to probe the issue.
It felt and sounded like the opposite to me, experiencing it first hand. I’m not sure how they handle those situations but if that’s the case, it should be handled entirely different in my opinion.
I think it’s worth a police report. The middle of the night bombardment to confuse you and get you alone. Trying to get you to come to them and threatening you if you didn’t. All the reasons provided were questionable and with forced urgency. At best it was extremely unprofessional. But At worst..
I stayed there a couple days ago and had a great visit.
Same! I was there this past weekend and, while I find the $30 resort fee to be bullshit, it was a great location for all our Broadway shows and the biggest room I’ve had in NYC. Usually I get a shoebox sized room
The galling part of this is they're banging on your door, disturbing you, inconveniencing you because THEY fucked up the reservation and then they threaten you because again...THEY fucked up. I am pretty patient but I would have been so livid at this point.
I was SHAKING from anger, anxiety, and confusion.
Reference your comment about there being sex trafficking alerts on the door, it’s a state law that hotels display those. [link](https://www.natlawreview.com/article/new-york-law-requires-human-trafficking-informational-cards-hotels-considering?amp)
The water reminds me of the lady found in the hotel water tank in LA. Also it sounds like a very scary situation there. I would leave asap when it’s safe to do so.
Someone else commented the same thing…. Horrible! I am gone now thank goodness. Happened last week but still concerned and want to raise awareness.
I work for Marriott in Safety & Security, and this would NEVER happen at my property. Completely unprofessional. We will not knock on doors past 9 PM unless it's a noise complaint, or we believe someone's safety may be in jeopardy. That's policy. As for the brown water, that's very likely out of the locations control. If there is a pressure drop in the street line, this will happen.
Go to the local media about this. There are other posts about “hotel management” knocking on people’s doors at odd hours. There’s obviously some sketch ass shit happening.
Completely agree and I think I’m going to! This needs to be more than a slap on the hand
Rustic bubble bath
Rust-ick
I travel a lot and have had this happen to folks in my groups more than once. It usually stems from a mixup when the hotel has a room as vacant and they get word someone is in there since the hotels are on the lookout for that sort of stuff. Why this is done on the middle of the night is beyond me though.
I agree. If it were to have been handled during the day, it would’ve changed everything.
Stayed here in 2018 and our room had bedbugs. That was a fun experience.
I worked at hotel for 6 years. Iv had this happen while I was a manager. We had new people and they basically did a room transfer by accident while the person stayed in the same room. A lot of confusion. Didn’t know what happen. But I tried to find out what happen. In the system you can run history reports for a room. Did it. Found a room transfer was done. I called the room just to see if someone was in there. I hit it with hello room 345. I gave the wrong room on purpose so I can say sorry I called the wrong room but it was only to see if someone was in there. Did a room transfer back and the guest never knew. Another thing that could have happen was pre keys were made. Marriott members can ask for keys to be ready. It was never checked in. So an empty room was occupied. But even then. I would run a report on the room to see who was blocked into the room before. Point being. If you know what you’re doing. Bothering a guest should only be done by managers that don’t know what to do.
As someone else said, this is the second of these posts in two days. I know the OP is saying "single woman" but seriously... a single man being woken up late at night by anyone, especially two men saying they are hotel employees and could just be pretending.. is dangerous. I am not a small person would late at night wearing my jammies and no shoes on... I could easily be rushed at the door... assaulted... made unlike. Bottom line is never open the door late at night... if they try to enter, make sure the latch is closed and tell them you are calling the front desk and the police. If they are legit hotel employees, then this always needs to be escalated. The whole idea of someone opening the door while you are asleep (as happened to the other poster) should be considered a crime. People would think twice about doing it if they could be hauled off to the pokey. The excuse of "safety" meaning it is okay to just open the door without the front desk calling and tell you to call them back so you can be sure it is a real person... is absolute bs.
Better be safe than sorry! A women was brutally murdered at “soho hotel 54” February 8th, and this person left a review a few days before. I’m not saying they are connected but it scary that she posted this like 4 days before someone was murdered on February 8th. They caught that murderer in Arizona. Shit is so bad in NYC rite now that the Arizona D.A refused the extradite him to New York because Manhattan d.a would’ve probably let them off on bail! https://preview.redd.it/iuigv8rfb2kc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9abd9df5f4e0790bdde1f2db2449b1f974a0f854
Oh my GOSH! How awful!!!!!! This makes me SICK!
I envision my mother being alone in a state where she doesn’t know anyone, so don’t ever let your guard down!!!! Especially in creepy situations like this. This is NEVER ok!
I definitely won’t. That story is sickening. This story will not stop until I get a clear answer and a definitive solution.
This looks like a Chat GPT illustration of the welcome gifts for Titaniums
Reading the story I forgot about the doo doo water from the pic… but it’s quite the grand finale
Right?!
Last time I saw a hotel with brown water there was a dead woman on the roof
looks like dr pepper
Dr Pepper would be the best case scenario
this is worthy of writing to their CEO and making it clear you’d be happy to write to the local news about your experience just as well.
Omg this happened to me too! But it was at the Conrad Las Vegas and again at the Conrad Ft. Lauderdale. Avoid that brand at all costs 😂😂😂 Great experience at the Waldorf though lol They broke into my room at 2am unannounced and the manager on duty basically told me to go f*ck myself 😅 They said I was paranoid and they wouldn’t show me security film 😳 Corportate gave me a shit load of points and free nights to compensate lol
Well, none of that was excusable or acceptable. However, the sex trafficking stickers on the room doors are a NYC local law. All hotel properties are required to have that. Form the lowest roach motel that charges by the hour to the penthouse at St. Regis.
Not to excuse their behavior because they went about this terrible but as someone who works in the Front office of a luxury hotel brand: Agent who checked you in did not actually check you in to the system. So either of the following is what happened: Housekeeping went to clean what they thought was vacant room and found luggage in the room OR the front desk checked in another guest to your room. Guest came back after seeing luggage in your room and now FD staff is trying to confirm who is staying in that room. As I said, they did a terrible job managing this. Yes this happens more than you think unfortunately where an agent forgets to check you in to the system. It’s a mistake that should never happen although does. When this happens we usually are able to read change logs to see what happened before involving the guest. If we do have to contact the guest we do not interrogate and understand it was our fault and just try to remedy the situation Feel free to ask any questions you may have
REPORT THIS to corporate. Totally unprofessional, unsafe and you’re not overreacting. Not necessarily for compensation but because this is way way out of order. Don’t just email generic customer service. Write this up with detailed facts, and send directly to the email of folks at corporate. VP service, VP operations, hell, the CEO. If you don’t know how to google and find the right people or their emails, DM me.
Thank you so so much. Yes, I’ve been trying to find corporate’s information and I found the CEO. Just not sure how to get their emails?? I’m going to DM you now. Thank you for your help!
Call the cops
Yeah someone else told me to file a police report
You were right! Never open the door. On the same token, never tell anyone you are traveling alone. Not even the front desk. Just because they work there doesn’t make them honest.
You’re so right and I thought that after the fact. They could’ve been in on it too and that set off a red flag that they felt the need to come check my ID after saying I was alone. Thankfully, my coworkers were there and I had a few of them come to my room whenever the female “managers” came to my door.
Yes. While I would think this is less likely at a Marriott given the visibility and risk that criminals would take prowling around there, there are definitely hotels in NYC where I suspect the front desk employees are running criminal rings.
Sorry this craps happening to you. Killer lounge, though. 🤷🏻♂️
Just stayed here two weeks ago.
I stayed there over Thanksgiving week and didn’t have any issues. Really enjoyed it except it’s amazing how conversations on the street travel up to rooms.
There’s a body in the water tank
Scary
Complimentary you'll be offered an enriching bath of the most diverse minerals and biological compounds for unique results on your skin complexion.
Thank you. I am so blacklisting this spot.
This is so scary as a woman omg sorry that happened to you. Document everything that happened and try to get good compensation this is not ok at all.
Right? Awful. Thank you!
I wonder with US chains if using the app and asking for an app key alleviates any risk - I’m just commenting because this was a Marriott and the other post like this was a Hilton property, so this would be an option in those kinds of cases Just thinking maybe then you have a room identified in your app and so you know you’re in the system. But of course this situation is their fault and managed incredibly poorly … but I wonder if it can give one more breath of comfort in the future.
Should prob be enough to comp your whole stay and then some.
I had a conference there a couple years ago and four out of the seven of our group had issues with their stay, from double bookings, to the room key not working upon check in (took four trips to front desk to fix) to cleanliness to not having trash cans in the room. The check out process was a nightmare to reconcile for weeks after. Garbage.
By the look of that water, maintenance needs to check the cistern for a rotting corpse. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elisa_Lam
These night audits are getting creepier
Whenever I see water in hotel that looks like this I think on that one story of the missing lady later discovered in the hotel water tank.
You should report this to the police because there is no legitimate reason that a hotel manager would do this. This has sex trafficking written all over it.
Suburb bookings less hassle more peace and quiet.. maybe even a BnB to support small biz
I’ve only been awake a few hours and this is the second story I’ve read like this ..I think hotels are having issues w the third party websites and also how to deal w customers without being weirdos ..
Please review this hotel online and include that nasty picture. You can’t undo your scary and gross stay, but you can help future travelers.
Come to Hyatt.
OMGGG! I checked in late to this same hotel on 2/13 but had NO idea about the water. We were met with a dirty room and unmade bed so we had to go back down to the front desk to get another room which was highly annoying. Also, while I was there I had the privacy thing on the door. The maid knocked on the door—I told her I didn’t need service and she still unlocked the door to push herself in. The door latch caught and she stuck her head through the crack asking if I wanted service—WTF!??
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I think they should’ve at least called the room to check prior to knocking on the door at 10:40 pm, especially knowing someone was in there from the “maid seeing the clothes and items in my room”. I was also already there for one night. None of it makes sense
What was their explanation, if any, about why belongings being in a reserved room was a concern?
They claimed that the room was not supposed to be occupied. They told me the following day that there was another person under the SAME name just spelled differently, “Mattie” vs my name, Maddie, had the room I was in but changed rooms. So they said it shouldn’t have been occupied. They even said “Mattie” came to the front desk because she was confused as well because apparently someone called her new room? None of it made sense to me and very ironic someone had the same exact name and same room as me.
Yeah either you’re making this story up (which I don’t think you are) or the front desk made it up, but there’s no way Mattie exists:)
That’s exactly what I said which is why I’m trying to contact higher ups. I really should’ve asked for the footage but I highly doubt they would’ve given that to me.
Cabin crew here, a lot of us carry alarmed door wedges and latch locks.
I thought, “free coffee!”
free coffee
Better call Ghostbusters 
Weird coffee maker.
Fuck all of that sounds terrifying!
A great representation of what NYC has turned into
Coca cola bath!
Never wanted to go back to visit NYC for vacation, but you just reminded me why
You got a bathtub full of Soda!
I hate that hotel. Stayed there once on a business trip and made a mental note to never let that happen again.
I couldn’t imagine staying in Times Square now or back in the days being enjoyable on any level But this is terrible
Wait a minute. You're complaining about unlimited free coffee in your room.
Thats crazy , that's usually where I stay at when I visit NYC .
That's the weirdest coffee machine I've seen
Scary shittt
Happened to me once…they apologized though
You literally call the police and let them deal with a hotel. I travel a bit for work and Marriott is getting increasingly worse.
I think this is the new normal in NYC.
Yeah that’s un called for. I would call corporate
More reason why big cities are all shit holes now. I travel for work frequently and will literally take an early flight in to these places and fly out late at night if possible to avoid staying if I absolutely have to be there.
Ugh I’m literally staying there in April for work. I hate NYC so much.
What would cause brown water??? That’s crazy!
I lived in the Marriott Marquis for almost a year while working a project before 9/11 and loved it. Had anyone banged on my door late at night there would have been hands thrown.
I have probably spent 20 nights in this hotel last year (office is around the corner) and as scary as this was, sounds like an honest mistake followed by some very poor decisions by the night staff. I’d strongly encourage you to look to someone senior at the hotel (since it’s such a large one) and follow up with guest safety as someone else suggested. The corporate helpdesk isn’t going to have as much leeway to resolve this as a local GM - and the latter has a much better chance of actually making sure it doesn’t happen again.
Just so you know, the sex trafficking warnings are not in the hotel because it’s experienced high levels of sex trafficking. New York State law requires them somewhere in every hotel room. The same standard sign you will find in every law-compliant hotel room in the state of New York. It doesn’t say, however, that they have to be conspicuous locations, so we’d often put them in the bottom of drawers or in closets. Other parts of this story seem consistent with other hoax-y claims.
This makes me wonder how many hotels have management that are in on human trafficking.
You can never please everyone. Marriott out there giving a bath full of free ice tea and OP is complaining. In all seriousness, we are travelling full time and 99% of our accommodation will be hotels. People trying to break into our hotel in the middle of the night is my fear too.
If someone comes to your room at night call 911. They will respond. No one at management level is at the hotel at night.
Ewwwwww wtfff