An OMAAT reader shared a frustrating Ritz-Carlton experience with me, and unfortunately my take on this is likely pretty cynical…
Ritz-Carlton Jakarta provides poor service recovery
Marriott Bonvoy Titanium member Scott completed an 18-night stay at the Ritz-Carlton Jakarta Mega Kuningan, in Indonesia.
Scott had a variety of service failures during his stay, ranging from a lack of reliable hot water, to poor room maintenance, to seeing vomit on the club lounge floor, to a lobby security incident involving a prostitute, to repeated failures to address the problems.
While Scott tried to get a resolution to this early in the stay, the hotel did a poor job being responsive and addressing his issues. In an email from the general manager, she acknowledged that the property “had dropped the balls” (just quoting here) and “there were no excuses.”
What’s interesting is what the hotel was and wasn’t willing to offer the guest. A few days before check-out, in an email, the rooms division manager wrote the following:
“As you have gone through series of inconvenience, I would like to offer you a 120 minute treatment at our SPA and would like to invite you for a nice meal at either of our restaurant at hotel. I am afraid that monetary compensations in form of cash or points are not authorized at our property, but in terms of services, you may request for anything and I will make all the arrangements.”
Scott claims he didn’t have time in his schedule for the short remainder of his stay to get a massage or have an on-property meal, which is why he requested points as compensation. In correspondence with the general manager after the stay, she reiterated that stance, offering an upgrade on the next stay, and a spa experience, but no points:
“It would be our pleasure to welcome you back and provide you with the level of care and hospitality you deserve. As a gesture of goodwill, we remain on our offer of a complimentary upgrade during your next visit as well as a spa experience.”
After getting Marriott consumer affairs involved, they said they couldn’t compel the hotel to actually offer anything additional. It does seem consumer affairs was eventually willing to offer 40,000 Bonvoy points as compensation (Marriott corporate, not the hotel), which Scott points out isn’t even enough points for half a night in the room he stayed. Corporate also indicated that they considered the case closed, and any further correspondence would be routed to the same contact. As Scott concludes:
“The result is a Ritz-Carlton property that can acknowledge significant multi-week service failures, including a serious security incident, while simultaneously maintaining that it is structurally unable to provide meaningful compensation because ownership policy prevents it, with Marriott corporate apparently unwilling to override that limitation in any meaningful way.”
“Ritz-Carlton heavily markets its employee empowerment philosophy, the well-known principle allowing employees to spend up to $2,000 per guest incident to resolve problems without managerial approval. Yet in this case, management stated in writing that no points or monetary compensation could be offered under any circumstances.”
My take on this Ritz-Carlton compensation situation
Let me of course acknowledge that we only have one side of the story, though Scott has shared all of the written correspondence with me, so I at least know that all of the communication is accurate.
I obviously didn’t experience his issues firsthand, but the general manager does acknowledge that they dropped the ball, and that there were no excuses, so I’d take her at her word. I also don’t necessarily have an issue with hotels wanting to resolve things on property when possible, though it sounds like they should’ve made these offers earlier in his stay.
But what I absolutely find ridiculous is the claim that a manager at a Ritz-Carlton doesn’t have any ability to award points or other forms of off-property compensation. That just seems incredibly weak. Scott is right that Ritz-Carlton used to have a philosophy whereby any employee can spend $2,000 to make things right for a guest, but I don’t believe that exists anymore.
Now this gets to my cynicism — seriously, what do you really expect from a hotel brand that belongs to Marriott? Look, there are some hotels that are good in spite of being associated with Marriott, and I stay with the brand all the time. But broadly speaking, Marriott is in the room count and commission business, and not in the hospitality business.
While some Ritz-Carlton properties are good, the base standards, and what you can reliably count on, have fallen a lot over the years. Nowadays a Ritz-Carlton can basically be a Sheraton, but with turndown service and a minibar.
Should Marriott corporate do better? Of course. Am I surprised Marriott corporate didn’t do better? Of course not. I’m as guilty of this as anyone, but we just have to realize that Marriott is not a customer service oriented company, and we need to stop lying to ourselves and pretending the reality is anything else.
Marriott is better than any other brand at creating “points farms,” properties where managers clearly know that guests will come back due to the loyalty program, even if the guest experience and value isn’t otherwise there.
It’s funny to listen to Ritz-Carlton founder Horst Schulze talk about the exceptional experience the brand delivers, as his impression seems to be based on a reality that maybe existed decades ago.
Bottom line
A Marriott Bonvoy Titanium member had a frustrating experience at the Ritz-Carlton Jakarta on an 18-night stay. There were multiple failures, and then hotel management did a poor job actually addressing those.
What’s interesting is that they only offered some sort of goodwill gesture at the very end of the stay, for a spa treatment and meal, but at that point the guest didn’t have enough time to enjoy those. One of the managers claimed staff aren’t “authorized” to award points or other comparable compensation. So much for the concept of empowering employees to take care of customers!
Unsurprisingly, Marriott corporate wasn’t able to compel the hotel to act differently, though did throw in a (relatively) small number of points. Disappointing as it is, I can’t say that I’m surprised by all of this.
What do you make of this Ritz-Carlton customer service situation?