AN ENCOUNTER WITH MARRIOTT

MAR 654, Services Marketing, Pace University

Professor:  "There must be some mistake.  My reservation was confirmed months ago."

Clerk:  "I'm very sorry ma'am, but the hotel is overbooked this evening and there are no rooms left for you.  We can get you a room at a nearby hotel."

Professor:  "But I don't want to be at a nearby hotel.  I booked my room here because the conference is here.  My colleagues are here and they will be trying to contact me by ringing the hotel operator to connect to my room."

Clerk:  "I'm terribly sorry.  I know it's an inconvenience, but we will get you a very nice room at the Hyatt and it will be with our compliments.  We will also give you $10 to get over there and back by cab."

Professor:  "But I don't care about whether you pay for the room.  My employer pays for the room and I want to stay here like you confirmed that I could.  When you have a major conference like this and offer a block of rooms, you really need to make sure you have enough for all confirmed participants."

Clerk:  "Yes, ma'am.  Again, I apologize, but this is really quite common in the industry.  There are always a certain number of people who don't show, so we need to overbook to ensure that we fully utilize our capacity."

Professor (still not yelling):  "This is outrageous.  Someone needs to tell the AMA that they shouldn't hold their conferences here any more if this is how you treat their participants after promising them a room."

Clerk:  "I'm sorry, ma'am.   If we had a room to give you, I certainly would do so, but there just aren't any rooms available.   The Hyatt is really very nice, and we will have a room for you here tomorrow.  We will try to get you an early checkin so that you can move in here early in the morning, if you wish.  Here is a voucher for a free night's stay tonight and if you'll just sign this form, I'll get you $10 to pay for the cab fare."

At this point, the professor would normally have requested to speak to the manager, raised her voice a little and become insistent that a room be found.  However, she decided that this might be an interesting case study for her services marketing class, so she reluctantly accepted the reassignment and hauled her bags back to the cab stand out front.  The Hyatt did turn out to be a very nice hotel, with a view of the East river in the middle of town and all the late night boat activity.  The professor started taking notes recording the amenities offered at the Hyatt so she could later compare these with what was offered in the Marriott room.  She went to bed with no opportunity to visit with colleagues, and very angry at the Marriott for the inconvenience.  The next morning, the professor packed everything up again and headed back to the desk at the Marriott to try again to check in.  As she was checking in, she met at the counter another woman also checking in.  The professor started a conversation with the other woman that went something like this:

Professor:  "Are you just checking in too?"

Woman:  "Yes, but not willingly."

Professor:  "What do you mean?  You don't want to stay here?"

Woman:  "Yes.  But I don't want to switch rooms.  They're making me change from the room I got last night."

Professor:  "Well at least you got to stay here.  I got bounced over to the Hyatt.  What time did you check in?"

Woman:  "About 11:00.  I got here and they told me they didn't have a room for me.  I was not happy, and I am not a nice person when I am not happy.  I yelled and screamed and demanded to see the manager.  Just as I was in the middle of my tirade, they told me something had just become available."

Professor:  "Incredible.  I arrived at 10:00 and decided not to make a stink about it, annoyed as I was.  Are you here for the AMA conference also?"

Woman:  "Yes, I'm speaking at a session later today."

When the professor finally got checked into a room, she noticed that the Marriott, as she suspected, offered less than the Hyatt.  Some examples of the differences are depicted below:
 

The professor made a mental note about the differences in quality between the two hotels and to always stay in a Hyatt on business travel if given a choice.  She also made plans to write a letter to Marriott protesting being bounced, and another letter to the AMA suggesting they either no longer hold conferences at the Chicago Marriott (a frequent place for AMA conferences, attended annually by about 500 participants) unless Marriott ensures the AMA that they will guarantee a room to every participant in the conference who reserves in advance.

Questions:

1. Why does Marriott overbook rooms, resulting in some customers needing to be sent elsewhere?  Is this an appropriate practice?  Are there certain situations where it is appropriate and others where it is not, or doesn't it matter what the situation is?  What should Marriott's policies be on overbooking?

2. Did the clerk handle this situation the best way he could?  Could he have done anything better?

3. If we accept that the hotel was overbooked (and that this cannot be changed), could Marriott have handled the situation differently to avoid having two unhappy customers?

4. How did the second woman get a room when there were no rooms available?  Why was she given a room when the professor was not?

5.    Based on the tangible evidence and other information provided in the case, how does Marriott's positioning differ from Hyatt's?

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