MARRIOTT LAMENTATIONS 170: Marriott?branded inhumane, retaliatory, waning?standards; the true state of the Marriott brand - Part 4 of 5 - "Scam"

Introduction: "Good timber does not grow with ease; the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees" (attr. J W Marriott but actually 'lifted' from a poem by Douglas Malloch - see Footnote 1). Sadly, all Marriott's?good timber has been chopped down or burned through?greed and corruption. All that?is left is wind, hot wind...

Increasingly negative (though often constructive)?content?about Marriott is consistently posted on the likes of Linkedin, Facebook, 'View from the Wing' et al. For example, the most recent?FlyerTalk post ("Why does marriott.com suck so bad?" dated 21st November 2023) serves as a case in point. A few?brief comments?from loyalty members, clearly?well-versed in the overall Marriott decline:?

* "Marriott as a company never recovered internally after the Starwood Merger; they simply bit off far more than they could chew. Everything is worse..."

* "Bigger is not always better. A shame there were no regulators to prohibit the Marriott purchase of Starwood. With a [reduced] lack of competition, prices have increased, while the quality of properties under Marriott is declining"

* "It’s simple - Marriott is now “too big to fail” and thus doesn’t really need to worry about the small stuff (like a good customer experience)"

* "Roughly half my searches end in failure... It can't just be me, can it? How can they operate like this?

*?Marriott has totally lost it. I mean, what are we at now? 32 or 33 brands and still growing is absurd... CEO has made it clear who their real customers are (hotel owners). Their IT is pitiful and can’t cope with their magnitude. Yet they keep throwing kindling into the bonfire that they’ve become"

* "I've given up on Marriott this year..."

* "Marriott? Meh, including the slow website and user interface experience.?Marriott is so far behind..."

* "I can only wish that Marriott Bonvoy would be more like the old SPG Program...... and on a side note, I think Im jumping ship to Hyatt (sigh)"

For a wide variety of reasons, this is the moment for hotel guests, associates and?communities?to?reclaim their freedoms and human rights from tyrranical executive cowards, who hide?behind the security and amorality of "corporate personhood"

MARRIOTT LAMENTATIONS 57: "Scam" (Part 1)

Marriott operates an asset-light business strategy.?99 percent of its?rooms worldwide operate?under either a management?or franchise contractual arrangement.?The?principle of a Franchise Agreement is that the franchisee (the hotel owner) operates the?hotel; with?a Management Agreement Marriott operates the hotel for and on behalf of the hotel?owner.?In both models, brand standard compliance is mandatory in accordance with regulatory requirements

Of course, that?is the theory but the devil is in the detail. In the land of Marriott hotel franchises?all is not well. Customer and employee accounts of dirty, badly-managed Marriott-branded properties are scattered across the internet. Insiders?report?that a brief?chat with the franchisee every so often (a tick-box exercise over the phone?)?is Marriott's idea of brand standard maintenance. The system is slack and superficial; either arrogance, indifference or just plain incompetence is exposing the company to enormous reputational risk. And?there are serious?problems in the management sector too

Through?an extraordinary twisting of the rules,?Marriott is?risking its entire pot of intangible assets (worth?$18?billion) in the name of short-term expediency. Marriott directors have opted?to behave?recklessly and?in breach of?fiduciary duties?pertaining to the protection and deployment of company assets. Their groundbreaking stratagem, involving the de-coupling of the brand from the rest of the company,?is an act of severe?imprudence

Marriott has created a new class of 'corrupt' management contracts, deliberately designed to circumnavigate regulatory requirements. Basically, Marriott, the brand owner, relinquishes control ("ownership") of its?brand to the hotel developer thereby ditching all?authority over?the management of the brand and its values. Hotel owners ("third parties over whom Marriott has no control")?are given?full jurisdiction over?brand management and hotel operations.?The Marriott GM, once the upholder of brand values, now answerable to the hotel owner, becomes an accessory.?This disintegration of the entire regulatory and legal structure may?have been?developed?to capitalise on the potential for?rapid growth in some of the more corrupt?regions of the world. Now, Marriott can?simply hand?everything over?to a potentially?unscrupulous hotel owner who is able to take care of things in "a very local?way". ("We know how to drive the brands" are the well known words of a Marriott client, a hotel developer based in the Far East. 'Deprive the brands' more like!)

It's all about easy profit, bums in beds, a win-win deal for both sides.?However, achieved by stealth, the practice is felonious,?a scam against stockholders, associates, customers and?communities; the brand logo becomes?nothing more than an external wall hanging?and a declaration of fraud

To be continued...

[Originally published: 10/12/2021]

MARRIOTT LAMENTATIONS 58: "Scam" (Part?2)

In both its management and franchise agreement hotels, Marriott is operating a covert system of corrupted/evasive contracts with hotel owners that is jeopardising brand standards and risking the value of intangible assets; at an estimated $18?billion, sooner or later, this could seriously affect Marriott's stock values and unsettle global financial markets related to the hospitality industry. This contractual arrangement is particularly useful and easy to effect in countries where corruption is rampant; it allows for rapid growth and discards the need for due diligence and auditing procedures

This is a scam

a) On customers who are paying for something they are not getting - ie. brand and hotel management security

b) On shareholders who have not been informed of the risk to brand integrity

c) On communities who are promised "brand neighbourliness"?

d) On regulators who are not being afforded the respect of disclosure

During a meeting with Arne Sorenson in September 2019 it was stated that Marriott has no control over any of its hotel owners; that hotel audits and due diligence are unnecessary; that hotel owners are presumed to act of their own volition to provide legal and safe properties - "we just manage?the hotel", he quipped furtively in reference to the illegal St Regis Hotel in Bangkok. Mr Sorenson looked sheepish?when I?suggested that on that basis Marriott might have its logo on?illegal and dangerous hotels across the entire planet. In correspondence on the same issue, Bancroft Gordon (ex?VP, Ass?Gen?Couns?& Corp?Sec) wrote that hotel owners are just "third parties over whom Marriott has no control"

If Marriott has no control over its clients, hotel owners,?then Marriott no longer has any authority over brand standards; it has relinqished ownership of the brand. Under these new contractual arrangements Marriott escapes the need for?any kind of due diligence or hotel auditing; a local?operating license, "arranged" by the owner, certifies?a?building as?compliant?and equipped?for hotel operation. This?means that Marriott is?no longer?operating?according to its own stated codes of corporate governance and business practice which focus on the maintenance of the brand and associated values; they promise a duty of care to both people and company. Therefore, the entire Marriott business model is a fraud. Marriott has gone "rogue"; it is not in compliance; it is in breach,?operating under the radar of international regulators

Marriott has not?disclosed any of this in its SEC quarterly reports except for the following vague and deceptive statement: "The nature of our responsibilities under our management agreements to manage each hotel and enforce the standards required for our brands under both management and franchise agreements may be subject to interpretation and will, from time to time, give rise to disagreements..."

With the brand trashed, Marriott,?now, is?nothing more than a reservation ("RevPAR") engine. So?what of its?intangibles...?!

[Originally published: 10/18/2021]

FOOTNOTE 1:

Good Timber by Douglas Malloch

The tree that never had to fight

For sun and sky and air and light,

But stood out in the open plain

And always got its share of rain,

Never became a forest king

But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil

To gain and farm his patch of soil,

Who never had to win his share

Of sun and sky and light and air,

Never became a manly man

But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease,

The stronger wind, the stronger trees,

The further sky, the greater length,

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth

We find the patriarchs of both.

And they hold counsel with the stars

Whose broken branches show the scars

Of many winds and much of strife.

This is the common law of life.

FOOTNOTE 2:

A more discerning hotel developer has?even questioned?the?Marriott business model.?"Law360 (November 16, 2023, 8:00 PM EST) -- A Lebanese developer said Thursday he has won more than $8 million after an arbitrator determined that HOTEL GIANT MARRIOTT HAD PAID TWO EXECUTIVES TO TESTIFY AGAINST HIM in previous cases in which he ACCUSED THE COMPANY OF MISMANAGING A BEIRUT HOTEL..."

FOOTNOTE 3:?

* This article?is the 15th (part 4?of 4) in a collection?of articles under the heading - "The Bespoke Collection."?The?Bespoke Collection?contains previously published short articles (some now edited) which, with clarity and brevity in mind,?offer?a snapshot?of how the St Regis Bangkok fraud was engineered and continues to be sustained alongside other related issues regarding?Marriott, Minor, EY and hotel industry corruption?

The St Regis Bangkok?conspiracy defines?the amoral and perilous?state of today's global brand-driven hotel industry, and how?multinational hospitality corporations, bent?on world domination, behave?within?a seemingly unregulated industry. Marriott, an industry bellwether, continues to?hide?behind the security of local corruption, expanding its?global footprint with ease, maligning communities and individuals in the process

*?The?Marriott Board?and senior executives?continue?to receive correspondence on a weekly basis but rigidly maintain?their?silence

John Shepherd (Marriott victim and hunger striker)