Marriott’s Ocean Pointe Timeshare

We are MVCI members with a week at a resort in Spain. We usually trade our week via Interval for other resorts and have stayed at Ocean Point a couple of times before over the last decade. We had a good time previously and so when it was time to book a holiday to celebrate my 50th birthday we decided to use a MVCI week here and then move onto a condo on Marco Island for a second week (getting there on my birthday because of availability of this week and flights, etc,.)

We requested a room at the quieter end of the resort as we don’t have kids and would not be requiring use of the pool, etc. We wanted to be in Kingfisher if possible but the building before that would have been fine. We said we’d probably get there about 3pm which has never been a problem in the past, but an email told us they’d seen our request and would try their best but we shouldn’t get there before 4pm.

We delayed our drive down and got there at 4:05pm. Asked about our room and was told we had nothing noted for that end of the resort. The lady on the desk went off to a back room for 10 mins or so – whether she was ‘trying’ to get us a deal or having coffee, who knows? Certainly nothing happened to our advantage happened. In the meantime – in the next two desks three people turned up and three people were given rooms in Kingfisher. One certainly did not request this and had to ask why they needed to leave the main resort and go in via another entrance.

She came back – told us we had an ocean view and it was facing the quiet side but on a closer building near the main social area. Exactly what we didn’t want – but at least we were facing away from the pool. Oh no we weren’t! She’d mislead us entirely. Only a couple of floors up, overlooking the carpark and the pool. Kids screaming all day ruining a relaxing vacation. She had said they would contact us the next day about a change of room….

We found in the room the jacuzzi bath was broken. So we called down and asked for that to be fixed and to request again, a change of room. Again told someone would contact us. Nobody ever did. We noticed a lot of people had left the buildings we wanted to be in, however.

We had by now observed some very ride staff (one cleaning lady in the elevator when we got in asking was it going down? Nothing. Just glared at us and refused to speak. Of course, she was going up. She then barged her trolly into my leg as she pushed out past me on the 6th floor without a word! When she got to the bottom, a man in a maintenance outfit was spitting on the walkway a couple of feet in front of us as we walked towards him!

At 2am last night we were woken by a very loud alarm. We thought it was the fire alarm and got up and was walking towards the stairs when I realised the sound was only in our place. We went back and called the front desk, seems they knew it was our smoke alarm and somebody would be up. A nice man came in – stood on a chair – smashed the alarm from the ceiling and pulled out wires and a battery to stop the noise. Said somebody would be back today to fix it. While they are here they can hopefully sort out the fridge with a broken foot that falls towards you when you open the door and a broken microwave turntable plate.

I have given up speaking to the staff about a new room (loads more people left today and nothing from the staff) and decided for the good of my hypertension it’s better just to admit defeat, enjoy a terrible room as much as we can and hope the second week is better (how can it be much worse?) for my big birthday. No point complaining – you’ll just get the normal we don’t guarantee anything corporate BS. It’s not that that bothers me – it’s the LYING about trying to help and doing absolutely nothing and the state of the room and the behaviour of the staff I mind.

Maybe it’s because we don’t have a week here, maybe it’s because we are English. We certainly feel like we’ve been treated like second-class citizens.

We came out thinking it might be nice to have a second week with MVCI as we move towards retirement. When a lady called us before the trip asking about an appointment to discuss this we said we’d come and see her when we knew when we’d be free. Well, that’s changed! Over my dead body!

We are Platinum Members and we have stayed at this hotel for the past couple of years many times since we love Singer Island. From April to November, we normally stay multiple times (over 10 nights) for beach staycations. However, this past weekend we had a very disturbing incident with a Front Desk Manager by the name of Claudette Festino. After waiting several hours for our room to be ready and after informing the Front Desk for the 3rd time in a row (twice in May) that we had been left out of the Platinum Member Welcome List, we were told that we had been assigned a room on the 1st floor overlooking the parking lot. As Platinum Members, we requested a higher floor since the point of staying at this hotel (30 minutes from our house) is to be able to use the room balcony to relax with a nice ocean breeze.

When the Associate informed us that there was nothing he could do because allegedly there were no other rooms available, we requested to speak to a Manager. Ms. Claudette Festino, Manager, came out of the back with a boxer’s attitude and in a nasty/rude way said there was nothing she could do and that they were a Marriott Vacation Club so they do not include regular Platinum Members on their Welcome List, etc. I reminded her, that the last time we stayed, she had stated that the list had two pages and that we were on the second page of the list that does not show up (???).

We explained to her that their website shows available rooms with an ocean view for the said night and that in over 2 years staying at their property this was the first time we had been assigned a 1st floor room. Ms. Festino was confrontational and showed no management skills at all, even her new associate showed more respect and professionalism than Ms. Festino.

We told her that it was a great disappointment since we are loyal Marriott Members and we love Ocean Pointe. This is our 1st Review since we had never experienced a more disturbing employee at a Marriott property in our lives.

We have stayed at Marriott properties all over the world and the Country, including the amazing staff at the St. Pancras London a few weeks back, the Marriott Budapest, the Renaissance Paris, Courtyard Edinburgh, Renaissance Amsterdam, etc. We hope Marriott takes immediate action and trains this employee who should not be in a management position. Honestly, after spending 2 weeks in Europe, our last night of our birthday/vacation celebrations was ruined by an unqualified employee with a nasty attitude and lack of professionalism

We were misled by Marriotts Marketing Team. We accepted an offer to stay at Marriotts Palms Vacation Club and at the same time we agreed to attend a sales meeting to see buy a vacation package and they put us at Marriotts Ocean Pointe hotel. It was terrible. The bed sheets were torn and distressed. The floors were dirty and the AC unit was
Making a lot of noise. We spent money on Airfare, Car Rental and this hotel expecting to stay at a category 8 hotel and they put us in this dump to stay. How do they expect us to buy at the Palms and let us spend 4 days in the Marriott Ocean Pointe.

My husband and I are both Marriott Platinum Members. We were promised, with a 100% assurance that we would get a lovely ocean view room and daily housekeeping services. When we checked into our room, we had to strain our neck to view a sliver, yes, a sliver of the ocean! With straining!

Called the front desk and they apologized. After a very long wait, they finally moved us to another room and it was hardly an improvement. The sliver of beach was a slightly larger sliver,. still with straining. How do you relax on a balcony with a strained neck, trying to enjoy the view of the beach.

We let it slide and figured that we would be on the beach most of the time. On Day 3, we were surprised to see the Message light blinking on the phone. We called the front desk and they said that they were, get this! informing us that there will be no more housekeeping services because they are busy! Seriously?!! They gave us another of their “apologies” and said that they would give us 500 points instead. 500points! A measly 500 points!

Mariott generally charges 40,000 points a night and they apologize with 500 points!. They are very generous with their “apologies”. We were paying customers so how about if we called them and told them that we will be paying them $50 less and give them an apology plus 500 points from our Platinum accounts.. We all know what they would say, right?

Being Platinum Members made no difference to them! Why does Marriott even bother with all these membership levels if they cannot honour them!! Later, we got another call from them. My husband answered, thinking that they were going to send housekeeping they had promised. But Nope! Not a chance! You know who it was? Timeshare sales!! What audacity!!

What would make them even remotely think that we would consider an investment in a place that does not believe in excellence in customer service..in a place that does not value us as a long paying customer!! They are damaging the Mariott name, Giving two stars only because of its location right on the beach, despite charging us $40 a day to rent a beach umbrella!