Ac Hotel By Marriott Palencia

First impressions count. Smart entrance, great rooms with all amenities, hotel bar and restaurant. All top notch. Property is located on the outskirts of town between two petrol stations. One is super cheap. It is easy to get back on the road to the ferry port, but the area looks in the dark more of an industrial estate. Might have to revise this in the morning.

It would have been a fine hotel in this small town Palencia IF ONLY they don't carry the Marriott brand. The room is standard traditional style for AC Hotels in Spain, nothing particularly good or bad about it. The part that pissed me off the most is the lack of respect to the terms and conditions that both sides agreed to as being part of the Marriott system. The welcome benefit for Platinum members was not offered during the check-in process. When I went back to the same lady who checked me in and inquired about it, she gave a normal excuse that the system was slow so she wasn't able to offer the benefit earlier during check-in(!?). I'm fine that the whole check-in interaction was robotic (passport/ sign here/ and here's your room key) and I'm fine that the benefit was only offered after I went back and asked for it. But I'm not ok when I requested guest compensation $50 according to the terms and conditions, it was not honored. I didn't even insist that the claim needs to be honored right there at night given it was already 10PM, the lady said her manager was not there, and would only come in the next morning. The next morning when I went down for breakfast at 8AM, I was surprised to see the same lady at the check-in desk. And she said to me her manager won't be here today and she was instructed to offer breakfast for free (~$5 after the membership benefit, some AC Hotels even would offer free breakfast as one of the options for Platinum members). Of course I don't agree only that as compensation, that's like 1/10 of what I'm entitled to. Then she went on to say there was nothing she could do which I don't really blame her, she's probably overworked (she was still there at noon when I checked out from the hotel, how many hours were there...). I think the biggest problem is with the management of this hotel, seemingly trying every way to save a buck. When I said that the Bonvoy help desk has already raised a case about this, she told me that the hotel will just close the case. (!?)