Posts Tagged ‘marriott

13
Apr
21

Farming is the Life for ME!!

Dog week. I’m stuck in a Marriott tonight. My home away from home most of the time. I spend a lot of time in hotels so I pick Marriotts. They all have good and bad parts about them. I will say that I mysteriously got another free night added to my account about a week after I wrote that blog and had the fighting with them. I’ll take it, but I’m still mad at them. Honeymoon is over. I am however in room 130 at my favorite Courtyard. The one that they renovated and then set up how I asked them too. Still kinda surprised they actually put the stripper pole in, but I do spend a lot of money at Marriotts. I also spend money at the nudie bar. Now I can do both at the same time. I dare you to say you hate America. Not on my watch hippie.

None of that first paragraph had a dang thing to do with a dog. Awesome. I had intentions to get there, but stripper pole popped in the mind. All down hill from there. For the record I’m kidding. I don’t spend lots of money on Marriott. Sorry Mom. So I got to thinking about different dog stories I could use for tonight and about 3 minutes before I started typing I thought about the dogs we had on the farm. Some of you may know that I grew up on a dairy farm in Nothern Wisconsin. I did go to high school in Iowa, but until I was 12 years old I scooped poop everyday. Cow poop, calf poop, pig poop, My own poop, and the best part was even after doing it all day, the next day there was all new poop to scoop. So awesome.

Those cows were work. Milking every morning and every evening. I used to get up early with my sister and Mom to go do the morning milking before school. I’d head to school for some learning, my daily beat down from classmates as I was not cool and smelled like poop, only to come home and milk cows again. The next time your kid complains about taking the trash out, I need you to calmly walk up to them, and then punch them in the face. Twice. Once is boring and sends the wrong message. Two times lets them know you really freaking mean it. I don’t have kids so obviously my parental skills are perfect. Remember that.

Dogs. Okay. Fine. Stop whining. We had German Shepherds growing up. The first one I remember is Mickey. That dog was awesome. She knew where each cow was supposed to be. When the cows came in for milking they have assigned parking spots and when a cow went to the wrong one Mickey was there to help get her straight. You know these were working dogs that didn’t come in the house ever. It is a different kind of relationship with a dog like that compared to a Murphy or Annabel. Working dogs like Mickey are more like a co-worker. They have a job to do as a protector, referee (keeping cows in line), and command a type of respect that is admirable. Nobody would mess with us kids when Mickey and later Smokey were around. Our next dog was named Smokey because she would steal Dad’s Camel cigarettes and smoke them behind the barn. Oh shoot, my bad, that was Jeremy.

No Smokey was named that because she was a gray color. Hey I know a kid that had a Dalmatian named Spotty so don’t give me a hard time. You know who you are Weaver!! Ha. One way to find out if he reads this blog. I also had a pig that I named Miss Piggy. It was a boy pig. Ha. Just kidding. I only name girl dogs boy dog names. Ever wonder how Murphy got her name?? I plead the fifth. As a kid it is often very difficult to appreciate just how special somethings are simply because it is all you know. Those farm dogs were pretty amazing.

I’m very curious if any of you have a cool working dog story. I don’t think I remember any specific story about either of those dogs, but that’s okay. Please let me know if you do as I’d love to hear it. So remember Dogs are like stripper poles. It doesn’t matter where they are, they are always awesome.

Be kind to a dog today. Extra walk, extra treat, or just one more belly rub. They are worth it.

FknBucky

P.S. FknBucky shirts were officially ordered today. I have a couple of cool ideas for them so please be patient. Most likely around Mid-May I will be reaching out to all of you to make sure you have the newest coolest shirt just in time for Summer!! A little teaser. More info coming soon!!

23
Feb
21

Marriott No No

What a week. I’ve had so many little things irritate the crap out of me that I have a feeling two more and I will explode. Don’t believe me?? Just try. Be the one that puts me over the edge. This is actually not recommended. The world can be a Dick sometimes and it just makes you want to smash things. I know I said that you should not blast all your stuff out into internet land, but today I break all the rules. Want to know some really dumb stuff?? Cool cause I’m about to blow it up.

I travel a lot. It is my thing. I stay in hotels a lot. I stay in Marriott hotels a lot. I’m what they call a titanium member and have been for a number of years now. I stay at the same hotels many times and know the staff there personally. Some of you might even remember me posting things like the Asheville Courtyard Marriott decorating my room for my birthday and bringing out a cake. Say what you want, but the truth is people love my crazy ass. Some of you have known me since I was a teenager and not much has changed. I simply love to laugh and mess with people until they laugh too. I went to war in my head after getting paralyzed to make sure I didn’t lose that part about me. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone thru and can’t imagine anything else in life ever coming close to the darkness those days represented. You don’t know and I pray no one I care about ever truly knows the strength it took to not embrace that darkness.

Another day we can discuss that. Or not most likely as I don’t particularly like going back there. It is painful and scary to be honest. Feeling great yet?? Ha. You should be, if I can smile and laugh you sure as heck better be able to. With my status comes rewards from Marriott. They vary in what they are, but the two most common are vouchers for a free night up to a certain point total. Most of the times these vouchers are good for 40,000 points which is plenty to get a nice room just about anywhere. The higher end Marriotts can be all the way up to 120,000 points per night, but your local Courtyard is usually about 30,000. The other option are suite night awards. Instead of one free night you can get five nights upgraded to a suite for no additional cost. A very cool option for vacation when you have some loved ones with you.

Marriott gave me a choice on which one I wanted, but the email asking me went into my spam folder and I never saw it. They have also given me 10 suite night awards sometime last year I never asked for as well. Yahoo Marriott!! Thanks for the free stuff. Here comes the kicker. They do not have accessible suites in many of their hotels. My colleagues I travel with are mostly all titanium members as well and they get upgraded almost every stay to a suite or better room. I do not, because I need the accessible room. It is what it is. I use a wheelchair and in order to keep my sanity I accept things like this simply because to get upset by means I’ll be pissed off all the time. I don’t have that in me.

Last week I thought to myself “Self why don’t you email Marriott customer service and ask them to swap my suite nights for vouchers.” Seemed really logical to me as I can’t use the suite nights. I’ve tried in the past and every single time the hotel does not have accessible suites making it pointless. I explained that I am paralyzed from the chest down and because of that unable to stay in the suites of their hotels. I honestly don’t think I was asking for anything crazy, but simply asking to have my reward switched to something that I can actually take advantage of. The reality is it is BS they don’t have accessible suites in the hotels. I know us cripples make normal people uncomfortable so it is discouraged to leave the house and certainly not to try and stay in an upgraded room. Nope us cripples usually stay on the 1st floor next to the laundry room and elevators.

I was met with a massive NO WAY no matter who I talked to. I was kind of taken aback like “whoa” what did I do wrong?? I had one guy tell me other guests can’t change their rewards so I shouldn’t be able to change mine. I asked if all the other guest were paralyzed front the chest down to which he replied he treats everyone the same way. While that is a “thing” in my personal opinion it was being applied wrong. I explained to him/her that I understand the policy, but was hoping they could treat me like a person and not just Marriott member number 3938364 (not my real number). In life and business a person needs to understand that being right is sometimes the incorrect answer. I truly thought someone would say “Oh man, that is not cool” and then figure out a cool way to help me out. Instead I was left feeling ashamed I even dared to ask.

I obviously didn’t take my first three NO’s and quit so I started to email more and more people about my situation. I can afford the stupid rooms, but it became more about the principal than anything else. My final email back from someone started out thanking me for my loyalty to Marriott and how much they appreciate my position. I’m assuming they appreciate I’m paralyzed, but not exactly sure what that statement meant. This guy acknowledged the suites are not accessible, making it impossible for me to use the reward, but they still refuse to change the rewards and I should stop because it can not escalate further. Escalating is what I do. I’m hoping it is what you do too. I am fine with keeping the suite night award, but that should mean I have every opportunity to use my reward just like others.

Maybe I’m looking at this wrong and if you think that please let me know because the way I see it sucks. I love Marriott most of the time. In fact I have written a dozen complimentary emails with one of them leading to a group of employees at the Courtyard Marriott in Asheville, NC to be recognized nationally by Marriott receiving an award. They could use their award as it was cash I do believe. I really believe Marriott should be better than this. What do you think???

Be kind to others unless you’re Marriott. Then do whatever you want because you are massive and trading out one crippled pricks suite nights to free stay vouchers will bankrupt the whole company.

FknBucky




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