In the ins and outs of the lodging business, sometimes errors are fully exposed to guests.

As the naked truth is undressed in the Compensation for unwanted porn? thread, a nine-year-old girl witnessed barely two seconds of hard-core pornography while now-apparently-distraught FlyerTalk member Salisbury5 was changing channels on the television in the hotel room.

Some FlyerTalk members thought compensation was due. Others thought Salisbury5 should receive nothing more than an apology.

However, at least two FlyerTalk members want to know the room number in which Marriott property this incident occurred…

Divorce can be quite messy and troublesome enough, but the prospect of a FlyerTalk member sharing some — or even losing all — of his or her miles and points to a soon-to-be-former spouse can be sheer torture.

Here is a compendium of threads to help one sort through the rules and policies regarding a divorce in some frequent traveler loyalty programs:

• Miles & Points in Divorce Settlement
• Divorce and Miles
• Frequent flier miles and divorce
• miles-divorce
• miles and divorce, death?
• Death, Divorce and Miles.
• Divorce and FF Miles….
• Divorce and United Miles
• Does UA allow miles from one account to be divided up 50/50 under divorce settlement?
• Divorce and United Miles
• Marriott Points and Divorce
• splitting mileage in a divorce
• Keeping Miles From Divorce

FlyerTalk member and Marriott International employee Marriott Concierge wants your feedback regarding the following in the Marriott Rewards Invites Your Feedback thread:

“First, for our properties that do not have the occupancy (volume) from Gold and Platinum members to open the lounge on Sunday evening:
Would you consider a voucher for a free drink and appetizer in the hotel lounge or bar an acceptable alternative to lounge hours on Sunday Evening?

Second, we are looking at ways to improve the platinum arrival gift. We have noticed that a disproportionate number of platinum guests choose point offerings for their arrival gift. This has led us to ask the following questions:

• Rather than having to select points at check in every time, would you rather have them automatically posted to your account each visit?
  
• Are there food or beverage items we could add that would be more enticing than the points selection?
  
• Are there non-food or beverage items or amenities you would like to see added to the platinum arrival selection?”

How would you like to pay US$140.00 for a bathrobe?

That is the cost to rent it per night. It is not yours to keep.

FlyerTalk member and ersatz detective SkiAdcock cleverly deduced the cost of the bathrobe in The case of the $140 bathrobe… at a Marriott hotel property in California, where it is not actually the cost of renting the bathrobe, but rather the result of calculating the difference between room rates on different days where one rate includes the bathrobe but the other does not.

Well, at least one will earn the appropriate amount of Marriott Rewards points for renting this bathrobe. Isn’t that what is truly important anyway?!?

This leaves one to wonder how much the bathrobe would cost if one actually purchased it…

From now until 31 December 2008, you can earn Up to 150% mileage bonus for most miles earned through year-end 2008.

This may be a good time for you to top off your Delta Air Lines SkyMiles balance.

However, a bit of controversy is brewing in that thread, as some FlyerTalk members are unhappy with what appears to be the giving away and devaluation of SkyMiles.

In a related PROMO: convert 20,000 SPG points to 62,500 Delta Skymiles (good through 12/31/08) thread, you could benefit if you are a Starwood Preferred Guest member and need more Delta Air Lines SkyMiles.

A similar Cross post alert – 150% Delta Skymiles bonus on transfers thread in the Marriott forum could benefit Marriott Rewards members.

FlyerTalk member Marriott Concierge announced changes to the Marriott Rewards program that be in effect as of 15 January 2009, which include:

• Blackout dates will be eliminated.
• Platinum Elite Bonus will increase from 30% to 50%.
• Redeem for 4 nights and get the 5th redemption free.

…but redemption of Marriott Rewards points also increase in certain categories of hotel properties, with reported increases as much as 50% greater than current levels.

While some FlyerTalk members are happy with the changes, many are not and are voicing their opinions in the No Blackout Dates – 2009 Program Enhancements thread.

FlyerTalk member jasonpbyu just learned a valuable lesson about leaving valuables in his car when he has the valet park his car at the hotel property at which he is staying.

jasonpbyu says the Valet stole my GPS, should I file a police report? Most FlyerTalk members that have posted to this point consider the possibility of the retrieval of his Global Positioning System, or GPS, to be a lost cause.

What should jasonpbyu do? At which hotel property did this occur? What exactly happened? Will there be a positive outcome to this situation?

The Is Marriott Discriminating Against Single Travelers? thread, intended to be tongue-in-cheek and lighthearted in nature, is swimmingly interesting because apparently nobody is allowed to be in the pool area alone at the Courtyard Marriott River North property in Chicago, and FlyerTalk member whirledtraveler had to walk through the pool area to get to the exercise room.

whirledtraveler walked through the pool area alone anyway.

Did whirledtraveler exercise good judgement? Do not be a dumbbell. Get pumped up and weigh in on this issue by posting in the Is Marriott Discriminating Against Single Travelers? thread.

FlyerTalk member randomman reports that Marriott Hotels has embarked on a practice of providing less soap in its rooms than it used to while maintaining similar dimensions.

Meanwhile, FlyerTalk member seadan reports that Hyatt Hotels has bulk dispensers in rooms at one of its properties instead of individual containers for the shampoo, conditioner and bath gel it provides, as has been the precedent.

Are these decisions by Marriott and Hyatt cost-cutting measures, convenience issues, ergonomic implementations, conservation choices, or environmentally friendly choices? Perhaps there are other possible reasons to consider? Will these ideas become a trend in the hospitality industry and spread to other lodging companies such as Hilton, Starwood or InterContinental Hotels, or should they be – ahem – barred from cleaning up their acts?

Find out more and join in on the discussion in the following two FlyerTalk threads:

• Hollow Soap
• Bulk Dispensers instead of small bottles in Grand Hyatt San Francisco

It almost causes FlyerTalk members to abandon one form of suds from one kind of bar to suds of another kind from bars of another type…

How would you like to get 10,000 Marriott Rewards points for every third paid stay at qualifying Marriott family hotels?

Perhaps you qualify for a different promotion?

Is it possible you qualify for a Marriott Rewards promotion and do not even know about it yet?

Read the Power Up Promotion Summer 2008 thread for details.