My laptop was lifted at HighEdWeb just over a week ago. I completely feel your pain. I essentially got no satisfaction from the hotel, but they were kind and smart enough not to offer me the same experience you had. The security officer was personable and appropriately contrite. They worked closely (though unsuccessfully) with conference officials to review security tapes and attempt to discover the thief. It really made the difference between me livid and me simply accepting the loss. I hope you get some resolution.

It will be interesting to see how the Courtyard by Marriott handles this incident as news of your robbery AT A TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE spreads via social media channels.

I also hope to see Blogworld help you out considering this was one of their three recommended hotels. Oh, by the way, Marriott was featured on Mashable in “40 of the Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them” http://bit.ly/RDY2G.

I’m sorry this happened to you.

Eduardo,

Just read this through a RT on Twitter and cannot begin to express how badly i feel for you. Please know that I have passed this on to everyone that I know to see if there’s any way to get your stuff replaced.

It’s times like these that I can totally relate to thinking that the world sucks ass and people suck worse.

I too was touched during Chris Brogan’s keynote. It was probably the most human I can remember a speaker – and can only hope that during my engagements I come across half so.

Keep thinking positively, acting positively, and always be a lovecat.

all the best,

Matt

Sorry to hear about that, yea that area around the convention center, between Flamingo & Sahara, is known for a lot of crime. Hopefully, they will recover it, or give you money in return. If there’s anything I can do let me know, I live in S. Las Vegas area.
-fellow blogger

What time did this happen? I checked in to the Courtyard at about 9:15 am on Friday and I’m pretty sure I saw your room (unless there were more than one set of sliders with a giant chair sized hole in them). That’s so crazy. It definitely made me think twice about staying there. I have never had a problem with a Marriott before, but I have to admit that the lady at the front desk was quick to dismiss me without the usual courtesy that I’ve come to expect from the Marriott staff. I’m really sorry for your computer loss. That’s never easy to recover from.

Wow, I just can’t believe hotel staff weren’t a little more compassionate. I don’t need some company policy to feel bad when bad things happen to people. Maybe the Marriott needs to review their hiring process a bit.

Ironically, I’ve hears horror stories about MULTIPLE Blogworld-recommended hotels this year. Their total lack of compassion and unwillingness to help amazes me, don’t they know who they’re messing with?

A lot of the people who got “bumped” from their rooms reported similar stories of cold, emotionless staff just acting as if nothing were out of the ordinary. Even to the point of weaseling out of reparations in their own terms and conditions. Sad, really.

I hope the hotel ends up covering any deposit your insurance (or theirs) charges but the actual equipment isn’t the hardest part. Do you have a recent backup? I can’t fathom losing my laptop AND the data on it. I don’t think I could recover from that.

I wish you all the best… Thanks for writing about this so we know where NOT to stay next year!

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by emerille: Post about my stolen laptop at #bwe09:http://bit.ly/2akO77 pls RT @courtenaybird @stammy @chrisbrogan @dave_blogworld @armano @…

Eduardo,

I am sorry this happened to you. What a sinking and helpless feeling.

I am glad you are talking about it. You have made excellent points for us to pay attention to when we are training corporate brands. It is the little points of empathy that make all the difference.

I hope Marriott recovers from their initial response and does the right thing.

This absolutely sucks. Just another example of poor training and not being customer-driven. Hope it works out and you’re compensated for the loss, one way or another.

You have my sympathy both in terms of losing your laptop and it’s aassociated personal assets and in receiving service at the junction of procedure v’s empathy.

Company’s need to re-engage with what they exist to do: to add value to customer’s through an engaging transaction

Sorry to hear about this. I am also glad you are writing about your experience. Marriot should have better ways of dealing with this situation. I hope things work out for you.

Eduardo, this is terrible, so I feel for you. But where was hotel management or the shift supervisor? How did they respond? Keep in mind that the front desk employee and the security guard have just enough training and are getting just enough pay to keep them going. The poor response is a management issue.

I am so sorry to hear about your loss and the customer service fail by Marriott! To think how this post may have been written if the staff and handled it better… Hopefully one of the insurance policies you have will cover this… Also check with the credit card you used for the hotel as it might have theft coverage as well. Good luck!!!

I’m so sorry you had this experience to write this blog. Too bad Marriott didn’t hear Chris Brogan’s keynote speech and take heed!

Eduardo, that just sucks beans. Really. I’m sorry that you had to go through that *AND* have to deal with a complete lack of human decency.

All due respect to Bret, above, but responding with a modicum of kindness or empathy to a situation like that isn’t something that should have to be trained. I totally agree that the management should have also bent over backward to help you and make you comfortable, but expecting a little compassion from people — no matter who they are or what their position — isn’t unreasonable. I hope that Marriott does right by you, sir.

Good luck & I’m sorry that happened.

I am sorry that you lost your laptop. I can surely understand what it feels like to find out that your lappy is being stolen and on top of that you had to hear “this has happened first time” thing. I hope you will be able to easily recover your data and important stuff.

I am really sorry to hear about your experience Eduardo. There is no excuse for the poor service you received by the Courtyard staff.

In their defense, I have stayed their countless times for numerous events and never had or heard about anyone having this problem. It is a clean safe hotel.

That does not excuse their staff’s treatment of you. We are reaching out to our contact’s at the Marriott to see if they may be able to help in some way.

First, my apologies this happened to you.

I used to travel with my MacBook Pro, until I started thinking about something. Nowadays, many people carry laptops with them, especially when they travel. Not many people like to carry their portable computer around everywhere they go, so they leave them behind in their hotel rooms.

Knowing hotel rooms aren’t the most secure places, I stopped carrying my MacBook Pro with me on vacations and trips involving hotels. Rather, I got a 5 year old Dell laptop and loaded Ubuntu on it as my ‘travel’ computer. That way – if it gets stolen, I’m only out a few hundred bucks, rather than $2,000.

Also, a Netbook is a good thing, because it’s so small, you can carry it with you more places than a 5-6 pound laptop. Also, at $300, the same principal applies to the Linux option mentioned above.

While having to keep after two machines isn’t optimal, hotel security is so lax nowdays that it’s worth the effort, to me.

Thank you for all the great comments and sympathy but I assure you, I let none of it get to me. Life is too short. I just wanted to share experience and take some lessons away.

@Brandon Dove – I left the room around 7:30pm. What you are telling me just makes the hotel look even worse since I did not arrive back until around 12:30am. This means that they knew about it and did nothing until I came back. I am now appalled and thinking more and more that this may have been an inside job.

@Bret Simmons – Management was out of the picture until the following day when I harassed them to pay attention to me. They never made contact, in fact they avoided it. This has me starting to feel like they wanted to blame me in some way.

I will follow-up this post when I get some resolution, even if it is not from the hotel.

I have stayed at many Courtyard Mariotts and have always had a pleasant experience. I will never go back to the one in Vegas but I recognize that others around the country have great service.

I used time machine (back up software) with an external drive at the office, so my data was recovered and just in case I changed all my passwords.

Again, thanks all.

I am so sorry that your computer and camera were stolen. I echo your sentiment re the LX3. My house was broken into and they stole my laptop also. It sucks. I had to go and change all passwords, bank info, accounts, etc.

You are so smart to back up your data.

Eduardo, so sorry to hear about your loss. Nothing can more frustrating than experiencing something stolen and than have the place where it was stolen from not really care.

Thanks for sharing your story. Hopefully Marriott is monitoring social media and will show another side of their customer service.

Bad news for Emerille AND Marriott, but frankly I’m not surprised. I travel 75 per for business, and NEVER leave valuables anywhere much less a hotel room. The fact your patio door was broken indicates it’s an outside job (non Marriott employee) and obviously not Marriott’s fault.

But that’s not the issue. You were violated by a stranger who now has your entire life at their fingertips. Not only that, but most undoubtedly you felt your safety was at risk.

Not knowing ANY of the details, I’ll go on what you’ve posted…

Asking a low level employee, or security guard to have empathy or compassion for you is an expectation I’m not sure is fair. However in this situation, a manager on duty should have been notified or contacted immediately to take control and offer you support and remedy. (Cup of coffee, fellowship, follow through with authorities and move you to another hotel for starters.)

In my mind that’s where Marriott failed. Apparently at the moment of impact no one realized your peril. That’s not a crime, but it REALLY sucks when you’re hurting.

Moral of the story:
Never assume a hotel room or any public facility is safe for person or belongings. (Remember you’re just passing through, most criminals of opportunity are not) Should you have the same misfortune as Emerille, gather your wits, and escalate the issue to the highest chain of command until you feel relief, support and remedy. If you can’t find your wits or were hit on the head, call a REAL friend explain your situation and have them deal with someone in command.

I saw @chrisbrogan’s twitter of your story and checked it out. Sorry to hear that this happened to you. I forwarded the story on to a old friend of mine at Marriott corporate. She said, “I hadn’t seen the post. Thanks for sending. Sent it up the chain in case it’s been missed by us. Sad that not all of our franchises absorb our company spirit.” Five minutes later, she sent, “Just got a note back that it’s been kicked up to VP PR & Customer Service.” Not saying you’ll hear anything, but hopefully you’ll get some closure on this.

thank you. truly appreciate that

[...] I woke up at 3am in Orange County so that I could get some client work finished before heading to Vegas. I backed out of my driveway at 5:32 am and by 9:15 I had arrived in Vegas and checked into my hotel room. I walked around the back only to see a sliding glass door on the first floor with a shattered window (I later read about poor Eduardo’s story). [...]

[...] Eduardo’s story is not quite as positive as he had his laptop stolen, so if you’re in social media help spread his story so the hotel takes action! [...]

[...] BlogWorld 09: A Tale of Burglary, Brogan and Human Business – Eduardo Merille [...]

I’ve heard a lot of hotel horror stories from Vegas this year, and experienced one myself. It surprises me that with the best method of retention being customer service, the Vegas hotels would be so careless in their efforts. It makes paying the extra cost to stay somewhere like the Wynn completely worth it in my opinion.

well Saturday night whilst i was asleep sumone entered my room stole about £25 from my pockets and left me a humorous note saying play the insurance game

the duty manager was no help at all trying to make out that i had given sumone a key to my room.

[...] people have asked me what happen after this inicident at a Marriott Courtyard in Las [...]

.. ] is other interesting source of information on this issue..]
http://carinsurance.cheap-quotes.info/