United States v. Marriott International, Inc. (2024 Settlement)

What this case is about

This is a 2024 DOJ settlement with Marriott International. Marriott runs many hotel brands — Marriott, Sheraton, Westin, W, JW Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Courtyard, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites, Fairfield Inn, AC Hotels, Aloft, Element, Renaissance, Le Méridien, St. Regis, and many more. DOJ found that Marriott's reservation systems didn't comply with the ADA Standards for accessible-room reservations. Guests with disabilities couldn't reserve specific accessible rooms in the same way other guests could; descriptions of accessibility features were missing or inadequate; specific accessible rooms weren't being held for the guests who requested them; and consistency across websites, mobile apps, and reservation phone lines was inconsistent. The settlement requires Marriott to allow guests to reserve a specific accessible room with the same specificity available to non-disabled guests; describe each accessible room's features (roll-in shower vs. bathtub with grab bars, communication features for deaf guests, etc.); hold a reserved accessible room for the guest who requested it; train reservation staff; implement parity across all reservation channels (website, app, phone, agency, third-party platforms); and submit to DOJ monitoring. The settlement covers ALL Marriott brand properties.

Who may qualify

The settlement protects guests with disabilities at all Marriott-brand properties nationwide who experience accessible-room or reservation-system barriers. You can report a problem if: - You have a disability and need an accessible room. - You stayed at, tried to book, or had a confirmed reservation at any Marriott-brand property. - The reservation system didn't let you reserve a specific accessible room, didn't describe accessibility features, gave your room away, or treated accessibility differently than non-accessible reservations. The settlement is brand-system-wide. It applies whether you booked through Marriott.com, the Bonvoy app, a phone agent, a travel agency, or a third-party site like Expedia or Booking.com.

What helps your case

Documentation: reservation records (confirmation number, booking channel), brand and property identification, reservation-system screenshots showing accessibility descriptions (or absence), email correspondence with reservation staff, on-property documentation of room assignment and any variances from confirmed reservation.

How to document what happened

Prospective documentation: reservation-system screenshots (multiple booking channels for parity evidence), confirmation records, on-property reconciliation, communication records. File DOJ complaints contemporaneously to support pattern enforcement.

What if you don’t have documentation?

Reports may proceed without contemporaneous documentation. Channels: DOJ Civil Rights Division, state civil-rights agencies, individual Title III actions, state-law parallels (Unruh, NYCHRL, MA PAA, etc.).

What this case doesn’t cover

Outside scope: non-Marriott brands (Hilton subject to separate 2010 consent decree; Hyatt, IHG, Wyndham, Choice, Best Western under separate frameworks), Marriott vacation-rental products (timeshares), cruise lines, on-property restaurants/spas/fitness facilities (separate Title III obligations), past-events damages.

Legal theory

ADA Title III

Named defendants

• Marriott International, Inc.

Case facts

Type

Consent decree

Affected states

Nationwide

Court

U.S. Department of Justice administrative settlement

Filed

2024-01-01

Who to contact

Nobody is running an intake for this one. You can still report what happened.

• Government agency

  U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division

  Takes complaints about businesses open to the public and about state and local government. It investigates and enforces, but it does not represent individuals and cannot advise you on your own claim.

  Phone 800-514-0301

  TTY 833-610-1264

  civilrights.justice.gov/report

  Filing a complaint is not the same as having a lawyer, and it does not pause any legal deadlines. If you may want to bring a case, talk to an attorney about your dates as well as filing.

  Every state has one. They are free, they take intake directly, and unlike a federal agency they can represent you. Find yours

Key dates

Status

Compliance phase, ongoing

Settlement

2024

Template precedent

2010 Hilton consent decree