Marriott Ousts Tennis Phenom Oudin in Bad PR Move

(MoneyWatch)  Melanie Oudin, 17, has defied the odds and made it to the U.S. Open's Women's Quarterfinals. She was ranked 70th in the nation, and apparently hadn't reserved her room at the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square through the second week of the tournament. When her reservation was up, the hotel told her to leave. Apparently they hadn't been reading the sports section or watching any major network to know that the 17-year-old phenom created one of the major upsets of the tournament by defeating No. 29 seed Maria Sharapova and No. 13 Nadia Petrova. Bad luck there, Marriott.

Instead the Oudin clan headed to a nearby hotel found by her agent, John Tobias. He reportedly told reporters, "Obviously, we will not be sending any of our players back to that hotel."

Marriott said repeatedly it couldn't confirm Oudin even stayed there. Then the hotel, seemingly sensing a backlash, came out with a statement saying they didn't ask Oudin to leave (although saying they still have no record of her staying there.) A Marriott spokeswoman said, "Usually, when we have VIPs or sports athletes staying with us -- and we have a lot of sports players that do stay here -- if she reached out to us, of course we could have tried to work with her."

Is anyone surprised the hotel showed its softer and magnanimous side after she already had to find another hotel and it looked bad in media reports? Or when they realized just who Oudin was? I wasn't, either.

The problem here is that Oudin is so new to fame that she may not have understood she could pull the celebrity card. Instead, when she was told she couldn't stay any longer, she probably acted like any other disgruntled but practical customer by finding another nearby hotel (but perhaps thinking she would never stay at that Marriott again.) In a way, the news reports did the Marriott a favor -- by showing the hotel their lacking customer service and corporate intelligence.