We booked a hotel room for a competition with the ...

We booked a hotel room for a competition with the Marriott. We got an okay rate but thought it was easiest to stay there since the competition was there. Unfortunately we had a family emergency and needed to cancel our stay. We used Marriott's online system and cancelled our room 6 days in advance. Low and behold the next month we got our credit card bill and we were charged for the full price of the room. We called to find out why we were charged and they said we had to give them 7 days notice to cancel our reservation and that we need to read our contract more thoroughly. I asked to speak with the manager, who by the way won't deal with customers. Which is odd, what is more important then a customer? I was referred to her assistant Heather McCarthy which was a waste of time. She has no authority or power to make decisions nor does she care. So I am not sure why she is put in charge of customer disputes. It was a waste of time. This hotel doesn't care about customer service and won't give you the time of day. We called corporate Marriott to find out this is a franchisee and they have no authority over them. I would suggest you stay elsewhere even though this is a household brand they certainly don't care about you or your hard earned money.