Residence Inn by Marriott Charlottesville Downtown — Attraction in Charlottesville

Pros: Location: This place is at the heart of downtown. We could walk to the downtown mall, if we wanted. We actually did walk to one or two places.

Parking isn't really that big but it is enough and that is all you need. We mainly parked in the garage since we were out late almost every night and the non-garage parking was full when we got back.

Decent view from our hotel windows. We saw the mountains, the parking lot, lots of trees, buildings, and some traffic. I like having all of that to look at. Sometimes we have a view and it is literally looking at another hotel so this was a very nice change.

The hotel room was very clean.

Layout of the room.

Kitchen. The kitchen actually had chairs which was nice. Other hotels we have stayed at did not have chairs in the kitchen and a little bar area to eat it. Different and I loved it. There was also a toaster. Full size fridge, etc. etc. Very nice kitchen.

The couch. I love a chaise and have never had one of my own and this was the first one I have had in a hotel room and I loved it. I am going to have to start looking for this option at the nicer hotels when I get the privilege to stay at places that would have a couch like this.

The shower was a little odd with it being half opened at the back. Very odd. I had never been in a shower like this before. I wouldn't call it a con. It was just something different. The water did get out of the shower a bit but the floor didn't have a puddle of water there for hours upon hours. It didn't take forever to dry up. I look to have a big shower when we stay in hotels and this was a big enough shower for sure. All walk-in showers are. This was not a tub. If you want a tub, you'll have to ask the hotel staff to accommodate you. I liked that the shower had space to put soaps, etc. I just wish it would of had a bar or two inside the shower to put wash cloths.

TV Guide - the TV guide actually stayed on until I turned it off or selected something different. Most rooms and even my own TV at home turns it off after a minute or so. I like it to stay up there. Just a mini pro in my experience and what I prefer. Haha.

Good breakfast. We ate it 3 out of 4 mornings. We loved the waffles. The bacon and eggs were better than some places too. I loved having 3 juice options. Also toppings for the waffles. They had tortilla wraps and taco toppings too. Interesting for breakfast. :)

Cons to note:

Bed. The bed really was NOT comfy for us to sleep in. I don't know if it was us or those beds just aren't comfy. It was just a regular mattress and not a pillow top. It was definitely our least favorite mattress/bed in the last 7 months of being in a hotel at least a few days every month. No hair dryer. At pretty much every other hotel we have stayed at there has been a hair dryer. The fridge was a bit loud. Louder than what a fridge should sound like. It got even louder at times. It got to be an annoyance after a few days. Not anything to really complain about since we weren't staying there for several weeks or anything but just something small that we didn't like about the hotel room. No soap for the dishwasher, no facial bar, and no dish liquid for the sink.

-- We opted not to have room service so we could get the extra points for our stay. I did request for extra toilet paper, 2 big towels, and a soap for the kitchen and they brought me all of that plus like 6 wash cloths, 4 hand towels, dishwasher pods, shampoo, conditioner, lots of soaps of all kinds that should be in the room like facial, hand, etc. A lot of extras. I have never had a hotel give me so many extras before. It was awesome. Best service ever for asking for something and getting a lot of extras.

They have a happy hour from a certain time with free food. Not sure about drinks. Maybe they were a portion off or something. We went down to check it out before going out to dinner just to browse the options. Social hour basically with your family, friends, or just whoever is at the hotel sitting down there - maybe make a...

Residence Inn Downtown rivals having an apartment in a coveted prime location in Cville. Located at the corner of W Main Street & Ridge/McIntire, the hotel is an easy walk to the downtown mall, UVA & UVAMC, tons of restaurants, IX Park and Belmont. Aside from the optimal location, the amenities & comforts this 7-story hotel offers are top-notch.

Each room is a suite with a complete kitchen, which includes a full-sized fridge & freezer and dishwasher. The freezers are equipped with ice makers. All rooms have at least an electric cooktop and if you opt for a larger suite, you can even score an oven. Dishes and utensils are provided in the rooms, as well as a few pots & pans. High speed internet access and smart TVs are standard. The beds are what you’d expect from the Marriott brand, roomy and comfortable. There’s ample storage space, with plenty of cabinets in the kitchen, a large desk w/enough working space, dressers w/drawers, a decent closet, nightstands on each side of the bed, and cubby spaces beneath the vanity in the bathroom.

There’s a laundry room on-site, equipped with 4 washers & 4 dryers. Laundry is free for guests to use (provide your own detergent). There’s an indoor pool, a gym, complimentary breakfast, and a courtyard with comfy seating and a fire pit. The breakfast was temporarily paused during the peak of Covid, but has resumed and is much better than most free hotel breakfast offerings AND served later than many others (‘til 10:30am)

Let’s talk about 2 of the most important parts of a hotel stay (at least for me): cleanliness and customer service. Cleanliness: this is the absolute most important factor in my decision to continue a stay at any hotel, regardless of amenities. As I write this, I’ve been here on a continuous stay for about 6mnths. For me, that speaks volumes about the care taken by the staff to provide an exceptional experience. The lobby is expansive, with tons of seating and it’s always clean. I have yet to go downstairs and find anything a mess, even when the hotel is at full capacity; when people are milling around everywhere. The rooms are well kept; housekeeping is thorough and will accommodate most reasonable requests. Cleaning practices were enhanced when Covid began, but honestly, staff was already doing an excellent job before the additional measures were put in place.

Customer service: I can’t say enough about the staff here. While we’ve seen a bit of turnover, normal for the hospitality industry, especially in a pandemic, there’s a solid crew of folks that are constantly going above and beyond to make this feel like home and not just a hotel. At the front desk, Heather is a total rockstar. There is nothing she can’t take care of and quite often, she’s proactively doing something before we even ask. If I ever expand my business to include a full-time staff, I’ll be trying to poach her. She is the epitome of what I consider an invaluable employee. Glen is another face I’ve been happy to see over the past 2yrs. He’s chill, efficient and knows his job. He’s always super helpful and seems genuinely happy to see us. As part of management, Geoffrey is 100% the embodiment of hospitality. He’s professional, but still personable and has a great sense of humor. He was made for this industry. There are so many others to shout-out, but I’d be here all day. Even the newer employees are rocking it out. I overheard one of the new associates go out of her way to help a family get free passes to the pool at ACAC when the hotel pool was temporarily closed. There’s been a GM change in the last month, but the new GM has been here at least since 2019, because I remember her going out of her way to help us secure a room last minute when another hotel in town was so disgusting that we had to abruptly leave.

If you made it this far in the review, I hope this was convincing enough for you to book a stay. You really...

Eric Pfister, General Manager is TERRIBLE. There was a miscommunication between the management staff regarding my parents' stay which ultimately put my family in an impossible and extremely compromising position. There was a large power outage in the area which resulted in my parents needing to stay at this hotel. My mother requires round the clock nursing care and was unable to be admitted to a facility at this time, so the hotel was a last resort (which was communicated to the staff when reserving a handicap room). During the stay, my mother was rushed to the emergency room and in the process, the hotel was informing us that we had to check out by 2 pm that day (a day earlier than we had arranged with their other manager on duty 2 days prior). While my mother was being treated at the hospital, I had to leave her to try and rectify this problem with the Hotel manager as my parents had nowhere to go and were NOT in a position to work anything else out. Eric Pfister, the General Manager, came to the front desk, proceeded to sip his coffee in my face and shrug as if the issue and miscommunication was not at all his problem. I practically PLEADED with him to help us find other arrangements and he said "well, you could try the Omni." He waved me off to the lady working the front desk and she proceeded to make calls to check availability at another hotel. He walked around the lobby, sipping his coffee and not ONCE offered to handle the situation himself--a task a good manager who cares about his customers and establishment would do. This manager not only KNEW that my mother had been rushed to the ER that morning and did not bother to check in on us to see how we were doing, but he did not even bother to help us make other arrangements with another hotel until I had left the hospital to speak to him. I called corporate to complain about how my family was treated during this ordeal and it wasn't until they had reached out to Eric that he had finally written us an "apology" in which he justified sipping his coffee during our conversation with "I had just been to breakfast" and lied about making prior arrangements for us at another hotel (which was not true because I was there when his front desk clerk made the arrangements, taking an additional 20 minutes of the time I should have been spending at the hospital with my mother ). The only good thing about this hotel is the location, but if you are stuck in a bind, don't count on this hotel to do a single thing for you. Don't count on this staff to be communicative, don't count on reservations being set in stone, and don't count on their General Manager to care enough about his costumers to do...