Courtyard by Marriott Mahwah — Attraction in Mahwah

My boyfriend and I stayed at this location after a wedding Saturday night. We arrived a little after 11pm, and were told we couldn't check in because their system was down. So we, among all of the other guests arriving that night, sat in the lobby for 2 hours. There were no updates or any kind of communication about what was going on from the staff, so eventually I went up there to see if there was an eta on fixing the situation, and I was told we would need to leave and find a new place to stay. At this point, it's 1:30am, we live over an hour away, I was running on 3 hours of sleep and had driven 7 hours down from Toronto, and my boyfriend and I had been drinking since we were at a wedding- driving home in that state or finding a new place to stay was less than ideal. Oh, and I had also gotten a flat tire in the parking lot of the venue somehow. My boyfriend and I then leave, because that's what we were told to do, he's fixing my tire, and then 15 min later we get a call from the groom saying the system was back up and running, so we go back to the hotel. The next morning, we went to go checkout and talk to the front desk about receiving some kind of reimbursement for our stay, but we watched the woman working be nothing but rude and unprofessional to the woman ahead of us who was simply trying to figure out something with her reservation. The woman working kept saying "I don't know what you want from me, I told you you'll have to wait to speak to the manager tomorrow, there's nothing I can do for you, I don't know how many times I have to tell you..." This was the same woman working the evening before who did nothing to make sure the guests waiting in the lobby were taken care of in some capacity. We decided she wasn't the right person to speak to, and would wait until the next day to speak with the manager. The next day comes along, call. said manager, and he was just as rude and unprofessional as his employee. His apologies sounded robotic as if he was reading off of a script, and said the only thing he could do for us was give us SOME money off on our next stay...excuse me sir, but we will never be coming back to stay with you.

We aren't unreasonable people. I've worked in retail, at restaurants, and I understand things happen- there's a power outage, systems aren't working- but there's always a plan in place for when things go wrong. I remember multiple times having to take receipt paper and a pen, and put it over a credit card to imprint the info onto. How is it okay to let guests sit in a lobby hours upon hours in the middle of the night, exhausted, and not do anything about it? There are email confirmations..take the client information, a piece of paper, write their info down, and handle it when the system is working. We all know there's a master key, so take the guests into their rooms! Or how about some basic communication from the staff throughout the ordeal, "everyone we apologize so much for this inconvenience. We're working hard to make sure things are back up and running and will update you once we have some more information." Or how about for the people who kept spending money at the bar that was in the lobby while they were waiting "We're going to give you all some complementary drinks while you wait." Literally ANYTHING could have sufficed. I don't know how this hotel is even in business considering the lack of professionalism, poor management, communication, hospitality, back up plans in place, etc.

I do have to say, the young gentleman that was also working that evening was very nice, and I felt bad he was having to deal with the situation at hand, I know it's stressful, but he should have gotten more help from his coworker to make sure the guests were looked after while he was working...

Management needs to take responsibility and ensure all of their staff is trained on how to address situations where there’s a significant issue in the room and ultimately, how to treat their guests with basic decency and respect. Your staff represent your brand and should know how to properly address issues. When we called down asking for help with a broken AC, the individual at the front desk was extremely unprofessional in handling the situation and needs to relearn the basics of being in the hospitality industry. I’ve been a Marriott loyalist for almost 10 years and have never seen this kind of service in any other hotel. Thank you to Ellie and Jim (the bartender, who graciously helped find a fan in the laundry room to help us get through the night). We were able to get our night comped after speaking to Cynthia, the general manager, but still wanted to share our experience.

More details: We arrived late from a day of traveling, got our room key, and quickly realized the AC unit was broken - we adjusted the in-wall thermostat to the lowest it would go (65 degrees) and realized it still was not working (no air at all).

There was 4 of us, one 6 months pregnant, and the room was getting extremely uncomfortable so I called down to ask if someone could take a look at the unit, or if another room was available. I spoke with front desk and was told that all rooms were booked and there were no engineers on site but that he would send someone up. ~10 minutes later we get a call to the room from the same individual saying the person came up, knocked 3 times but left since we didn’t respond. We had 4 people in the room, 1 close by the door, and none of us heard anything. When I told the person he said “The girl’s already leaving. We can’t send anyone else.” This left us with no choice but to stay in this room since all rooms are booked but throughout this whole conversation, he didn’t apologize once for the inconvenience or offer anything (e.g., a fan) to help us get through the night.

This is a Marriott hotel in NJ, no AC when it’s 80 degrees out seemed like a good enough reason to give some kind of discount on the price, which wasn’t cheap either, and when I asked him about that he said I would have to talk to management but he could give us complimentary breakfast tickets. I said great and asked if I could pick the ticket up in the morning as it was already 11pm at this point. He insisted I come down to the front desk to get it tonight and when asked why I couldn’t just get it in the morning, he offered no reason. Despite the inconvenience and how frustrating this whole experience was, I went down to get the breakfast ticket and when I got there, he said “I can come up to see if it’s working” which automatically makes me wonder why he insisted I come down in the first place.

On the ticket he also had marked “2 adults, 2 children” when he clearly saw 4 adults walk in and that’s what’s on the reservation. When I asked him to change that to avoid any issues in the morning, he said he can’t do that and just passed me off to the colleague next to him and leaves the desk. He also told us to “calm down,” somehow shifting the blame to us instead of apologizing for the major issue in the room and addressing his own incompetencies of not communicating clearly. Throughout this whole encounter and multiple conversations, he didn’t apologize once. This whole situation could have been rectified if this individual just handled...

Stayed in a standard room with two queen-sized beds. Plenty of room to move around and set belongings without tripping over them. Bathrooms were acceptable in size and cleanliness. Typical small fridge, coffee maker, 43" flat screen, and above-average working area (desk fits under the main tv stand/dresser combo and can be moved out and to the side to roughly double working space - nice touch). Coffee maker is of the proprietary single-use variety. No K-cups, but can be used without the coffee pack to make hot water - slowly. Microwave is available in the lobby for use (not a fan of hotels that do this).

Our second floor room had an opening to a balcony but the screen door was jammed so did not get out to look it over. First floor rooms have a glass door that exits directly to the outside - made one in our group a bit nervous. We usually use the fan on the heating/cooling units for white noise, but the one in our room was very quiet and did not move a lot of air even on high unless the AC was pumping out cold air, so if you are used to white-noise, bring a machine or expect to use your phone. Background noise is highly recommended as the rooms have paper-thin walls. So thin that simply clearing your throat will be heard by surrounding rooms.

Lobby is spacious with a fireplace seating area, a "theater" area and restaurant seating. Our group of 20 was able to gather and eat in the restaurant area easily enough but if there are multiple large parties staying at the same time, you will find space limited inside. Restaurant serves a limited and expensive breakfast and has a limited bar but was never open when we were in the hotel (after 9pm).

There is an enclosed outdoor area which has a firepit and outdoor seating. A pool, exercise room and business common area are all available for guest use. We had no use for these areas so they were not observed.

As with everything these days, hotel was understaffed. Host did very well trying accomode everyone but you could tell he was frazzled. I expect the same reason for the limited restaurant hours.

Overall a descent hotel if you have courteous neighbors. Expect to bring dinner in or have it delivered if you eat late. BYOB if you're in need...