Toronto Marriott Markham — Hotel in Markham

I stayed at this hotel for two nights on May 17th and 18th, celebrating my daughter’s graduation. This is at least my fourth time staying at this hotel and due to this instance, will probably never return again. |I returned to the hotel around 9:30pm on the 2nd night, May 18th, and found that my room didn’t have the housekeeping service during the day. I called front desk about this issue and asked if the room could still be serviced. The front desk staff who answered the phone, immediately became defensive, saying that their record shows I had the “Do Not Disturb” sign hanging on my door which is why my room was not serviced and the housekeeping staff had already finished their shifts at 5pm. According to her, no one could help service my room now. I told her that I only put the sign on the door for approximately 30 minutes between 11am and 11:30am, and for the rest of time during the day, the room could be and should be cleaned (but it was not). In response, I asked her if there is any other room available that we could switch to due to the uncleanliness of our original room. She asked me to wait for her to check availability, and thereafter told me there is no room available to switch to and offered to waive my parking fee. This sounded fine, until I later checked their website and found that the hotel has 5 more of the same type of rooms still available that she could move us to, and found out that she had lied to us that there is no room available. Feeling disrespected, I called the front desk staff again asking why she had lied to us, and of course she became even more defensive, saying that these 5 available rooms could potentially still be sold for the night, while my room could not because it was not serviced. It was past 10pm already, and less than two hours before the day ends… There was a slight possibility that all 5 rooms would be booked within the slim window of time. If she knew that a room transfer was not possible from the beginning (due to my room not being serviced), then why would she offer to check availability? She is blatantly lying, assuming that I am not intelligent enough to check online for availability myself. The entire experience was totally unacceptable, not just because their housekeeping staff skipped cleaning because the sign was on for 30 mins (what if someone got up late? Or how about if the hotel had their housekeeping swing by at 6am and skip house keeping because many rooms would have the sign on?), but more so because of the lack of integrity and ethics shown by the front desk staff, who lied to the guests with a defensive attitude, not willing to help them solve the issue with respect. I am deeply disappointed due to the lack of professionalism and integrity displayed by the Marriott staff in this location, and strongly recommend that they be reminded of Marriott core values frequently – “putting people first, pursuing excellence, embracing change, acting with integrity and serving our world” - to avoid such encounters with...

I had stayed one night there approximately one year ago, before it became a Marriott and I paid approximately $200 for the room with one “large” double bed and parking. It was a Trivago or Kayak or Trip Advisor price but that is what the room was worth so all was good. The shower leaked into the room and that was my largest complaint. It was clean, quiet and comfortable. However I would not stay there but for convenience when I am visiting relatives in the area, (close to highways). One year later: After searching for almost 1 hour, I found this Marriott but did not realize it was the same hotel I stayed at previously. Again convenience took me to Markham. I remember when Markham was a small village with lots of charm. This soulless landscape, called Downtown Markham, boasts a beautiful carrousel and a few coffee houses, restaurants and shops, all on the ground floor of these massive heartless structures, up against 4-6 lanes of traffic. I imagine they must get business but I have never seen a customer in the stores or even people on the sidewalk. So one year later and the price has doubled! Room and park-yourself lot where the elevator is broken, was over $400. WHY? This is unfortunately the case with many of the hotel rates I have seen. I travel with my partner and it does not make sense to rent a B&B for one night, but if a standard room at a Marriott is ‘on sale’ for $400, that is a pure, Covid gouging rip off that makes someone else’s apartment look good. Also, we couldn’t even fathom facing the pool after seeing the throngs of guests heading in that direction. I had to yell “shut up” at around midnight because of the party in the hallway. ( I likely would have joined in, on any other day, but I was too tired.). I don’t think I would have been upset but for the cost of the room considering what the customer gets. And the shower leaked again! And it was a different room…. The staff were great and no complaints there. Hotel franchises generally did well with Covid relief, particularly where they contracted with the government to fill the rooms with the homeless. You will hear the owners lamenting their losses as a result where rooms were completely destroyed and made uninhabitable and had to be completely renovated. But the government paid for the repairs and the hotel owners got the rooms renovated at no cost, while receiving rent money. I very much doubt the Marriott was involved in housing the homeless but they were eligible for grants and tax credits during Covid. But similar to many businesses in Canada right now, hotel room prices have doubled! For no reason. This goes above and beyond the rate of inflation and labor costs. I will avoid this Marriott because whoever set the room rates is an opportunistic gouger who should be...

Booked the Royal Suite. The best room at this location.

Not worth the price. Nothing to be excited about even if you get upgraded.

Furnishings and decoration has coating of dust. (to be fair I dont mean everywhere) But if you look closely at some of the accent decor in the room you are pretty much breathing this in. Carpet decor is filthy. I moved a chair and the carpet was slightly moved, you can literally see piles of dust sitting underneath.

24/7 Room service means they will bring things to you etc. If you use the Marriot Bonvoy app you can request everything in advance (extra towels, extra amenities etc.) which makes the 24/7 room service more of a gimmick than something actually useful. I ordered a late night meal at the front desk and they just pointed at some container items sitting in their fridge. Late night meals are not fresh. Its premade in a container sitting in the fridge. I wouldnt recommend ordering this. its a $15.00 dry sandwich. Fruits are not fresh either they were mushy. I did not feel comfortable trying the yogurt parfait because of the other food items listed above.

No complimentary breakfast at this location which I thought was an industry standard for any hotel in this age. I dont usually eat breakfast so not really a big deal for me.

Amenities are nice. Shampoo. Conditioner, Body gel and other small useful things.

Service of the hotel was okay. They were as accommodating as they could be. There are some service standards I disagree with but that could just be me. Such as you should not offer a late checkout for a guest that is staying the night prior if the next guest is requesting an earlier check in. (I did not ask them to kickout the guest staying the night before, just consider the request of the next hotel guest... I even put a request for early check in a week prior.) Although I ended up leaving some of my luggage for the hotel to hold while I go about my itinerary for the day. It would be nice to have a place to wash up.

Use exact change for the vending machines inside the hotel. They will steal your change. I am sure this just needs to be serviced. The front desk was nice enough to credit my final bill for the change lost.

If I need to book another room in the future I would choose Marriot again. However I would only choose their basic room as their "highest tier room" is far from anything special for this location. Its just extra space. You can book 2 rooms that can be connected for cheaper if you just need the space. I brought my partner for a celebration and although they might not be as picky about some of the things I mentioned above, It was not worth the money at all. If you want a special night for you and your partner look elsewhere for the same...