JW Marriott Hotel Frankfurt — Hotel in Frankfurt

I want to share my horrible experience with my stay in this so-called 5-star hotel. The story is from the beginning when doing the check-in. It takes almost 20 minutes for the whole check-in process. The time is not for waiting for their process. I didn't know what was going wrong at their back; I just waited anyway. After check-in, I got the room and checked the basic facilities before going out. Surprisingly, the safe and Wifi doesn't work. It takes another half hour to fix it. Then, it was all fixed, and I went to the supermarket downstairs to buy some stuff. The most horrible thing is that my room key card doesn't work when returning to the room. It takes another time to fix it again. At that moment, I already felt that this room was not ready. I feel like a guinea pig to try and error for their room.

Okay, it was around 8 PM after it was fixed. I went out for dinner, and I found someone accessing my room even though I turned my don't disturb light on. I went downstairs and reported the situation. My wife and I remember the DND light is on when going out. It makes us scared when we go back to the room. They said the DND was not on, so someone was going inside to do housekeeping. I don't know the problem with my room's door or security system. But the point is, why do housekeeping for the room check-in? Then, my wife also found out that the bed in the room used two single beds and merged it into one single king-size bed. There are obvious gaps in the middle. But it was mentioned in my booking that it's a single king-size bed and even in their room-type photos.

Lastly, I figure out the real manager to talk with. Why am I saying it's real? Finding out when you want to escalate in this hotel is hard. Everyone says they are the manager. But as a matter of fact, they are not until I keep asking and escalating. I talked with the night shift duty manager (should be real). He said he understood my situation and frustration and would try to arrange a room change for me the next day as they were under full booking. He said he would hand it over to the next shift's duty manager and arrange it. I ask him to call me back at 11 AM next week to let me know the arrangement situation. But I wait until 11:30 AM, and no one is calling to my room. I tried to contact the duty manager (luckily, I got the name last night). He said that no one informed him to contact me. From their system record, mark down the request for a room by changing a simple description. As per the horrible journey mentioned above, it took me almost 3 hours to communicate with them back and forth. They also say everything will be logged into the system. But as a matter of fact, it's nothing. Am I talking with the air, or shall they use robots for more reliable service?

I don't know what I don't know now. Now, the duty manager said it's still under the check-out period and that it would arrange a room change according to my request. I am looking forward to an update on this post.

The duty manager keeps saying that they are five 5-star hotels. He is right; the facilities and the name are five stars, including the prices. But the services and experience are three stars or lower.

Last but not least, regarding their concierge, I tried to ask them to help me book the restaurant by giving me the restaurant's name and contact. They wanted to help me by calling, but in vain. Then, they told me that you usually don't need to book a restaurant in Frankfurt. But walk in, and you should always quickly get a table. I trust them because this is my first time in this city. Then, I went to that restaurant, and it told me there was a whole house and there was no way to get a table if I didn't have a booking. I swear that I am talking with them politely and gentlemanly. But why is this five-star hotel always perfunctory to...

Do not stay at this hotel. My husband and I only had hot water once during a 4 day 3 night stay. When I was unable to take a hot bath the 1st night on Friday, September 5th a member of the hotel staff stated, “Unfortunately we have a problem in the hotel, it may last until tomorrow morning.” At 11:00am on Saturday, September 6th the water still was not hot enough for my husband’s shower. The water was warm, maybe room temperature. In my experience it was unusual that hotel management didn’t offer to move us to another room or do anything else, maybe because the entire hotel had no hot water? It was very hard for me to believe that this entire high rise Marriott Hotel had no hot water. It wasn’t until late Sunday afternoon, September 7th, that hotel staff offered my husband a bottle of champagne, drinks in the bar, or dinner at Greta Oto Restaurant in an attempt to compensate us for having no hot water. My husband had gone downstairs to get ice and a female staff member with shorter dark hair just happened to randomly ask how his stay was going. He told her that we were both very unhappy about the lack of hot water and we had already complained. After my husband came back up to our room he told me about his conversation downstairs at the front desk. I could not believe this was happening at a Marriott Hotel. I went down to the front desk myself to speak with someone. Fabian was the only one at the front desk. I told him that I was not interested in any of the comps that were offered to my husband, but I would like a refund of 508 euros for the 3 days and 2 nights that we had no hot water up until that point. I showed Fabian that I had already requested a refund using their in-app chat on my phone. Fabian went and got Chafik Barkani, the manager, who explained to me that a refund would be impossible because I had already prepaid for my entire 4 day 3 night stay including a city tax of 4 euros a night. Since a refund was impossible Chafik additionally offered me a buffet breakfast or room service. I told Chafik and Fabian that I was not interested in either, but my husband might want the buffet breakfast if a refund was impossible. I did not have hot water again on Sunday night, September 7th when I wanted to take a bath. No one answered the phone when I called the operator or reception so my husband went down to the front desk for me because I was already undressed. My husband spoke with the same woman from earlier at the front desk and she stated that she or someone else would check on it and call us back. A few minutes later Chafik, the manager, called and stated that he would come up to our room himself. Chafik did come up to our room himself. He turned on the hot water in the bathtub and put his own hand under the running water. He tried to convince my husband that the water was hot, but it was not. At that point at least he finally offered to move us to another room. My husband told him that was too much trouble for us to move all of our personal items now because we were checking out anyway early in the morning to go to the airport. My husband did have the buffet breakfast at 6:30am before we left for the airport. I am never staying at another Marriott International Hotel again. I still cannot believe that this happened. I have never had such a horrible experience ever at any hotel. How can corporate allow this to happen? I thought this was supposed to be a luxurious hotel with at least 4 stars. Even whoever I was chatting with on the hotel app admitted that, “having hot water is, of course, a basic expectation”. I will provide my credit card company with the screenshots. I hope that Citibank can help me get my 786 euros ($912.47) back since Marriott International, Inc. hasn’t done the right thing yet...

Pros: Close to everything. Shopping, eating, people-watching hot spots you name it, this is an incredible location.

The bed was fluffy and lovely, seems like hypoallergenic sheets and pillows. The curtains definitely blacked out the room.

The view from the room was gorgeous the second morning as it was sunny. Honey from the roof was such a classy touch.

Cons: Answering the 20 questions game when we walked the door. It seemed more accusatory than welcoming.

I had to call downstairs for help with turning out the lights. Surprise, everything is turned off inside the drawer on the left-hand side of the bed. Not intuitive, but this could be a pro for someone else for sure.

This was some executive suite that I booked as we were trying to have a fancy shaman y time, but the wooden slats on the doors of the bathroom partition were dusty, broken, and falling off. Then, our clean towels and hand cloths were removed but not replaced. I feel like housekeeping needs a gentle nudge about the slats, the super thick dust on top of the mini-fridge (get eye level, you cannot miss it) and there was a collection of dust on the painting in the room. Although I have a dust allergy, this did not bother me.

The downstairs restaurant was fully booked (but also 100% empty when we arrived) so we were told we could be served at the bar. So we went to the bar but were told we could only be served from the bar menu, which was limited and not a dinner option. Pro of this? We went to the Lebanese restaurant inside the shopping area which was phenomenal. phenomenal The breakfast was OK, nothing to write home about.

And although I typically feel like everything looks and tastes better with more expensive hotels, that effect did not work this time around.

I thought perhaps this was an older hotel due to the decor but was astonished to find it was built in 2009. But, given the bathroom on the second floor’s different decor style (Which is clean, fresh, and vibrant) I’m guessing you’re working on that.

All in all, the unsettling welcome we received really put a damper on our experience, causing me to be a bit more nitpicky than usual. While we may have looked like unshowered bums getting out of a cheap rental car, it’s because we had gotten off a long flight and no one is doing their hair or makeup or renting a sports car to impress some overbearing doormen who would rather we stay in the cold rain while they verify that we have a reservation for 4 nights in an executive suite)

In terms of personnel, housekeeping, desk receptionists, the man at the service it’s a 1 star (minus the gentleman that escorted my mother and I to the Lebanese restaurant, and the Greek doorman who sent us back home with bottled water for our journey). Bed itself 5 star, view 5 star for Frankfurt.

Decor, 2-star. Breakfast 3-star. Honey 5 star.

Cleanliness differed from place to place. But, I imagine COVID could have made things a bit difficult so definitely take this review with a grain of salt if you would (except for the doormen upon arrival, that was tactless, and if I were a lesser person I’d have felt...