JW Marriott, Anaheim Resort — Hotel in Anaheim

I don’t understand how this is rated a 5 star luxury resort under the JW Marriot brand. It absolutely did not live up to any of the expectations or standards one would expect from a place billed to be this level of hotel and pricing. It had some nice parts but you can get the same level service and comfort (and in this case with Scott during checkout, MUCH better service. See below.) from any 3 ½ / 4 star hotel. ||Pros:|• Bartender at the Italian restaurant was really nice but even they were making fun of the fact the wine tastings never really changed. Honestly all the bartenders except for one lady in the early afternoon on Monday were really nice. |• The “included” wine tasting which is basically two glasses of wine you split with whoever is with you. As it’s part of the resort charge, not really free and you only taste one of two wines. I guess it’s a pro more than a con but it’s not much of one.|• Huntington at the front desk was nice when we checked in as was a lovely African American lady who’s name I didn’t get but I dealt with her regarding my issues and she actually did something about it (see below).|• Valets were all friendly (see below)|• Comfy bed.|• Extra foam pillows when they finally showed up.|• Bathroom was nice and big but I think that was because we were placed in an Accessible room meant for wheels chairs. |• The call center agent when I called about charges on my card was pleasant.||Cons:|• Check-in is INCREDIBLY slow even when they had 4 staff. Even worse when they only were down to 2. They just didn’t seem to care about the people waiting and they can expedite a lot of their routine while still being pleasant. Maybe skip the long explanation of the resort fee as it’s very clearly marked on the card you gave us. Maybe don’t just randomly take guests off on a tour when there a massive line…see below|• During checkout, Scott (who gets a lot of praise in some of these reviews) treated me like crap for no apparent reason. The person who was at the desk 1 person of ahead of me was literally checked in and then given a personal tour of the amenities which involved Scott walking away from the desk when there was at least 20 people in the lines waiting to checkout. He didn’t come back for several minutes. No wonder it was slow. Person ahead me was checking out and got a printed receipt and asked how their stay was and was asked to review their invoice to make sure it was all correct (they didn’t ask for a printed copy). I got up there…no hello. Nothing. Just asked for my room number and then said my invoice was emailed me and goodbye. No asking about my room or looking over my bill and I certainly had complaints but was basically shuffled off. Not sure if it was because I wasn’t wearing a polo shirt or because I’m only Silver Elite this year or because I prepaid the nights. Eitherway it was extremely off putting to see everyone treated so well and then I got treated like they wanted nothing to do with me. Only thing I asked for was pillows on day 2 of our 4 night stay….|• Never got the invoice in my email. There are a bunch of charges on my credit card though I want to see some explanation for.|• Feather pillows were garbage. Might as well been sleeping on rocks. Couldn’t sleep well first night at all.|• Paper-thin walls. Anytime you hear someone rolling up the windows shades, it sounded like they were in the room with you. Super great when someone is doing it at 6am while you are trying to sleep.|• Requested extra foam pillows 3 times over the course of the day starting at 10am and they only showed up at 9:30pm after my 3rd request to the front desk who finally called someone while I was standing there and it still took an hour. |• $24 for basic cocktails using standard (non-premium) spirts is outrageous. The $30 food and drink credit you are given gets you basically one drink.|• $65 valet charge is also outrageous.|• Walls had tons of scuff marks on one side (see photos)|• Shampoo and conditioner smelled overwhelmingly of lavender that lingered.|• “Resort” pool was nothing special at all. Small/medium pool. No spa or hot tub. This isn’t a resort.|• Valet service is VERY slow. Shouldn’t take 15 mins to get your car from a garage attached to the building when it wasn’t busy.|• It’s attached to a rather sketchy mall. Not much to do about that except just go around it.|• It’s at least a 20 min walk to Disney through some roads that had a lot of sketchy people on it that didn't make us feel safe, even during the day.||If you go through all the reviews, a lot of people have a lot of these same criticisms and despite the manager saying in his replies each time that “they will be reviewed and the appropriate people will be contacted”, you keep seeing the issues come up. They clearly don’t care...

NOT A FAMILY FRIENDLY HOTEL – BE CAREFUL WITH YOUR BELONGINGS!!! We have given this hotel 2 stars because it was clean and the rooms were comfortable.

Our negative rating is based on the following:

My child’s beloved teddy bear was taken from the room when room service replaced the blanket that we had borrowed for the travel bed/crib that we brought from home. This bear was one of the last gifts from my father to our family before he passed away and my child struggled to sleep without it. As any parent with a similar type of sentimental item knows, this has resulted in much sadness, acting out, sleep loss, and we have to be very careful in how we explain this to our son so that he maintains a positive outlook on people. We have reached out to hotel staff daily (and occasionally more) since we first noticed that the item was taken from the room. At first they seemed like they wanted to help by reaching out to the hotel’s loss prevention team, who checked all the laundry chutes and said that they would also reach out to the third party off site laundry facility. Staff relayed shared experiences but didn’t quite seem to understand that this was an item taken out of our room, out of our child's bed, not one that had been lost due to negligence on our part. The character limit on google reviews prevents me from being able to fully describe the lack of communication from the hotel staff over the next several days. To summarize, staff was not very helpful and at times prioritized business conventions over the item taken from our room. Marriott should provide housekeeping with better training (i.e. they should not be handling items in a travel crib) and managers should give housekeeping more time so that they are not as rushed and can avoid making mistakes like this again.

When we first attempted to check in, Marriott claimed that we didn't have a reservation with them. Fortunately, my husband was able to retrieve his confirmation code and booking information from his email and hotel staff re-booked our room after explaining that there were sometimes "computer glitches" that caused bookings to be lost. Ultimately, this was a bit of an inconvenience and took an hour to resolve upon our arrival.

The pool was falsely advertised as being heated (to 86 degrees) by the front desk staff. When we initially checked , we found it to be extremely cold. We checked in with staff, they said it was probably still heating up. We checked back several other times, and the temperature never changed. It was also quite dirty (with noticeable debris built up on the bottom of the pool).

The hotel is in a desolate location. The location on the Anaheim Garden Walk may have previously been a lively place, but is now an unwelcoming space with few pedestrians. Many of the businesses are either abandoned or under construction; it feels totally desolate and strangely offers no play areas.

Within the hotel, the front desk is on the second floor with the entire first floor being given over to business meeting rooms and event space.

The room service does not work. After losing our reservation for the roof-top restaurant due to weather, we wanted to order room service. There was a room service menu that we found was via a QR code in the room, but the QR code but was difficult to use (we had to take a picture of the code and upload it to a website that fixes broken QR codes). When we attempted to order (both by calling the # on the pdf linked to from the QR code, as well as via the in-room phone) the phone would ring for (seriously) 5 minutes with no answer. We finally gave up and ordered food from the Cheesecake Factory next door.

Other people have complained about the malfunctioning in-room fridges, and this is no joke. The refrigerators are enclosed in what are basically sealed cabinets, which, guarantees that they will not work properly. Even after we propped open the cabinet to try and get the fridge to cool down, it never reached a cold enough temperature where we felt comfortable...

I don’t understand how this is rated a 5 star luxury resort under the JW Marriot brand. It absolutely did not live up to any of the expectations or standards one would expect from a place billed to be this level of hotel and pricing. It had some nice parts but you can get the same level service and comfort (and in this case with Scott during checkout, MUCH better service. See below.) from any 3 ½ / 4 star hotel.

Pros: • Bartender at the Italian restaurant was really nice but even they were making fun of the fact the wine tastings never really changed. Honestly all the bartenders except for one lady in the early afternoon on Monday were really nice. • The “included” wine tasting which is basically two glasses of wine you split with whoever is with you. As it’s part of the resort charge, not really free and you only taste one of two wines. I guess it’s a pro more than a con but it’s not much of one. • Huntington at the front desk was nice when we checked in as was a lovely African American lady who’s name I didn’t get but I delt with her regarding my issues and she actually did something about it (see below). • Valets were all friendly (see below) • Comfy bed. • Extra foam pillows when they finally showed up. • Bathroom was nice and big but I think that was because we were placed in an Accessible room meant for wheels chairs. • The call center agent when I called about charges on my card was pleasant.

Cons: • Check-in is INCREDIBLY slow even when they had 4 staff. Even worse when they only were down to 2. They just didn’t seem to care about the people waiting and they can expedite a lot of their routine while still being pleasant. Maybe skip the long explanation of the resort fee as it’s very clearly marked on the card you gave us. Maybe don’t just randomly take guests off on a tour when there a massive line…see below • During checkout, Scott (who gets a lot of praise in some of these reviews) treated me like crap for no apparent reason. The person who was at the desk 1 person of ahead of me was literally checked in and then given a personal tour of the amenities which involved Scott walking away from the desk when there was at least 20 people in the lines waiting to checkout. He didn’t come back for several minutes. No wonder it was slow. Person ahead me was checking out and got a printed receipt and asked how their stay was and was asked to review their invoice to make sure it was all correct (they didn’t ask for a printed copy). I got up there…no hello. Nothing. Just asked for my room number and then said my invoice was emailed me and goodbye. No asking about my room or looking over my bill and I certainly had complaints but was basically shuffled off. It was extremely off putting to see everyone treated so well and then I got treated like they wanted nothing to do with me. Only thing I asked for was pillows on day 2 of our 4 night stay…. • Never got the invoice in my email. There are a bunch of charges on my credit card though I want to see some explanation for and had to call service center. • Feather pillows were garbage. Might as well been sleeping on rocks. Couldn’t sleep well first night at all. • Paper-thin walls. Anytime you hear someone rolling up the windows shades, it sounded like they were in the room with you. Super great when someone is doing it at 6am while you are trying to sleep. •Requested extra foam pillows 3 times over the course of the day starting at 10am. They only showed up at 9:30pm after my 3rd request to the front desk who finally called someone while I was standing there and it still took an hour. •$24 for basic cocktails using standard (non-premium) spirts is outrageous. The $30 food and drink credit you are given gets you basically one drink. •$65 valet charge is also outrageous. • Walls had tons of scuff marks on one side (see photos) • “Resort” pool was nothing special at all. No spa or hot tub. • Disney is actually a long walk away and there were a lot of sketchy...