AC Hotel Atlanta Midtown — Hotel in Atlanta

I tried to check in using Marriott's app saying I’d be there in 45 minutes as my plane landed at 11pm. The app couldn’t check me in because it needed at least 30 minutes notice. I was confused and figured I would check in the old-fashioned way when I got there.

I got to the AC Hotel by Marriott Atlanta Midtown around midnight. The lobby was dark. The doors were locked. It was 37º. I couldn’t get in.

I saw a call button near the door. I pressed it and a phone rang. A camera lit up. I had hope for a moment until nobody answered the phone. I tried the call button again and still no answer. I walked away from the front door looking for another entrance thinking maybe I was at a secondary entrance. No such luck. After about five minutes, I saw a hotel guest carrying a pizza box going to enter. I briskly walked to catch the door that he had opened with his room card to get out of the cold.

I walked around the lobby trying to find any sign of human life. I checked the business area. It was empty. The bar was empty. The restaurant, yep, empty. There’s a small part of me that was wondering if I walked in on an apocalypse or did the rapture come save all of the Atlantans and beam them up. After an additional five or so minutes, while I’m in the lobby warming up, I called the hotel hoping there would be a different desk and someone would answer.

As I navigated the phone tree, answering the computer’s questions, a woman meandered through a door near the bar towards me. I hung up the phone. I asked if she worked here. She said she was security. I explained that I wanted to check in, but nobody was around. She said she would get the girl downstairs. I waited alone in the dark lobby.

A different woman came through the door where the security guard had disappeared into. She slowly made her way towards me. She walked around to get behind the counter. Then the phone rang. She proceeded to answer it, helping whomever was on the other side. After hanging up she asked my name, asked for my ID, said I needed to pay a $100 incidental charge, told me my room number, and said the elevators were to my left.

The front desk representative never apologized for my wait or taking the call ahead of me. She didn’t welcome me to the hotel, did not thank me for being a Marriott Bonvoy member, and didn’t offer my welcome gift. She never told me what time checkout was.

Once I got to my floor I came into a very nice seemingly clean, laminate floor room with a very loud furnace blowing. I tried connecting to the internet. By this time it was 1am. The app informed me that my name and room number couldn’t be found.

I used the app to connect to support. Unsurprisingly they didn’t respond past the automated message. At this point I’m tired. I slept well. There was a response in the app around 8am telling me to go to the front desk to figure out the internet. I didn’t bother. I left by 9:40am and I look forward to...

Firstly, I have no issue with any staff from AC Hotels. This is in reference to the parking vendor they chose to contract with, Interpark.

Please train your workers better. There is a misleading sign posted about the cost of parking at the Midtown Atlanta location.

We pressed the button to get help. The attendant came on the line and said they couldn’t help and would not let us out the garage. We pleaded our case and confusion and instead of “assisting” they said ‘sorry that’s the weekend price’ and hung up on us.

We called back and offered to take a picture of the sign and send it, and the attendant yelled, “NO!! I already know what it says I’ve been working here for a long time!”EXTREMELY rude…I was shocked and couldn’t believe it. Then we asked if they could send an attendant to the gate to help us and the lady on the line told us she can’t because she’s in Chicago and there is no one to send. What if there had been an emergency??? That’s sounds dangerous and like a liability…locking customers in a garage.

We were only there for 20 minutes and according to the sign the cost should have been $5, not $20. It said $5 for under $30. At the very bottom it said weekend special, but it was confusing. If we were wrong, help us…don’t yell as us.

I’m a firm believer in customer service and if you are impatient, aren’t willing to help customers, or if you only look for reasons to say “no” and are emotional and prefer to argue, then you’re in the wrong field.

It was clearly a misunderstanding and miscommunication (the sign was misleading) but instead of actually assisting us, she yelled at us, told us “Happy Father’s Day” in a very condescending manner, then hung up on us. It’s not about the money. It’s the principle and the way we were treated. Our day was ruined as a result. I truly hope AC Hotels and Inter-park are not okay with workers who yell at and hang up on paying customers. Even if she truly couldn’t help us she did not have to be so mean and unprofessional. Bad representation of Interpark and Chicago as well. FYI the research I did on Interpark resulted in ALL NEGATIVE feedback. AC hotels should seriously consider another vendor. I have attached a picture...

I am a Marriott Platinum member (staying 50+ nights per year in Marriott hotels) and recently stayed at this hotel for a business trip.

First the positives. The hotel was new and modern, and it smelled great. The room was clean and perfect.

Then the negatives. I ordered food to-go from the hotel cafe to pickup myself. The hotel added a $3 Service Charge to the order even though I was down at the cafe getting the food to-go (not using room service). The hotel did not disclose this extra fee anywhere on their menu (images attached), so it came as a surprise. I know someone at the cafe had to do work to put my food inside the paper to-go box, but that is no different than picking up food to-go at any other restaurant we do not pay a $3 "service charge" there to pick-up the food.

The $3 makes me feel like this AC Hotel is trying to nickel and dime its guests. $3 is a small fee, and I am not going to give the waitress/waiter a hard time over it so I paid it without making a fuss because the waitress/waiter is likely just following instructions that hotel management gave them.

But I hope the hotel management/owners will reconsider this practice of a $3 service fee for orders from the cafe. Most Marriott hotels that I stay at do not have this surprise "service charge" practice. Business travelers and Marriott members have a lot of hotel choices. There is a Marriott Suites Hotel next door and a Marriott Epicurean Hotel one block away and both do not have this same "service charge" practice for picking up your food to-go. I am not sure if the Moxy hotel in the same building has the same management team as this AC Hotel and I never stayed there so I cannot comment on the Moxy. But because of the surprise fee, I feel like I am being nickeled and dimed by the AC hotel. So when I go to Midtown Atlanta for business, this AC Hotel is not my first choice, and I usually stay at one of the other Marriott hotels nearby that do not...