Renaissance Austin Hotel — Hotel in Austin

The night I checked, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving it seemed like the hotel was nearly empty. Few cars in the parking lot and not a lot of activity. I had used the Marriott Bonvoy app to check in. I hate to wait in lines.

To my surprise there was only one person working the front desk, and 4 customers in line.

So I had to wait to check in. When it was my turn I step forward to the front desk, only to be told in a rude voice that she would be with me in a moment. No good evening ... no thank you, just I'll get to you.

Then when she came back I presented my I'd and credit card ... to which I was informed that I had booked my hotel room with a different credit card. I said I would be happy to give her that in but I had already checked in online. She snarled at me and handed me two room keys.

There were no doormen, there were no velvets. So I parked my car and managed my bags up to the room only to find out that she had put me in the room against the elevators... I would never be able to sleep in this noisey room. K owing that the hotel was nearly empty I can only assume she gave me the worst room on purpose. So I headed back down to the front desk. Now there was a manager who was apparently yelling at the same woman because she was giving I correct information to a guest on the phone.

He greated me and I explained my problem and he assigned me another room down the hallway. No offers to help me move or send a bellman to assist.

So I headed back repacked changed rooms. As I was getting settle I entered the bathroom. But there were no lights ... I turned on the switch ... nothing ... never saw this before. So I headed back down to the front desk. This time there was a 3rd person there. I explained my situation,... and she announced to me ... "oh this happens all the time here. You have to reset the ground fault interrupted on the wall and the lights will work". And with a silly look on my face I was astonished. I looked at her and asked is it safe? She assured me it was and offered to send a maintenance person to help me. Nope I said and headed back upstairs for the 3rd time.

Reset the GFI for the wall socket, and magically the lights in the bathroom worked. So I experimented with the light switch and found that if you turned the bathroom lights on and off fast the GFI would trip everytime. This didn't seem to be Marriott quality ... but I was tired and hungry.

So I called for room service. I had many more problems but this app only...

I like the outside of the hotel and the front desk staff they need a were super nice and friendly, ones I got to my hotel room it was not what I expected. I recently got engaged, so I thought booking a hotel with a romance package would be super cute. It said included a deluxe room after checking in I would get champagne, strawberry covered in chocolate to my room and a complimentary breakfast for 2 at a downstairs restaurant or room service. It also said I could checkout at 2pm. I got there check in and like nothing “good afternoon here’s your key room number and enjoy your stay” first I was like ok odd but they might try to surprise me and take the stuff upstairs so I will wait. After 1 hour I decided to call front desk to ask they told me “ oh a sorry yes ma’am we will take up upstairs is there a specific time? “ me no as soon as possible please we want to go to dinner after getting ready. Yes ma’am please give us about 2 hours we need to prepare everything. Ok that will give enough time to go walk around and see what the hotel has near by. While my fiancé nap. I got there after my walk and nothing had to call from desk again they had forgot and lady told me we will place that request and take it upstairs. Do I decide to get ready I wasn’t going to let that ruin my day. I as I was showering I noticed all the water was getting out since it didn’t have a door or shower curtain to stop the water from getting out and it was wetting the door so it had like mole in the Corner since. Right when we were walking out the room they arrived with the strawberries and champagne. I wasn’t excited anymore since we were leaving for dinner. We decided to put the stuff in the mini fridge, we’ll that was a super bad idea the mini fridge had a bad odor made the whole room smell. Good thing we had felt for dinner and some other cute romantic stuff. Following the next day I got an email at 2am instruction for my check out at 11am. I felt so bad for my fiancé since we were so tired I had to act like I wanted to leave home because I missed it. While getting ready I call the front to confirm breakfast I was told “ no breakfast doesn’t come include nor room service” I was so disappointed at that point. I told my fiancé let’s just go check out and go have breakfast elsewhere. I decided to ask one more time before checking out. The lady in the front told said “oh yes based on your package you get a 34 dollar credit just tell them about the credits and they...

This is a decent hotel, absolutely ruined by terrible staff. Let’s start with the front desk. Check in was miserable. Staff could care less. I needed to remind the older lady to upgrade my room, as reflected in my app. She looked annoyed. What’s the point of collecting Bonvoy points if they aren’t even going to acknowledge.

I then extended my stay my two nights and wanted to be kept in the same room. Later that night the front office staff, Omar Senisy, was exceptionally rude. When I told him I didn’t appreciate his attitude, he threw a fit and said too bad, you don’t work for this hotel, I do.

I took his picture to show his supervisor the next day because he refused to tell me who the Duty Manager was. He kept shouting I’m the most senior staff here and then rushed from behind the desk and took my phone to delete his picture.

He later called me to apologize for his erratic behaviour and fulfilled my simple request but the reaction from a front office staff like this was shocking.

I submitted a complaint to Marriott HQ and will be following up. The Head of Operations called me to follow up. I informed him they didn’t even clean my room that day as well. When I asked them to clean the room the staff simply said sorry it’s 5pm everyone went home. Ain’t no way anyone going to clean your room now.

He apologized and offered some service recovery of removing a charge from my bill. I just checked out. Guess what the charge was not removed.

What a disaster of a hotel. The staff are horrible. They ruined my stay.

Oh and the room lady came the next day doesn’t speak a word of English. Not a single word. Zero.

They also charged me $23++ for overnight parking when parking is free just next door, a 2 minute walk away. They push parking so hard to lock you in before you figure out their parking scam. Don’t pay for the fake parking. Park at the free parking at the Arboretum mall area.

I will never visit this...