Courtyard by Marriott Basking Ridge — Hotel in Bernards Township

We stayed at this hotel for a wedding...The front desk was extremely rude and unprofessional...I am taking my complaint to their corporate office it was that bad...1st Our family does smoke, however we didn't smoke in the rooms at any time what so ever...We were all aware of the $250 charge if you smoke in the room and had left the building to smoke at all times...When I returned home from our vacation/event I was surprised to see that $750 extra was charged to my card ($250 per room) stating that we smoked in all three rooms...I called into customer service and I asked by what grounds do you see this charge fit and the response I got was "that we could just tell"...I said no what proof do you have that we smoked in the room...With a strong rude response I got "we don't need proof we could just tell"...I'm sorry but I respect the fact that others do not smoke and we all went outside to smoke...not one of us smoked in our room at any given time...I was hung up on treated poorly etc. even by a "Manager" (Scott). This was the worst customer service I have ever received from any company and will for sure be passing this onto the rest of my relatives, friends and whoever I can voice my opinion to. I want to make sure it is known to whomever makes wedding plans, just a get together, a vacation etc. and if this hotel comes up as an option for their guest to stay, I would tell them NO...NEVER!...this is NOT THE HOTEL FOR THEM nor is it the HOTEL FOR ANYONE! Besides the above there were other bad experiences...On one of the "new" towels in our room there seemed to be some sort of stain on the towel that looked like blood..we put the towel outside the hotel room and didn't tell anyone (wish I would have now)...Then trying to enjoy my breakfast our table was "forgotten" about because the girl was in training and our food was pushed out of line and in the back...We asked when we would be getting our food when others received theirs that were clearly there after us...They said "Oh sorry the girl is new but here you go" they didn't even bring our full order out and the wait to get it correct was another journey..Then comes the "HOT" tub...It was cold and not even warm enough that you would take a bath in...We let the guy know that it was cold and he said he would adjust it...Returning later and it was still cold...So not only was the service bad there but we couldn't even enjoy any of the "amenities" offered in their selling price for each room...It was the worst experience ever and trying to resolve an issue is impossible...Hopefully their corporate office handles things a little bit more professional then this physical location, otherwise I will continue to voice my opinion about any of their...

Below is a letter sent to Marriott Customer Service....

My husband is a Marriott rewards member and we have stayed at this hotel several times over the past few years when visiting family in the area. We always found the hotel to be well maintained, the staff to be friendly and the rooms to be a good value for the area. We did not have the same experience this visit. We were greeted by a less than friendly reception clerk and directed to Room #279 in the hotel. While walking to our room, we were dismayed to find that the public areas in the hotel have been seriously neglected since our last visit — filthy carpeting, dirty elevators, nicks and marks on the walls, trash in the stairways, carpeting in the stairways not vacuumed and dirty, unattended to trash receptacles both inside and outside of the hotel. Our room was adequate — bedding and mattress comfortable, but the attention to detail in the room was lacking. The wallpaper is peeling, furniture is tired, worn out and nicked and carpeting dingy.

We were also very disappointed to learn that the hotel was only serving a very limited breakfast menu and was not open for lunch, dinner or snacks. The bar is only open on Friday and Saturday. There is no maid service unless you notify the front desk a day ahead of when you require service that you would like your room cleaned. We were planning to be out of the hotel all day on Sunday and left word at the front desk (two times, in person, both Saturday & Sunday), that we would like our room cleaned and required fresh towels. Upon returning to the hotel after a long day of travel, we found the room had not been cleaned, trash cans had not been emptied and the wet dirty towels were still laying on the floor where we had piled them for the maid to remove. We brought the issue to the attention of the front desk and were offered a $60.00 credit for the inconvenience.

Hopefully, this letter finds its way to the person who can change the climate at this hotel…. Our experience was not good and while we would like to continue to give this hotel our business when we stay in the area, without assurance that the standards will return to post-covid level, we will be taking our business to another hotel. While the hotel rate has not changed, the level of service and amenities have definitely seen a...

The food and breakfast situation were REALLY disappointing. First, we had hoped to get dinner from the restaurant- if not IN the restaurant, delivered to our room would have been fine. We understand Covid is a thing, but why not just provide food to go?? We were actually initially told there WAS food available, then when we asked where, the person said "Oh you can order with Door Dash from any local restaurant." :/ That's NOT having food available. Worse yet was the breakfast situation. I actually paid more to have breakfast included and it was an absolute joke. There's a "Starbucks" there, but you could only order from a menu with about 4 choices, and none of them were anything appetizing at all. We settled on oatmeal and then were told they were "out" of oatmeal. I cannot believe you don't even allow guests to have as much COFFEE as they want! A hotel of this calibre should not be nickel-and-diming guests on breakfast- if Days Inn can provide a free breakfast buffet, you should be able to do even better. Instead we felt actually insulted being told that we could choose one sandwich and one drink, period, from a menu that had...one sandwich. So pathetic for a Marriott hotel to not be able to provide food for guests, worse yet not even free coffee in the lobby! Honestly, the food situation ruined our whole stay so the fact that the room was clean and comfortable was far overshadowed by how annoyed we were that we couldn't get a decent dinner OR breakfast. I just could not recommend this hotel- the food situation made our whole stay...