SpringHill Suites by Marriott Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport/Mall of America — Hotel in Bloomington

If you’re going to advertise an airport shuttle as an amenity, make sure it is convenient and reasonably quick. This hotel and its shared Hampton airport shuttle is neither. We stayed at this hotel twice, one week a part. ||The first time, we commented on how long it took for the shuttle to pick us up at the airport - a good 30 min. The response from the hotel was call when you land and have your luggage, and that will speed it up. This is what we did the second time. When I called, the day manager said she would not take my shuttle reservation until I was standing at the pickup stop. I said I was about a minute away, but she made me hang up and call back when I got there (worried that shuttle would arrive and I wouldn’t be there…reasonable, but not customer-centric). When I called back maybe 2-3 minutes later, at 1:50, she told me that the shuttle wouldn’t leave the hotel until 2:00. So she already knew when I called the first time that I would be waiting more than 15’ish minutes and did not have the courtesy to share that with me (speaking of being reasonable). So we waited. The hotel is 2.5 miles away. I called again at 2:15 to make sure they were coming…we’d already waited in the cold for 25 minutes. A different person answered and said the shuttle was coming, but said there was heavy traffic (there was not, and we confirmed that on the ride). The shuttle finally pulled in around 22 or 23 after. Meanwhile, other hotels of all varieties had multiple shuttles pull in and pull out. ||This day manager knowingly made us stand out in the cold for 30+ minutes without giving us any indication that it would take this long ( was consistent with the experience we had the week before). She was more worried about her rules for the shuttle and did not take a moment to think about the customer experience. Every step of the way, this hotel showed bad form…not to mention that the bathroom door in our room had what looked like blood smeared on it. Yuck!||I understand that a shuttle is not the hotel, but don’t mislead customers into using it if you’re going to do a half job of it, and then have attitude about it. Funny thing, I had just come back from Japan where customer service is a priority. This hotel staff was...

I booked a suite for my daughter's birthday. I will say that - despite my thoughts on the hotel and reservation experience - both individuals at the front desk were very friendly, helpful, and apologetic. That being said - When I called to reserve our suite (apparently I must have reached a call center or something), I specifically requested two Queen beds and asked if they were in a separate room from the living area. I was told "yes", there were actually two King beds and a pullout couch. I asked if the pool was open and was told "yes", and that I would have to sign up for a time to use the pool upon check-in, since capacity was limited. I asked about breakfast and was told "yes" there is hot breakfast.

This was going to be perfect! The girls could have the bedroom and I could sleep on the pullout couch. We could swim, eat breakfast in the morning, and then check out. Upon check in, I inquired about signing up to use the pool, only to be told the pool had been drained since March. I asked about breakfast and was told there would be "a few things out" for grab and go (so nothing hot). We went up to our room, and the layout was not at all what I had been told. There was a king bed in it's own separate bedroom (and the door had no latch to keep it shut or locked), and a king bed behind a partial wall near the living area - not ideal for a slumber party with four kids! The "pullout couch" was actually a trundle, so much smaller than you would expect. I asked for a rollaway, thinking we could squeeze that into one of the rooms for a slumber party feel, but I was told the hotel threw theirs out and were waiting for new ones to arrive.

Needless to say, on a sub-zero day in MN when you have promised a sleepover in a big, private room away from mom and swimming at night and in the morning, it was VERY disappointing to find out nothing that had be presented to me over the phone was accurate.

Side note - 2 paper cups were in the room (for the five guests I had disclosed), three full sized towels, and no cold water coming from the sink in the bathroom. The cosmetics of the hotel had been upgraded, but the rest of the experience was pretty disappointing, other than the kind front...

The stay was pretty good, overall, but we did have some issues.

We got stuck in the elevator when we first arrived. While they were able to get us out within ten minutes, it did not endear us to the hotel. That elevator would also move a few inches as we entered or exited the doors. It did not feel safe at all, and we avoided it for the rest of our stay (which was difficult because we were on the fifth floor and taking stairs while carrying luggage and children is not practical). We spoke to a few other guests, and several others had also had trouble with that elevator. Honestly, I wish they had just shut down the problematic side and had an engineer look at it instead of insisting nothing was wrong. If they're not willing to maintain such an important piece of equipment, I wonder what else they skimp on.

The pool area was nice enough. It was a smaller pool, but that is normal for an indoor pool. The temperature inside of it was nice and it was well maintained (pool chemicals were not overwhelming and it was clean). My only complaint is that there were some clearly unfinished work done on the ceiling near he hot tub. It looks like somebody opened up the ceiling to do work and they never properly fixed the area when they were finished.

The room we stayed in was pretty nice. The beds were comfortable and the pillows were awesome. My only complaint is that on our first night, I found a beetle-like bug in the bed. I was paranoid and examined the room for more bugs. Luckily I didn't find any, but I wonder if it would have been worse if the weather was warmer. Just knowing there was a bug in the room gave me anxiety about the entire stay. Luckily we didn't end up with any bites or problems.

The breakfast was wonderful. They had a great selection of hot and cold foods. My only complaint is that they didn't have the milk in chilled pitchers. Otherwise, the food exceeded any other breakfast I've had at a hotel.

I was torn about giving them 3 or 4 stars, but I went with 4 because of how friendly the staff were. Especially the breakfast people. Overall, this place wasn't terrible. I don't know if we'll come back, but we had a nice enough time while we...