Boston Marriott Long Wharf — Hotel in Boston

There's two elements to this review. First, the Marriott Long Wharf is a nicely maintained, perfectly situated hotel - we visited as an extended family of 8, with four young kids, and had a fantastic experience overall. Great staff - Sarah at the desk was especially helpful, and the waitstaff at Waterline were all excellent for both us and our kids. Rooms were clean and modern, with beautiful views, our kids loved the pool, and so forth.

The second part of this review, though, is related to the exceptionally disappointing corporate changes that Marriott/SPG has made in terms of tiered status, advertising heavily that this is a good thing, but in reality, if you've been a Gold Elite status for several years, as our family has, then you've lost the biggest benefit of that tier, which is the lounge/concierge access. On the website for Long Wharf, it still states that both Gold and Platinum tier members have longe (M Club in this case) access. When traveling with four kids, we all know the importance of being able to grab a quick, good breakfast, or pop down for snacks, or dessert after dinner, water bottles for daily adventures, and so forth. When we arrived, we found that the M Club was closed, and that, according to desk staff, even if it were, Gold status members are not permitted access. They said they've been trying to change the website but haven't been able to do so - which is a ludicrous excuse for a huge multi-national corporation.

Sarah and other desk members were apologetic (if, clearly, tired of having the same conversation over and over again with frustrated travelers who have lost a critical benefit/reason to go to Marriott and not other hotels....), and, wonderfully and appreciatively did give us breakfast vouchers and even sent up some treats to the rooms in the evening. Basically, it seems like the bad, profit-centric decisions that the main corporation is making is putting the actual on-site hotel managers in the awkward spot of having these hard conversations, and then, in essence, having to spend their own money to help out customers, as did the staff at this facility.

For an organization that had nearly a half-billion dollars in income last quarter, these are disappointing decisions that are making me reevaluate what reasons I have to maintain my loyalty with this company going forward, even if the reasons for that are not at all related to the way the individual hotel we just stayed at treated us, which was...

Gold Elite member —stayed at Boston Marriott Long Wharf for two nights. Chose this specific location because other reviews consistently mentioned the excellent customer service and cleanliness of the hotel. The customer service was indeed excellent. Every single staff member I interacted with (mostly the front desk) was friendly, helpful, listened to my requests carefully, and acknowledged my Gold status. The hotel was beautiful and clean. COVID precautions were good. The Valet was quick every time I retrieved my car. Room service was FAST and efficient and contactless. They dropped it off in a bag in front of my room (at my request). Food was good. There is a Starbucks in the lobby.

Here are a couple of things to note that would have been helpful to me to know ahead of time. I selected a “harbor view” (slightly more expensive) room over a “wharf view” room because I wanted to see water. There was a beautiful view of the water from one corner of the window, but not from most angles in the room. The predominant view was of the wharf and of a parking garage. I spoke with the front desk a couple of times —they were very kind, helpful, and upfront—and learned that the wharf and harbor view rooms are mostly the same view and that the way the hotel is situated makes it so that you can really only see the water from the side. My understanding is that there are no rooms that directly face the water. They confirmed that they gave me the most upgraded room for my status, and I was indeed on the 7th (top) floor in a beautiful room. So really this is a minor issue —just one I would have liked to be aware of when booking.

The second thing to mention is that, though the pool is by reservation only, up to five families are allowed at a time. I was surprised to walk in, thinking I would have the pool to myself, but instead see a family of 3. I am fully vaccinated so I went ahead and swam, but if I weren’t vaccinated, there is no way I would have gotten in an indoor pool unmasked with strangers. I know different people have different comfort levels, and also that it is probably very impractical/impossible to have one family reserve at a time—so this is not a complaint at all—I’m grateful they even had the pool open. Just a heads up for others who may be naive like me!

Overall, WONDERFUL stay at a wonderful...

Our stay at the Marriott Long Wharf was a bit hit and miss. On a positive note, some staff were excellent to deal with such as the manager, switchboard operators, and the concierge. Unfortunately, we were constantly let down by poor service from housekeeping. The first day we received service, they neglected to clean our soap dish, change the plastic bags for our ice bin, or clean a stain that was on the wall beside the bathroom door. The switchboard operator sent someone up, but they still did not address all the issues. A couple days later, we requested more towels for our room, and the house keeping staff just dropped them carelessly on the bed, instead of folding them and putting them underneath the sink.

Another issue was the constant conflicting information we received from front desk and restaurant staff regarding the MClub lounge hours and the process for obtaining bottles of water for our room. One staff member told me that hors d'oeuvres were served between 5 - 6 pm. This turned out to be incorrect, as we learned that they were served for longer than that. Also, no one seemed to know what time on Sunday that the MClub would re-open. In fact, one server in the restaurant told us that it would not be open on Sunday at all because of the holiday on Monday. This also turned out to be incorrect because it re-opened at 4pm on Sunday afternoon.

While we encountered some very professional staff, we also encountered some very unfriendly hotel staff as well. One particular weak area of service was in the restaurant. One male server acted like it was an inconvenience to serve us on Saturday morning, and our experience with the chef who was cooking omelettes on Sunday was a major let down. I greeted her with a "hello" to which she did not respond at all and grumpily made the omelette I requested. If I were the restaurant manager, I would probably not have her in a customer facing role.

All in all, it was a mixed bag experience. I think the Marriott Long Wharf could shine even more if some of the weaker departments (restaurant and housekeeping) received more training on proper...