Element Boston Seaport District — Hotel in Boston

The hotel was not bad, the people were friendly - to a certain extent. Breakfast was not bad. Pool was fun. Went after visiting family on thanksgiving day night. Here is what killed it, and the reason I have it 2 stars overall, honestly would probably give it 1.5 if I could. We booked a room using one of the discount websites - no big deal. We arrived at night, they have NO PARKING whatsoever, metered street parking or valet ONLY, but they leave the premises at a certain time(before we arrived). Ok fine, we street parked, but the meter would not take my payment(online card payment, not the hotel’s fault, city of Boston thing…another problem), had to wait til the morning to figure it out. We went to the front desk to get our room, lady found our reservation and gave us keys, we go up the elevator find our room, open it up. Inside the room was the largest mess I could ever imagine seeing in a hotel room. Looked like a class of middle schoolers tore it up. Food and dirty dishes in and around the sink and garbage can, fridge door open with food still in it. Blankets and pillows on the living room area floor. Bedroom same, sheets and pillows on the ground and looked like somebody had just gotten out of bed. Bathroom had towels on the ground and the sink, shower still had water on the doors and walls. Instantly we turned around and went back to the desk and reported it. They said oh, we’re sorry about that. Looks like they checked out earlier but it must have not been cleaned and turned over. We’ll have maintenance go over and fix it asap, but we’ll get you a new room. So the lady gives us a new room. I go by myself and check the room, leaving my wife and son in the lobby waiting. Open the door to the room, looks ok. I check the fridge, sink and garbage. More dirty dishes in sink, more food in the fridge, garbage was empty. Bathroom still had towels in it, bedroom was fine tho. I took pictures, came back to the desk and showed them. The lady said, oh my gosh, we’ll get you another room again. 3rd room now, I go check again. This time everything was fine. Clean kitchen, clean bathroom, bedroom and living room area were organized and turned over. So I go back down and tell them it was fine and we’d stay there for the night. Once we are inside and getting ready, found the set of pillows and sheets for the folding couch bed my son was going to sleep on in empty and had to call front desk to get replacements. I asked about what they can do since clearly their staff is lagging and/or not doing their job right. Was told because it was so late they had no manager on duty and I had to check back in the morning to talk with them. Also because I had booked online through a discount website, it would be an issue and she didn’t know if/how it works. Talked to a manager the next morning and found that they could not do anything. We were in town only for that night so we couldn’t get another night stay or a discount because it was already discounted, and since we didn’t pay the hotel directly, we couldn’t get a refund. They said call the corporate help number and maybe we could get rewards points or something but we called and explained and have never received anything, after being told “we’ll have to look into this, we apologize for the inconveniences”.

Unrelated to the hotel, tried calling about the parking meter and was told to try repeatedly until it works. They may be doing overnight website maintenance and sometimes it takes a while. I tried about 6 times before going to sleep about 20mins to 1hr between them. Also checked in the morning and same thing, went out to the car and had a parking ticket. Had to call the city of Boston and file an appeal, send in pictures of me trying and the problems I had trying to pay. I was not about to pay $40 for the ticket over THEM not letting me pay for $8 or $10 for the meter. Also still waiting to hear back from them, it’s...

I stayed at The Element Boston Seaport from March 20 - 25, 2024 during PAX East, which was a return stay for me. I'll say at the outset that the hotel is comfortable to stay in and has an incredible location. My problems all stem from a completely bungled series of billing errors and a callously indifferent management that doesn't admit error and tries to pin blame on guests.

When I checked in, a hold was placed on my card for the room fees as well as incidentals. On the last day of a five-day stay, an amount equal to the fee for two nights was actually charged to my card. Then I started getting "card declined" alerts from my provider. Frantic something had gone wrong, I curtailed spending and started trying to figure out what was wrong. I also checked with the Element's desk to see why they only charged a partial amount and was assured that the balance was still on hold and all was okay. I checked out the next day with no problem.

Four days later, I received an email from the Element's general accountant, Mr. Bender, saying that I hadn't paid my bill and requesting payment. After checking with my card provider, within a couple of hours I had replied that it was confirmed that the hotel still had more than the outstanding balance on hold and was not trying to capture those funds, but was trying to run a new charge.

It took six days for Mr. Bender to respond, during which I called and sent follow-up emails with updates and the details from my card provider on how to cancel the old charge. When we finally spoke, his reply was that he was sorry I received sub-optimal service and that in order to fix things, I should do the work to follow up with my card provider. He did at least provide the needed letter, where the hotel never admitted mistakes and took a magnanimous tone about generously releasing the hold. Since the hold amount was for more than the balance, during this whole time, they were also holding on to money that belonged to me.

While waiting for his reply, I had also contacted Marriott's corporate offices. In doing so, I also exchanged emails with the Element's front desk manager. I asked to speak to the general manger and received a reply after their investigation that simply parroted back to me all the information I had given Mr. Bender. I renewed a request to speak to the Element's general manager as well as pointed out that I didn't know how the hotel intended to proceed once my card provider fixed the current mess.

There was also an exchange with the Element's Dual Property Director of Room Operations in response to a satisfaction survey where I was blamed for all problems due to the card I used for payment which the Element accepted at the time of reservation.

My last contact with the Element was the email to the front desk manager on April 7 with no reply. I heard absolutely nothing until May 8, when I once again received email from Mr. Bender requesting payment. In it, he mentions the general manger getting in contact with me with me not responding, except I never received either a phone call or email from them. I had never received a reply as to how the hotel was going to proceed once the mess from their first billing attempt was cleaned up.

Overall, no one at the hotel spent any effort in determining the problem and left it to me to fix, nor have they ever admitted any error. And of course, in all the time they've been ignoring me, the card I used started showing fraudulent charges in Boston, forcing me to cancel it.

Finally, I noticed that Mr. Bender copied several Marriott executives perhaps as intimidation and I happily included them in my reply which was sent immediately after I read his. Maybe they'll care about the bungling if not the supremely inhospitable way I've been treated since checking out.

Not surprisingly, all of that was six days ago and - you guessed it - I've heard...

Our family booked 17 days prior to arrival since we needed a very specific set up for an aging grandparent with heart issues and two kids that need separate beds. On the day of arrival, our flight coming in from Florida was delayed many times. We called this hotel multiple times to make sure our booked room would be waiting for us, even if we got there after 10pm. Each time, the front desk person assured us it was all ready and we would have no problems at check in (that was when they answered after continual ringing for 20 minutes.) When our tired and weary group finally arrived around 10:30ish, we were stunned to be told that they NOT ONLY DIDN’T HAVE OUR ROOM READY, but there was NOT A SINGLE ROOM AVAILABLE TO ACCOMMODATE US. Here we were at 10:30ish at night (7 and 9 year olds included) and the attitude was “oh, I’m sorry but there’s nothing I can do.” (No acknowledgement or apology for lying to us for hours before.) A manager from the partner hotel across the street was called. He eventually came. No name tags on anyone, no eye contract from manager, just two young-ish men staring at computers and saying they didn’t have anything but one room with a single king bed and maybe a sleeper sofa for our group. At 11pm we went upstairs to that room with the promise that if something else popped up in next hour, they’d call and let us know. We started to get the kids ready for bed. Had to call and ask for additional bath towels and bed linens. (It did have a sleeper sofa at least - although it did not have a bed bug cover on the sleeper mattress which I covered myself.) At 11:45, they called our room and said they found another room with a king bed in the hotel across the street. The aging grandparent with heart issues in our group sacrificially offered to take it so the kids could stay put. AT MIDNIGHT, he lugged his own luggage over there (no offer to help from front desk or manager of course - horrible customer service!) and again no apology besides a flat “we’re sorry this isn’t ideal.” To say I would never stay at this hotel again is an understatement. In the end, it doesn’t really matter that they gave us with some hotel points as a sign of good faith and that the breakfast was pretty good (fresh eggs!) OR that the next day around mid-morning our original room suddenly became available and we were able to move over (again, no help from staff and we missed out exploring city that morning). Here’s what it boils down to: IF YOU CAN’T MAKE A RESERVATION AND TRUST THAT WHAT YOU PAID FOR WILL BE READY AS PROMISED, THEN THE BUSINESS IS SHADY AND SHOULD BE AVOIDED. Especially if you have children or medically compromised individuals. I am just so disappointed by this since this is a big brand and a newer build. It had/has so much potential. So this is my warning to other customers. There are sooooo many other hotels to choose from. Do yourself a favor and DO NOT BOOK AT THIS HOTEL if you actually need a room to be ready and...