Courtyard by Marriott Charlotte City Center — Hotel in Charlotte

Brief synopsis for anyone wanting to avoid a book: Save your money, book elsewhere, rooms are awful, and as many other reviews have stated, the rooms are extremely dated and EXTREMELY musty. Our entire room, including the linen, smelled like dirty socks. It was an awful experience.

The only positive thing I can say is that if rooms are available, early check-in isn't an add-on fee. Its first come, first serve. Since we lost power, we were able to check-in at like 1:30.

The hotel is built on top of an 11-story parking garage. While the front desk is on the 1st floor, the rooms are on the 12th-15th. Worth noting if you have a fear of heights.

Based on the average rating, I can make 2 assumptions. This place used to be nice, or they paid for reviews. There is no way people are staying here recently and leaving a high review. We booked here to check out a show at the Belk. It also coincided with Helene. This worked to our advantage as we lost power. My thoughts on the hotel:

1. front desk is hit or miss. There are some nice ladies at the front desk, but most of the staff I interacted with during my stay were extremely rude. (Excluding bar staff and housekeeping. 5* for both). Obviously, this can happen anywhere, and if that were the only issue, I would not be leaving this review.

2. There appears to be little to no soundproofing for the windows. Our room was on the top floor(15) and still heard a tremendous amount of road noise all night long. I lived in DT Miami/SoBe on lower floors and heard less noise in a much bigger city. Again, in isolation, this wouldn't be a major issue, but combined with the last issue made this stay one of the worst hotels I've ever stayed at.

3. The room smelled AWFUL. When I laid down, it legit smelled like dirty socks. I mean, like foot fungus dirty. My guy hasn't washed his feet in weeks dirty. This is by far the worst smelling hotel room I've ever stayed in. It permeated the entire room. Sheets, pillows, couch. You name it. Had we not lost power, we would've eaten the cost of the room and left. We had a corner room on the top floor. One of the best rooms in the hotel and it was absolutely awful. If this was what their best is, I can't imagine their normal rooms. Why are these companies allowed to continue to offer such subpar services at such a premium. Having been a diamond member with Hilton for the last few years, I know that calling corporate for these complaints for issues will have zero effect. Someone needs to hold these companies accountable for such...

Staff was extremely rude! When I walked in to Check in the women at the front desk finished her text before helping me. Then was extremely rude. Gave me no information about the hotel or the parking garage. So when I came back to ask a question she got annoyed and rudely said I already told you that! The next day our room smell like cigarette smoke. I called to let the front desk know. The same girl again was rude. I tell her what is going on and when I’m done she says sorry??? Like she did hear me. And I go did you hear me and she says yes. Then doesn’t say anything at all. I go well could you please figure out where it is coming from. And she goes yes. I’m like okay… thank you. And she finally started talking and seems annoyed. She says well would you want to change rooms if they can’t find it out. And I said yes my room smells like a casino. She then says okay and hangs up. I’m like okay they are going to look into it and call me back. She never calls me back. I assume they figure it out and go to dinner. I come back and the smell is worse then before. I was too tired to deal with it and just went to bed after trying to air out the room. Then I get up the next day super smoky smell again. We are checking out so again I just let it go. Get our stuff ready and was going to tell them again at the front desk. I saw it was the rude lady again and didn’t want to say anything. I just turned in my keys to the bin and walked away. She didn’t say thank for your stay or anything. Like okay it’s fine I get it. I worked at the front desk of hotels for years and there are bad days. But she was beyond rude. Then our ticket doesn’t work on the way out of the parking garage so I have to talk to her. I ask her what’s going on and she rudely tells me I did it wrong and she told me how to do it. At that point I just take my new ticket and say thank you. The whole time I was on the phone and the person I was talking to was like omg how rude was that lady! And I’m like thank you! It’s...

So I decided to give Courtyard a shot and it wasn't the best experience. Bottom line, if you're in need of some rest and relaxation, I HIGHLY suggest choose a different hotel.

First, the positives. It’s located in the heart of uptown, which makes walking anywhere quick and simple. There is a public parking garage accessible from the hotel. The room is large enough for 2 people and the water pressure is top tier.

Unfortunately, a fire alarm woke us up one morning. Emergency vehicles were arriving so we thought it was pretty serious. The fire alarm message directed us to use the stairs to exit and this became confusing. We followed an emergency exit sign which led us to a corner of confusion. One sign pointed in the direction we were heading and the other pointed in the direction we just came from (see picture). We decided to keep heading down our initial path, and the couple behind us decided to backtrack. Our path led us down a stairwell to a door that stated "not an exit" but also said "emergency exit" on the handle. We went through the door, which placed us on the 10th floor of the parking garage. From there, we had to find yet another way out... Ultimately, we all made it out, with no explanation of the cause. If this was a real emergency, there may have been some serious consequences. I hope they can add some clarity to their emergency exit signage during their remodel.

More negatives. We stayed in room 314, and there was no headboard. There were only some weird, foam pieces with pillow cases. You can feel the springs in the bed, as it is VERY firm. If you're a side sleeper like me, this will hurt your back! I didn't know popcorn ceilings were still a thing, but there was some questionable fluid on it. And the bathroom seemed clean, until you looked at all of the hair that was left in many areas. Lastly, you can hear all of the grinding, drilling, and pounding from construction and every conversation in the hallway. If you choose to stay...