Courtyard by Marriott Columbus Downtown — Hotel in Columbus

My family and I recently stayed at this hotel midway through our road trip. Long story short, DON'T DO IT and if you do, ASK questions, make them show you proof of what they're telling you. I redeemed 40,000 points for 2 rooms for 1 night. I arrived on November 22nd at 1:30am and checked out on November 22nd at 8:12am. Just needed the rooms to rest before continuing on our road trip.

Upon our arrival and check in, the front desk associate, although he was nice, told me the reason that my card needed to be swiped FOUR TIMES was because the "system makes them do it but I shouldn't worry".

As a frequent traveler, I expect the normal incidental charges hold however, after checking out on November 22nd, I expected the incidental charges to fall off. When I checked my credit card transactions on November 25, I had two transactions for $50, which I presume to be the charges for incidentals for both rooms, then I looked at my posted transactions, I had two additional charges totaling $101.06. Called the hotel, they tried to tell me it was for incidentals I said no that's still pending. Two of four charges posted to my account, but I redeemed points to pay for my stay and my final bill for both rooms was $0.00. Why am I being charged an additional $50.53 for each room? Is the valet parking for 1 car for 6 hours $100? The front desk associate who answered said valet was definitely not $100, said that valet is $35 a night and maybe the person who checked me out did not know my card was swiped four times when I checked in and could not really tell me why I had additional charges except that he is taking notes and will get his manager to look into it when she returns from her thanksgiving break on November 26.

As a Bonvoy Silver Elite Member, I expect better communication and I expect not to be charged for rooms with a bill of $0.00 when I redeemed points to pay for my stay. I even called the 1800 number and they said that shouldn't have happened and expedited a ticket to have it looked into. And so I wait, to get answers. In all my experience in staying at Marriott hotels, this is definitely a first and it's not cool. The front desk associates need better training and they should know the answers...

I stayed at the Courtyard Columbus Downtown the past two Friday evenings. I stayed both times on my Marriott points, because throughout the year I stay out of town roughly 60-80 nights. I try whenever possible to stay with Marriott because I like the brand and I have had outstanding experiences. This is a nice hotel, the front desk is helpful, responsive and check-in was a breeze with the new Marriott check-in feature on my Marriott app. Although, I have a few complaints which include the room I reserved and the valet. The valet service was very friendly, but I feel like all the employees were new or there was some kind of disorganized chaos. They have a text service to call your car to the front of the hotel, and when you call down to the front desk they will not call your car and insist you use the text message service. Both times I texted the service they did not receive the message and I just had to go down to the front and tell them my number. Additionally, after leaving in my car some 15ish minutes would go by and I would receive an error message from the Valet service that no one is available to get my car. It was very confusing and just felt like the kinks still needed to be worked out of the system. My only other complaint was my first reservation(4/17) was made for a room with a Kind bed and we received a Queen room. My boyfriend is 6'8" and just doesn't fit on a Queen size bed well. We were in Columbus celebrating our Anniversary because we met at Ohio State 4 years ago. It was just a little upsetting to discover we had a Queen room after booking this room 4 months in advance. We did not request a new room because we didn't realize this until we returned to our room after dinner and were getting ready for bed. I just feel like if I reserve a certain room then I should receive that room without having to double check, plus there was nothing said at check-in about getting a Queen room. All-in-all I can't really complain because we were staying on points, but I have stayed in plenty of other Marriott hotels to know that this is not normally the service...

Save yourself!

So, I arrived late on a Saturday night, exhausted from a very long road trip. Right off, I ran into drama trying to park my car. It doesn't use a key/keycard but runs off an app on my phone, so the valet can't park and retrieve it for me. After the 3rd attempt to make sure I was parking in the right place, I walked back in to confer with the valet, when some young lady who I hadn't see before, pauses her conversation with the desk agent and steps up to me (not even arms length) and starts rolling her neck and telling me my car was going to be towed. I didn't even know who she was. I assume she was a manager or something from the way she was trying to flex her muscles and prove how bold and assertive she was. She didn't even have all the facts but she was definitely reading me the 'riot act'.

When she paused to take a breath, the valet told her I was a registered guest and wouldn't be towed. She then just said 'Oh' and went back to her conversation.

So much for first impressions!

While waiting to be registered, I looked around and then noticed that the property is really old. It turns out that it was built in 1911. And it looked like it. Old, dingy, everything and the general feeling that nothing was updated. No elevators to get from the lobby to the guest floors; you have to schlep your bags up 6-7 steps first. Holes in the walls, scratched up doors and my room view was of the backend of an air conditioning unit and some maintenance ladders. Nice.

I barely slept because I knew there would be bugs or something, but thankfully nothing crawled on me. As soon as the sun came up, I couldn't wait to get out of that joint. I didn't even want to use the shower. It was bad. Just bad. So off brand for Courtyard.

I'm surprised Courtyard put their name/image on that wreck. It diminished their view in my eyes as a previously loyal guest. I'll definitely look for alternatives in the future. I recommend you avoid if at...