Le Méridien Dallas by the Galleria — Hotel in Dallas

This is a review for the Hotel Le Meridien Dallas by the Galleria in Dallas Texas. We stayed at the Meridien from June 9th 2018 till June 11th and then again from June 18th till the 22nd for our return flight back to Europe.

I will start by saying this is not a positive review and proceed by listing the reasons.

We made the reservations for ourselves (party of 3) and our son (party of 3) in October of 2017. We were to arrive from Europe to meet up with my son and daughter in law, who themselves were arriving from Fort Smith Arkansas for a long overdue family reunion in Fort Smith.

When making the reservation I explicitly gave instructions that I was to be solely billed for both rooms, that my son would be checking in for both of us as our flight would not arrive till around 9PM and that my son was not to be allowed to pay for his room under any circumstance. When my son checked in he was asked for his credit card and I guess this was the beginning of our problems.

After our first stay at the Meridien and after arriving in Fort Smith we realized, checking our bank statements that Le Meridien had charged my son for his room plus $75 for incidentals and $12.95 for what we’re not sure of (and the hotel could never explain to us either). We ourselves were charged for our room plus $75 incidentals and $5 for a bottle of something we never had. We ended up calling our bank and the hotel daily trying to resolve this issue and eventually they charged us for my son’s room but without refunding my son for the cost of his room. This had the effect of tying up funds on our credit cards while being on vacation in a foreign country, the hassle aggravation and stress of the innumerable phone calls involving myself, my son, his bank, my bank and the hotel every morning, some on the road and sometimes being cut off because of no cell service etc. Eventually on about the 6th day everything on our side seemed to be fixed but my son’s charge of $75 and 12.95 had still not been refunded (to be fixed a couple of days later).

By that time we were to return to Le Meridien for our return trip to Europe. Needless to say we were really worried. During one of our phone calls with the General Manager of the hotel, told us that he would make it really good for us for the inconvenience this had caused us all and that he wanted to meet us personally upon our return. The General Manager stated that our room was to be upgraded at no extra charge, breakfast and parking would be free and some monetary compensation would be made upon our new visit. At the end of the day he did happen to be in the lobby when we arrived so we spoke, we were given an “upgraded” room (we totally failed to see the upgrade) on the 11th floor, free breakfast, parking and $100 reduction on our room… we were puzzled… Also no offer was ever made to compensate my son as he went through the same ordeal and I must say that I failed to bring it up.

The final humdinger came when we checked out on June 22nd and left at the front desk a package affixed with a prepaid UPS shipping label/tracking number addressed to my son containing the cell phone which my daughter-in-law was kind enough to lend us during our stay, and another item. After a few days my son checked the tracking number and realized the package had never left the hotel. After a week and a half and numerous calls between the States and Europe it was determined that the package had been given to the USPS instead of the UPS. The package finally made it to my son on July 3rd.

My wife and I want to note that some people really stood out for their kindness and patience. The night shift front desk receptionist was so kind and friendly over the phone and we were pleased to finally meet her in person when we arrived, and the Front Office Manager who worked with us and our son to resolve this hellish mess and the friendly staff at the breakfast buffet are all to be thanked.

And now about the rooms… This is not a cheap hotel so we were a bit surprised to see the condition of the first rooms we had. The baseboards were badly worn, things were peeling, glass on coffee tables was chipped (safety issue) furniture was not properly, neatly positioned, and room just gave the general impression of a lack of care and upkeep. Also the day we arrived there were dirty dishes in the hallway which we got to see as we came and went from our rooms during our stay. As of the time we checked out they had still not been removed.

As far as our “upgraded” room (rm 1106) the room had just been refurbished so things were in better condition but the bathroom looked tatty with an old worn bathtub, poorly operating bathtub faucet and showerhead. The bathtub just as the one in our previous room would surely not inspire anyone to have a nice bath. We had reserved a room with two queen sized beds, one for my wife and I and the other for our 21 year old daughter but the upgrade came with a king size and a rollaway bed which was small and disappointing for my daughter, but as we were tired from the drive we chose not to say anything. The room also comes with the tiniest coffee pot we have ever seen and it had no electric outlet to plug it in anywhere near!?...I guess we should have plugged it in the bathroom.

I must also say that in my opinion I believe that $20 a day for outside parking is quite high when it seems that most other hotels offer free parking.

One thing of concern which I think must be brought up as a potential safety risk, and which I brought up to the General Manager, to which he replied to me that the situation had crossed his mind, is that the halls/walkways to the rooms on each floor have an opened view to the lobby where people and the restaurant are. Some areas just have an opened railing for safety. I do believe that this is big safety risk and that it is just a matter of time till a child or adult would accidently drop some keys, phone, etc. on the people below, or even a person who had too much to drink could tip over the rail. From any floor this would be simply catastrophic.

Finally I will conclude with this: Le Meridien gives a certain air of pretense but is in my opinion really overpriced for what it offers, the staff is friendly but the ordeal and stress that this hotel has put us through and the extraordinary amount of time it took from what was to be a nice vacation with our family to resolve the numerous issues is unforgivable. I could never in good faith ever recommend this...

I definitely do NOT recommend staying here. We booked a last-minute deal through Priceline that offered a room at a 4 Star Hotel with an 8+ guest rating with a "King Bed, Fridge and Microwave". We both have some dietary restrictions so we always get a room with a fridge and microwave so that we can bring our own food. We assumed it would be similar to the Le Meridien in Houston but we were so wrong.

Thursday Evening we checked in and the first thing I noticed was that the hotel was much more run down than it looked in the photos. It was very warm and smelled like damp and cleaning products. When we got to the room we noticed again that it was not as nice as the photos and had kind of an odd smell. We also noticed that the toilet did not flush properly and would push back any toilet paper used. There was a barely cold mini fridge but no microwave in the room. We thought that was odd but that maybe they had removed the microwave to be cleaned or something and we just needed to request a new one. We ended up leaving to go out to dinner and when we got back the whole room had a sewage smell to it. We were tired from traveling and figured we could ask for a new room the next day if we needed to.

By Friday afternoon the sewage smell was mostly gone so we figured there must have been a leak or pipe problem somewhere and that it was getting fixed, so we did not ask for a new room. I thought about getting some ice, but the ice machine on the 6th floor looked like it had never been maintained and was absolutely disgusting so I did not trust that the ice would be clean. Later that day my fiancé asked the front desk for a microwave and was told something along the lines of "we don't have those" or "we don't offer those here". My fiancé told them the reservation we made included a king bed, a fridge and a microwave and the guy working the front desk just shrugged him off without offering any other help.

Sunday we checked out.

I did call Priceline during and after our stay and ask them for help with these issues. They reached out to the hotel Friday night and could not get in touch with anyone at the front desk. Then they reached out on Sunday night and spoke to someone at the front desk who said a manager would follow up on Monday but, surprise, no one did. Tuesday night Priceline reached out AGAIN and finally got in touch with the front desk manager (I believe she said her name was Jacqueline) and she told the Priceline rep that microwaves are available upon request, and they also have a public microwave in the lobby we could have used so they won't be offering us any type of apology or compensation. Again, we were told they did not offer microwaves! And we were never informed that there was a public microwave that we were allowed to access or use!

Other downsides to this hotel: Both elevators show that they have not been inspected since March of 2022 and that they were due to be inspected again on March 2023. Three years of no inspection on equipment that is being used all day every day? I definitely did not feel safe using them. The tv's are being "updated" so the remotes do not work properly and there is no tv guide. There is a printed piece of paper in the room that gives you instructions on how to use the tv. It costs $20 a night to park in the dirty, trash filled parking lot attached to the hotel. All of the light fixtures were rusted, leading me to believe that the damp smell is due to moisture and potentially mold in the rooms.

The ONLY pro about this hotel is the location. I would never stay here again and never...

This hotel cannot be a 4 star rated hotel, by far one of the worse Marriott Bonvoy experience. I checked in at 1:30am there was no one at the desk, I had to wait until someone showed up as I knocked on the back office door and there was no answer. The overnight gentleman appeared who was probably the nicest staff member encountered during my stay. The room I was assigned the front door didn’t open. I went back down, had to again wait and knock on the executive staff door to find assistance and the overnight staff kindly came to the room to try the key along with his master which still didn’t work and then came back with something to bypass the system which again didn’t work. I was then given another room, an accessible room with 2 twin beds on the roadside and there was a stack of linens and towels left behind in the room which makes me think it wasn’t even checked. The next morning at 7am I requested a quiet room with a king size and advised I packed my luggage and left it by the door to request a room move. I was assured a new room would be assigned and my items would be moved. I returned at 7pm after a day of long meetings, the room switch wasn’t done, my luggage was still in the previous room and the keys weren’t ready. I was told that the person didn’t move it because they didn’t want to be responsible for it? My new room was on the 2nd floor right across the ice machine and facing the road when I requested a quiet room away from the road. I was then taken to my old room to grab my luggage to move it to my new room. The sink stopper in the new room was yellow and clearly dirty and never scrubbed. I requested a black tea to go two mornings in a row, first day I was told we only have earl grey… 2nd day I asked for earl gray I was brought just the tea bag without the hot water. I attempted to order room service last night at 630pm and called the front desk. I was told “we don't have room service tonight because there is no one to take the food upstairs, so you can come downstairs order and take it up". I checked out at 430am for an early flight this morning again no one at the desk and had to wait. When I asked for my bill I was told the system was switching to the following day and that no bill could be presented or printed. I just received my bill by email and I was STILL charged for breakfast although breakfast was included in my roommate and I mentioned it at checkout. I tried calling the hotel 3 times and no one answers the phone. By far the worse Marriott Bonvoy experience and I do not recommend this...