Courtyard by Marriott Erie Bayfront — Hotel in Erie

The Erie Marriottbayfront Bonvoy Hotel has stunning views of the lake. The grounds are beautiful and very park like with a promenade walkway that was exquisite. The landscape is coastal filled with lavender and soft lush pampas. Along with tons of Canadian geese basking in the sun very serene IF you wear earplugs. More to come..... Many areas to sit and take in the scenic lake A marina is close by and you will catch sailboats going out in the morning sun. A beautiful site. We booked a bay view, king, balcony room. The room was very clean and the balcony was worth every cent paid. It was a very large balcony with Adirondack chairs that you slide into due to the seat angle and can't get out of due to the very slippery "Trex" type weather resistant wood. A pain, but once seated you don't ever want to get up and leave anyway. Click to continue...There is some privacy but the side walls of each balcony could be a foot higher for perfection. But a minor detail. A joy to spend as much time as possible on the balcony. Early AM and Sunset was magical. The Shoreline Restaurant has a rather limited menu. We ate there 2 nights and our appetizers and meals were outstanding. The walleye served anyway you wish is a "must have". The shrimp/crab roll rivaled any lobster roll we have eaten in Nova Scotia. My husband said it was a "memorable" sandwich. Our server, a attentive and friendly. Now for the not so great....parking is very very limited for handicap. The parking garage if you have mobility issues is a bit of a distance. The garage is located across the way attached to another large building with an Oyster Bar and rooftop restaurant. Not worth 16.00 a day to walk even that distance for parking. But, there did not appear to be a lot of other choices especially if busy. The room was very very small. Almost claustrophobic due to the massive furniture. There is a sofa that needs not be in the room that must weigh a ton. 2 of us could hardly move it an inch to allow better flow of the AC air. It is painfully uncomfortable. Like the balcony chairs in order to put your back against the sofa back you have to slide back several feet into the sofa. A waste of space for an uncomfortable behemoth. A couple of comfy chairs and 1 more foot stool would do the trick. The wall facing the lake going to the balcony is all glass. This was the saving grace for feeling boxed into the small, over appointed room. Note: There is no microwave but we asked for one and it was promptly delivered. Housekeeping did not speak English and seemed to be at a loss the only time we interacted. The only issue for housekeeping was that the 2nd floor hallway had the same plastic wrappers laying in the same place for 3 days. Very visible as you had to walk by them to get to the elevators. Obviously it was not vacummed. That was a hard miss on the points scale. The music. The hotel has a Disclaimer on their website and they mean it. There are 2 restaurants with roof top open areas within very close proximity. The music is loud. It seems to start early am before 9 and ends after midnight. However it might be coming from the Marriott itself to add to the mix. You can lay in bed and lightly hear boom, boom. boom, of competing music all around. The 2nd night we ate at the hotel restaurant the lobby music filled every inch of the main floor and it was not pleasant to sit in the restaurant with that at dinner time. Turn it down 90% and play something softer. Not everyone is 25 and needs this type of environment. It seems like wherever you go on the property there is music. Loud music, competing music systems. Do not expect a serene quiet space. That it is not. It's tolerable but annoying. The hotel should consider there is noise they cannot control but they don't need to add to the mix with their own that can be heard inside and out All in all the glorious setting outweighed littered carpets, distant parking and the nonstop noise that is clearly forewarned before booking. We would not hesitate to recommend even with the few caveats...

Where to start...

The Positives: The location of the hotel is outstanding. Gorgeous lake views and restaurants close by to walk to. The common areas of the hotel were all great as well. Great breakfast at the cafe every morning and the bar area was very nice.

The Rest: When we arrived for check-in, the front counter was empty and the young woman who was supposed to be working was standing at the restaurant talking to another woman who was working. The young woman working the front desk turned, made eye contact with my husband and I, then proceeded to turn back around and finish her conversation for a few minutes before coming to check us in. When she finally came over, she was wiping her nose on the back of her hand and then proceeded to wipe that hand on her pants leg before typing on the computer. Sanitary and just the sight guests want to see when arriving.

We travel with our young child frequently, so try to book rooms that allow us to stay up after she goes to bed. In this case, we booked a room with a terrace. At check-in, no terrace rooms were available because the hotel overbooked. Did they do anything to make it right, seeing as it was unquestionably their mistake? No. We didn't get the room we booked and were told that there was an option with a King (turns out that wasn't true) and ended up in an option with 2 Queens. Not the end of the world, but not even a 'sorry' from hotel staff for their mixup. Hotel claimed all rooms carried the same nightly rate and that we weren't being charged extra. Can't speak to whether or not we were taken advantage of but I will say that, after taking screenshots for Marriott of the different rooms offered, the rates were in fact not all the same.

Manager comes in during our check in and was rude. Eye rolls and exasperated noises. He tried to tell me that the breakfast package, which I paid for, was something they were doing for me to help assuage our check-in concerns. He was especially rude when I pointed out that we paid for the breakfast package and that he was not doing us a favor, as he was trying to make us believe.

We finally enter the room and it is a MESS. The fridge doesn't work because it was left wide open, but that is the easiest fix. Shout out to the wonderful maintenance man who cheerfully swapped out our fridges. He was great. Our curtains had a massive gash running down it and there were dead bugs scattered across the windowsill. Cobwebs in multiple corners of the room as well. Pictures attached. After the less than stellar welcome we received, we opted not to report the rest of the room issues because what is the point? We would have just been met with resistance and more eye rolls. We figured pictures were best.

Great location but did not enjoy our stay due to the hotel staff and room fiasco. For anyone visiting Erie, PA, I recommend the Sheraton that shares a parking lot...

We were in town to hang by the water for a day/night before the Summer ended, and it happened to be the same weekend as Comic Con at the Convention Center next door. Even with that attraction, and at least one wedding on site, we didn't experience a bandwidth issue in service. ||The location can't be beat, right on the water, next to the convention center, very close walks to several different outdoor dining options. ||The service was excellent. Grace at the front desk took care of us both days, including allowing us to spin the prize week for being Bonvoy members (which we won two free breakfast vouchers on). The breakfast vouchers were redeemable at the Starbucks kiosk onsite for legit specialty drinks, and breakfast food. Grace also acknowledged our Gold Elite status and helped us out with extra pillows and a couple sundry items. We felt very taken care of there. The staff at the Starbucks kiosk was also very friendly.||You have plenty of options to grab some food and sit next to the water, which we did several times.||We'll definitely consider staying here again based on all of the above, and despite the items below:||The room (a Junior Suite) was not a great layout. We really don't care about suites, but wanted a waterfront view and it was the only one left. It was a horsehoe with a small living room on one end the bedroom on the other, and the bathroom in the middle. It was just too spread out, and the bathroom (and accessible) was a little weathered. Unfortunately, the room also kind of smelled like dog. I'm not sure if this is a pet friendly hotel or not, but our room kind of smelled like it was. We did not complain about it, and it wasn't overpowering, we just aren't dog people so it was noticeable. I also got a couple extra pillows but they were pretty lumpy. I didn't have a good sleep, but again, I would attribute it to having a room design I didn't really want, and not hold it against the property.||One other note was that due to the convention, we were forced to park on the top level of the adjacent parking garage, which was no big deal, but Saturday night when we were eating outside at Bay House next door, all we heard throughout the evening were motorcycles and cars in that garage. The next morning when we were leaving, there were two Mike's Hard Lemonades sitting next to my front tire. The videos from the Sentry mode showed several groups of kids just congregating and partying on that level of the parking garage. Long story short, I'd recommend parking on a lower level if you can, or try to move your car into the regular parking lot before dark. ||Again, we will definitely stay here again. Grace's service, and the location of the property will see to that. There's also a great inside/outside bar in the lobby. Highly recommend with those couple...