Courtyard by Marriott Fort Lauderdale East/Lauderdale-by-the-Sea — Hotel in Fort Lauderdale

I give this hotel 2 out of 5 stars and I explain why, all the way from the beginning. Me and my cousin, arrived early at the hotel which they allowed us to keep our bags in the back until our room was finish. We requested early check in, and poolside room on the ground level. Just a warning, if you are not an iguana or gecko person. Please do NOT request ground level as this is a known species in Fort Lauderdale area. Once our room was finish about 2pm. The rest of the evening went well. They do provide a shuttle service from the hotel and to the hotel within 3 miles radius. So this is also a nice complimentary to the guest. Also, we even got drinks made down at the bar which was awesome. The next day, me and my cousin ran errands for about 4hrs. Just prior to leaving for the morning , we notice the housekeeper was like 2 doors down from our room cleaning. Well, 4hrs later we return back to our room not being touched or cleaned. The housekeeper was across in another room. So when asked, why is our room still not refreshed when you were a couple doors down hours ago. She stated we were next. Around 2pm, the housekeeper finally came. Not a big deal, Right! We just didnt let it bother us. Well the next day is when the disaster happen. While getting ready for the morning. My cousin was in the next bed. All of a sudden I notice this big brown bug on her bed. I screamed, and my cousin hopped out of bed. She suffers from panic attacks so my scream freaked her out. She said what is it. I said OMG there is a cockroach on your bed, hanging on the sheets. She barely could catch her breath. So I called the front desk and ask if they can have someone come to room 111. There is a big brown bug in one of the beds. After waiting almost 5 mins for someone to come. I had to calm my cousin down because she was freaking out and couldnt catch her breath. When the janitor guy came and hit it. The cockroach was trying to crawl back under the mattress between the sheets. After he killed it. We requested to be move to another room. The front desk staff was very apologetic and nice BUT the length of time to get another room was again a long time. 2hrs of waiting in the entertainment lounge area when clearly the accommodation could have been handle quicker in our instance. Not only did they say they did not have any 2 queen bed rooms avaliable. They said it was only a king room on the 5th floor. Well just receiving another room and a complimentary drink in this instance just wasnt enough. After mentioning a refund of a night stay. The lady at the desk mentioned she has to put it through with her manager. My cousin was so freaked out she just was terrified to lay in the bed. Please be aware this staff is friendly, however, the wait time is ridiculous and not just because of our room change but housekeeping and the shuttle service as well. We waited about an hour for a shuttle to come back and get us when the front desk staff kept saying he on his way. It took 3 calls to try to get an eta which end up being an hour. The cockroach was the icing on the cake for us. To know that a cockroach was in the bed with u for however long is disgusting especially to someone who suffers from anxiety. This hotel is not the best in Fort Lauderdale. There is better. Plus I recommend getting a rental to drive to places. It's like a 15 min drive to the main beach of Fort Lauderdale. I would not stay here every again. Highly disappointed. The staff was friendly but the rooms are not the best. I would definitely recommend to look elsewhere.

Update: The hotel end up sending my cousin a email, apologizing for what occurred. They did end up giving us 2 nights free of our visit. So basically a 2 night refund. Marriott is a great company, never had issues staying at any other of their hotels but this one was just a...

The staff were exceptionally nice. Very vice. HOWEVER, the rooms were not nice. Not nice at all. We checked in in the wee hours (3AM) due to issues at the airport. Dave was EXTREMELY nice. I pre-paid for a King Suite and requested before hand a corner room. When we checked in, the only King room available was across from the pool. The staff member was nice enough to be upfront and advise it is a group that is staying there has been a bit loud and had a few calls to the front desk about them. Because I needed rest, I asked for a quiet room and the only room available was a Double bed room. This room was not updated. They did have a safety security box in the small closet, but also there was a coffee maker in the closet! No luggage rack, but coffee maker in the closet. The room was STUFFY! The thermostat clearly didn't work. It was set on 64, however it was still stuffy in the room. We turned it down to 60 and it was still warm. We decided to sweat it out the night since it was so late and we were exhausted. A couple pillow cases had their share of wear and tear and was holding together by threads. But I grabbed a towel out the bathroom and laid it on the pillow. A few hours later, got up to use the restroom and I noticed the toilet water was yellow. I assumed it was my partners bad manners, but when I started to run the sink water, I noticed the water started filling the sink and it was yellow! YELLOW!!! I let it run for 10 minutes, hoping that it was just something that would pass thru. It didn't! I turned on the shower and it ran yellow water as well. I had to get to the wedding rehearsal so I stopped down at the front desk, which is located in another building, and spoke to the front desk staff. She advised me she would have maintenance go to the room and fix everything. After I returned a few hours later, to check the room. The water was still yellow! However, the room was a bit cooler, but not much. I asked to be changed to a different room and she said there were booked and they weren't able to move me to another room or property. I asked for a refund and so the front desk staff called for the manager. The manager proceeds to tell me " Florida water is yellow and it is normal and safe." She also told me she lived there her whole life and that is just the color of Florida's water. When I told her, that that wasn't true because I DID live in Florida for years and my water was never yellow. She then asked if I lived in the area, and I told her no. She said she lived a few blocks from the property and her water is the same color and she uses it to "wash [her] hair and drink the tap water" and is just fine and that is the color of the water for that particular area of Fort Lauderdale. I told her I was just in the area a couple of months back at AirBnB a few blocks away and the water was not yellow. She offered to give me bottles of water to use to brush our teeth and use however. She then Googles and print me an article about why the water is yellow and is safe to drink. I still wasn't and am NOT convinced it is safe as it could be. I asked to check out and they still charged me nearly $191 for staying in a hot, muggy, yellow water room that I couldn't even shower in for 8 hours. I DO NOT recommend staying at this location. The staff was great, the...

We recently had a wonderful week's stay at the Courtyard, East/Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, We were treated like royalty from check-in to check-out. The hotel was spotless and staff quickly responded to our needs. They immediately sent extra towels and pillows when we requested them. The shower was great. Hot water all the time. Coffee and tea making facilities were in the room which was very handy, as well as a small fridge.

It was a bit cold at night, so Ethan in Maintenance made sure right away that the heating in the room worked as well as the air conditioning! He was extremely helpful. With the card access throughout the property we felt quite secure there. We washed clothes one night and the laundry room was the best we've ever seen in a hotel. When we reported noise from some other guests during the night, one of the front desk staff came upstairs to walk the corridors to see where the noise was coming from. When they located it, they notified the guests, who apologized and refrained.

We had dinner two nights and breakfast two mornings in the hotel's Bistro restaurant. The food was excellent and the ambiance of the Bistro was lovely. The Bistro staff were all so friendly, efficient and helpful, especially server Lorie who was anxious to know if the food was to our liking, which it was! The food was cooked to order. They have excellent chefs.

Our most outstanding experience of this hotel though was with Torill Aadland on the front desk. I wish I could name all of the staff, but Torill went over and beyond the call of duty when my husband discovered at Fort Lauderdale Airport on our way back home that he'd lost his wallet with his credit card and driver's licence in it. He realized he must have dropped it in our room that morning. We called the hotel and accompanied by a colleague named Jo, Torill personally went to the room where we had been staying to do a more thorough search for the wallet. Torill actually went down on her hands and knees to look for it in the spot where my husband thought it might have fallen - and found it! She arranged for it to be FedExed back to us immediately and we received it safely.

We highly recommend this hotel. It's excellent and the staff are exceptional, efficient and hard working. They appeared to us like a big happy family, which made us feel...