Courtyard by Marriott Gatlinburg Downtown — Hotel in Gatlinburg

I am a Marriott Bonvoy member & have been staying with Marriott, JW's, Westins & their St. Regis properties for over 10 yrs. I can truly say this is the first time I have been really disappointed. We checked in with Kenny & he was nice...he was the only nice employee we encountered while there. He welcomed us & tried to give us a room with a balcony but those were only available with queen beds & we wanted a king. Thank you to Kenny for trying. We went to our room & I thought it had a weird smell...like a wet dog. I like pets but I don't want my hotel room to smell like one. We left for dinner & my husband said he did not smell anything so I just let it go. Upon our return I continued to smell it. I know they only allow service animals so it seemed there had been one in our room or else the carpets were just dirty & smelly. My husband said he thought the room just seemed dark & dingy. I know it is not an old hotel but it did not seem like a normal Marriott. A plus is the free parking but if you come to the hotel after 8pm good luck finding parking. It seems there is construction going on behind the parking lot of the hotel & Marriott has agreed to let them park construction trucks in their lot. Really? We got the last spot on our last night there in the very back part of a dark lot. I would not want to be a woman alone parking there. No hotel security around. And, the water went off one day while we were there. I called the front desk & they had no idea how long it would be off. Hmmm, ok, I understand but there was no, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience" because we could not shower or flush the toilet. The guy basically barely spoke and responded with yes / no answers. Come on Marriott hire folks with people skills at your front desk. We just went ahead & left for the day. Before we returned we called to see if the water was back & they said yes. I asked was it ok to drink ... not knowing if there had been a break in the line or whatever. Again, less than stellar response .... something like "it should be." I just wanted to know if I needed to buy bottled water or not. They certainly never offered us any at all. And, that brings up another point....we are Platinum Elite for many years & this is the only Marriott property that has not offered us water upon check in. Maybe because it is a courtyard ... but, when the water is not working you would think they would offer everyone bottled water. Like go out and buy it for your guests. Again, disappointing. I hope when we are back in the area they will have improved their service. I do not think we will ever plan to stay there. We spent a couple of nights elsewhere and it was so much nicer than this Marriott. I do think they may know there is an issue with yucky room smell because when you come in the front lobby there is a lovely fragrance from the hotel atomizer. And it is going all the time. Marriott, be better, do better. Not one person working there really ever smiled or said hello to us or any other customers....I watched to see if it was just us. I honestly do not like writing bad reviews .... but Marriott...

Lost star due to horrible breakfast and staff not friendly and the "pull out sofa" was a joke.

The hotel looks nice enough. Clean and in good condition. The decor in the lobby is a wierd 1970's and early 2010's combo. But in good repair.

Our room was clean, the bed's were reasonably comfortable. But there was supposed to be a fill-sized pull out sofa in the separate room of our suite. It was about 4 inches deep with ZERO padding. Literally felt like just solid coils and looked like a twin, not a full. If we'd known this, we would have not paid more to get a suite.

The bathroom looked recently rennovated and was very clean and modern. The wall mural in the main bedroom with the dramatic overhead lights was really nice.

They had a massive hot tub outdoors. The indoor pool was small for a hotel. It was the size of a standard backyard pool, or very nearly so. The outside firepit in the courtyard was lovely.

The mini-fridge is ridiculously tiny!! You cant even fit a single standard to-go container in it.

The checkin and out process was okay. The staff wasnt friendly, but they werent rude either. Just a, quickly get it done and get out of here, experience, even though no one else was in line.

The breakfast was AWFUL!! Dont do it! We'd paid for the breakfast, but it was so bad, we only ate it once. Or, tried and couldnt eat it. First, it's NOT continental. You have to go to the breakfast bar and place your order and then they bring it out to you. We all ordered different things. Our food "looked" good. But for example, I had scrambled eggs. They looked fine. But one bite and I was spitting it back out! They were by far, the worst eggs Ive EVER had! How do you ruin simple scrambled eggs?!?! All 3 of us thought our food was terrible.

We wont be going back to this hotel if we can avoid it. Go to one of the Hilton brand hotels. They have an amazing breakfast and friendly staff!

The staff I passed in the hallway just looked uncomfortable to see us there. We stayed 3 nights and the maid's never came and checked our room. The one who was working on a room next door that I did ask for 2 extra towels looked really unhappy about giving them to me.

The whole place just felt like something that looks great but just feels a bit depressing somehow to be there. Maybe it was because the second room of our suite had no windows and terribly inadequate lighting (very dim, even with every light on). But all the markers people typically look for in a hotel are there, and it's a fine hotel, just not a great hotel.

It's clean, reasonably modern decor, well maintained, no undue hassles with the staff, adequate parking.

The water had to be shut off for about 4 hours one day while we were there due to a leak. This probably didnt help my impression, but is something that can happen from time to time for any building. It would have been nice if they could have put up a sign in the lobby explaining it instead of us having to ask. But perhaps they didnt have an easy way to do it.

So. Again, it looks good and it met our needs. But it just wasnt a...

I travel often for business; though, this trip was a family vacation to celebrate my daughter's birthday. Therefore, I expected more from this hotel. I had two rooms for my entire family. On arrival, Room 618 had stained pillow sheets. I requested to the night manager to kindly change our linen, to which he gladly changed out himself. Though, he did not have any foam pillow sheets so he put them on the floor without the sheets for housekeeping to change in the morning. Housekeeping came the next day (Jan 3) for cleaning and left the foam pillows in the same spot as the previous night without the sheets. The following day (Jan 4), our room had been tended to but just the basics were done (made the beds and tossed the garbage in the receptacles in the room/bathroom), though the bathroom floor and shower had not been cleaned AND the foam pillows WITHOUT the sheets had been placed on both beds after they had been set on the floor for two days! I called downstairs upon my return to the hotel that night and spoke to Gabrielle at the front desk who told me that she would pass down to the Day Manager to make sure our room was thoroughly cleaned the next morning. Next day (Jan 5), I received a call from the Front Desk asking what time would be convenient for me to come and do the cleaning. Upon my arrival to the hotel that night, I was received with a clean room as I had been promised. Great! Except that my OTHER Room 619 had not been cleaned at all; beds had not been made, towels had not been changed, etc. We did not leave a sign outside requesting privacy, so we did not understand what happened. I proceeded to call the Front Desk again and spoke to Gabrielle. She again apologized on behalf of the housekeeping staff and said she would talk to "JC" (manager) to call me the next morning to speak to me about our poor experience, to whom I didn't hear from him the next day. Next morning (Jan 6, our last day), both rooms were finally cleaned the way I expected them to be. When I checked out (Jan 7), I mentioned my issue to the front desk manager (same night manager who assisted me upon arrival) and he wrote down my displeasure with the hotel and said he would let "JC" know and that he would request that I get a phone call that day from him. Needless to say, I never heard from anyone after that from the hotel. In a town where I thought the Courtyard Marriott would be the best choice to bring my family on vacation, I was proved wrong and left with a...