Courtyard by Marriott Houston by The Galleria — Hotel in Houston

So I stayed at this Courtyard Marriott multiple times (once a month for over a year) UNTIL my vehicle got broken into. Here's my overall review.:||||CHECK IN - Check-in was easy. The staff is generally very courteous when checking in.||||ROOM - The rooms are bit outdated. It looks like they have tried to update the bathrooms, but c'mon. Time to get rid of the tub with the dirty shower curtains. I mean, how often do they really clean them? ||||PARKING - Parking is in a multi-level garage. If you have a large truck it's a bit of a squeeze. It seems on my multiple stays that people always try to park on the first level, but helpful hint: Go to the 3rd level (as 2nd level is more reserved for high rewards level guests). There's always space there. ||||OUTSIDE: The front of the hotel is in an alley way. Although pretty well lit up at night, still you're in an alley. And unfortunately this property does not have an outside courtyard like area.||||ISSUE - So what made me decide to never stay here again was the fact that my vehicle was broken into. Oh...not just mine...about 20+ other vehicles as well. ALL the vehicles on the first level had their windows broken and items scattered all over the garage floor. Second floor, same thing. Third floor (where I was) only my vehicle and a couple other vehicles were broken into. Now am I blaming Mariott for this? Absolutely not! What I am upset over is the fact that there was a LONG line of us patiently waiting our turn to speak to the police to file a report. The staff insisted we were "blocking" the sidewalk and was asking us to move. Where would you like us to stand? In the alley/street with consistently driving by? Again, there were 20+ vehicles that were broken into. It was a nice long line. Then we were told to go inside and tell Management that our vehicle was broken into so they can tally it (or something). After I filed my police report I walked inside and immediately the lady behind the desk went off like an attorney and just said "we are not responsible for any theft, damage by theft, or anything similar". Um....all I said was "hello"??? WOW. I told her that a staff told all of us waiting we were supposed to come inform them. She said "What do you expect us to do?" then repeated the no responsibility thing. Multiple people were already going through a crappy issue with dealing with their broken vehicles and items strung all over the garage and there was NO empathy whatsoever. Not to mention when some of us were talking about the break-ins they told us to speak quietly so as to not alert other guests in the vacinity. Because some guests overheard the conversations and ran out to check their cars and they were accusing some of the people of creating an unnessary panic. Ummm...20+ people had their vehicles broken into and you don't want your guests to know? Some haven't even gone outside yet. ||||Either way, I will be staying at another location moving forward. I can't believe they would treat their guests so carelessly. No one was looking for any freebies, everyone was just following directions from other staff members. ||||I filled out the survey Marriott sends after a stay and informed them of the experience and never received a response. Way to...

My response to the GM who asked for our feedback.

Dina,

Thank you for the follow up, we had a single day stay and checked out this morning. I do want to provide feedback and I will be posting this feedback on Google as well since I would have liked that someone provide this information prior to my stay. The issues I had are not something that happened overnight.

If you have access to my account, you will see that I have been a Marriott customer for years and have visited properties from East to the West coast. I’ve always like staying at Courtyards because of the value of the product was so good. Never in all my stays at Courtyards have I been so disappointed in almost every aspect of the stay.

Hallway carpets are filthy. I expect some wear and tear, but the number of stains is incredible. At some point your team should raise this as an issue and have carpets cleaned. This obviously hasn’t been done in some time. Elevator security. The elevator has a badge reader, but it does nothing. I would have expected and have seen in many Marriott hotels that you can’t just get on the elevator and hit keys to go to a floor. This greatly impacts the security of the hotel. One of our guests forgot to bring a toothbrush. The reason we stay with Marriott is the ability to go to the front desk and get a disposable toothbrush or at least can purchase one from the market. No toothbrush available in the market or the front desk. The desk associate didn’t even offer us an option of where to find one locally. Room was not properly cleaned. We had a stain on the toilet seat, the bed sheets were not new but previously used, our traveling guests had a large clump of hair in the corner of the room that looked like a rodent. The bathroom floor was also sticky indicating it hasn’t been properly cleaned. The provided soaps in the shower were all empty. Not that I personally depended on them buy our guests did and we had to provide them soaps to shower with.

You may ask why we didn’t bring these to the attention of the staff, well to be honest the staff all looked as if they were having a horrible day and were not friendly to speak with. We met a few in the hallway and they didn’t even provide a daily greeting, just kept looking straight ahead and ignored us. Why would I mention the issue with my room or my stay when it’s obvious these are not just missed items, but a natural way of doing business? If it was just one of our rooms I would say, a room was not cleaned properly by an individual. When two rooms, floors apart, have the same issues it’s a pattern you have.

This was such a disappointing stay as I’m the person who booked the rooms for our guests and it’s my reputation that was impacted. It was an...

I want to preface this review by stating the following: I have been traveling for work to Houston for over 5 years and when I do visit Houston I have only stayed at this Courtyard location (Galleria) so I do not have any knowledge of other Houston Marriott hotels. I have continued to be a loyal customer to this location because I truly loved what this location offered: friendly & professional service, great food and a clean facility. But now...

This hotel provided an amazing experience...years ago. The service WAS the best. I knew every employees’ name at one time and they knew mine. The staff would even leave handwritten notes or coupons under my door when I would stay for weeks at a time. The food WAS incredible. This location actually served one of the the best salmon filets I have ever had in my life. The facility WAS clean. I loved relaxing in the hot tub after a long day of meetings.

But today...

The service is good but could definitely be better and nowhere near what it was when I first started staying here 5 years ago. The food is TERRIBLE. Let’s begin with the snack selection by the front desk... LIMITED options and dont bother asking the staff if they are going to restock the items bc you will get an answer similar to “the next shift will restock it so check back tomorrow.” And now the bisto... the food is AWFUL and OVERPRICED. Ordered an $11.50 FROZEN patty burger. My high school served better quality meat. So I returned the burger and ordered a flat bread (also $11.50) and for that price a toddler could have made my flat bread in an easy bake oven and it would have been better. As for the cleanliness of the property... I do not recommend utilizing the pool or hot tub. The pool deck looks like it has not been properly cleaned in years and I’m pretty sure the staff are using straight bleach instead of chlorine when shocking the pool in the evening. Two swimsuits have been ruined in a span of two days bc of this.

To end on a positive note... the location cannot be beat. The Galleria is within walking distance and your near multiple interstates. The views from either side of the building are beautiful. The lobby is very spacious. The property has a fitness center, pool and hot tub. Very affordable ballrooms available for events. The Hyatt Regency is located across the street and has an EXCELLENT restaurant with a great bar.

This location use to have that “when you’re here, you’re family” vibe and now... well hello corporate America. Get in, get out and give us your money. Very disappointed. I’ll be considering staying at a different property for future...