Courtyard by Marriott Houston Downtown/Convention Center — Hotel in Houston

Well, I came and stayed at your hotel from 8/16 - 8/20. I was visiting from out of town and heard the best place to stay was downtown area so due to my family member working for the company, I was able to reserve my rooms at a discounted rate due to the "sister/brother family discount". I arrived and the valet staff were amazing. They greeted me at the car door, grabbed my suitcases and rolled them inside to the lobby for me, all while asking how was my trip? I expressed that my trip was amazing and how my flight landed early leading me to arrive earlier than the check-in time. Once inside, Ben was at the front desk and I was introduced to him and the valet staff member explained and asked if it would be okay to check in earlier than the 4 pm hotel policy check-in time. Ben was amazing, greeted me and the valet staff with a smile and assured me that an earlier check-in would be no issue as their were rooms available. I just needed to use the guest computer and printer to print out my "discounted rate form" to allow the hotel to continue with my reservations. I was able to do this and upon returning to the front, Ben was now gone and another female was standing at other side of the front desk. I sat down and waited to be greeted but never did I receive any words or greetings from the female, whose name I later learned was Barbara Ruiz. I sat for about 5-10 minutes because I was waiting for Ben since she was there but had said not a single word to me until I said hello to her and asked if I could be assisted with checking in. She then replied, yes what do you need help with. I then explained and she expressed that she could help me check in. So we proceed, Barbara Ruiz was and still is the rudest front desk employee I have ever dealt with. I asked about my deposit amount and what it was for? She gave me different reasons, gave me a nasty attitude, showed HORRIBLE customer service and even stated "If you don't like what I am saying, you don't have to stay here, you can go somewhere else". OMG what a way to mess up a perfect greeting and destroy the great customer service just provided by others. She rolled her eyes, puffed up her chest, sighed so loudly all while I was at the front desk during the check in process. She had another male (short, Spanish male, glasses and black hair) right beside her during all of this and he just stood right beside her and responded via head nods, hands on his hips. Had I not been traveling alone, without a rental car, etc, I might have changed my hotel and to be honest, I may never come back. I loved everything else about the hotel and the staff but BARBARA RUIZ made it very clear that she sets the negative tone for a great company. If you don't own Marriott Barbara, why would you want them to lose out on money or customers? Why offer me to leave and stay at another hotel, while my card is in my hand to pay?? Instead, be prepared for any questions that a customer may ask and if you are unsure of the answer OR you don't feel like answering that question, allow someone else to do it. You have a lot of customer service to work on to catch up to the other staff, from the valet staff to the maintenance/cleaning staff. Great places need great employees to keep...

I have traveled a lot and this is one of the worst hotels I have been to. There were multiple teams staying in the hotel. I stayed here for the FIRST Worlds Championship April 16-21. The 16th we arrived and everything was fine the first night and the hotel room was at 72°F and turned it down to 68°F. I was in a room with a pullout bed and a king bed with 2 other girls. First of all we were not informed there was housekeeping. We origionally were going to have 4 people in one room but one person could not come. Come to find out the hotel thinks its ok to make 2 kids sleep on a king and 2 on a small pullout. Our team got a dinner I didn't like and I looked at their little snack area that night. It was $9.50 for a fruit cup that is probably not even 3 inches tall. On the 17th that morning we realize how slow the wifi is on all three networks. I did a speed test on two networks. Courtyard_Guest Download 2 Mbps Upload 1 Mbps Ping 7ms Bandwidth 1.9M The US average is 49.3M

Courtyard_Public Download 6 Mbps Upload 1 Mbps Ping 173Ms Bandwidth 5.2M

There are probably over 100 people booked into this hotel who need to use fast wifi for this event. I have to connect to my hotspot in my room just to connect to Discord. That night after day 1 of the event I have got my parents badges to get into the event in the morning and left them in the room by my stuff. When I come back the afternoon they are gone. I dont know if they were thought as trash. The next thing is the breakfast choice is absolutely horrible. It is the same thing every day. Eggs, sausage, with cooked potatoes. They have apples and bananas, coffee, tea (I think it is not labeled) and toast. This is absolutely not ok. I had to get my parents to give me actual breakfast from a grocery store because I didn't like the main choices and there was no peanut butter (I am aware of allergies but I don't like jam). This is the worst breakfast service I have ever had and I've been to MANY hotels including Marriott before. Secondly I needed to ask a staff member a question and there was only one person at the desk on the phone. I understand being understaffed but we were waiting to talk with them for at least 5 minutes. The ice machine on third floor was broken and I needed to get ice for a team member who was having a migraine. The night of the 18th around 10:30 I was doing some work on my computer and I head two people loudly talking so I go out and look. It was two staff members talking loudly when they were 10 feet apart from eachother. I asked them to please quiet down and that people are trying to sleep. When I close the door the go back to talking at a normal volume and that is that. I am disappointed in this hotel with their service. They are clearly not ready to handle large parties and don't know how to properly divide each person in a room. I hope you find this review useful to train your staff better so future guests can have a...

Our experience was very unpleasant. There were three Marriott properties in this building with only one small lot/valet and one front desk. Pair that with severe understaffing, and it’s a recipe for disaster. The parking lot was like playing Tetris, with multiple cars in a line in the street just waiting to pull in. And this was at 10pm! We were approached by a homeless man when unloading our car in the mess that was the parking lot. Due to all the cars packed into the lot, we weren’t able to see him approach until he was just behind us. We quickly gathered our things and got our two small children inside. We immediately informed the security guard at the front desk that there was a homeless person approaching people in the lot, and we felt uncomfortable. He said okay, but then went back to chatting casually with the woman at the front desk, completely blowing off our concern. But wait, there’s more! We called down to the front desk and received no answer, just ringing, no less than eight times during our stay. The cafe is closed and the market was completely sold out of drinks and most food except for Mountain Dew and Diet Pepsi. When we asked for water, they said we could walk three blocks to CVS. This is after dark, with a newborn and toddler, in downtown Houston. No thanks. We had to use DoorDash to bring us water bottles. The amount of guests I saw with CVS bags with water was almost comical. I’ve never experienced anything like it. We were told there wasn’t enough housekeeping so we would need to come to the front desk for towels. I spoke to many unhappy guests in the elevators carrying stacks of towels throughout our stay. There was trash in the hallway that wasn’t removed the next day. I could go on. It’s clear that this hotel was not adequately prepared, stocked, or staffed for Spring Break. Do not stay here. The only positive I can say is the valet staff was friendly, helpful, and courteous despite the overload of work they were expected to manage while being understaffed. It wasn’t their fault at all. I would never stay here again and would question staying at another Marriott property when visiting Houston in the future. This hotel is a tarnish on Marriott’s good name. Something...