The Marker Key West — Hotel in Key West

I stayed here with my family for a week in March 2021. This was our first time in Keywest and we really wanted to love this hotel, and while our stay was fine it left substantial room for improvement; when we come back we may stay here again for the right value but would likely explore another property instead.

This property is in a superb location for activities, it has very nice pools and a nice gym, the rooms and grounds are nice.

The hotel has an unusually stringent policy on making the beds, they insisted they would only make our bed every 5 days, even if we aranged to leave and explicitly requested service. The pool bar also seems to have very limited hours seemingly closing around 6. There is a rather exorbitant $45/day resort fee that should be considered when pricing your stay; it may be ok if services were actualy being offered but seems especialy stingy when one is cleaning their own room and making their own bed. The would not even provide us with an additional bath bomb, which is supposedly part of the fee.

In general we found the staff friendly enough but rather unhelpful with any actual information or service. As an example one day all the ice machines in the property were broken, so I went to the front desk and they arranged for some ice to be brought, great. The next day in the afternoon I needed some more so I called the front desk, figuring they would certainly bring me some ice, instead I was informed that the ice machine one floor down had been repaired and I should go get it myself.

I guess it fits since I'm already cleaning my own room, making my own bed 🤔. On the 5th day when we could finally get servicall they did was make the bed, no clean sheets, no glasses, nor did they clean the bathroom or anything else 😯.

The property does not explicitly have many amenities other properties in the price point has either, if you wanted to be adjacent to the ocean or have beach access this is not likely the property for you. As I said it seems the property itself is nice enough, but it certainly did not feel like a luxurious, or boutique, in terms of service. Perhaps some training and reconsideration of property goals could benefit.

Other things: we couldn't actualy get many details out of the front desk staff but one under rated perk of this property is access to the beach and facilities at the southernmost resort, you just need to show the front desk there your marker key and then they should give you keys for this resort.

Other pro tip: if you don't need constant access to your car you can park a few blocks away at 808 Southard St, Key West, FL 33040 for $50/wk. Markers charge of $30/night for parking after paying a $45/day service charge and paying plenty for a room also seems out of market and a poor touch.

Again for the right price the rooms are nice and the location is good, but if you wanted a luxury experience I'd look elsewhere, I expect we may try and book the Pier House nearby for our next...

Dear Management,

I am writing to express my deep disappointment with the service we have received from your hotel thus far. As travelers coming all the way from Germany, we were excited about our stay, especially since we had a special birthday celebration planned within our group. We specifically chose your hotel under the impression that it was beachfront, but were disheartened to discover that this was not the case.

The experience started to go wrong when we attempted to contact the hotel multiple times to inform you about the birthday celebration. Despite making several calls and leaving two voice messages, we received no response. After waiting over two days, we finally managed to get an answer from the hotel manager regarding our request for a cancellation and a full refund out of good faith. The lack of timely communication and responsiveness is highly frustrating and disappointing.

Customer service in the hospitality industry should be handled with the utmost care and efficiency. Guests rely on accurate information and prompt responses, particularly when they are traveling from afar and have special occasions to celebrate. A high level of customer service involves:

Timely Communication: Responding to inquiries and concerns promptly. Delayed responses can cause unnecessary stress and disappointment.

Transparency: Providing accurate information about the hotel's amenities and location. Guests should not be misled about crucial details like whether the hotel is beachfront.

Understanding and Empathy: Showing genuine care and understanding for guests' concerns, especially when special occasions like birthdays are involved.

Proactive Problem-Solving: Taking the initiative to resolve issues quickly and efficiently, rather than waiting for guests to follow up multiple times.

Flexibility: Being accommodating with cancellation policies and refunds, especially when there are misunderstandings or errors on the part of the hotel.

We feel incredibly let down and already have a bad taste in our mouths even before setting foot in the hotel. This should have been a joyful and memorable experience for us, but the poor communication and lack of understanding have marred it significantly.

We sincerely hope that the hotel management takes this feedback seriously and works towards improving their customer service. Ensuring that future guests do not face the same issues we have encountered would be a significant step in the right direction.

Thank you for your attention to this...

We stayed at The Marker for a week and were overall very pleased with our stay. The location is excellent with a nice selection of restaurants surrounding very easy to walk to and access quickly. Along with that, the hotel is located on a large pier and it is beautiful to be able to walk out to everyday. There’s also plenty of room to unload your vehicle or to stand waiting for rideshare to come and get you with no problem. The front desk clerks were all very kind and professional with every encounter we had with them. They contacted me a few times during the week to see if there was anything they could do to help make our stay more comfortable and were very quick to get us more towels when we requested them. At the very end of our stay, very noisy neighbors came in and started to party very loudly. After a few hours, we contacted the front desk regarding it since we had a long travel day the next day. The front desk was extremely quick to address it and then check on us afterwards to make sure that we were comfortable after they reached out to them. We appreciated it a lot.

My only complaints about the stay is the lobby concierge and resort fees. The concierge all worked very obviously on commission and were very “shark-ey” with their sales manner. It reached a point where we tried to avoid walking past them at all. We couldn’t even mention to the front desk clerk one day about how we were leaving for a sailboat ride without the concierge leaping towards us with a pamphlet of the services they sell. We planned the trip in full three months before visiting and had every single thing planned and booked before even leaving our home for the vacation. When we sat at their desk the one time to inquire about prices for transportation, we were asking about the bikes and all they attempted to do was try and upsell us to something that cost $50 more. It’s a great idea to have the service available for the guest if they want to sit down and have everything planned. But having to completely avoid the lobby to avoid the used car salesman approach on booking things from the concierges is unacceptable. We were also charged an additional $200+ at the end of our week in resort fees for things we absolutely did not take advantage of. Every single thing that the resort fee was charged for, we didn’t use once. So we basically gave away $200+ for absolutely nothing. Overall, that’s our...