Courtyard by Marriott Faro Blanco Resort — Hotel in Marathon

The location and facilities were fabulous, and I could write nothing but beautiful descriptions about the lobby, the room, the pools, the ocean view, the little beach, and the pool side restaurant. Nothing could have been improved upon; everything was impeccably designed and maintained.

Marlon Allen, front desk, is kind, patient, helpful, and knowledgeable. His calm, friendly demeanor was welcoming, and I hope that he is promoted as far as he wants to go. He was always busy, but he also demonstrated the ability to prioritize the responsibilities of his "behind the scenes" duties, organizing with staff, and making sure guests felt prioritized and cared for.

Our server at the pool side restaurant/bar was from Brazil and cheerily chatted with me about Feijoada (a stew I enjoy making from Brazil) and talked about other foods that I might enjoy cooking. She was delightful, attentive, patient, and hard-working.

While at the pool one evening, we even had a great experience when we asked how/when the pool was cleaned since it was always so beautiful. The lovely man who had been straightening the poolside furniture was patient enough to explain what they use and that the pools are cleaned in the very early morning. He didn't have to, but he took the time to talk with us.

In the Starbucks near the lobby, Sabrina made my coffee all but one day. She was kind and cheerful with a welcoming smile despite being very busy. On my last day, Carlene made my coffee with perfect customer service; she was also busy but personable, smiling and humming while she worked. I definitely enjoyed both ladies' outstanding customer service.

I saved this part for the end because most people will have stopped reading by now, and I don't want anyone disuaded from staying here and experiencing all the beauty and kindness that I experienced.

The single detractor in the entire stay was that when we checked in after many hours of travel and some travel difficulties, we were not actually greeted at all. Atashia was at the front desk for our evening check-in. She did not even look up from the desk as I stood a few feet away from her. I didn't approach the desk as my travelling companion was still parking and was the person who had made the reservations. After about 5-10 minutes, she did look up and ask if she could help me. I let her know I was waiting on someone but we were checking in. She went right back to her computer screen. She might have been busy or at the end of her shift, I thought.

However, after we checked in, she rapidly showed us the map and pointed and highlighted, but I truly could barely keep up after the tricky day I'd had. She had an attitude of having better, more important tasks to take care of, and she had no problem demonstrating that attitude. I thought to myself that at least she is working evenings and not at a more busy, customer-facing time.

After we settled into our room, we wandered to the pool, but we couldn't figure out the gate! I felt silly that I couldn't figure it out, but we went back to the lobby, and again, Atashia didn't look up. I addressed her, and she said, "Oh, you're still around." Shocking! But she did tell us how to open the gate, though she did seem irritated at the question and a bit haughty in how she responded.

Since that was in the first hour of our stay, we were definitely nervous that staff would behave that way the entire time. Thank goodness and thank the majority of staff that instead, our stay was full of attentive, lovely humans who made our few days in the area magical and relaxing. We simply avoided the front desk/lobby area...

Note: I did not actually stay at this property as the property manager gave away my reservation to someone else on the evening of July 4th. I had forgot to update my marriott account with a new credit card (I had fraud on previous one, so it had been cancelled months ago but I had forgotten to update my card eventhough the marriott app took my reservation with a cancelled card).

This review is more of a caution to others.

In my years of booking Marriott hotels and traveling all over the country, I have never had something like this happen or been treated so impersonally. A simple check into my Marriott account would have shown a back up card in the event there was something preventing the first card to go through.

I had pre checked in the day before my arrival and listed my time of arrival at 8pm(still had no idea a card on file was no good, why did it let me book the property then?!) I got a call at approximately 5pm while I was driving a car en route to our hotel after a long flight from Iowa. I could not answer the call or check a voicemail until I pulled over. This was no more than 15 minutes after the hotel had left a voicemail when I tried to contact the hotel. When I finally got a hold of someone I was put on hold for over 10 minutes and then the manager came on the phone to tell me that my rooms were gone and given to someone else. I was left on the evening of July 4th with nowhere to stay with my 3 kids and husband.

Travel is a highly personal experience and you treated me so impersonally. I apologize for the error in keeping a cancelled card in my Marriott account but in the future Marriott should check for other cards on file in the event one does not go through before pulling rooms from a valued Marriott member 2 hours before an anticipated, pre communicated check in.

Am I wrong to assume I should've been given adequate time to change my card? Luckily a Hilton property nearby had rooms and that was a great experience. Hilton Garden Inn in Key West shout out!!

I have been in communication with the hotel manager but all they said was that a card on file that doesn't go through is subject to cancellation. All I asked is that they should've given me adequate time to right my wrong. I had been traveling all day and had this happen. Unbelievable. They offered me 2 nights anytime the same week. I had other plans and an Airbnb already booked and paid for. Why would I drive all the way back to the Keys for that?

I'm sure they made double that weekend than what I had...

My family and I just completed a 4-day Christmas week (Dec 23rd-26th 2024) stay at Marriott’s Faro Blanco resort in Marathon Florida. This was my third stay at the resort with my most recent stay occurring this past June 2024. Before I describe the overall bad experience, we had, it may help to mention that I have spent over one thousand nights at various Marriott properties worldwide for both business and pleasure and have earned permanent lifetime status in one of their top traveler tiers. Accordingly, I know what Marriott quality should be and have been extremely loyal to the hotel chain. My previous stay, this past June was excellent, so much so, that my wife and I decided to use this Marriott property to introduce my adult son and daughter to the magic of the Florida Keys. The list of hotel issues and failures is lengthy so here are but a few of the more egregious ones: (1) Our room had no hot water on day one and on subsequent days we had to run the water for about 10 minutes to begin getting warm water. (2) The beautiful infinity pool that faces the Gulf and adorns all the hotel advertising brochures was not heated, quite cold and accordingly had no one swimming in it and few gathered around it. (3) The adjacent hot tub/jacuzzi had 2-3 jets barely functioning and a water level well below the filter so there was no filtering of the water. This was not only an inconvenience but a health hazard. I suspect that the Monroe County Health Department would have closed the unit had they known. (4) Housekeeping service came into the room one morning, saw my daughter still in bed and never returned later in the day to make up the room as requested. (5) The in room safe had a malfunctioning keypad and unexpectedly began to sound an alarm at 5 a.m. which served as a cruel wake up call. (6) The restaurant coffee was always lukewarm at best, and they were out of standard things like cream cheese for their various bagel items. I reported these occurrences to three different employees (front desk clerk, Manager of the Day and the front office manager) on three different occasions and each of them feigned ignorance about the issues and did nothing to remedy the problems. I’m embarrassed to admit that I paid $674 per night not counting the “resort fee” and parking fee for this...