Falls Church Marriott Fairview Park — Hotel in Merrifield

6/8/25 — update: I just noticed on the app I was updated to a pres suite (thank you). Not sure if it’s a glitch or they decided to provide me with a comp upgrade. In fairness to the hotel, I will give them 3 stars for making this right and properly update my review after my stay.

6/7/25 — TL; DR: they do not care about elites, provide consistently poor customer service, and if you stay multiple nights (eg. 3-5 nights), you will be “penalized” by being ineligible for comp upgrades due to their sales strategy. I always try to stay at a place a few times before writing a (negative) review. I want to give the hotel the benefit of the doubt and understand that sometimes employees can have an off day or there could be a misunderstanding and it may not be reflective of the quality of service that management strives to enforce throughout the hotel and with guests.

I’ve stayed here before a few times. Against my better judgement, I booked here again. I just had an interaction with one of the front desk folks that definitely solidified that the past subpar interactions and experiences were not a fluke. This is just how this property operates. :’(

Per their own website and Marriott’s policy in general: complimentary upgrades upon check in when available. I checked in yesterday on the app. Today, after confirming what appears to be several suites available during my stay, etc., I reached out inquiring if a complimentary upgrade would be possible. Was told they “upgraded” me to an “executive king room” on one of their concierge floors. LOL, ok. Followed by “unfortunately we do not have complimentary upgrades during the duration of your stay”. Huh?!

First off, I’m in the exact same room just on a higher floor (woo) and a room that grants concierge lounge access isn’t an upgrade because as an Ambassador elite, I already get access to the lounge. Also, an “upgrade” to a higher floor is what hotels try to pass as an upgrade when you book the cheapest/smallest room…but I did not book the cheapest/smallest room.

I (kindly) asked a couple follow up questions to better understand their policy and what they normally offer as upgrades if one were available. They responded by letting me know that due to their sales strategy, if you stay longer, you’ll effectively be punished by not being eligible for an upgrade. I am staying for 5 nights, so I forfeited my ability to “qualify” for an upgrade despite being an AMBASSADOR elite. Of course they said that more diplomatically, but any frequent, elite guest can read between the lines and understand what they’re really trying to say.

It really irks me when front desk staff act hot and bothered and give you the run around when an elite politely inquires about perks that are publicly advertised.

I’m giving this hotel a 1 star review because the service consistently sucks and they just do NOT care about elites or providing customer service on par with their competitors in the area.

I would have more respect for this hotel and even consider giving it 2 or 3 stars if they would at least be honest and upfront (eg. “our management does not give AF about elites, we will never give you a proper upgrade even when the site shows several upgraded rooms available, nor will we do anything to separate your experience from that of a random no status customer because we don’t care”). In other words, have some integrity and own it instead of talking to me like I’m stupid.

I have spent way too much money and time with the Marriott Bonvoy family of hotels to patronize a hotel that treats top tier elites like this.

There are way too many Marriott properties in the area - including super close to this one - for any elite to waste their time and money here. I would highly recommend going elsewhere. Even the Tyson’s Marriott is better and that hotel mostly sucks - but at least the location is way more prime and the rooms are...

Three stars says it's "OK" not terrible.

This hotel is set up for conventions, etc. We were here for a class reunion. It was convenient to stay in the same hotel and the price for the room was great as part of that party.

The hotel was nice overall, the staff was great, and tried to help with anything we needed.

They serviced our room fine while we were out, but the hallway needed vacuuming from the day before and they left it filthy. It was never vacuumed the two days we stayed. The carpet in the hallway was wavy with high spots. Not a big trip hazard, just in need of updating.

The room itself was OK. It was warm and muggy when we arrived, but we were able to control the thermostat to make it comfortable for us.

Horizontal surface space was lacking, but this is nothing new in many hotels. We were just staying in a regular room, not one of the fancy ones or suites.

The toilets are terrible for men who have "hang". You have to hold your "stuff" up or get it dunked in the toilet water when you have to sit for #2. This is very annoying.

The Wi-Fi, if you happen to get it free is blocked for any streaming and the TV in our room would not even see our streaming device, so we were stuck with the house TV service even though my phone would provide Wi-Fi for the internet. I was very disappointed with this. I didn't even use the Wi-Fi... my phone is better. My wife DID use it for her laptop but just for general browsing and emails. I don’t know what you get for the $13 I think is the paid Wi-Fi service.

Prices at the bar are confiscatory. They are taking advantage of the fact that you are sequestered away from any competition on foot. You have to drive to get anywhere else and driving around this area is a nightmare if you aren’t from the city. Everything else is also expensive around here. Bring your own beverages unless you have money to burn. I read the reviews and knew some of this coming in; we even brought our own Keurig coffee maker. Most hotel pouch coffee is terrible and as far as I know there is no free coffee available otherwise, only a Starbucks in the lobby in the morning which is outrageously expensive. We even brought our own water to use. We pack heavy!

We also brought our own microwaveable breakfast and some fruit to avoid the expense of the breakfast buffet. We also brought a cooler. There is not much for included stuff like that here, again, they have you isolated from any easy competition. I see other commenters mentioning a free buffet, and I did see something near the bar in the lobby, but we were never informed any differently than the hotel listing which does not provide a free breakfast.

The restaurant choices are expensive, but really, everything around here is, even the fast food. Something that I didn’t know up front was you can order in from nearby restaurants. They have a drop-off spot in the lobby, and I guess the delivery person texts you that it’s there or something. Plan ahead and that would be a good option to avoid the driving nightmare around here.

The food provided for the reunion was OK. No choices but was edible. Nothing to rave about.

Overall, I would never stay here unless I were attending an event here. I would avoid the area altogether if possible! I grew up around DC, but it is a stressful rat-race for anyone not used to what northern Virginia has become. I left for this reason and avoid the area like...

The hotel is okay. The parking is a long way away from the lobby but, as far as I can tell, parking is free. You do need a parking pass. When I checked in the lady at the front desk was friendly and efficient, though she didn’t ask me if I had parked in the garage so I had to wait in line a second time to get the parking pass after getting the room key. ||The room is spacious and clean. The beds are comfortable, with three pillows of two different types on each of the double beds. The blackout curtains are effective. I mostly slept well, except that I was woken in the middle of my sleep one night by the maintenance staff in the early morning. They knocked on my door for probably about 10-minutes. At first softly and then louder and louder. When I opened the door they told me that they were looking for an emergency leak. I looked around and my room was fine so I tried to go back to sleep, but it took a while and I was sleep deprived at my business meetings all the next day. I know this is probably a very rare occasion but if I have a critical meeting I’m leading in the area, I will not be staying here again. I’d probably stay at the Hilton down the road that I’ve never had an issue sleeping at.||There is a small coffee machine, small fridge, big tv, and a room safe. The lamp next to the beds has a plug for charging but it’s broken and there are no other outlets in the room close enough to the headboards of the bed, so I couldn’t charge my phone while using it in bed. I guess this is great for reducing screen time before bed once your battery dies, but I wish they had let me choose where to charge my phone.||The room has an adjoining door that can be locked.||The bathroom is okay. It’s clean but not immaculate. For some strange reason both handles of the sink are for hot water. This makes washing your hands very uncomfortable after the first maybe 60-seconds, especially if they are really cold. The tub/shower does have hot and cold water. The water pressure is a little too intense for me but I would much rather it be like this than those low pressure showers that some hotels use. The water temperature was a little tricky to adjust. I found that temperature adjustments needed to be made in roughly 1 millimeter increments so grabbing the handle to adjust the temperature just toggles it between burning hot and really cold. What works best for me in my room is to use one or two fingers to lightly tap the handle up or down until the temperature is right. Now, unfortunately, I had to continue to adjust the temperature during my shower, but after a bit of a learning curve, I was able to have a nice shower. I liked that the shampoo, conditioner, and body soap were in full-size containers.||Overall, this was a good hotel, but I would probably stay elsewhere next time, especially...