AC Hotel Naples 5th Avenue — Hotel in Naples

Rating: 4.5

AC Hotels Naples is actually NOT what you've come to expect from Marriott branded hotels - that's actually a GOOD thing! We took the risk of staying here and were beyond pleasantly surprised at the very upleveled experience that's above par with the majority of Marriott properties (sans Edition and Autograph Collection). Most Marriott locations in Florida as well as in many other parts of the country, boast "fully renovated" online and at time of booking - there's no out to cancel if you get catfished into a property thinking it will be updated and clean only to find it antiquated, dusty and the "fully renovated" claim only applies to portions of the hotel lobby. AC Hotels Naples' ownership and development company set themselves far apart and successfully differentiated themselves from the fold with a modern, clean resort like aesthetic (the lighting in the common areas is museum worth!) promoting luxurious rest. We enjoyed our initial stay so much, we've become repeat guests.

A definite differentiator of this property is the people factor. The people (staff) here truly create the experience. After all, what is an amazing, product without an environment of mindfulness and thoughtfulness for your guests? Jose, Front Desk Manager, just gets it. Jose's hospitality IS what makes the experience next level, going above and beyond to sustain our customer delight and secure our return business. In our decision making to extend or to rebook future stays, Jose is always a key consideration -where you go, I'd likely follow! We received the same goodness from Lee - warm hospitality and good judgement - they have a full on, spacious, beautiful stainless steel and marble cafe just off of the main lobby. It closes at noon each day. Rather than come up with excuses or wait to receive negative feedback, Lee saw a need and took initiative / action to accommodate our lack of awareness that the cafe closes at noon. Thanks for the coffee Lee! The cafe is so beautifully done, I highly recommend experiencing it. They even had gingerbread syrup right on time for the holiday season. Bravo!

The hotel is a brand new beacon of a structure, positioned at the corner - a hop, skip and jump from 5th ave. As it is so new, they are still settling in. Here's my guidance on how to go from great to fantastic:

1. We booked a double queen room and based on loyalty status, asked for an available upgrade simply to a room with a balcony. The Front Desk Agent gave us the run around and insisted there was no double queen room with balcony available when online we could visibly see, the property had this room category inventory in abundance. We were informed there are only two suites on the property. We saved the proof of the inventory and shared it with management. During the course of our stay, what should have never been an issue wasn't fully rectified. This was a missed opportunity to properly (and easily) welcome a guest back. When customers have options, a hospitality provider should show gratitude for customer loyalty. The rooms are fairly well appointed on the inside and balcony access extends the boutique type stay rather than having a no balcony room and a view overlooking the parking lot.

2. Parking - a matter of personal taste but I prefer the self parking feature. However, there is consensus with the other reviewers, the $20 is not merited and should be re-thought.

3. The staff at each touchpoint are very bright, wonderful, respectful and kind. Those qualities make for a great foundation. What I'd like to see with the breakfast service on the rooftop, is those qualities sustained but an actual restaurant manager and chef that can improve the menu, taste and presentation of the breakfast fare. It's just not tasty. After a good workout in their awesome fitness center, you'd expect to have a nice breakfast to fuel your day and you can later explore the Naples restaurant scene for dinner. The current food options are is forgettable. I see this as an key area for AC Hotels Naples to improve upon and further...

I booked at this hotel bcz we had a good experience at the AC hotel in Chesterfield, Missouri. Unfortunately, the AC hotel in Naples fell short of giving us a great experience. They advertised that they provide complimentary waters, we booked 2 suites & TWICE & another room for our 5 day stay AND NO water, they gave us a goose chase by telling us to go to the front desk, then the front desk told us to get it at the gym, we went there, then they told us to get it from housekeeping. Guess what, we went to Walmart & bought the 32 pack. There are ONLY 2 suites at the ENTIRE hotel! Water pressure in ALL our suites & room was SOO weak! I overheard a customer at check out & he disclosed his disappointment regarding his low water pressure in his room too so this is obviously an engineering problem! Were talking, this is a NEW hotel located in Naples, Florida where I am sure it brings in meticulous clientels. IF they dont live at home with low & weak water pressure, they DEFINITELY won't want to stay here, especially when one is charged FULL rate at booking. You have to ask for a discount as they will NOT volunteer to give you one. Even if youre a BONVOY member, I felt taken advantaged of as I had to ask them for something off but only got $50.00 off per our rooms. Im sure they KNOW & have HEARD this same issue by every customer! This hotel has potential but the ONLY employee that is superb in customer service is JUAN at the front desk. Bolivia was NOT helpful, never followed thru with her word. All the others just stood around & talked with each other so was not a good impression as thats the lasting impression I got. So overall, customer service was not NAPLES standards. Too bad for them as theres ALOT of competition that vacationers can book at that will give you waters AND GRRREAT customer service!!! They asked if I wanted to move to their sister property, The Ritz Carlton, hence the caveat....that we would down size from our suites to a regular size room AND pay $55.00 per room for resort fee AND pay MORE per room per day! Now, why would I stay in a smaller room like cramp like sardines AND be charged alot more???? So in otherwords, my options are: packed like sardines & pay another $1,000 per day OR stay at the AC Naples in a suite & suffer the WEAK water pressure AND keep our rate?? We should NOT have had to be subjected to these bad options, especially at...

Don’t waste your money. $800 a night for a 1 star experience. Gen z kids who have no idea how to run a hotel. I honestly believe McDonald’s staff would know more about delivering a high end customer service experience. Especially DO NOT bring your PETS here.

When you charge this kind of money a night you should deliver a luxury experience, there’s no valet, no porter/bell-boy, so you have to take an awkward large luggage cart up to your room by yourself. No poolside drinks service. Rooms are super basic and small with zero style.

Worst of all, they call themselves pet friendly, which is why we booked, but broke into our hotel room at 8:30pm where our puppy was crated and crying because we had walked out of the room literally 5 mins prior, so he needed to settle, but the manager Elizabeth went into our room, turned on lights, riled him up, causing chaos, no one contacted us first, even though my phone number was of course on the booking. Only by chance I was watching the puppy cam as I left the hotel and heard a random person in our room! She demanded I return, we couldn’t see her and she didn’t even identify herself until I had to ask who on earth this was in our room! I got back as fast as possible and my key card was cancelled and this Elizabeth was extremely rude, walked away as I tried to talk, wouldn’t look at me, argued with me, talked over me, threatened to escort me out and remove my animal if he cried again. Absolutely insane way to treat guests.

To add insult to injury the other manager Jason then called me as I was trying to get this all sorted, he asked what happened, I assumed he called to apologise but NO, he called to further harass me for my dog crying for 5 mins at 8:30pm, he even threatened me on the phone by giving me a “word of caution”… in his words, he rambled on and tried to argue. I’ve never ever been anywhere where staff behave like this to guests. Especially guests paying almost $1000 for a night at their basic establishment.

They completely...