Auburn Marriott Opelika Resort & Spa at Grand National — Hotel in Opelika

I had high hopes when I booked this hotel for a romantic getaway with my wife. I am sad to say I am completely unimpressed.

First let's talk about our arrival. I chose to self park and not do valet because I have a large truck. Self parking was a bit tricky because there is not clear signage directing you to it. We ended up parking in conference parking off to the right which was not a problem, just a bit of a longer walk. We walked in a side door of the hotel and headed to reception. I had checked in before we arrived so they had key cards waiting on us. Our check in consisted of the concierge asking of my last name and saying "oh you self checked in? Here are your cards. Enjoy your stay." I found it very dry and unwelcoming. I expected a bit more.

The good part was the room. It was very nice. The decor is great, the bed comfortable, and the bathroom was modern. No complaints about the room.

The morning the day of our departure really started the quick downhill turn in our stay. First, there was banging at 7a. We had a room at the end of the wing where the new construction was occurring. The banging lasted about 10 minutes and then was done. No idea what it was or why it was happening at 7a. Next let's talk about the breakfast buffet. We sat ourselves as no one greeted us or spoke to us when we walked in. We sat at our table for about 15 minutes and no one from the waitstaff came to greet us or ask about drinks. I was tired of waiting so I decided to get up and help myself to food. While we were walking back with full plates of food is when we were greeted and asked about drinks. When drinks were brought they only brought enough coffee for one cup as they were out and brewing more. We never did receive coffee until after we were done eating. Next the food. The scrambled eggs were rubbery and the home fries were dry. My wife said that she couldnt believe the breakfast buffet was $16 and that she was extremely disappointed at the quality of the food and the service.

When we were done with breakfast we headed back to our room to relax for a little bit and get ready to leave. We were in our room for 5 minutes when we had a loud knock in the door. It was 9:19a so I was confused who it could be. My wife answered the door and it was housekeeping asking when we were leaving. The woman was extremely rude. I have no idea why the hotel doesn't have a list of customers that have checked out so housekeeping doesn't have to...

My husband and I just recently stayed at your hotel and we wanted to compliment and also relay some concerns about our time there. We really enjoy this hotel. We stay at least twice a year and we also chose this hotel to have our wedding! So it is very special to us. Upon our most recent stay we ran into a little bit of sad situation where we didn’t feel welcome or very comfortable. We completely understand that some of the guests you cannot (unfortunately) control how they treated us. However, one of the recreational workers out at the pool was not very nice to us and she made us wear some sort of bracelet that we had never heard of before? Nor, did anyone else have one on out there. We decided to speak up and say something before breakfast Sunday morning, I expressed to Lateskia and Amanda that my feelings were hurt about how we were being treated over our stay. I also expressed to Amanda how we had made a decision to not stay another night because of everything that was going on. (Kenisha and Carson convinced us to stay another night, they were super sweet and were willing to listen). We have never experienced something as awful as that and we hope to never again. Although we know that we will often times run into people who can be rude and may treat you differently because of the color of your skin, we just didn’t expect it to be at Auburn-Opelika Marriott Grand National 2017 hotel of the year. We honestly love staying here. LOVE. We hated to even leave! I also would like to commend a few people who made our stay better whether it was just a smile or a kind gesture: Jonathan(front desk)- great, awesome guy, easy to talk to Carson- sweet, willing to listen Kanisha- sweet, I really enjoyed talking to her! Amanda- listened, she was seemed concerned when I spoke with her Jake- he’s one of our favorites! He was there our last stay. Great guy. Lindsey- great Haylee- great Trent(bar area)- very nice Gabrielle(bar area)- very nice (congrats on graduating!) Coach Wilson- great! Another one of our favorites Mr. Chris- great! Took us fishing and picked us up! Lakisha(housekeeping) (she’s deaf) - super sweet and attentive. Which just super impressed me because she’s deaf. Lateskia (restaurant)- super sweet, she even hugged me after all that happened Jaylen(restaurant) great guy Chris Ray (bar,restaurant,banquet)- great guy Brianna(bar area) - super sweet Rebecca(restaurant)- super sweet Ms Mae...

I recently spent several nights at this hotel. The grounds are lovely and the pastoral setting is peaceful and relaxing but there were some serious housekeeping issues during our stay. We checked in late and after using the bathroom, realized there was NO hand soap provided! There was also a large hair ball and small bits of tissue/tp on the floor! Called the front desk and was told there was a soap shortage but he would have housekeeping find some and bring it up. If we wanted the bathroom cleaned, we would need to leave the room...with no place to go (everything in hotel was shut down for the night), we chose to remain in the room. Housekeeping came, was very gracious and delivered the soap and removed the hairball. We chose to forgo cleaning that night but asked at the front desk to have it cleaned while we were out the next day. (They don't offer daily housekeeping except upon request) Upon return late in the afternoon, our bed was made and towels were replaced but the bits on the bathroom floor were still there! Yuck! It looked like no actual "cleaning" took place. There is info throughout the hotel about covid protocols being followed and the hotel wanting to keep patrons "safe" but the phone in the room was dusty and had dirty marks on it....there's no way they were wiping it down in between customers. If the lack of cleanliness isn't enough, the internet (which we paid for) wouldn't connect and I had to spend 45 minutes on the phone with the corporate tech support in order to get online.

Wanting a cup of coffee at 11:32 am, I went to the advertised coffee bar only to be told they were closed. When asked where I could get coffee, I was told to go ask at the restaurant to see if they had any left over that they hadn't yet thrown out. When pressed, they said they'd go ask for me but there was no place to get coffee at the resort between breakfast and dinner service.

Lastly, the adult pool was quite murky during our stay.

This location has a ton of potential but the management needs to get involved. Housekeeping and maintenance needs a serious revamp in order to bring this up to a 4...