Courtyard by Marriott Orlando Lake Nona — Hotel in Orlando

We found this hotel online and was impressed with the reviews of its spacious rooms, cleanliness, friendly, helpful staff and great location. It seemed to fit what we were looking for, so we booked a room last November for the final week of February. We received a couple of emails from Marriott confirming our room, the most recent confirmation being the day before our arrival.||||When we arrived in the late afternoon to check in, we were told that we had been moved from the Courtyard to a different Marriott property miles away. The ‘friendly, helpful staff’ presented this rude piece of news to us with absolutely no apology or sign of embarrassment for blindsiding us at check-in. Instead, they tried to make it sound like they were doing us a favor by calling the move an ‘upgrade’ and telling us they were giving us this great discount. The fact is that they were sending us to a lower tier property with bare bones amenities, further away from where we wanted to be and directly under the takeoff path of airplanes lifting off from MCO right next door. The discount was not a discount from our perspective, but just the lower rate of a lesser property. ||||Our upgrade took us from a ‘spacious room’ to one the size of a small dorm room. It was so cramped, there wasn’t even a closet or bureau. We had to leave most of our clothes packed in suitcases. Things got piled on top of each other because of lack of space, so there was always a search for something—glasses, phone, etc. under one stack or another. And we travel light—one carry-on suitcase a person.||||While the room we originally booked at the Courtyard came with a well-reviewed breakfast, there was no complimentary breakfast at our upgrade. We were told we could get a cup of coffee at an urn in the lobby for $3, ‘just made fresh’. It wasn’t coffee but 99% coffee grounds and a little water dribbling past the clot of grounds in the spout. We went out to a local convenience store to get coffee and breakfast and when we came back to heat up our food we found that there was no microwave in the lobby and none available for guest use, as the one or two that they had were being used already.||||Our upgrade also included no maid service. Garbage piled up in the one garbage can in the room and disposables were not replenished. Wifi was available, but if you wanted decent bandwidth, you had to pay extra. The location of our upgrade can only be described as the worst of both worlds: both distant and noisy, mere yards under the takeoff path from MCO.||||We communicated with the manager of the Courtyard and the general manager of the Marriott properties in Orlando, and they did not see fit to respond. No surprise—if the customer experience were of any concern to them, this whole series of events would not have occurred. What they consistently communicated to us through their behavior from booking to booting us out was, ‘you are nothing more than a walking talking ATM, so just spit out the money and move along’.||||We were told by the property we were dumped onto that our experience was not at all unusual. They had been receiving people bounced by the Courtyard pretty much since they opened, and they had a boatload of people scheduled to arrive in the next few days with the same story. We’re guessing that those customers weren’t aware yet of what was waiting for them. ||||We have been traveling and booking hotel rooms for decades. We’ve seen all manor of accommodations and host behavior. It’s great when the place you stay and the people who host you enhance the value of your visit somewhere, and not so much when they don’t. The Marriott has its own special place on that scale. On our bill, the room we were dumped into was referred to as ‘overflow rooms’. That designation couldn’t convey any more elegantly what they think of the people they’re sticking into them. Apparently this strategy is financially rewarding enough to overcome the ill will they create. They are certainly not interested in creating ambassadors for the brand.||||Having made the mistake of not saving our room for us, they did not give us any reasonable prior warning about the mishap which would’ve allowed us to make other arrangements if we wished. They showed no concern for having disrupted our visit, offered us nothing to compensate for the gap in confirmed lodgings vs lodgings provided, lied to us about the property we were being sent to, and then failed to respond to our complaint when we wrote to them. ||||The best advice we can offer is that you walk into an arrangement with an Orlando Marriott with your eyes open, or if you prefer to be treated like a human being, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. They sell space they don’t have at the Courtyard. You think you are choosing a particular room when you make a reservation, but what you are really doing is making yourself available as grist for a mill that grinds ‘guests’ into chaff that are all washed down the drain in...

This is the third time I’ve stayed here. It’s the second time I’ve had a “Wellness” room. I stay here for the USTA tournaments. This is the closest hotel to the USTA campus. I wish they would offer a slight discount to USTA members. This last stay was quite expensive.

The hotel is very clean. The staff is very friendly and helpful. I’m actually shocked that with as much noise that goes on around this hotel, the rooms are very quiet! They must have great insulation and very thick windows! There are airplanes constantly flying overhead on their way to the Orlando airport. There’s also loud music playing downstairs in the courtyard of the center of restaurants and shops.

I have stayed in the wellness rooms twice now. Honestly though, I don’t really know how to get the most out of them. There was a little black box on the bedside table that had several lights labeled “energize” or “relax”. You can touch the label, and it will light up, but nothing happens. I’m not sure what was supposed to happen. There are no instructions to go with them room. There’s also a big white box on the wall. You could make it illuminate colors, but other than that I’m not sure what it was supposed to do. There were a bunch of buttons but again, no instructions. The only thing I feel like I actually got out of the wellness room was the vitamin C infused shower. I could also actually taste it in the water when I’d rinse my mouth after brushing them. Other than that I feel like the room needs to be better explained or more user-friendly.

Breakfast is good. They have a nice selection. Although on Sunday morning there was no more bananas, apples, or oranges. I enjoyed the coffee, bagel, eggs, oatmeal and potatoes though. They also had some kind of sausage. I guess the waffle maker is gone because of COVID. There was yogurt, cold cereals, muffins, hard boiled eggs, and juices, as well.

There’s a gym, pool, and fire pit, all of which I have never had time to use. However, this is a prime location in the fact that there are 3 nice restaurants downstairs, a courtyard which hold a marketplace on the weekends, and Boxi Park right across the street. Plenty to do...

Upon getting situated in the room, and prepare to return work calls, I quickly discovered that the room impeded my access to any cell service. After calling the front desk, the clerk told me there were fees to make calls, even though I was unable to use my cell phone due to poor reception. She passed the phone along to the manager who proceeded to tell me that he can bring me keys to a room on the top floor, and that he would leave me the keys and I could move on up as soon as I was able. This was a great solution! Except, while on the phone with him I told him that I was working and needed to wrap up a report that had a tight timeline to be uploaded to my client. When he arrived at the room he was very (VERY) insistent that I pack up NOW and leave the room so that the cleaning crew could get in. I again, told him that I was not able to leave then and there, due to my work that had to get finished quickly, which he was now keeping me from doing because he was rude and arguing with me. Finally, since he was so rude and insistent that I move now, so I told him that I will simply stay if he can now wait. He did not even offer to leave the keys, as he said he would, nor did he offer to give me 10 minutes so that I could wrap up my assignments. I've already told some of my colleagues that I will not be back at this location, and I recommend that they not stay there either. The customer service is indeed lacking! And the cell service is non existent, which I know you do not have control over, but something needs to be done about it eventually. The location is fabulous, the grounds are beautiful, but cell service and the way the manager handled it were completely inappropriate. I stay in Orlando often, and will NOT stay at this location again. I am hoping that my next stay at another one of your hotels next week is going to be MUCH better!!! Thank you for asking me to tell you...