SpringHill Suites by Marriott Phoenix Downtown — Hotel in Phoenix

So, to be fair, I'll start with the positive. This hotel is in a nice enough location: not far from the airport and a quick Uber downtown. Their coffee was good and strong, too. But as far as positives go, location and coffee are about it.

I would say it's an inexpensive hotel, but honestly, even if the room were $50 a night, that would be overpriced.

Where to begin… We checked in on a Saturday afternoon on a busy sports weekend in Phoenix - NASCAR, the Cardinals, and the Suns all were weekend events. It’s one of those weekends where hotels should be hopping and on their A game.

Upon arrival we were given a notice that all their tvs were out due to a power transformer going out and the City was involved. Not sure how that could even happen since we had power and wifi, but from the moment we got there on Saturday until the moment we left on Monday morning, there was no television – on a big sports weekend. (See photo of letter below – see if it makes any sense to you.)

I mean… they had free tv as a selling feature of motel rooms all the way back in the 50s – not sure how a hotel can go 3 days without tv in 2022, but alas, that was the case.

At least we got a room on the ground floor since the elevator wasn’t working. (See photo of that below.) Not sure what guests did who were on the sixth floor did – hike, I guess.

The room (108) itself didn’t exactly overwhelm us. The room looked like an old 70s Holiday Inn that had a done-on-the-cheap remodel sometime in the last 25 years. The couch, which featured a twin-sized trundle bed, seemed designed for something other than sitting. The weird cushion angles made it feel more like a slouch than a couch. The grout on the bathroom floor was dingy (See photo). The tub floor was unsteady in places due to what I assume was a poorly installed plastic tub cover from that last remodel. There was a tub entry support bar that had been ripped out of the shower and remounted outside of the shower where it could do little good. (Thanks to the unsteady bathtub floor, it was all too easy to imagine how that bar was ripped out of the shower.) After the support bar had been ripped out of the shower, rather than replace the plastic wall of the shower, they cheaply (and sloppily) caulked the giant gash that resembled San-Andreas-sized scar from a botched bathroom facelift. An older semi-circular shower curtain rod was oddly hung for a traditionally rectangular tub. The curtain rod, too, bore the scars of an inept repair effort (see below). Both mornings, one of us reported not having enough hot water after a couple back-to-back showers as well. Not sure how a hotel runs out of hot water, but then again, we were at a hotel without tv or an elevator, so… yeah.

We left the hotel early on Sunday morning for the Cardinals game, but before we left, we stopped for breakfast at the breakfast bar. There were two cereals, some mushy and congealed Quaker oats, brown bananas, Activia, plain bagels, hard-boiled eggs, scrambled egg soup (?) made from scrambled eggs soaking in pools of water (see pic), dried out turkey sausage, English muffins, and a rather unmotivated toaster. I know that free hotel breakfasts aren’t exactly fine dining, but this was a free breakfast that wasn’t worth the price.

After a long day at the game, we returned to our Shangri-La to find that that room service hadn’t come. The bed wasn’t made, no fresh towels, and the trash cans hadn’t been dumped. Not only was the hotel without television, elevator, and enough hot water, but the entire hotel was also without room service that weekend, too. No notice of this policy was given.

Finally, it was time leave. When I asked to arrange an airport shuttle for our Monday morning departure, I was told that they didn’t offer morning shuttle service.

Sigh… of course not.

Taken individually, none of these factors would have been a deal-breaker. Collectively, however, this hotel is about as inhospitable as the hospitality...

I phoned ahead of my stay to request an extended checkout. I explained to the representative that I was attending a conference that ended at 12, the check-out time. The representative stated that 2 o'clock was the latest that she could guarantee the check-out time, and did state "it's possible to further extend (beyond 2 o'clock), depending on availability. The representative further explained "I will note your account so you don't have any difficulties."

The night prior to check out, I phoned the front desk operator, who contradicted the information I had been told. The front office operator (Jonah or something similar) stated that I would need to be out by 12 o'clock. I explained the background and conversation I had with the other representative, to which she replied "well, there is a way you can guarantee a later check-out....Pay for an additional night's stay." The sarcasm and customer disservice was unnecessary, considering, I was trying to communicate the exchange I had and problem-solve the situation. Instead, I was I was mocked.

After being insulted, I phoned the 800 reservations line and spoke with Tara (operator #6179025). She, too was incredibly unhelpful. When I explained the situation (that I had spoken to someone ahead of my trip to extend the check out time) she stated "No one would say that because we don't guarantee late check outs, as it depends on availability." That interaction was frustrating, as I was not trusted.

I left the next day for my conference and was forced to leave the conference early and change my plans to meet the NEW check out time. When I arrived back to my hotel (11 o'clock) I traveled to my room on the sixth floor, only for my key card to fail. It was this situation I found extremely suspect, considering the off-putting interaction I had the night prior with the desk clerk. One important thing to note: One of the elevators was closed off due to some sort of maintenance, which extended it took to get an elevator.

I spoke with Kassandra the Manager, who apologized but didn't do ANYTHING to remedy the situation. I made her aware of the conversation I had the night prior with the office desk operator and how highly suspect it was that my key card would fail, considering this interaction. Kassandra stated that she would "talk" to her.

Overall, I have a choice to where I stay and I will not be choosing to stay at any Marriott locations. Your managers have ZERO problem-solving skills and...

We stayed in a room with a king bed. It was clean and about the size of a studio apartment. One nice thing about this room was that it had a microwave and a mini fridge that gets really cold. We had a Monster drink in the fridge on the bottom shelf that was not frozen solid, but it did have some ice in it come morning (this cold drink was nice for our long drive). We found the room to be spacious and even had a large comfy sofa. The bathroom lights were very bright around the sink mirror which would be perfect if doing makeup or plucking eyebrows. Excellent water pressure, but it did take about a minute to get warm. One thing that we found out of place was the toilet paper placement as it was placed a crossed from the toilet and not beside it which could make it hard for a short person or a kid to reach. The conditioner was as runny as water unlike other hotels we have stayed at that use the same brand of supplies; even though the bottles of toiletries on the wall of the shower are supposed to be tamper proof, the liquidy conditioner made us skeptical and we chose not to use it. The shampoo and body wash seemed ok. The bed was large and comfortable with good quality pillows. Underneath the sheets, the mattress looked very clean and free of any bugs or marks. The tv was also large but we didn’t need to use it. The desk area was comfortable if needing to do work while traveling, however I wished there was more light around the desk area than just the one desk lamp. The air conditioning for the room worked very well to the point that we turned it off. One downside is there is no ice bucket in the rooms for the ice machine in the hallway. The other downside is next to the bed there are no plugins to charge devices, just usb plugins on the lamps. On the plus side, this hotel offers free breakfast. On the day we stayed they had scrambled eggs, potatoes with onions and peppers, packaged blueberry muffins, special K protein bars, bananas, yogurt, milk, cranberry juice, and orange juice. Breakfast ended at 9:30. This was a very comfortable hotel and we would definitely stay here again, we just might bring our...