Courtyard by Marriott Princeton — Hotel in Plainsboro Township

First, this is the first bad review I've ever written for a hotel. We are easy to please and have realistic standards. That being said, I will never stay here again. When we checked in, the front desk worker was polite and kind, that was a plus! She couldn't get our key card made but we waited patiently while she got the machine to work. She had us drive around the building so we would be closer to our room. We got all of our things and headed up to the 3rd floor, only to find out our room was on the opposite side of the building as the one she told us, and the card didn't work. I left the bags and family there while I went to see what was wrong with the key cards. Nothing was wrong, apparently- she wrote down the wrong room! Annoying, but honest mistake, not a big deal. I asked if it was right below the other room (she sent us to 3xx, and we were supposed to be 2xx- same last numbers). She said no, this one was definitely on the other side of the building. I said, "Even though they are the same room number, just different floors?" Yes, she was sure. I called my family to have them bring the bags and walk all the way to the other side of the hotel and down a floor, only to find out that of course the room was directly below the other one! Again, annoying, but it had been a long day and we just wanted to get settled. The room was fine. The pool was closed, unfortunately. I went to take a shower a little while later and the plug was in the drain. When I took it out, the previous guests used soap bar was in the drain! It was disgusting to have to fish that out, and more disgusting was that the shower obviously hadn't been cleaned between guests (there was no way for the water to drain with a bar of soap jammed in there!). We were tired and checking out early, so we just dealt with it for the night. At 12:30am housekeeping was banging on the door, waking up my husband and me. We didn't answer, and she continued to bang, waking up our kids. I answered the door and she had a stack of towels that we clearly didn't ask for. She had gone to the wrong room. I was really wishing we hadn't stayed here- there are plenty of other hotels in the area we could have gone to. We checked out early at 6am. There was no one at the front desk, so we looked around the lobby. We found the front desk worker sound asleep on the couch. We woke him up and checked out. I should have asked for a discount on our stay, but we all just wanted to get...

I had made a reservation on December 14, 2018 for my wife and my daughter for swimming events held between January 18 and January 20 in Princeton, NJ. It was prepaid in full Member Advance Purchase Rate, which meant no cancellation or changes beyond 24 hours. On December 16, 2018, upon returning home, I found out that our daughter's team decided in that afternoon not to attend. I called the property at 7:35 in the evening and spoke with a representative named Robert, and I explained the situation. Since we were cancelling within 48 hours, even though the rooms were booked under 24 hour cancellation policy, he agreed to refund the charges without any penalties. He even mentioned that the the property was completely sold out that he should not have any problem re-booking the room.

On February 26, 2019 at 3:25, I called the property again, and spoke with Robert, and reminded him that the refund has not been processed. He assured me that he would process the refund immediately after he obtains an approval from his manager.

I called Robert again on March 21, 2019 at 12:20 pm, and he said he would find out the status, and call me right back. I did not receive any return calls from Robert.

Few days later, a representative named Melanie called and ask about the detail of the case. She stated that she would be the one taking the case from that point on. I gave her all the details, and she assured me that she would find out and call me back.

No communication was forthcoming, so I called the property on April 1, 2019 again, and was informed that Melanie was no longer working for the property.

Since then, I left several messages ( April 3, 2019 at 6:08 pm, April 17, 2019 at 11:17 am, April 22, 2019 at 6:25 pm) to Robert, and his manager, Lisa, Assistant General Manager, and none of them are communicating at all.

I understand that Robert did not have to agree to refund the money when I asked on December 16, 2019. If he said no at that point, I would have moved on. After all, it was not his fault that I had to cancel my reservation. However, Robert's and the property management's unprofessional attitude of never delivering the promises and not communicating with me is what prompted me to write...

We escaped a home without power looking forward to a HOT shower and heat. Both were wonderful. We arrived - one of us with a broken wrist, knee and ankle using a walker with a very unique configuration. Surely it was obvious my companion was struggling with simply walking. Were we asked for floor preference but not if we needed a handicap access room. My error for not thinking to ask for one.

After dropping her off at the entrance, I find the parking lot had not been plowed. Dropped off handicapped person at the entrance and literally got STUCK in the snow trying to park my car!!!!! Took me over 15 minutes to get the car parked as safely as possible and then took my life in my hands trying to get into the building. Ok, so I was cranky having dealt without power for a few days...

At check out the next morning, I asked the lady at the front desk if someone was available to shovel out my car if it was stuck. She said, "oh probably not. Let me see if someone is around." I said if I need someone I'll let you know. Thankfully, I was able to muscle my car out of the blocked parking space and get it to the entrance so my handicapped companion could get in -- only to find the hotel van parked so close to the handicapped ramp, she literally had to fight the step to get in the car!!!

How can a hotel not arrange for a snow plow? How can a hotel not have a back up plan if the snow plow doesn't show up? Why aren't employees shoveling out a few parking spots for their guests' personal safety and ease of parking? How can management put it's guests at such great risk for a fall? Accompanying medical expenses? Loss of income? Damage to cars trying to park in spaces literally blocked by snow mounds? How can management put the hotel, the franchise and it's employees at such great risk for litigation and expense? I managed over 1,000,000 sq. ft. of space for Fortune 200 companies for many, many years only a few miles from this location. This hotel's lack of concern for it's guests safety and their guest's vehicles was beyond explanation and...