Residence Inn by Marriott Pleasanton — Hotel in Pleasanton

Stayed here for a wedding. The only good thing about this place is that it's close to Bart and the mall. I ended up walking there from Bart because I'm used to walking.. but upon arrival I saw that they had a shuttle van. Not sure where it picks up because they don't do shuttle service to the airports, but I didn't see any information online about a shuttle. It would've been nice to be picked up from the station. And yes, the mall is walking distance, but it's not entirely pedestrian friendly. And it would be unbearable to walk on a hot day. Luckily for me it wasn't hot that day.

So I booked the 2-bedroom suite the moment the bride and groom sent notice about the room blocks, which was around 4 months ago. The hotel told the bride they would save the suite for the bridal party, to which I was a part of. And I had checked in with the mobile app the day before, stating I would check in at noon. I know sometimes they can't honor that, but I knew over half of the property was blocked for the wedding. So I figure they'd have one ready. They didn't when I checked in at 1pm. And when I came back around 4pm, which is the designated time for checking in, service was so SLOW! There was only one woman working the front desk, and there really should've been two. All hands should be on deck during the designated check in time. Many of the people checking in were part of the bridal party, tired from traveling (some as far as Italy and the UK), and we were on a time crunch for the rehearsal. I didn't have time to get my suitcase they held for me because I had to be at the rehearsal. Luckily I had done my makeup, but I couldn't refresh it, and I couldn't bring my purse because it was in my suitcase! I traveled with a large backpack, so I just ended up just taking my phone to the rehearsal and dinner.

And the rooms... oy. Not only outdated, but just in terrible condition. The lamp shades had stains and wrinkles on them. The innards of the sofa cushion spilled out because the zipper was broken. And the sofa bed was not comfy at all. Plus, part of the sofa bed that held the mattress was broken, so it didn't provide a lot of support. The drain in the bathroom sink was slow, and the tubs needed a deeper clean. Plus, the knobs for the showers needed a lot of force to turn them off.

The hallways smelled like cigarette smoke, and the suite smelled funky too.

My biggest issue is that the suite was on the first floor. I'm a Marriott rewards member, and my preferences have always been high floor. I'm pretty sure they have suites on higher floors, and it's disappointing they didn't provide that, especially knowing that the room block is for the bridal party.

The free breakfast provided was ok. I'm surprised they didn't have oatmeal. But I did like the scrambled eggs and meat choices. And I do like they had little packets of Nutella for toast and waffles.

My family stays in Marriott hotels almost exclusively. My parents are Elite members, and I'm on my way to becoming one myself. So I have high expectations for this company and all their different brands bearing their name. Considering the amount of guests the newlywed couple had and the proximity to Bart and the venue, the Residence Inn was the best choice they could make. However, this hotel failed them. And this is the second time a Marriott hotel didn't meet my expectations. The first one was the JW in LA, one if their elite brands.

Also, the cookies in the lobby weren't chocolate chip. That was also...

Most of the employees were friendly, responsive, and hard working. If we'd only stayed for a few days, we probably would have given the property a higher rating and chalked up some of the issues we experienced as oddities. However, we were there for three months, so we were able to get a full picture of the operations. The property is very tired and in dire need of an upgrade. Despite having the carpets cleaned while we were on site, stains immediately returned or were not removed, showing its age and wear. In our unit, there were even tears in the carpet. Many things were broken and were never repaired, such as water leaking from the freezer to the refrigerator. We had to place a bowl on the top shelf to catch the water, which we dumped out at least once a day. Also, while the housekeeping staff worked hard, they never seemed to have a checklist of what needed to be done each day. I had to call to the front desk repeatedly to have more shampoo, lotion, coffee, and other items replenished. If I failed to leave the door open in the kitchen underneath the sink, the trash would often be forgotten. The same held true for the gym. We worked out most weekday mornings. Many times there was no water, cups, nor towels. We were frequently stopping by the front desk to report the absences. We found that when we didn't, the same items would be missing the following day. We love that breakfast is provided each day and were surprised that it began so late in the morning. Nonetheless, we expected it to be fully open and ready at 6:30, but it often was not. We were regularly scrambling about to quickly get our breakfast and rush to our cars for our morning commutes. The Monday through Wednesday evening events were a nice bonus. While we weren't always able to participate, we enjoyed them when we could. We often did not know what was being served. It would have been nice to have something posted in the exit doors. Given how dependent we are as a society on technology. It was baffling to me how poor the WiFi service was. We often "upgraded" to the supposedly faster/better service, but found it made little if any difference. It was painfully slow and unreliable. It was also extremely frustrating how often we had to enter our information, despite the option to stay connected for the length of our stay. Overall, it felt like we were staying at a far less reputable property than we expected for one associated with the Marriott brand....

First impressions the hotel looks like it just went through a renovation seeing that everything looks very new. I was checked in only for me to find that the room had been occupied. I've worked in hotels I know that things like this happen from time to time so I brushed it off. Being that I stayed there for New Years eve I was looking to get a little more time to check out. I called and spoke to the night auditor requesting for just an hour extension from the normal check out time which I didn't thing was that big of an ask. He told me that he could only be able to give me a half hour. So I figured when I got back to the hotel I could just ask for another half hour in person. I mean he already gave me the half hour, whats another half hour ? When I arrived back to the hotel to speak with him in person he was completely rude and brushed me off stating that based on my status and how many checkouts the following day had he could only give me a half hour and if I wanted to I could email on of the managers as he pointed to the business cards. ALL OF THIS OVER A HALF HOUR. You know it doesn't have to get to that point when its not that big of an ask. I don't want to email the managers all over a half hour. The best part of it all is that I wake up to a call early in the morning from the front desk to let me know that they went ahead and extended my check out which I appreciated. If I had just gotten the extension in the first place and not have to go through all that to only get my sleep interrupted there wouldn't have been an issue. I've worked for several hotels in the heart of the bay area where we are packed and half of my arrivals for the week are all Diamond, Platinum and Gold members and when I have all of them asking for a late check out it as late at 3 or 4 pm we have to do our best to be able to accommodate them. That also includes our non members and lower tiered members because they are also patrons and should be recognized. Even if it means me helping out the housekeeping staff to turn rooms over to accommodate for all the late checkouts which I've done. The rooms were clean and great but the two experiences left a...