SpringHill Suites by Marriott Sandpoint — Hotel in Ponderay

The hotel is located on the highway outside a small town 4 miles north of Sandpoint. Other than staying on the mountain, it is one of the closest hotels to Schweitzer Ski Area. There is one restaurant on the other side of an empty dirt lot and a couple of fast food places 1/4 mile down the highway. The hotel charges $10/day for parking.||This is a new hotel and is physically gorgeous. The lobby is large and welcoming. There is a lovely patio out back with fire pits facing a bank of tree. The rooms are 'well appointed' and nicely decorated. The staff are professional and trained to be polite. Unfortunately the hotel caters to groups at the expense of those of us who travel alone or with immediate family.||When we arrived there were more than sixty 16 year olds in the lobby. Before checking in I asked if they had chaperones. I was assured they did. I was told the youth were multiple ski teams from throughout the Western states. ||The second evening we stayed there were a lot of youthful voices and movement in the hallway outside our door. We ignored it for about an hour, until they were clearly bumping into the walls. I looked out in the hallway to discover the teens had moved multiple pieces of furniture into the hallway and were jumping on them as well as literally off the walls. No adults were present. I simply said 'This is a hotel, not a gym'. They immediately moved the furniture and disappeared into their respective rooms. I called the front desk and was told they would come right up. As I told the clerk, they would find nothing as the teens had scampered back into their rooms. ||The next morning I spoke with the hotel manager. He assured me the hotel does all they can to ensure all guests have a pleasant stay. He also reassured me that the teens had chaperones and the various Teams had signed contracts for appropriate behavior.||As time passed it became increasingly clear the youth were not supervised while in the hotel. In our wing of 10 rooms, all rooms except ours and a family across the hall were occupied by teens. In the six nights of our stay, we never saw or overheard an adult in the vicinity. Until 'curfew' at 9:30 or 10pm every evening, teens were running up and down the hallway, loudly shouting at each other, repeatedly going in and out of each others' rooms, slamming doors, walking outside in the construction field next door with flashlights and other typical unsupervised teen behavior. One evening we heard the door in the room next to us slam 43 times in ONE hour. I have to wonder if there were even any adults on the floor below us. If so, they ignored the noise and pounding footsteps above them. In spite of being forewarned, the hotel staff ignored it as well.||On the fourth evening, my husband and I took a board game downstairs to play in the lounge. Twenty minutes later dozens of teens arrived from every direction. A dinner buffet had been set up on the breakfast bar. The youth picked up their dinner, moved chairs around the lobby and proceeded to eat, throw food at each other, shout across the room. A teen next to me spilled his drink. Rather than clean it up, he stepped in it and proceeded to walk around the room. Particularly disturbing was the handful of adults serving the group as well as the hotel staff, including the hotel manager, ignored the mayhem. The teens exited after eating, leaving uncleared tables and their mess. 3-4 adults proceeded to put the room back in order. ||In short, the hotel certainly does not enforce that youth are supervised or adhere to appropriate behavior. They have clearly decided to cater to groups and ignore the comfort of individual travelors. At no point did they inform us how long the youth would be staying, require an adult be moved to our wing, offer us a room away from the youth or forewarn us the lobby would be transformed into a high school cafeteria. |It was apparent those of us traveling independently served only to fill rooms the groups didn't need. ||When we checked out, the clerk asked about our stay. I looked at her and said it was like staying in...

I generally always write positive reviews but our experience here was terrible, and I need to report this. My wife booked two nights, well in advance, for check in at 3:00 PM (the standard check in time and what is published on their website) this was under the name Davis on 7/5/24. On arrival, well after our check in time, we were informed that our room was not quite ready. We waited 2.5 hours in the lobby and parking lot with no notice that our room was ready and we were not provided an estimated time. They told us that the check-in time was not a guarantee and there was nothing they can do with a note that they are short-staffed - which is unfortunate but at least we had context. However, we had a wedding to get ready for and have a 4-year-old. We could not speak to the front desk anymore, because there was a line of 20 people all waiting for apparently the same reason. We decided to call corporate and cancel because we had no idea how long we’d be there waiting and, like I said, had to get ready for the wedding. Corporate Marriott was helpful but shared because we did mobile check-in we were locked in to working with the local property. We explained how we could not speak to the local hotel because of time constraints and the line, so corporate said they’d send an email of our cancellation and that the right thing to do would be to not charge us a cancellation fee.

We booked Cedar Street Hotel instead and have had a lovely experience, see my review there. We met a housekeeper at Cedar street who used to work at the SpringHill Marriott in Ponderay and this problem appears to be a property management decision and standard of running business (e.g. a 3-person team was expected to work late and clean 90 rooms). This is disgusting, not to Marriott’s standards, and appears to be an ongoing issue not just a short-staffed issue of that day. On top of all of this, that night at 8:30 PM we were charged the full amount on our card and told that our room was ready 😒. Needless to say we spent the next 30 min on she phone asking why we were charged. I am extremely disappointed. We are waiting for the charge to drop but have no idea if we will be charged large...

Leaving reviews is really not my thing, but in this case i just have to express my opinion or better say frustrations. Reason is 10$ parking fee. I know, it is only 10$. However, I booked a room via some partner platform hotel.com ,and it clearly says total taxes and fees __. It also shows all amenities included and “self parking available.”…why include it among other free amenities if is not free? ??Why not disclose to guests PARKING FEE 10$? Next, i come to front desk check in, nobody mentions anything. I check out, nobody mentions anything. I drive away i get an email parking fee receipt 10$ Now you tell me if this is nothing but license to steal money. What a disgusting cheap sneaky way to just scavenge guest for another 10$. When i walked into the lobby i told myself what a beautiful design…owner and management should be really passionate about this establishment. So much attention to details. But then, all it was is just glamorous lobby serving liquid scrambled eggs from cartons and scavenging guests for 10$ parking. Come on, guys. We are in middle of nowhere , nobody at parking lot, we are not in Monte Carlo on F1 weekend. Joke aside, i think charging customers card without consent and deliberate explanation and authorization is nothing less but illegal. Partner web site failed to emphasize fee, front desk failed to point out. Zero disclosure. Of course when i brought it up to front desk attention , typical story it says on our web site. Really? Zero integrity…So it is guests responsibility to question partners websites and investigate? I will dispute this 10$ charge and i will declare it as fraud as it really is.Never agreed to authorization. Never presented charge so i have option to proceed or not. Such a shame of...