Residence Inn by Marriott Raleigh Downtown — Hotel in Raleigh

Front desk staff was nice. Location was good. Parking was confusing and were told that even thought checkout is at 12(which means you'll pay for the whole day parking if paying through hotel) if we leave our car there that since we checked out even if we have parking thing the parking garage company "may try to charge us again."? Like ok I paid already for the full day through the hotel but apparently there's no way to keep the key card active so you'll just either have to pay and not use the whole day even though you paid. Or pay again through the garage company. It seemed like staff may not 100% know and said to be safe park on street and move out of the garage. But yeah pay all 18 bucks but leave. That was annoying but not the worst.

The issue I have is with the breakfast staff. On Saturday January 4th we woke up around 7am to go get breakfast. We got to the area and were greeted at the desk by an older, slightly full figured, blonde hair Caucasian lady(i say this not as anything mean, but to describe the pady for identification). She had to pause her conversation with another staffer(this other staffer was nice and i have no issue with)to ask for my name. I gave my name and she proceeded to say she didnt see it. I thought she ment she didnt see a reservation, I say "oh sorry were we supposed to make a reservation for breakfast?" I asked cause we had never stayed here before and wanted to know if we needed to make a reservation to eat.

She proceeded to get an huge attitude and borderline angry and said "no! I'm asking to make sure you're actually staying at this hotel! Since this floor doesn't need a key card people come in and try to get breakfast without staying here! So what is your name and room number so i can check the list?!(demanding my name again as if i didnt already give her it when she asked the first time)." And i was flabbergasted and shocked in spot for a second cause I didnt know why she was getting upset and accusing me of faking staying there. I gave no resistance giving her my name(even spelling it out for her) and room number but suddenly I'm being accused of trying to sneak in and get a free breakfast just cause she messed up her list?! I spelled it out and gave her the room# and she just ended up writing it down on the paper instead. She did finally let us in but I was already up early just to get some food before work and not in the mood for accusations or her disrespectful attitude. I dont know if she thought we looked too young go get a room, or too broke to afford it, all i know is she got super upset for some reason and didnt seem to believe we did stay there. I could have showed her the keycard or called over the balcony to the front desk to confirm my reservation but she didnt do any of that, just went off on us a bit instead.

The breakfast was mediocre and none of it was labeled with allergies/dairy. So when I tasted it after thinking it was safe since the label didn't specify dairy since it could be made with or without, I went up to ask the man working in the food area. He had no clue, pondered over it for a bit, he said then proceeded to land on yes it has dairy. And yes it did, cause either the food was sour and made me sick or it had dairy which made me sick, but either way I ended up getting super sick a few hours later. So not only was I berated and accused of possibly sneaking in, I got sick on medicore food. I went downstairs after breakfast to ask them if something was wrong on my room reservation since the rude lady upstairs was so sure I wasnt supposed to be there. They confirmed my reservation(I knew I had since I had a key, parking, my stuff in the room, and had already slept in MY ROOM at this hotel. The front desk was nice and apologized for any error saying they'd correct the breakfast list for later. I thanked them but I wasn't waking up early just to risk going back and getting scolded by some old On the bright side, the room was very nice and spacious with a kitchen and bathroom that was well kept. Would stay again but 1 rude lady makes us...

Service: Service overall was solid. I'd like to call out attention to the Chef (Roz?) who was great! I've run into him a couple times and he was extremely friendly in greeting guests and he and his team cooks up a mean breakfast. Susan at the front desk offered a friendly check-in. While the hotel has recently started offering housekeeping everyday again, my room wasn't serviced during one day of my (4-night) stay. Also, housekeeping doesn't make your bed until the 5th day of your stay. I had checked into a room that wasn't thoroughly cleaned. The sofa-bed had a bunch of food crumbs on the cushions and there was trash behind the nightstands. Not a big deal to clean myself but a miss by housekeeping.

Food: I don't usually add a food section of the review but felt I must do so here. The provided free breakfast spread is quite expansive - featuring 5+ hot options to choose from everyday including one vegetarian option, fresh-cut fruit (cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple, and grapes), yogurt, coffee, juice, etc. I absolutely loved the eggs at breakfast. The eggs weren't the typical (un-appetizing) pre-packaged pre-mixed eggs served at most hotels, but were super-fluffy and made from fresh-cracked eggs.

Room: I stayed in a King Studio Suite (820). The room was large (440 sq ft) for downtown and featured: plush bed, sofa-bed, writing desk and rolling chair, large bathroom, and kitchen area (full fridge and freezer, 2 electric burner cooktop, dishwasher, and microwave). The water pressure in the bathroom was frustrating to use. The sink pressure was extremely high, opening the faucet even half-way would cause water to spray onto my clothes. The toilet didn't flush consistently. On the other hand, the water pressure in the shower was consistently very weak. Additionally, there were a multitude of lights that couldn't be turned off at night, making it hard to sleep for someone who prefers sleeping in complete darkness.

Location: The hotel is situated in a good spot at the edge of downtown, still close to several office buildings / food options and also offers breakfast and its own restaurant so you don't have to leave for food. My room (820) in particular had great views of the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium at Lichtin Plaza as well as the green scenery views.

Value: I reserved my room for $199/night (including daily $15 parking) over four nights. For the hotel's location, the suite's size, and the great breakfast service, I felt it was great value.

I would be interested in staying here again but would definitely ask for a room with more consistent water pressure in the bathroom. I've also stayed at other Raleigh Marriotts including City Centre (great lounge for Plat+ guests, smaller rooms and features an indoor pool) and TownePlace University Area (newer hotel and better rooms, also with great breakfast, but location is out-of-the-way), and I'd summarize in recommending this hotel for a family that's looking to stay downtown.

Other: I usually ask for rooms far away from elevator banks because I'm a light sleeper but was placed in a room right next to the elevator bank. Fortunately, the doors at this Residence Inn have enough sound deadening that I didn't hear any elevator dings...

Booked a room at this hotel on 11/11/2023 arrived at 4pm check in time was advised by the front desk the room was not ready and to give it 10-20 mins max. Front desk clerk said we could wait at the bar until it's ready. My father who's name the room was under said " Are we getting a free drink at the bar or something for the inconvenience? " The front desk staff stated he will allow us one free drink for the wait, so we went to the bar and a 10-20 wait turned into an hour and 15 mins. So during that time waiting for the room we were only granted one free drink for the inconvenience. I ordered an appetizer to have while we wait and the staff says "we can give you more bread if you need it. " To me that sounds free so I ordered more bread and when we were about to leave she says " here's your check " I asked for what and she begins to tell me for the bread. I said " maybe you should word it differently next time, and you're really going to charge us $3.50 and we've already been sitting here waiting" . My dad felt that was unacceptable so when he went back down to check in the room he told the front desk staff so the guy told him he would give him free parking up to 5 cars and reduce the rate. That was fine so we proceeded to check in the room. We had a get together for my sister who turned 18 so there was food, music and guest involved. Security did come up to the room and asked us to turn down the music ONCE. Which we did my father and the guy shook hands and everything was all good. 30 mins later the fire alarm goes off, everyone is panicking and rushing out the room. When we got in the hallway we noticed we were the only ones out there, we were thinking it was the whole floor. Security comes up to the room again and accuses us of smoking in the room. Which no one was smoking in the room because I have a newborn baby!! At that time my father is upset because he feels they are targeting us at this point and it's been a problem since we checked in. He's upset and yelling and the security is taking it personal as if my father was yelling at him. We tried to explain to him several times we're not upset with him it's just the situation in general. As we're heading downstairs to talk with the front desk staff security tells us we have to leave and calls the police. 5 white police officers show up and the front desk staff is accusing us of having a party and stated we can't have more than 6 ppl in a room. Since when you can't have visitors at a hotel, I said only 6 ppl are SLEEPING in the room but as for now we have visitors. He knew it was more than 6 ppl in the room because he allowed us to have 5 cars on our parking pass!! He said we can stay but everyone has to leave but the 6 ppl staying and they will have maintenance check out the room to make sure everything is okay. I called a friend that worked at a hotel he advised me hotels will set off the alarm in a room if they really want you to leave. We were in the room for 5 hours and now...