Courtyard by Marriott San Diego Old Town — Hotel in San Diego

This review is more about William at your front desk but he was the face of Marriott when I checked in!

This morning was the worst experience I’ve ever had in a hotel.

The guy that works the night audit, who I believe his name was William, needs to be addressed immediately & under go major customer service training!

I came into the hotel at about 4:45 this morning, i wasn’t addressed or even spoken too, just looked at with confusion & almost disgust. I asked where to checkin because there was no one currently behind the reservation counter & before even asking my name, I was instantly told there were no rooms available. I stated that my room was booked for the night before so I can check in as soon as I arrived. Then after he finally decided to look in the city for my reservation, I was told since no one had called before 3am to confirm my arrival, the room had been canceled and marked as a no show.

So I told him, usually the travel agent or someone from my company will call the day before to make sure it’s checked in so we don’t have this issue. I tried to apologize for the mishap and asked if there was a way to reverse it, I was told it was not and that it was my responsibility to call and do all this so I wouldn’t loose my room.

I then went to explain, that’s it’s not actually me who makes the reservation and that it’s done by our travel person but I will make sure it doesn’t happen again. It had only been an hour and a half past 3am, So I asked if there was possibly a manager or supervisor on duty that can reverse the cancellation. …. At that point his tone completely changed and he started yelling that he is the manager, and proceeded to tell me that all the rooms were canceled and that I should have called before hand & he doesn’t know what I’m going to do …. , than told me that I needed to leave before he calls the police because he’s not dealing with my attitude.

At this point, your night security walked up to see what was going on. William then proceeded to yell and over talk me, telling security to kick me out. The security did not say anything and was just staring at William in confusion because he was the only person yelling and being rude.

I never had an attitude, I never raised my voice & I never disrespected him in anyway.

After I finally just exited the building to call my company and try to figure everything out, the security came outside to apologize on the hotels behalf. He even stated to me that the only reason he came out was because he heard William yelling, he stated that he never heard me in the first place. (Because I never raised my voice or got rude with William)

I waited around for about 2 hours hoping my job and William could come to an agreement and get our rooms figured out but I was told that when our travel person called, he received the same treatment from William, so we ended up moving our reservations to a different hotel.

This all happen within 5 mins of me walking...

I chose this location because its close to Petco Park as I was attending a concert. I had a long drive to get to San Diego, therefore I was wearing some leggings and a t-shirt and I had never felt so judged.

To start, the pictures on line must be from when they first open the hotel, no were online does it say that the hotel is going under maintenance.

When I checked in, the receptionist was rude and after completing my checkin she informed me that they charge 30 dollars for parking. I don't know the area, and being a female traveling solo I much rather pay the 30 dollars if that is going to make me feel safe, so I told her that I would pay for parking. Her response " there is plenty of parking on the street so you dont have to pay for parking." I told her that I would pay for parking, to just charge me for it. I also aked her what would be a faster way to get to Petco park, if I should take the side streets or the freeway, her response " You should take public transportation because for events they charge like 60 dollars for parking." As I mentioned before, I was wearing leggings and a t-shirt so I don't know if this influence her comments, but she could have at least asked if I was driving or if I was looking for alternatives instead of mentioning outrageous prices as it was only 25 dollars to park.

The room was clean but the mushy smell from the A/C was noticeable. The carpet even though it was vacuum, you can tell that it was not been replaced in years. When I took a shower, it took about 8 minutes for the water to come out warm, not even hot.

After my event I went back to the hotel, it was about 10:30pm. I went to look for parking that I had PAYED FOR and i couldn't find a spot. There was one available but there was no way that I was able to fit without scratching the cars next to it. The only parking spots that had a decent amount of space between them where the handicap spots and even those were tight. I went to the reception to ask about the parking situation and the same receptionist that did my check in was there. She told me that she could see that there was a space available, aftet I explained that there was no way I could fit in it, she said that I could park on the street and she wouldn't charge me for parking. Seriously!!!!!! I did asked why would they sell more parking spots than what they had, and that I wasn't going to walk 2 blocks because all parking arround the hotel area was full, she said that I could park at a handicap spot and let her know so that they wouldn't tow my car. I wasn't going to take a spot that clearly someone else was going to need, luckily some else left the garage and I was able to take that spot.

So if you are looking for a hotel near Petco Park, this is not it unless you want to pay extra for something that is not going to be available...

This would be a one-star review based on the service, with the exception of the fact that the staff did let me check in early, which was great. The location is fantastic, walking distance to multiple restaurants. The room was tired.

I called the front desk just after my arrival to report that my a/c unit was making a strange clicking noise. They sent the engineer up to check it out. He seemed extremely nice, but didn't speak ANY english, making it impossible to communicate effectively. The unit didn't make the noise while he was there (just like when you take your car to the mechanic), so it was lucky that I had taken a video of it and could show him. He couldn't find any problems with it. I THOUGHT he said he was going to have his supervisor come by, but no one ever showed, so maybe I misunderstood. It didn't seem like priority at the time, because the unit was quiet until.....you guessed it.........the middle of the night. Then came the clicking AND it stopped cooling.

When I got out of bed and walked over to check on it (barefoot, of course!), I discovered a very wet spot on the carpet between the two queen beds. Not coming from the a/c unit, but an unrelated issue that I hadn't noticed earlier because I had shoes on.

After a miserable night of being warm, listening to the annoying clicking, and wondering what I had stepped in, I shared my experience with the gentleman manning the front desk when I left. He seemed annoyed (although it was really early and I was the only person in sight, so it wasn't like he had other guests to worry about), but said he'd add 1,000 Bonvoy points to my account for my troubles---not a very equitable offer when you consider that I redeemed 35,000 points for this one night stay. As of the date of this review......over a WEEK after this incident, I still haven't received the 1,000 points.

Later that same day, I received what looked like a canned email from someone named Omar, whose signature block indicates that he is the Front Desk Lead Agent at the hotel. The message was your standard "thank you for staying at our hotel.....look forward to having you as our guest again soon." Thankful to have another opportunity to share my feedback, I explained the situation with my room, even attaching the video of the problem with the a/c unit.

That was on Tuesday, Nov 14. No reply. I even emailed them again earlier this week to prompt them to respond to confirm that they'd received my email. Still nothing. Do better, Marriott, because right now it seems like you no longer care about your guests. Next time I'm traveling for business or pleasure, I'll look for something other than the Marriott brand in hopes of finding a hotel that still cares about...