Santa Clara Marriott — Hotel in Santa Clara

So! As I am climbing the Elite status with Marriott I get to meet so many people, different personalities from all walks of life, my personal favorite pass time. The hospitality and travel industries have been and always be a part of my 35 plus years experience including working for Expedia, Avis, Hertz, I actually graduated with a travel agent certification and later on I finished my Expert in tourism degree... My review will be in sections starting from great good and not so.. My son and I are in Building C of the property. It is in the "back side" of the property, a low level 2 story buildings with a fantastic sliding door you can walk out, right to the parking area for these buildings, giving you full privacy coming and going, very quiet, away from the hustle and bustle. A perfect location for those who like to have complete rest after a long day of work. The outside is not at all attractive, no real view of anything, tucked away from the front desk, bar, pool, restaurant which one can walk to or drive to the front, after all, your car is right there... Room - Rooms are small with an option to have connecting rooms. The shower without tub is tiny not really geared for Handicapped persons. The beds - So far all the Marriott hotels we stayed in a renovated rooms have super comfortable beds you hardly want to get out of. One is sure to get a nice night sleep. Another option I like a lot is to be able to choose between Feather or foam pillows. Nice large TV with connection to video games (a good thing if you, your friends and or your kids are gaming addicts) Carpet - It seems like the renovated rooms (Marriott Santa Clara and Delta Santa Clara) have a "bouncy" feel to it as if the underlay/padding is made of a rubbery foam as if you are walking on a cushy mattress... So comfortable especially if your feet get sore throughout the day. Not so- The colors are boring and very plain as if you are in a Rothchild property melting into the surrounding area. Decor - Also very plain in earthy colors, nothing to write home about unless earthy toned colors are your thing. Fridge is very small, no microwave (can't even pay to rent one) big deficit as far as I am concerned especially if you have a strict diet you must follow. The air-conditioner is a love and dislike kind - Dislike - Very loud, startling at times especially if you are like me - an uber light sleeper. "Love" - My 29 year old son claims and I tend to potentially agree that the sound of the AC to him, is as a White noise, helping him fall asleep and stay asleep (not that he has issues with falling and staying asleep even if a full herd of Elephants passes by LOL)... Service - I'd like to give EXTRA codos to Briana at the front desk.. So nice, attentive, patient and always happy to answer any question or concern. A nice hidden Gem with adorable big dimples that can make anyone smile back at her. She seems tough at first, brings to life the "don't judge a book by it's cover" until her true self comes out with sparkling white teeth and her deep dimples. 2nd person I'd like to highlight is Patty from housekeeping.. We tend to ignore these people but once you give them attention and not necessarily with money but with a smile, an attempt to communicate with them as they ARE an important part of the upkeep of the property, maintenance and keeping your room clean and sparkly as the twinkle you see in their eyes when you show them the respect they DESERVE!

I hope you like my review, I write a lot of these on Yelp and Google so check me out and like them so I can get higher status of a local guide and reach out to as many people as possible hopefully GLOABALLY. My mission - Help me in my journey to elevate as many people with focus on those (women and children)who cannot find their voice, have no voice with 2 desperate needs- Love and faith in human kind Clean food and water Entwined with an urgent need to save our suffering planet we humans tend to destroy on a...

First the upside: the hotel is centrally located. Room spacious. The service staff responded in timely manner and courteous.

Now the downside, which is a lot! Out of the 5 days stay in the Santa Clara Marriott hotel, 2 days the shower water is lukewarm. Plus the shower head is slightly broken, resulting the water came from both bath tub tap and shower head. I was not able to get either a hot shower or a warm bath after a long day work. Sucks. The room service plates changed to disposable plastic. I'm fine with that. But I can't put the plastic dinner box outside of my room door, which looks like I'm throwing trash out of my room. So I closed my dinner box after eating my dinner and left in the room. For 3 days it did not clear out of my room. Someone set the alarm in my room, without me asking for it, 4 days out of 5 days stay. I never use that alarm clock, but it kept set up for me. For some weird reason, 2 days are set at 6:03am, 2 days are set at 6:00am. I keep turning it off, and the alarm clock keep setting itself up. Creepy. The guest wifi was only free if I register for Marriott reward program, fair enough. I duly registered, and download a Marriott app for it, on my international roaming data(!!) because I don't have wifi when downloading the app to register. So I got it, called the receptionist, and receptionist guaranteed that I won't be charged wifi fee. However, every day my wifi connection keep telling me I'm not eligible for free wifi despite my membership number is showing on the app. I think the app has some bug in design.
Now the last shocking piece, on Thursday morning at around 8:02am there is someone walked into my room, used my toilet, washed her hands, and walked out, all the while I'm sleeping in bed!!! I talked with the manager. He confirmed that a cleaning crew entered my room to use my toilet, because the toilet for the crew member is too far away! The manager is more focused on giving me 10,000 Marriott points (and explain how much the value of the points are) than explain to me how did this happen and how are they going to do to prevent it happen again. I wonder if all the guests, regardless the nationality, receive the same brush-off treatment as I did? I feel unsafe to stay at Marriott...

While the aesthetics & cleanliness of this hotel is 4-5 stars, the service and food ranked 1-2 stars. It doesn't matter how nice it is to look at when your experiences are continuously tarnished with rudeness and poor quality. Our stay was heavily reliant upon on-site dining, which is virtually non-existent. They claim to have a "restaurant", which is a handful of tables around their bar, which is IN the lobby of the hotel. While the menu is small, it offers enough of a variety to think you have options. But we tried 7 different things off the menu, all of which tasted bad or had no taste at all. And this was after wondering around looking for a host, finally being told by the bar tender we could sit anywhere, then waiting for 15min for somebody to come to our table and finally asking the bar tender to send somebody over (mind you, the place wasn't busy). We had to ask for silverware, had to ask for our missing meal, ask for our check, water refills, and more. This was on 3 different visits in 3 days. The bar tending services were just as bad. Twice we had a group of 3 people sit down at the bar and have the tender walk back and forth in front of us no fewer than 4 times, and serve OTHER PEOPLE, before we ASKED to be acknowledged. Then he took our order, made our drinks (on the opposite side of the bar when he had everything he needed on our side) and deliver our drinks all while managing to not make eye contact even once. In 40 years of serious travel, I've never experienced anything like it. Then, when I held onto the bill, mulling over whether or not I wanted to tip, I was pressured to hurry up and sign so he could close out the tab. This was with 2 tenders and 8 customers at the bar. Upon checkout, I was asked "How was your stay?", I answered "I have mixed reviews. There were a couple of big disappointments." The employee responded by saying "So, would you like your bill printed or emailed?" Completely baffled by the entire thing, I asked "Do you have another restaurant on the premises that I missed? This didn't seem like much of one." The employee answered "Yes, right across that hall there's a restaurant." I noted that every time we walked by it, the door was closed and locked. Then he said "Yah, it's only open for...