Fairfield Inn Philadelphia Valley Forge/King of Prussia — Hotel in Upper Merion Township

I’ve stayed at Marriott properties more than 1,000 times and have always trusted the brand for consistency and customer service. Unfortunately, this property at 258 Mall Boulevard, King of Prussia, PA 19406 delivered by far the worst customer service experience I’ve had in all those stays.

Before my arrival, I requested through both the Marriott app chat and by phone that my partner be added as an authorized guest. This is something I have done successfully at countless Marriott properties without issue. At this hotel, however, the request was ignored, refused, and ultimately mishandled by management. Corporate support was willing to assist, but by the time we were dealing with the on-site staff, the situation had already escalated unnecessarily.

The front desk experience was extremely poor. I cannot recall the lady’s name, as it was hard to identify her. But she was wearing a mask, avoided eye contact, and seemed disengaged, even leaving her earbuds in while working and handling our interactions. When she called the night manager, the call was put on speakerphone. The manager, Lawrence, was loud, rude, and dismissive. I later noticed in other Marriott reviews that his behavior has been mentioned by multiple guests and unfortunately, I experienced the very same treatment.

Instead of offering help, Lawrence raised his voice, threatened to cancel our reservation, and ultimately refused to honor my booking. To be clear: I did not cancel my reservation. Management canceled it on my behalf and turned me away. As a Titanium Elite member with a long history of loyalty, this was especially disheartening. My loyalty and over 1,000 Marriott stays seemed to have no meaning to this management team.

Because of the way we were treated, I ended up leaving and paying almost $100 more per night at a different hotel just to avoid further mistreatment. To Marriott’s credit, corporate support was responsive and helped me identify another Marriott property in the area that was not managed by the same ownership group. I relocated to the Sheraton Valley Forge in King of Prussia, where the staff and service were excellent and consistent with the standards I expect from the Marriott brand.

After a 1000+ of hotel nights and never once being denied the ability to add an authorized guest, this was deeply disappointing. I cannot recommend staying at this Marriott property on Mall Boulevard. It urgently needs attention in how it hires, trains, and manages night staff and management! Guests deserve professionalism, respect, and hospitality — not profiling, hostility, and refusal of service.

If you can afford to stay somewhere else in...

I travel a lot and I stay in the Marriott brand exclusively. This Fairfield has a sign in the Libby that says "Coming Soon"... And then lists all the things it doesn't have that 99% of Fairfields already do... Overall the staff were very friendly. However that where the good stopped and the bad began. For starters an elevator in a hotel should always allow you to push a cart full of luggage straight into it with having to turn in sideways to fit. Not to mention, I then had to get in the elevator along with my wife which was a good challenge because the cart was sideways and taking up most of the space... I mean really?? It was probably my the smallest hotel elevator I've ever been in. Next we got to our room and thought we would put our dinner from the evening in the refrigerator... Think again, the refrigerator was broken. After many hours on the road I thought I'd lay down and relax for a few moments on the bed. The bed was stiff as a rock, extremely unusual for a Fairfield... As I walked to the bathroom next to brush my teeth, I noticed that wallpaper was starting to peel from the walls... I then noticed that the sprinkler head above the bathroom looked like someone decided to rip it from the wall... It was hanging on by a thread.. I remember saying to myself, "Well I hope there's not a fire tonight because I'm pretty sure that thing want work." Then I actually laughed aloud to myself thinking how ridiculous it was that the sprinkler was broken. Once I finally entered the bathroom, I immediately noticed that there are ZERO places to hang a hand towel except in the one rail that's INSIDE the shower... Really??? No trashcab liner, subpar bath tissue, and the vent fan didn't work. I decided to call it quits and just go to sleep at this point. The next morning I ventured down to the breakfast area and it was extremely busy. It probably looked more busy than it was because the entire breakfast area is squeezed into an area that is roughly 15x15. You could hardly squeeze past people it was so tight. Breakfast was "Just Add Water Eggs", floppy bacon, some yogurt, milk, juice, muffins, bagels, etc. No waffle maker (don't even know where they'd of put it if they had one). Breakfast was... Unimpressive. I decided to just go to my room to eat an English muffin and a hard boiled egg because there was no where to sit. I did get a late check out which was nice but besides that in the friendly staff, this place needs a HUGE overall! None of this makes any sense to me because this hotel is in King of Prussia next to a very nice mall with high end stores like Nieman Marcus and its 30 minutes from Philly. Please...

BED BUGS-STAY FAR AWAY

Truly the most disappointing hotel I’ve stayed at. Worst internet I’ve experienced since 1994… even with the “upgraded” internet package, which is $5 a day. What a scam.

Rooms provide the option for Netflix but internet can’t support the lowest quality settings without delaying 20 minutes per hour. I tried to upload a video, but after 10 minutes of trying to load, and an error, I gave up.

Upon arrival, I found pubes left from the previous tenant in the shower. The air vent in bathroom was broken. Walls so thin you can hear next door neighbors urinate.

Breakfast is limited, and isn’t available an hour before it’s supposed to end.

0/10 would recommend. What a terrible hotel.

Update: after speaking to the front desk rep on 3 separate occasions within 24 hrs they provided me a new room. 2nd floor, instead of 4th, but WiFi has been upgraded to 2012 instead of 1994. HOWEVER even though I was polite in explaining my problems, the general manager wanted to get into a pissing contest about my experience. Not professional. Tisk, tisk. As a titanium member who has spent thousands of dollars with the Mariott, I don’t need to deal with that level of sass. My review still stands

Update#2: when I say I’ve spend thousands of dollars with the with Marriott, I looked it up, I’ve spent 550 nights with the company. Never have I had this bad of an experience. Thankfully this is my last night. Again, I was polite to the front desk reps, but for this whole week they’ve given me the stink eye. The gm must gossip about their customers. They made me feel so bad about my experience. I had no confidence that speaking about my second room would make a significant impact, besides more gossip around the office.

The 2nd room they gave me provided good WiFi for about 3 days, but I’m currently trying to watch Netflix, only to be staring at a loading screen for the past 2.5 hours. That’s not the worst of it. I got BED BUGS + I found disgusting hair in my hotel room, again!!! I have bites all over my body, I counted over 60 separate bites, and it feels disgusting. The toilet wasn’t even fully cleaned after it looks like someone puked around the rim. The gm gave me attitude the first time, so I’ve felt hesitant even telling them. She questioned my original experience since I didn’t take pictures of my first hotel room, so I made sure to take many photos this time.

To the general managers and hopefully upper-level management: you should probably grow up and learn to respect your customers. I’m spending another week in KoP, but certainly not with you....