Courtyard by Marriott Waco — Hotel in Waco

I look forward to using a roll-in shower when traveling. This one is quite puzzling. There are 2 shower heads. When I turned on water, it shot from that shower head over me. In a panic, I flipped handle. Then the water came out of other shower head. It is on a flexible hose. These are usually in showers to provide range of movement, but this one is fixed about 6' above floor and aimed so water hits floor under shower certain and rushes downhill and pools behind toilet which is obvious low elevation point. Even though this was how motel chose to set up shower, most of us get concerned about not getting water standing on floor for sake of facilities, as well as it being a clear safety hazard for those of us using bathroom. But there is little choice here: Either use shower and get water behind toilet, or don't bathe. I tried stopping the water with towels with limited results. This is obviously problematic in regard to using towels oneself, and wet towels being a mobility impediment. The employees use the bathroom handrails as towels racks and so void the use as handrails. There is nowhere to place one's clothes in the bathroom. Another extreme disappointment was pool being permanently locked. Night clerk thought it opened at 10 a.m. but had no other information. At 6 p.m., gate access displayed green light but bolt was thrown to prevent access. This motel does not have the traditional binder of information in room. Instead, Marriott sends an email the day before compelling guests to download check-in app. The app requires some invasive permissions and is called "useless" by reviewers; so I did not download it. And so because the clerks here have no information--don't even know whether swimming pool is heated or what hours it is open--the experience is strange to stay somewhere without basic information about the facility. Where is ice, etc. But for these difficulties, I was prepared to prefer this over the Sheraton connected to the Waco Convention Center, where I have stated for an annual conference in previous years. I prefer this paired-down approach without the think carpets that limit mobility in the Sheraton. They both have lobbies where people visit with each other well into the night. But this also has ground level rooms, and the wheelchair-accessible rooms here are scattered throughout with a room for customers with deafness the closest to lobby. There are various keylock entrances around perimeter of building, and so an "accessible" room may be closer to the courtyard or another entrance than to the lobby. By fixing dispensers of body wash, shampoo and conditioner to the shower wall, Marriott avoids the many plastic bottles and their daily litter. Lavender is an appropriate choice for stays in Texas, with its properties that inhibit heat rash. The water pressure in shower is normal, but persistently low pressure is in sink faucet. The shower water temperature control has not even a hair width of difference between...

I have to report that I did not enjoy my stay at all. The hotel was undergoing renovations (which it is dire need of!). I can forgive a lot when the hotel is under construction, but the state of the room had nothing to do with that. I wish it was clear on the Marriott site that the hotel was under construction, I would have chosen a different property.

The interior of the hotel was in bad shape, especially the hallway on the the third floor. The carpet was really worn and heavily stained throughout . The lobby had no place to sit or work I was directed to some round tables and chairs in one of the conference rooms, but I was told that they were clearing the room out because the chairs belong to the Hilton Hyatt hotel! The Wi-Fi was difficult to connect to, laggy and slow There were no towels at the pool. I saw the manager bring towels down at about 7 PM. During breakfast, two construction workers were standing on the countertop installing new lighting while customers were eating one seat over . Their clothes were dirty, work boots were dirty, behind cracks, and stomachs hanging out. Not kidding! The lobby was teeming with workers. The portico was blocked with large freight trucks as lobby furniture was being unpacked and staged under the portico directly in front of the lobby doors.

The room itself There was a pet waste bag on the balcony outside the room The sliding door had an immovable bracket so the door could not be opened Housekeeping cannot even get outside to retrieve the bag. The bathtub enamel had several chips and was very worn. There was an adhesive vinyl covering applied to the tub floor to cover that up. Thank god I remember my flip flops for the shower. The television was embarrassingly small. The monitor for my home computer is larger The refrigerator froze over and leaked water on the floor, twice my socks got wet. The artwork on the wall had one of the four pics missing. Another picture had a broken frame with wood shards visible to the naked eye from 3 feet away. The carpet in the room was stained in multiple places. Cigarette burns in the drapery in two places. Socks worn in room were dirty from walking on the carpet.

I would like to include a positive The staff were very helpful and congenial, especially the bartender, the morning attendant for breakfast and the manager that checked me in. They gave great recommendations for local restaurants and things to see I didn’t want to burden them with most of our complaints because there really wasn’t anything...

Although I travel frequently, I rarely write reviews on hotels. However, I feel like I should warn those who are looking into this hotel that they should be aware of some 'money-grabbing' tendencies at this location. I'm a very frequent Marriott customer - practically every week (titanium elite for three years) - and I can't say I've seen a hotel so satisfied with not helping me resolve a misunderstanding.

This review is more towards the management than it is towards the actual room quality, which I would still rate as a 3-star, as I've stayed here three times before, so if you're determined to stay here - eh, it will probably be OK. Whatever.

I had quite a few Marriott points built up that I was excited to use in Waco since my wife and I are Baylor alumni. I had booked this hotel for that Saturday with points to ensure we had an awesome experience and I could finally cash in my points that I’d been saving for months. When I arrived at the front desk, I discovered that the room had been inadvertently been booked for two days prior to the visit. Retracing my steps to find out how this could happen, I found that the Marriott site had reset the dates to the night I booked the hotel, instead of the night I needed it. This is a pretty clear-cut case of an accident leading to a misunderstanding.

Both the assistant manager and general manager both commented that the room was not refundable for that date since the hotel was sold out the night that I had “booked”. Therefore, no refunds.

Hang on – you’re telling me that the hotel made the maximum amount of money possible from that night, and you can’t refund a single room? Yes, and by the way, you’ll have to pay to stay here tonight as well, even though we are not full. We aren’t giving you a room. Get out (paraphrasing from my perspective).

By the way - I would have understood if the hotel was full for the night I intended to stay, but they weren't full. So they could have kept the points AND given us a room for the night and been unaffected, making the same amount of money.

So, thanks to Waco Courtyard by Marriott for taking all of my points, then trying to get me to pay them more money for another night. If they had understood the simple mistake and at least refunded the points like decent, understanding individuals, I wouldn’t have had to stay near Belton that night. Enjoy your money, Jody. You’ve...