Residence Inn by Marriott Walnut Creek — Hotel in Walnut Creek

I hate to leave 1-star reviews, but this particular property has been egregious, and I am a business traveler. This singular review is essentially the aggregate experience of myself and my fellow coworkers.

First, the Good: rooms are nice and spacious, stocked, clean, well lit.... it meets brand standard as a newer Res Inn. The PEOPLE serving me (valet, front desk, breakfast staff) were great. The food.... eh.

The Meh: Location is kind of awkward, and gps doesn't necessarily navigate you to the actual entrance. It is also mandatory valet, which is an automatic 1 star off.

The reason for overall 1-star: Management. From what my coworker told me, the first week of our travel assignment, there was some event, and the organizer required Halal food for the guests. Instead of segregating the food or serving only Halal food, they just labeled the different sausages.... next to each other. Which obviously the other hotel patrons ignored and cross contaminated. The event organizer was furious, from what I heard, and rightly so. 2nd week of assignment, there were 2 days where the valet was understaffed. At a mandatory valet hotel. We are talking 40 minutes to get your car, when the established service time is 10 minutes, and 15 is reasonable. Also during this week, 3 or 4 of my coworkers suddenly had their reservations canceled for the 3rd week with no warning, reason cited being "overbooked." When they went to speak to the manager, he CONSISTENTLY dodged them. Marriott policy is that when this occurs, they are due recompense - they each have open cases with corporate against the property at this point because the property refused to compensate them. My own reservation remained, likely because I am a Lifetime Platinum member. Unfortunately, instead of reading the signs and canceling my next 2 weeks at this property in favor of the full service Marriott up the street, I kept my reservations. 3rd week of the assignment, I notified the front desk (on Tuesday) that I would need to check out on Thursday instead of Friday because we had a change of plans and I needed to be in our office on Friday. They noted it and checked me out on Thursday.... but still charged me for Thursday night, INCLUDING valet charges. This indicates to me that the charges were not just "penalty" charges for changing reservation (which literally no marriott property in the 12 years I have been an elite status member has ever charged me when I have a schedule change), but they negligently (at best) or WILLFULLY (at worst) overcharged me for the stay. I now, also, have an open case with Marriott corporate, as the property refuses to refund or even acknowledge the offense. Suffice to say, I would NOT RECCOMEND this property. I would go as far as to recommend Marriott investigate the management of this property for shady practices that can, and have,...

The room was a filthy mess. Thick white powder everywhere, empty case of beer still in room, no tissues, missing pump bottle in shower, no bath matt. I took lots of pictures and showed front desk and emailed to the manager who was on site. I checked in around 5:30pm but did not get a proper room until 9:45 pm. The BART train ran right past my window all night. My shower is made with no door or curtain so water goes all over the bathroom floor. The bathroom door opens into the vanity, making the vanity unusable. Weird light switches with dimmers that didn’t work. Stairs that lead down to the 1st floor but only had exit door to outside, not to lobby. Manager said he would take care of it and then left for the day. Myself and another guest were both complaining. He was on his third room and finally settled on his 1st room as the lesser of all the evils. Dexter at the front desk was overwhelmed but he was single handedly trying to keep the guests happy. He deserves huge credit for his efforts and dedication. But the problems were far beyond what he could do. The valet all but tackled me for my keys on the way in. I didn’t think I was going to get past him without giving up my keys. I don’t like valet parking. But that’s all they offer for 30.00 per day. . I parked on the street for free. Needing your key for the elevator is a pain in the butt. I got coffee on the way out, front desk guy had to get it for you. He used bare unwashed hands from the computer keys to press all around where you drink from to put the sleeve and lid on. I checked out as fast as I could and cut my 13 night reservation to one night of horror and book the Hyatt. Moved over there. The room was perfect, clean, properly stocked. I was so happy. I had been staying at a Town Suite by Marriott in Baltimore and the room was perfect. The Walnut Creek needs a corporate intervention. Housekeeping, room design, mandatory valet parking and location too close to elevated train are all reasons I left. But Housekeeping was the main reason. I wish I could post...

Budget pillows & mattresses were very uncomfortable. I had some of the worst night's sleep of my life staying at the Marriott Residence Inn. So dissapointed that rooms & corridors were not even vacuumed or cleaned properly and customer service was nothing special. All furnishings and decor were cheap, dull and grey which gave off a depressing vibe. The bathrooms weren't even tiled, they were made of porous plastic and therefore were full of bacteria. Thin walls meant I could literally hear people and dogs barking in nearby rooms often throughout the night. Manager blamed Covid-19 for their lack of facilities i.e. shortage of breakfast 6 days a week despite being busy and other hotels at the time in the same area had more of the same issues. I blame it all on poor hotel management if you ask me. I ended up booking another hotel which had full continental breakfast, open pool, etc so there was no excuse. I was originally offered free parking but then I was told that the hotel changed their mind and started charging me $30 extra per night because they claimed they were more busy and that they had a business to run. The hotel was literally full of construction workers living there long term too and often stunk of drugs and fast food throughout the hotel. I would say it was one of the worst hotel experiences of my life but valet staff were at least nice lol. Next time i'll be booking a place through airbnb when staying in Walnut Creek for a cheaper better quality stay. But if you have low standards, this might be the perfect place for you, not me! I definitely won't be back, not a chance. Marriott left me an others i spoke to feeling dissapointed and i felt that the reviews were misleading, perhaps because other reviewers were there only for...