Residence Inn by Marriott

 

2

36

Magnolia S.

Mobile, AL

Updated - 7/7/2008

Earlier I wrote a review about our stay over Christmas of 2007. I changed the way our room was booked, using my husband's VIP status to see if our visit would be improved upon. It did to an extent, but it was still more than a bit disappointing. Here is the result of our stay:

Check-in is at 3:00 PM and most hotels will allow an early check-in if the room is available. We arrived about 2:10 PM and was told that we had to come back. Fine. That wasn't a real problem because of course the rule is - after all - 3:00, but it would've been nice if they had tried to accommodate us.

Like before, we had requested a ground floor room. I also requested extra pillows and towels. Once again, this is a non-smoking facility so you cannot ask for a non-smoking room. We brought pets, so that was listed on our reservation as well.

When we came back later on, they gave us our room card keys and we went to check out the room. We decided that we'd better check first before we unloaded.

The room was magnificent! It was clean, odor free and had extra pillows and towels just like we requested. They had the air on for us so it would be nice and cool (it was nearly 100° outside) and we were very impressed.

Because we'd been out most of the day (it was some hours before we came back to check-in) I immediately needed to use the restroom. When I went to flush to toilet, nothing. It wouldn't flush. I played around with it and still nothing. My husband came in to look at it and he discovered that the handle was actually broken.

Now at first glance, this seems like a rather minor issue. However after thinking about it for a moment, one has to wonder how a broken toilet could be missed. Okay so a housekeeper enters the room and cleans it. She gets to the toilet and scrubs it out. She knows that you just don't leave the cleanser in the toilet, right? You have to flush the toilet in order to rinse the cleaner out. So then how is it that the toilet is broken and not fixed? There is only one solution: The toilet was NEVER cleaned! That is a rather nasty revelation, is it not?

I didn't actually think of this right away however. Instead after realizing the toilet was broken, I called the front desk to report it. They said that due to the holiday (this was July 4th), maintenance was not there so we'd be switched to another room.

Naturally our extra towels and pillows were not in the new room, which isn't really a fault of theirs. I could've either taken the ones in the first room to the second, or just asked for more. The problem though was that once again, we were in a grimy room with another stale smell. Granted the stench wasn't nearly as bad as our room over Christmas, but it was musty and stale all the same.

We were greeted by a HUGE palmetto (roach) bug right inside the front door. Now this IS the south after all and dinosaur roaches cannot be helped. Still though, to see one the moment you step into your room is a serious turn off. Then there was one right outside the door as well, so that's two!

When I went to get ready for bed, I noticed something I'd not noticed earlier either. There was toothpaste in the sink, which means this room wasn't cleaned all that well either. Not to mention, the glass sitting next to the sink didn't have a cover and had a small amount of standing water in it. Did this mean that someone had used the glass? Since there was no cover, how could I know for sure?

Then there was the price for the dogs. They've gone up. It's now $100 period. If you're planning on staying for a few days, that's not so bad. However we were only there overnight and that's VERY STEEP, especially since the room is actually less than that.

In the end, we've elected not to stay here again. I'm also going to write Marriott and let them know about this. It's a shame that it's really a good chain, but this one is just not up to par.

I must however leave with this one compliment... The breakfast is still amazing! It's a hot breakfast, as I mentioned in my previous review, with eggs, sausage or bacon, waffles, biscuits, tortillas or whatever. It has a delicious meal for you every morning. A simple continental just isn't the same as this feast.

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