Ike M.
Yelp
Not Up to Par - Night of the Living Dead
This newly refurbished Courtyard by Marriott is nicely appointed, but fails to deliver on the basics, unfortunately.
As a longtime fan of Decatur, I've been anxiously awaiting the opening of this hotel. Set in the prime footprint of the former Decatur Holiday Inn, the new Courtyard has been under renovation for more than a year.
And at a glance, it looks well worth the wait. Within walking distance of the quaint and hip downtown Decatur area, the stylish and modern hotel seems perfect for a weekend couple's getaway or small to mid-size business conference or event.
And maybe one day it will be. But today doesn't seem to be that day, just yet.
At the end of the day, the most basic service a hotel provides is a place to sleep. And stylish rehabs not withstanding, this is unfortunately the service that the Courtyard fails to deliver.
We checked in later in the evening on Friday, and asked for a late checkout, if possible. Graciously, the desk clerk said we could stay until 1PM the following day, and made a note of it on the check-file (this will be important later, stay tuned).
After later returning from a night of dining with friends, we hit the sack well after midnight. Which is when things slowly started to go from bad to worse, like something out of a sit-com.
After cleaning up, the first thing we noticed was that the toilet continued to run. Not just the sort of long-time-to-complete-the-cycle-run, but rather more of the very-loud-and-just-never-stops variety.
We attempted to jury-rig a solution. But the stubborn toilet won the day and continued it's racket. And for a small room...it really was quite a lot of noise. So, we called the front desk and asked if someone from maintenance could assist. We were told someone would be up right away.
20 minutes later with no help in sight, we called back to check on the progress. We were told something else had come up that the maintenance department needed to work on, but that they'd be up shortly.
After 15 or so minutes, we called back and told them not to worry about it; that we would just deal with it; we preferred to go to sleep by this point.
20 or so minutes later, now approaching 2AM and us just having dozed off, was, of course, when the maintenance person knocked loudly on the door. Hop up, throw on some pants, groggily answer the door and politely tell them not to worry about it, we were retired for the night, thanks anyway.
And for the next hour and a half, I'm happy to say we slept very comfortably and soundly.
That is, until the hotel-wide fire alarm began to roar at piercing decibel level loud enough to wake the dead. Appropriate, perhaps, given that Atlanta is home to many episodes of the fun TV series, "The Walking Dead".
Adrenaline and heart pumping, we hopped out of bed and hastily threw on some clothes, preparing to evacuate. And then, after 60 or so seconds...the alarm stopped. Blissful silence followed. I checked the hallway, and all appeared well. I also peeked out the window to the parking lot; no sign of trouble and no emergency vehicles.
Warily, we concluded that it must have been a false alarm. Our heart-rate now having returned to within a hundred or so percent of normal, we crawled back under the covers, sighed, and closed our eyes, heading back towards our goal: sleep.
About ten minutes later, the fire-alarm strobe-light in the room began to fire. There was no klaxon this time, but the powerful strobe-light combined with the ongoing racket of the running toilet turned the room into one of the creepy corridors from the classic horror movie, "Alien" for about five minutes. Fun stuff.
Eventually the in-room-fireworks stopped, and we were left only with the relatively benign toilet noise, something that at this point had become seemingly relaxing in comparison. That is, until...
...8AM and a soft knocking comes on the door, followed by an attempt to open the door from outside the room. I race to the door half-naked and find...the cleaning crew. Given we'd watched in person as the desk clerk made note of our late checkout time of 1PM, this seemed like an odd oversight. Back to sleep. That is, until...
...9AM and the same thing happens. Knocks followed by attempts to open the door by a determined cleaning person. The Siege of Stalingrad might have gone better for the Nazis if they'd had the sheer willpower of the Courtyard Cleaning Regiment.
Upon checkout, I smiled and politely told the desk clerk that I'd like to speak to someone about a credit for the night's stay. He thought for a moment and said, "I might be able to help you if you tell me about it." I politely replied that I preferred someone who could definitely help me, and that "might" wasn't good enough today.
I got another couple of minutes of semantic runaround and left, deciding to let Marriott keep my money, and resigning myself to a Yelp review...and hopefully a nap later.