Kathryn E.
Yelp
Worst hotel experience I've ever had. And I'm on the road for work at least 2 weeks a month, so I've seen some doozies. At the time of check in, I'd spent more nights (126 in fact - it's the end of June, do the math) in a Marriott this year than in my own home.
Arrived at this Courtyard pretty late for check in, after a work event. For some reason, it took the clerk 40 minutes and three trips to the back room (to talk to a manager who never showed his/her face - more on that momentarily) to find the rooms that my colleague and I had reserved 2 months prior. No real explanation of why, but whatever, it was late. We eventually received keys and headed up. I got off at floor 10, put my key in the door...and opened it up to see A WOMAN LYING IN BED, who sat up terrified. (Pro tip - use the deadbolt! But seriously, I'm glad she wasn't armed.) I ran back to the elevator, which picked up my colleague on the 5th floor - her key didn't work. We get back downstairs and I'm ready to light this clerk up, but we can tell immediately that he's on the phone being chewed out already, for what sounded like an unrelated issue.) So we're civil, and we get new keys but no real apology, other than blaming his poor handwriting for giving my coworker the wrong key....We're tired (it's now been 1 hour and 10 minutes since we arrived), and decide to speak with a manager the next day.
SO, we leave early for meetings the next day, and arrive back at the desk around noon, to ask to speak with a manager. The young woman at the desk goes behind the scenes to the mysterious back room, and comes back to inform us that 'the managers (plural!) are too busy right now.' I'm under no illusions that I'm special, but I do work in a customer-facing role, and the idea of refusing to talk to a frustrated customer, who happens to have Platinum Elite status with the hotel chain, is truly unbelievable. The girl takes our room numbers and says the manager will call up later to talk. Guess what?! Never happened.
Aside from the miserable customer service experience, this hotel had water dripping out of the light fixtures at the front desk, and is limited to two slow, ill-placed elevators. There are at least five much better hotels within walking distance of this one. Save your money, and your time, and your sanity, and stay anywhere but the Courtyard Marriott in Copley Square, Boston.