Meeting & Conventions magazine recently announced the winners of its prestigious hotel meeting & convention Gold Key Award for 2005. This annual award is bestowed upon the world’s finest meeting and convention hotel properties.
The downtown San Francisco Marriott Luxury Hotel was nominated for this award of excellence by the readers of M&C, who based their votes on the overall professionalism and quality of this San Francisco hotel.
San Francisco Marriott Wins Gold Key Award
Self-service hotel check-in to increase
A story that ran a few months ago in USA Today indicated that Marriott would be one of a number of hotel chains implementing self service check in kiosks this summer. I haven’t seen any yet though. Have you?
The arrival of these kiosks certainly won’t be good news for the front desk staff and could reduce that feeling of personal attention that one gets when they’re treated well while checking in to the hotel.
Tags: Marriott
Marriott New Orleans Opens Its Doors in Historic 150-Year-Old Warehouse
Marriott International, Inc. announced today the opening of the Marriott New Orleans at the Convention Center. Just steps away from the Morial Convention Center, the 331-room property is located in the heart of New Orleans’ Arts/Warehouse District.
Crawfish anyone?
Tags: Marriott
Springfield Marriott
Identifying Information
Marriott Brand: Marriott Hotels
Location: Springfield, MA
Property Web Page: Springfield Marriott
Critique of the Property
Common Areas: Very high end, spacious lobby with marble floors and a large chandelier. Nice sized fitness center with a good set of dumbells and nice selection of weight machines. Cardio equipment is a little dated. Large indoor pool with jacuzzi. Expansive deck and roof garden adjacent to the pool area.
Guest Rooms: Large room on the concierge level with a plush brown and red carpet. King sized bed with very comfortable bedding and a nice mattress. Six drawer armoire with TV contained inside a pair of doors, a very comfortable red easy chair. The desk and chair are very standard. Wired high speed internet access is costs $9.95 and includes local and long distance phone calls. The bathroom had a marble vanity on the sink, with the toilet and show in a very tiny separate room.
Other Amenities: The concierge lounge was typically nice although it was pretty small. Parking in the connected multi story garage is $13 a day. There’s a nice, quiet lounge adjacent to the lobby area. My room had an electric shoe buffer.
Things To Watch Out For: The bathroom is not your standard full bath, with a small sink outside of the ‘bathroom’. The actual bathroom is claustrophobically small with the toilet situated right next to the tub. The shower head was very nice, almost like an Australian style shower head.
Staff: Very friendly front desk staff. I chatted with a manager while waiting to check in.
What’s Nearby?
The Springfield downtown business district. The Basketball Hall of Fame is very close by as well. The hotel is connected to a small mall that includes a delicatessen, UPS store, Dunkin Donuts and a CVS pharmacy.
Restaurants: Currents (the in house restaurant) and Champions Sports Bar are both located on the premises.
Other Marriotts: None
Other Hotels: Sheraton Monarch Place
Tags: Marriott
Marriott Plans Fewer Sheet Changes
USA today is reporting that Marriott hotels is planning to test out every other day sheet changes at their Courtyard, Fairfield and Spring Hill suites brands. Evidently this is a growing trend in the industry for both economic and environmental reasons. I don’t have a problem with this policy as long as the sheets are clean to begin with and can be changed on request if needed. What do you think?
Nice Way To Start A Stay
I just had a real good experience checking in at the Marriott Hotel Sprinfield, Massachussetts. I was greeted by a manager who chatted with me while I waited to check in and then had a very friendly desk clerk who upgraded me to a concierge level room. I stay at Marriott’s a lot and this was not the usual check in procedure. Good job guys. A full review of the hotel will follow.
Book Your Team Travel Here
I saw an add for the Sports By Marriott travel service in a magazine in a hotel. I’ve heard that you can get special rates if you book teams for sporting events so it’s worth checking this out if you do happen to book for any kind of sports team. The funny thing is that the ad was in a magazine being given away for free in a Sheraton hotel.
Myrtle Beach Marriott Recognized by Conde Nast
Less than two years after opening its doors, Myrtle Beach Marriott Resort at Grande Dunes has recently been named #33 in Conde Nast Traveler’s Top 100 Golf Resorts, ranking higher than any property in South Carolina.
Golf anyone?
Marriott Website Rated Excellent
The Marriott International website has received the top rating for “customer respect” according to a survey released by The Customer Respect Group, an internation research and consulting firm.
Closing time for Marriott minibars
Marriott has abandoned mini bars in their Marriott Marquis hotel in Manhattan. This happened about a year ago due to the increasing cost of servicing the units. They simply weren’t making a profit on those little refrigerated boxes. Other hotel chains are getting creative though and some have found ways to make their minibars useful to guests and more profitable.