Red Room Chronicles

Up until a few months ago here at the Houston Marriott Westchase the in room wireless internet access was free. At that time I felt glad to get what I was given even though it was slow. Once the service went pay for play I assumed that average speeds would improve. Alas, they haven’t.

To make matters worse, some rooms offer much more reliable wired access. Those are the rooms that I want to stay in. If I’m paying $9.95 a day I want reliable, speedy internet access. Unfortunately, a minority of the rooms are wired and sometimes I’m just too darn tired to do the shuffle to a room that meets my needs. Tonight is one of those nights.

So I’m left paying for an internet connection that teeters somewhere between 1.0 and 10.0 megabytes per second. Unfortunately, as pictured above, the needle teeters around 1 meg most of the time. Due to this issue alone I’m planning on staying at another Marriott on my next trip to the area.

Tags: Marriott

The Residence Inn Houston West/Energy Corridor is a brand spankin new hotel. In fact, the place has only been open for five days so I’m the first person to stay in my room!

As a veteran of Residence Inn’s I’ve come to expect certain things from this segment of the Marriott Brand. One of those things has been a style of building that involved walking up stairs and having doors that open to the outside. Thankfully, the newer design is more like a regular hotel but with all of the Residence Inn style amenities like kitchens, separate bedrooms and included breakfast.

Even better, I was able to score my room for $66 a night on the AAA rate. So far this is a good deal that’s only about ten minutes away from where I usually stay. My first full hotel review in a while is sure to follow.

Tags: Marriott, Residence Inn

Just checked in to the Marriott Couryard Westborough in Massachusetts which is about forty miles west of Boston. I’ve stayed here several times before so I wasn’t too worried about the accomodations. As always, I called ahead to insure that my room was set for the third floor. I always do this at the smaller Marriott’s since the ceilings tend to be low and the noise from rooms above often wakes me up. Upon arrival I got a pair of not very pleasing surprises. The first was that the lobby is undergoing major renovations. And this week happens to be demolition week. The second one was that my room had been moved to the second floor. They felt comfortable moving me because they hadn’t been told that I desired a third floor room. But I called and made that request this morning.

No luck, they’re booked tonight and tomorrow so I can only move to a smoking room if I want the third floor. I’m not sure why Marriott hasn’t gone to an all no smoking policy. Is there really a market for rooms based on people’s smoking preferences. In any case, I’m on the second floor hoping and praying that the person about has small feet.

Tags: Marriott

Just got a special New York City based offer in the mail from Marriott. It says, “Book your New York City escape by December 29 and enjoy an exclusive savings of up to 20%!” Looks like some pretty good rates for the Marriott properties around town. Too bad I live just across the river. Get more info at http://www.NYCMarriottEscape.com.

Tags: Marriott

My friend Shel Holtz was the victim of a missed wake up call at a Residence Inn in Charlotte, South Carolina.

I never do the wake up call thing. I’ve taken to using the alarm on my phone since hotel alarm clocks tend to be either confusing, broken or both.

I just got a call from the manager of the Residence Inn Westchase here in Houston. He told me that the hotel is full and cannot accomodate me even though I’ve had this reservation for weeks. It was explained to me that the hotel is filled with New Orleans evacuees and they won’t be going anywhere this week. Somehow I think that they should have known that was the case yesterday or even a few days ago. A phone call then would have been nice instead of a call just three hours before I check in.

The Residence Inn has made other arrangements for me tonight at the Courtyard Houston West University which is about 20 minutes away from here. The Residence Inn will also foot the bill for tonight’s lodging. That’s only for one night though. Tomorrow night they’re going to try to accomodate me at the original hotel where I had a reservation. Stay tuned to see if that actually occurs.

Tags: Marriott

I was in San Antonio last week, coveting a Marriott stay. This week I’m in Houston, booked in a Marriott of course. More on that later this evening. Meanwhile, my friend Shel Holtz finds himself at the Marriott Courtyard Medical Center in San Antonio but he’s having some problems with the high speed internet access there. I agree with Shel. Net access outages are frustrating for business travelers and hotels should do their best to inform us of known issues at the time of check in.

I had a bad experience with my breakfast in the concierge lounge at the Houston Marriott Westchase this morning. The Cheerios and skim milk that I had prepared tasted nothing less than foul. The milk was sour. The date on the carton said August 13 but the milk was definitely sour. When I mentioned this to one of the lounge attendants she acted a bit surprised then asked me about the date on the carton. I recommended that she take a close look at their current inventory since some of it has obviously spoiled. As I walked away someone else made a comment and the attendant admitted that they have had a rash of sour milk lately due to a refrigerator that failed recently. This upset me. You would think that they would have gotten rid of ALL of the milk that was in that refrigerator instead of trying to get more mileage out of it. I have to say that I’m very disappointed at the approach that they took to attempt to rectify this issue.

Tags: Marriott

It’s been a long day of traveling and work so I’m glad to be checked in to the Houston Marriott Westchase. I’m going to get some dinner and then a much needed full nights rest before going at it again tomorrow. I’ve stayed here several times before so I’m very used to the hotel and surrounding area. It’s less than a mile from my company’s software development center. I was surprised when I got to my room and found they had booked me into a two room suite. Frankly it’s more space than I need but it’s nice to have a couch to sit on along with the extra breathing room. The garbage pails are still the standard Marriott miniatures that I’ve mentioned in the past. Still, I’m not complaining. I’ve stayed here about half a dozen times and on my fifth stay I was surprised by a nice fruit plate with cheese and crackers as a reward. Another welcome treat for a gold elite member who no longer enjoys the privilege of the regular welcome “gift” of water and cookies. There is a bottle of water in the room if I’m willing to shell out $2.50. Full review to follow.

Tags: Marriott

Shel Holtz reports on his Road Weary blog about a good experience at the Denver Marriott Tech Center.

Shel’s Post