Marriott Marquis - NYC Location, Location, Location (And that's ALL!)
Written: Jun 04 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Location (yes, that's the only Pro!)
Cons: Slowest elevators imaginable, service is unreliable, expensive only because of the location
The Bottom Line: The location of the Marriott Marquis is excellent - unless you're in a hurry. I'd recommend Marriott in general, but not the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.
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| KateTPZ's Full Review: Marriott |
In any other location, I suspect Marriott hotels wouldn't put their name on this property. But the location of the Marriott Marquis in Time Square is excellent - just leave lots of time to get to the ground floor - you'll be waiting for elevator - guaranteed.
From the Marriott Marquis, it's a short walk to a Broadway Show, or you can see a show right there in the Marquis Theatre. (Annie Get Your Gun is currently open.)
The Marriott Marquis was selected by a travel agent for our group of 44 who recently traveled from North Carolina to New York City. It's a very large hotel, boasting 49 Floors, and 1946 Rooms. We occupied 11 of those rooms, all on the same floor. For many of the children in our group this was the first time in a large hotel; even so, no one was impressed.
The guest rooms were adequate, with two double beds, two chairs, and a desk, all with standard hotel layout and decorating. The view, for those inclined to look over the balcony, was impressive, down to the hotel lobby on the 8th floor. Guest rooms had a small safe, which we found convenient, and a locked mini-bar. An iron and ironing board where stored in the closet, both useful for taking the travel wrinkles out of evening clothing.
Service in the hotel was adequate. It was not fancy, it was not friendly, and it did not seem to be a priority to any of the staff we encountered. But most of what was requested was provided. The Concierge was cryptic in providing suggestions and directions, the housekeeping staff was slow and unpleasant when providing extra towels or glasses, and when we provided credit card information to have the mini-bar activated (my children were willing to pay mini-bar prices just for the experience), and the mini-bar remained locked 24 hours later, the desk staff was curt and unhelpful. The exception to this lackluster service, however, was hotel security. When my 8-year old changed the access code for the in-room safe, then couldn't remember what he had set it to, hotel security came to the rescue in less than 10 minutes. (Son Two learned his lesson - the thought of never seeing his favorite Teddy Bear again brought him to tears!)
Despite the convenient location, getting from our rooms to any other place in the city was a slow, agonizing process. The hotel has one half of the elevators designated for the top floors of the hotel, the second half for the lower floors. At certain times of the day, which seemed to coincide with most of our journeys to and from the hotel, the wait for space on an elevator was long and frustrating. Situated in a semi-circle, there are no floor indicators to allow those waiting to judge which elevator will be next, resulting in large crowds of people rushing for the arriving elevator. Traveling with young children, who could not safely be separated from others in the group, this was especially daunting. There are escalators which will carry you from the ground floor to the eighth floor lobby, however we found that getting an elevator going up from the 8th floor was almost impossible. We learned to allow an extra fifteen to thirty minutes for getting out of the hotel for all of our excursion plans.
Final Recommendation
Now that we've been there, gotten familiar with the Times Square area, as well as other parts of Manhattan, we've done some research and concluded that there are much better choices, and much better values, than the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. There are 4-star hotels (the Marquis is rated 3-stars by Expedia.com) in the same area with lower rates and far better service and amenities. We will not consider the Marriott Marquis for our next trip to New York City.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
KateTPZ
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Member: Kate
Location: North Carolina
Reviews written: 126
Trusted by: 80 members
About Me:
40-something Mom of two great kids and aspiring author in my "spare" time.
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