First of all, I must tell you this Marriott is independently owned. If I were the CEO of Marriott, I would not let this hotel operate under the Marriott name. It is the worst run hotel I have ever seen. I'm not basing my opinion on one stay, I have been here several times (unfortunately) and each time has been equally horrible.

Background
Every Labor Day weekend, there is a stamp show in Hunt Valley, MD at the Marriott. For 20 years, a stamp auction company I do some work for has held an auction at the show. When they started, the Marriott was not independently owned. In recent years, the hotel changed hands (and changes hands about twice a year) and the auction company stopped holding their auctions there since the hotel made a mess and caused them to lose business. This past year, the stamp show begged them to hold their auction there again since the show had been dying and they thought having the auction would get the attendance back up. Sorry for the bit of background, but I thought it was necessary.

Yes, I can say something nice
To be fair, this hotel does have some positive things I must mention. The rooms are an average size with everything you would expect to find at a Marriott (desk, closet, iron, two telephones with data ports, and a bed). The bed has a comfortable comforter instead of a flimsy blanket often found in hotels. My king sized bed had 6 pillows! The bathroom was average and offered shampoo, conditioner, and body lotion.

Another positive thing was one bartender, Jim. He has worked there for 11 years (I don't know why he stays there) and had a lot to say about the place. He told me that everyone at the hotel hates the stamp show (that probably explains the attitude we got from the rest of the staff), the management changes hands twice a year, and most people don't work there very long so all the new people working there never are quite sure how to do their job. He's a friendly and talented bartender. Jim made my stay more tolerable (since I got to complain and hear interesting stories about the incompetent staff).

Explanation
I going to be mostly talking about the problems we had with customer service in relation to the auction. I know most people staying at this hotel will only be spending the night rather than going there for a convention. Still, if you are visiting during a time when the hotel has a convention (which is every week in the summer and at least once a month throughout the rest of the year), you will have the same horrible customer service. This hotel, no matter who is managing it at the time, cannot handle events!

Here's where the trouble started
When I checked in, I was given the last available room. It had one bed even though I requested (requested being the key word) two beds. I would be sharing a room with someone and even though I don't mind sharing a bed, I did not know how the other person would feel. I was told my request for 2 beds was just that, a request. They are not obligated to give me what I requested. Okay, so I would be sharing a bed. Fine.

Then I went upstairs, put the key in the lock, and opened the door. There on the bed, was a couple... um... enjoying themselves. They looked at me, I looked at them, and then I ran out the door. I went down to the front desk and told them what happened. They told me that they didn't know which rooms had been given out that day. The man checked a few things on his computer and told me, "Whoops, that was the room of the couple who just got married here." How did he know who was occupying the room and the other guy at the desk didn't even know the room was occupied? So I got another key and he was pretty positive it was empty. I went upstairs, put the key in the lock, and the door didn't open. I had to go back down to the desk. I was getting tired of lugging my luggage all over the place. He checked the key and gave it to me again, assuring me it would work this time. I went upstairs, put the key in the lock, I was happy to find that the key opened the door and even happier to find that the room was unoccupied.

The room was missing an iron and the lightbulbs in both of the lamps. The bathroom light was out as well. Why would they give someone a room without making sure everything was working as it should. Fortunately, it did not take long for engineering to come up and put everything in working order.

One night I decided to watch an in-room movie. I pressed the menu button, picked the movie, and got the message saying I would be charged. Then the TV jumped to ESPN. I tried again with the same result. I called the front desk to tell them and they sent engineering to my room. This was at 11:45. The engineering guy did the same thing I did to access the movie and got the same result. He told me he got off work in 15 minutes. Then he told me I wouldn't be charged for the movie. Since I couldn't watch a movie, I caught up on my sports news since they had ESPN and that channel was obviously working.

And the trouble got worse
Eight months before Labor Day weekend, the auction company arranged to hold the auction in conjunction with the stamp show. They were given a room to hold the auction in and a contract was signed. Eight days before Labor Day, the hotel called to say there would be a wedding in the room where they were going to be holding the auction and the auction would have to be over by 5:00. The auction was starting at 1:00, it would be impossible for it to be finished by 5:00. After a bit of yelling back and forth, the hotel decided the auction would have to move into a smaller room. When it did move, there was standing room only and the auctioneer had trouble seeing people around the pillars which were in the centre of the room. That slowed the auction down. And of course customers were complaining about the interruption in the middle of the auction. It took an hour to break everything down, move it, and set everything back up. When I was talking to Jim, the bartender, about it, he told me the reason the hotel was bending over backwards for the wedding party was because the bride was the sister of the hotel's banquet manager. Lovely.

And the problems continued
For the auction, we needed 4 phone lines. One might not think that's a big request, but at the Hunt Valley Marriott, it's like asking for a flying pig. We were there for 4 days and it wasn't until the 4th day that the phone system worked. The first day we had one working phone. It was set up on a table that was inconvenient for us, so we moved it a few feet to another table. The next day we had no working phones. The manager came to our room and yelled at us, telling us that since we moved the one phone a few feet the entire phone system in the hotel was down and it was all our fault. Excuse me? The worst part was that they were yelling at us in front of our clients. After a little while, they realised it wasn't our fault (gee, really?) and decided to send someone out from the phone company. The guy from the phone company spent the rest of the day (about 6 hours) "fixing" the phone system. He had no idea what he was doing and at the end of the day, it still didn't work. Of course the next day was Saturday and no one works on Saturday. However, the finally found another guy from the phone company who came out and got one line working by the time we left. Sunday was the day of the auction. By Sunday morning we actually had all 4 phone lines working. I have no idea who fixed what and why it took 4 days, but it worked and that's all that mattered.

Can it get worse?
The owner of the auction company got a few phone calls at home from clients that had his home number. They told him about the problems they had trying to get through to us at the hotel. They called the number published in the auction catalogue and either got a message that "this guest is not authorized to use the voice mail system" or got a busy signal. One guy was stubborn and called the hotel. He asked for the auction company and then got cut off. He tried again with the same result. The third time, the guy at the front desk told him there was no such guest. I wonder how much business this auction company lost because of this incompetence. On Sunday when the phones were working, we got several phone calls for other guests. Obviously, whoever was working at the switchboard was one of the many people working at the hotel who had no idea what they were doing. The problems with the phone system was the reason the auction company stopped holding auctions there to begin with. This was not the first time there were phone problems.

Yes, it can get worse
During the course of the weekend, I overheard several of the guest complaining about the hotel. The rooms were either freezing or hot and nothing could be done about it. It took people over an hour to get their food at the restaurant and then they didn't always get what they had ordered. There were a few items on the menu that the chef didn't know how to make. Several people were given keys that didn't work. Several people were given rooms that were occupied (glad to know the wedding couple wasn't the only one um... interrupted). No one was working at the cafe several times during the day. When someone was working at the cafe, they had nasty attitudes. Several people got stuck in the elevator throughout the weekend. I heard two people had showers that didn't work and no one came up to fix them. I was checking out on Monday. Sunday morning I woke up and found a bill under my door (I thought hotels only do this on the day you check out). I looked at it, and it was someone else's bill. I called the front desk and the woman told me to just throw it away. On Monday, when I did get my bill under the door, it was smeared and unreadable. I asked for another copy and it came out the same way. I asked her if she could fix the toner so I could get a clear copy and she said that she didn't know how and no one else did either. I asked if I could do it myself. I don't know why I asked- I knew the answer would be no. I just hoped that the auction company wouldn't mind a copy of my smeared bill since they were the ones paying for it. I checked out at noon but didn't leave until 3:00 so I had my luggage held at the bell stand. I waited 20 minutes for someone to get my luggage for me and it was the wrong bag. I waited another 5-10 minutes for the correct one (glad I showed up a little early).

This hotel is a disaster. They just can't handle high volume no matter who is managing at the time and no matter who they have as employees. I suggest if you have to stay in the Hunt Valley area, try the Embassy Suites or the Hampton Inn. I have not stayed at either one, but I can't imagine either of them being worse than the Marriott. If your company or the company of someone you know wants to hold a convention at the Marriott, explain to them why they shouldn't. Maybe you could suggest holding it at the Sheraton in Towson.

Recommended: No

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