San Antonio Riverwalk - RUN, don't walk, to another hotel
Written: Sep 28 '07 (Updated Sep 28 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The beds are comfortable.
Cons: Roaches, employees pawing your stuff, no service, over-priced ... oh just read the review!
The Bottom Line: The Marriott Riverwalk is not worth even half of what they charge for their rooms. You're better off exploring one of the dozens other hotels right next to it.
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| Petra's Full Review: Marriott San Antonio Riverwalk |
I started a new job with a company in the oil and gas business. Part of my job is to help arrange our attendance at a large, annual expo which, this year, took place in San Antonio, Texas.
A number of hotels had been pre-arranged by the organization in charge of the convention and my predecessor in the job had arranged for rooms at the Marriott Riverwalk at about $240 a night.
In my old job, left to my own devices (rather, travel funds), I tended to stay in Travellodges or other $60-Dollar rooms, so you can imagine my giddy arrival at the grand, beautiful ... okay, wrong hotel. Marriott Riverwalk sits behind Marriott Rivercenter, and I had been dropped at the wrong one first. No sweat, the lady at the counter tells me to go out the back door, it's the "other hotel right next to us".
For us normal English-speakers, that translates to "across the street BEHIND us", but I never learned hotel lingo and the side entrance she meant to direct me to does not sport any kind of visible sign, so me and my 40-pound backpack did spend a bit of confused time baking in the Texas sun trying to figure out the way but hey - the reward of my grand room would be worth it, right? Right.
I wandered into a large, bright and very elegant-looking lobby and made my way to the reception where two ladies were busy with guests and a merry greeter immediately zoomed in with the “what can we do for you” question.
Me: Checking in.
Him: We will be with you in a moment.
Me thinking: you are already with me. Your friends there are working. I’m not blind. That’s when he started endless small talk and questions which some may enjoy, I for one did not.
Checkin was simple and I proceeded to lug my 40 pounds to the elevators, because nobody did it for me, and off to the 16th floor I went where an endless maze of hallway awaited me. I wandered the half-mile (okay, a bit exaggerated, but would 2 elevator areas be too much?) to my room. I put the little plastic card into the door and … anticipation … what awaits me? My own hot tub? A golden wet bar? I opened the door and … wow! The Travellodge had followed me and checked in first.
The green carpet from the hallway which, in design and fadedness, looks suspiciously like the kind my mother has had in her living room since 1960 extended into a room not much bigger than the two queen beds in it. I stepped inside and a wall of muggy wetness greeted me as I stared at a bathroom the size of my own, with a tub, a toilet and a mysterious fan I never found a switch for. It was still dryer than the room.
Between the front door and the bathroom was a sink with mirror and opposite it and a mirrored closet, about 4 feet wide. Asides from the two beds, the actual room contained a night stand, a chair, a TV cabinet and a small desk with another chair and two lamps, one of them crooked like a drunken sailor.
Hoping to get rid of the humidity, I wanted open the window, but alas, that window was shut for good. I assume it’s a safety measure to keep people who realize they just paid 240 bucks for this from plunging to their deaths by the dozen.
In a prior call to the hotel I had already learned that 240 bucks don’t buy what they used to, particularly not breakfast, but a friendly menu on the bed updated me on the fact that next time, should some guy stay over and I make him breakfast, I can charge him at least 10 bucks for a couple of eggs. Just the eggs
Well, let’s get on the computer and … huh? Apparently, $240 don’t cover internet either. That cost an extra $10, from noon to noon, which means the poor idiot who signs up at 11:45 a.m. will get 15 minutes for his money, while those who sign up at 12:01 p.m. get 23 hours and 59 minutes.
Alright, never mind, I was tired, sank into the very comfortable bed and tried not to move because it creaked when I did. Finally, I fell asleep, tuning out the Chirp of the smoke detector and woke up to the Sound of Silence. No, literally – down in the mall’s courtyard, someone blared a Peruvian flute and guitar version of The Sound of Silence. Over the 5 days I stayed, I was also treated to renderings of Bridge over Troubled Water, Stairway to Heaven and Don’t Cry for me Argentina, among other timeless Peruvian classics. If only the smoke detector had chirped with some sense of rhythm, it would have been a spectacle. All I needed to conduct then would be the slamming doors from my neighbor rooms and I could have outdone those lame Philharmonics.
Okay, I was up late afternoon, and went down to the concierge to inform him that I was living in a terrarium. He told me someone will go and check it out and, convinced that all is good with the world, I headed out to prep our booth. When I come back hours later, my room was still wet, only now it was 60 degrees. Problem NOT solved. CHIRP.
The next day, I worked the Expo, came back to my room, and found that cleaning service at this hotel means someone rearranging all your toiletries according to what they deem appropriate. I was haunted by the creepy feeling that my mother had followed her carpet and was now straightening my room for me. Then I realized, my mother would make free breakfast, so I felt better again (except for the feeling about people pawing my stuff) and settled in for the Law & Order marathon on a TV that flickered in and out with static. CHIRP.
While the cleaning service was busy rearranging my toiletries, it kept them from doing any other work, such as clearing room service trays outside peoples’ rooms which smelled up the hallways with ketchup stench all night, or remove the ice cream cone crumbles from the elevator.
Day three, I took my plight about the Bat Cave to the new manager on duty who made a big show out of getting on the phone to talk to the a/c wielding maintenance department and he told me they will come to my room and see what’s up.
Since the Marriott is, “in response to the overwhelming customer feedback”, a non-smoking facility, I had ample opportunity to scamper past him for the next few hours to huddle with the umpteen other overwhelmed smokers outside the hotel. After about 4 hours, I visited him again directly since he never once acknowledged me. He greeted me with no clue who I was and I told him that I’m sure he tried hard to solve the problem, and he probably tried equally hard to get a hold of me. Right? Right.
Outrage is an easy emotion to fake, so he did, wondering out loud if it was possible that nobody came to see me yet and got back with maintenance to ask if they ever found that dehumidifier I suggested. Instead, he offered that they could place a few fans in my room. What, and ruin the Peruvian experience by some humming device circulating the wet air? Pshah! No, thanks, and thanks a lot for the offer of eventually giving me a different room, if one comes up, but not right now, just check back really early in the morning.
Oh, forget you, I’ll just sleep in the swamp. For some intentional wetness, though, I visited the pool on the fourth floor. In short, the pool was freezing cold, extremely small, and continued outdoors by ways of a blockade between indoors and outdoors so low you couldn’t swim under it. So if you’re not a fan of sticking your head under water, you’re stuck inside or outside.
The whirlpool seated about 6, if they’re not afraid of physical contact, and had extremely weak jets. On the fourth night, I wandered to the other Marriott where I found a whirlpool with much stronger jets and a warmer pool with a barrier one could swim under. What I didn’t find there were the beetles and cockroaches wandering around the Riverwalk pool room (two women actually batted one around with a towel for amusement). I also noticed the smell of chlorine which suddenly made me realize that there is no such smell at the Riverwalk pool.
The Riverwalk gift shop is open until 10 p.m. and charges $2.25 for a candy bar. The Evian bottle in the room sports a sign letting you know that the Marriott cares – to the tune of $4.50 for the bottle. And when I got a package delivered to the hotel, nobody mentioned a charge, but I found the $5.00 for getting a package on my bill when I checked out. But hey, the CHIRP is free so I enjoyed it, and the humidity kept my hair curly. What more could I want?
On my way to check out, I found myself in the elevator with 3 French women griping about how their door key had been re-set over and over and still kept malfunctioning and that this was the most miserable Marriott they ever stayed in. Finally, something to agree on with the French. And my cab driver mentioned urine-stench in the lobby bathrooms and stinky bathroom soap you can't get off your hands.
The lady who checked me out, ironically also named Petra, was the only person who was truly appalled at the muggy room with the chirping smoke detector and wanted to “do something” to make up for it, but I told her there’s little point in taking off anything from my bill since I didn’t pay for it myself, which I assume is what the rest of the Marriott managers thought, too, since they never once bothered to offer as much as a drink coupon for their bar.
In short: the Marriott Riverwalk is not worth half of what they charge. The service is mediocre, the majority of their employees indifferent and beyond the lobby and the next two floors with business center, conference rooms, restaurants and gift shop, the elegance stops cold.
If you’re looking for a hotel with a convenient location to the Riverwalk mall, the Alamo, and other San Antonio downtown attractions, you could check into this, or any one of the 40 or so other hotels right next or near it, since this area is riddled with hotels.
I was told, though, that with the building of a new Hyatt right across from the Marriott, next year, the hotel will close some floors and renovate. Nothing like some healthy competition to finally get things going. Guests alone just aren’t worth the effort.
CHIRP.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Petra
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Location: California
Reviews written: 327
Trusted by: 312 members
About Me:
If life gives you lemons ... there's always someone deserving of being pelted with fruit
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