sebinoslo

I have just been about 8 nights there now, and since no review regarding that hotel has been written yet I thought I'd spend few minutes to do so.

The location is great if you come to visit an oil&gas company and have one night over: the airport is a 5min taxi ride and all the companies are within 10min. So really convenient.

The hotel itself looks pretty bad from the outside, 2-floor building with no charm whatsoever. However, the interior has been renovated not so long ago, so the rooms are of a good size and really comfy. Beware, one side of the hotel is by the road - but it is well sound-proofed and the traffic is not too intense.

The main (bad) thing about this hotel is the inconsistency of the quality of service. It goes from having to ask 3 times for room service to finally have a proper room service (1st room service: only the curtains were pulled open open; 2nd: the bedsheets were pulled up, pillows still in a big pile on the side; 3rd: finally the room and the bathroom were cleaned, with new glasses, towels, etc) to a perfectly cleaned room with my clothes neatly folded on the bed and the bathroom items all sorted and aligned.

The same goes for the restaurant: the service ranged from the order not being entered in the system (i.e. the order was never placed to the kitchen, so 45min wait for a £10 club sandwich) to the food being brought forward within 10min (which is the norm there^). The small selection of food is rather expensive (£8 for nachos without meat, £12 for a burger, etc) but is decent (as long as you like your food fried or with french fries).
FYI: according to the waitress, the chef can only cook steaks medium-rare

The laundry service is just ridiculously expensive (£2.50 per pair of socks, about £7 per shirt...) and gets in kind of late (past 7PM).

Internet is £15 a day or £75 for 7 days

Regarding the CL: no alcoholic beverages, no free internet, very tiny breakfast selection, good coffee machine (Jura), closed on weekends.

Regarding the breakfast buffet: pretty good overall, no idea how much it costs actually: I never had a receipt to sign, only gave my room number.

Regarding the platinum gift: really good surprise there! a choice of one drink and one food item.
-Drinks: Soda, fruit juice, half-bottle of white or red wine (and maybe beer)
-Food: fruit plate, cheese plate, ice cream, ++

To conclude, this is a great place if you have been to Aberdeen before (and can live without going to the city) and need to stay one or two nights. If you stay longer, definitely rent a car or be willing to spend £30-40 R/T for taxi to get to the city for dinner. The traffic is pretty bad in Aberdeen so staying in the city will mean a fairly long commute...

littlevoices

Thanks for the review, was considering booking for leisure, but, you made me realise that it would be a pain to get into town or anywhere else from this location on public transport, despite really cheap rooms at the weekend!

fmkgb

Any current reviews of this property. Particularly executive lounge and if it is open weekends? Computer in Exec Lounge? I was told by the hotel that there is a train station 10 min walk from hotel and we could take the train to town, is that true or what is current best way to get to town (not taxi).
Thanks

SkiAdcock

Just curious - when you were talking with the hotel, why didn't you ask them about the lounge? BTW - if you don't get an update from FTers before your stay, please do a 'trip report' re: your stay so people will know about the train and the lounge. I'll update the lounge thread once someone else posts or you do.

Cheers.

fmkgb

Our stay was 4 nights (Thurs-Monday morning).

Hotel is an older 2 story property with no elevator (there is a service elevator for the doorman to bring up luggage and for maids to use). Staff very sweet but not too knowledgeable. They do try to please.

When arriving in Aberdeen by train it's best to take a taxi to hotel if you have luggage. Cost around 16 pounds, approx 20 min ride.

TRANSIT: 3 buses go to hotel from town and stop about a 3 min walk from the hotel. Stagecoach #325 leaves from central bus station. Walk from Aberdeen train station through the mall into bus station (5 min walk). However, 325 only goes once an hour.
There is also #21 or #21A bus to Marriott but you have to walk about 10 min slightly uphill to Union St to catch it. Leaves every 15 min most of the day Mon-Saturday (no service Sundays) and takes approx 37 min to reach Marriott.
Every day including Sunday you can take #17 bus Marriott-Aberdeen. Takes about 50 min.
If you will be taking several buses to tour downtown area (including Old Aberdeen and Beach area) and you are not traveling during peak times you can buy a daypass for 3.60 pounds.

You can also take the train from Dyce station to town. Takes 8 min plus a 12 min walk from the Marriott to Dyce station (Marriott shuttle will drive you there if shuttle is available). Train can be very very crowded.

LOUNGE: Small room but manageable for the # of people using it. Room stocked with water, soft drinks, packaged potato chips and cookies. open 24 hours/day for self serve.

Good evening service Sun-Thurs including a few tables nicely set with silverware, wine glasses and cloth napkins -- as if you were dining in the restaurant. Good selection of food including small ramekins of hot food of roasted or grilled fish with risotto, meat sandwiches, salad with globs of dressing already on it, a cheese plate and desserts. High quality food although most not to my liking. The attendant said all the food was prepared in the restaurant and thus she could not modify it (eg, get salad with no dressing).

When we were there an attendant poured the wine and there was a bucket of beer (Corona, Bud & Becks--no British beer) on ice. We asked if we could serve ourselves and were told "no" she had to serve us. If we wanted hard liquor she said she could order it but it was chargeable to our room.

Friday and Sat the lounge was open but there was no evening food service; nor breakfast service Sat nor Sunday. However, as Platinum we were given free breakfast in the restaurant. Not sure if same for Gold but hotel is pretty loose so I assume so. No coupons needed for weekend breakfast--name was on a list.

On Sunday night there was the same setup as Thursday but no attendant. Tables nicely set, wide variety of food. You could help yourself to wine and beer. Someone seemed to come in once an hour to clean the plates.

Sat someone restocked the water, soft drinks, snacks and cookies.

Lounge had one free computer and printer which was much appreciated.

RESTAURANT: had one meal of lamb shank, 18 pounds. It was awful. Undercooked, poor fatty piece of lamb, very boring plain mashed potatoes. Breakfast was a large selection but very poor quality.

IN GENERAL: We didn't mind staying out of town. Several methods to get to town. There is a nice pub called "Spiders Web" near the Dyce train station. It's open for lunch only (12-2:15) and the food was very good. They serve soup all day until 9 pm. There is a Tesco Express about a 7 min walk from hotel if you want to pick up some snacks or drinks.

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the detailed review, including transportation options.

Also I'll update the exec lounge sticky.

Cheers.

tbm13

Hi Sharon, it seems that the sticky hasn't been updated yet. It would be great if you could add the info from this thread.

SkiAdcock

Sorry - thought I had done so. Will take care of that today.

Cheers.

Wickersley

Repeat after me, "always check FT before booking into a "new" hotel, always check FT before booking into a "new" hotel...

Ok, so Aberdeen in the week is expensive - too much demand for too few rooms...

$360 (yes Two Hundred & Twenty Nine of our finest Great British Pounds) & I'm in this dump tonight

Location, location, location - airport & ease of access to the O&G sector is great...

Got an upgrade to a Jnr Suite (thanks for that) the sofa is in an unused corner of the room - great for tossing my overcoat onto...

Lounge (open 24 hours Sharon, food till 9.30, breakfast starts as 6) is devoid of any character

Is a square box, perhaps 30 chairs & a great view of the dual carriageway...

In short, AVOID UNLESS DESPERATE

(So tempted to haggle over "terrible" stay & head back into the City....it really is that bad)

*** rant over ***

SkiAdcock

Is it open on the weekend? (sorry to hear the property is that bad for being that expensive).

Cheers.

Wickersley

@ Sharon

I believe it's closed, as per OP above...

Not that I'm ranting (much) but the Marriott Burger is $25...

Only solution is wine,lots of wine...

SkiAdcock

That's always worked for me

I'll update the sticky with new report date.

Cheers.

Wickersley

Has an amazing "calming" effect

Nipped to the lounge for "last orders"

Good cheese, crackers, followed by chocolate & red wine

Glasgow tomorrow (where I was born & raised), the Marriott there is one of the few that I'll forgo the lounge breakfast & instead PAY () for it in the restaurant...

Glasshouse Edinburgh on Wednesday night - got very mixed feelings about this hotel...let's see

nequine

The lounge in Aberdeen is very much better than it was a couple of years ago when I was last in it. The service the lounge attendant provided when I was there in July was really good - you glass was constantly topped up! There was also a great range of wine too - red, white, rose and bubbles which I've never seen in a lounge before.

The breakfast in the lounge in Glasgow is nice enough with a good range of hot/cold products.

SkiAdcock

Hotel's website says exec lounge is open on the weekend.

Cheers.