jr1202sr

Halifax Marriott Trip Report:

I would start by saying I have stayed at this property 3 times now and it is very consistent. The Valet/bellhop is very poor. In our 3 stays, we have never had someone help us with our bags or even greet us after driving in. 2x we left our keys with the front desk since nobody was there to valet the car. On our last stay we called for a bellman to help with our bags. He brought the bags down and left them on the cart behind the vehicle to go assist another car arriving. My wife was left to put the bags in herself (I was inside checking out). Upon leaving we asked where the closest Gas Station was and told the valet we needed to refill the car before returning it. He sent us the complete opposite direction and didn't know actually how to get us there. Thank God for GPS.

The Lobby area is very nice and so is the bar restaurant. They have an outdoor patio bar that was never open even though the weather was nice. The looks of the Lobby make you think you are in one of the nicer Marriott's there is. The staff minus the Valet is very helpful and friendly. The location is very good on side of the boardwalk.

There is a Small Lounge closed on the weekend (liquor is only available via request) with the minimal offerings. Breakfast on weekend is very good downstairs. Lounge is closed for water/soda/coffee on the weekends. One of the nicer spreads I have seen.

In three trips, I have never been upgraded to anything more than what we paid for. In fact, on our 2nd stay we were in room 317 across from the service door. DO NOT STAY ANYWHERE CLOSE TO THE SERVICE DOOR!!!!! My guess is that Plat, Gold, etc do not get any special treatment in terms of room assignment.

On our last trip we were upgraded to the CL floor (even though it was closed the entire time of stay) upon asking for a room not near the service door. The room was the closest to the street/valet area and had lots of street noise. I can't believe this was the nicest room they could give me as the hotel wasn't full.

The rooms are in desperate need of a renovation. Think Standard Marriott with the Yellow and Red carpets, wallpaper peeling, etc.

One odd thing about this Hotel is the lack of view of the harbour from many of the rooms and perhaps the best location in the hotel being used as a staff lounge with wonderful full window views of the harbour. I would think this would be a great location for guests to have coffee or breakfast or move the CL lounge too.

So I would say this hotel has been very consistent in all 3 stays. The bad has continued to be bad and the Good has been Good. It will be interesting to see what happens with the DELTA hotel across the street. It is going through a MAJOR renovation soon. I wonder if it will force Marriott to renovate the rooms to match the quality of the rest of the hotel?