FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Brisbane Marriott, Australia [Master Thread]
Old Jul 1, 2024 | 9:23 am
  #60  
Nazdoom
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Join Date: Oct 2015
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Stayed 3 nights over the weekend. Pleasantly surprised with this property.

As a titanium, the night before I was upgraded from base room to executive floor room facing story bridge. Very nice view! (There was "1" suite for sale on the app at the time of check-in but no suite upgrade on offer, which I understand is due to the very limited number of suites they have in total.) Welcome gift choice was offerred and f&b included full bottle of wine (red, white, sparkling, among other beverage choices) plus fruit or cheese plate. When I got to the room I found another bottle of wine already waiting for me with a welcome note. Very nice!

Late check-out wasn't mentioned at check-in and was not coded to my card, but I had no push back getting it set up the night before departure.

Room was in good order and comfortable size. Still felt newly renovated. Shower pressure was good. Room was very clean and housekeeping did a notably excellent job every night.

Location is excellent. If you walk 3 blocks in one direction you have the bar district, a block in the other direction is the office district, a block in another direction is the river with a seawall adorned with a bunch of bars / restaurants and with a great view of the city's lights, and in another there's a very large shopping street / mall. Anything within the CBD felt walkable from the hotel.

Lounge has free flow booze from 5:30pm-8:30pm, very limited hot and cold food appetizers (think spring rolls and samosas, plus a soup) for the first couple hours, then a few dessert options for the last bit. Lounge attendants also offer a number of cocktails (expresso martini, pina colada, mango bellini being the more popular ones). Lounge has a small variety of cold non-alcoholic drinks 24/7. Not sure whether it was due to the time of year or being on the weekend or if it's just the local market, but executive floor and lounge are very popular with families and kids using their outdoor voices / toddlers running around were the norm. That said, attendants were working hard and even remembered my name across nights. Elite breakfast is served in the lounge rather than the restaurant.

For dinner, I was particularly impressed with the downstairs restaurant. Probably the best restaurant fare in a Bonvoy property I've had over the past 100 nights. Strong and interesting flavors, cooked well. The chef also came around to solicit feedback from guests.

I did have an odd challenge at check-out. My rate was booked under a current promo offerred at a number of properties across Oceania which includes a nightly restaurant credit. At checkout, I wasn't asked to review the folio, they just said they'd charge the card on file. I asked for a copy of the folio and saw the credit hadn't been applied, so I asked the FDA to apply it. She then asked to clarify "what restaurant credit" before seeing it as "part of the room rate" and clicked around for several minutes. Another guest approached the front desk, the FDA greeted her, and then she asked if the FDA was free and she told them yes (while I was standing there waiting for her to finish fixing the overcharge). I asked her if the credit has been applied, she said yes and that the updated folio should arrive to my email soon. Cool. Except it never came. In my ride to the airport, I initiated a chat in the app and after 30 minutes they responded and said they have now refunded my card for the missing credit ... except they only did one night's worth, as if they interpreted the room rate language as "per stay" rather than what is explicitly "per night". I then had to follow up yet again to alert them that it is "per night" and they finally refunded me a second time for the remainder. I'm not sure if I'm the only person who booked this property under the current local promo and staff are just not familiar with it, but the takeaway is to be very careful reviewing your folio here because their night audit proces and/or staff training for applying appropriate credits folio review seems broken. But again, notwithstanding this awkward exercise, I had a good stay and would stay here again.
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