The ones I've seen with iPhone docks also have a stereo mini plug so they're not totally useless.

Why do you provide the name of the second closest commercial airport when mentioning that hotel?

must be the same geniuses that designed the room for the horrible aloft and W hotels from Starwood.

drives. me. insane.

PS Gen Y may be cooler than me but they don't spend as much money in hotels as I do (just saying)

Nope. I'm Gen Y / Millenial, born in 1980 so I'm one of the elders of the generation. Business travelers regardless of generation are looking for mostly the same things. I hate it when I don't have a table or desk at a hotel. Often, I eat and work in the evening at the hotel. I don't like doing either on a couch or on the bed.



Also, to comment on those iPhone docks (30 pin connector) on the alarm clocks. Those are for the old iPhone (4s and earlier) which most people no longer have. The "Lightning" connector was introduced in Q3 2012 for the iPhone5. It's a dumb idea to make a dock for a proprietary connector. Those 30-pin versions are worthless now. Just put a USB input on that or the TV and be done with it.

Please don't call those idiots marketers. I'm a marketer and I make my decisions based on data: primary research, secondary research and financial metrics. I also learned how to view a project from the eyes of the target demographic. I've done a number of projects (mostly online) that I don't find personally appealing, but they're right for the demo.

There are too many agency types that just want to push an aesthetic. Good agencies should understand you cannot separate design and function.

I guess we'll have to look at a room before accepting it and moving in...

This.

Hope Marriott is reading this thread
 

Marriott is my favorite brand, but if I find that rooms are being reconfigured as reported here, I'm moving my business elsewhere. And no, the original posting was not a rant. It was a well-stated posting that avoided sounding like a corporate mission statement or PowerPoint briefing to the board, so thank you.

Speaking of bad remodels, several years ago, I was at another brand -- major property in a major city -- and found that to get into the shower, you had to climb up on the toilet seat and jump to the other side. I'm nimble enough to do this but wondered (a) who did this design, and (b) how many prior guests put up with this and didn't even tell management.

So after I was showered and dressed, I went and found the manager and told him my story. He looked at me like I was some sort of idiot and malcontent but decided to humor me and come see for himself. I wish I had a photo of the expression on his face when I said: OK, show me how you get into the shower.

Those rooms were re-remodeled within a month.

My biggest beef about redesigned hotels is the lack of towel racks! They have taken them all out. And the worst of it is that they want us to hang our towels up for environmental reasons (i.e. don't want to wash them)! So give us a rack to do it already!!!

I always use the coffee maker but suspect most do not. Anyone here use them?

The renovated room pictures are up on the Marriott SFO Burlingame website now.

I consider that to be a desk (albeit a small one) and would be perfectly happy with it. Room reno looks nice to me. To each their own of course. 44 years old and a weekly business traveler for those keeping track of demographics. ;)

http://cache.marriott.com/propertyim...hototour72.jpg

http://cache.marriott.com/propertyim...hototour73.jpg

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/trave...tt-waterfront/

There must be other variations of the room configuration because the TV I had was not wall mounted. As I have previously reported, I had to use that stand as a working surface.

I was staying at a Marriott earlier this month. The only real design flaw was that the had an el cheapo wall phone on the bathroom wall that if you looked at it real hard would fall out of the cradle and hit the floor. But apparently just to make sure you looked, they parked it directly above the toilet paper roll so that the cord hung down on the metal cover for the roll. The minute you touched that metal cover the phone would hit the floor. And you couldn't just leave it there while you finished your paperwork because it would start buzzing and the hotel operator would come on the phone.

I drink tea not coffee, and US coffeemakers make tea that tastes like coffee. EU and Asia properties have tea kettles, which I use, except in Portugal where there does not seem to be tea anywhere in the entire country.

Maybe they put you in a room that they only half remodeled. ;)

I have stayed at this hotel about 100 nights the past 7 years and outside of a studio suite upgrade a few times the room always looks the same. Seems the vast majority of their rooms do have a desk though and according to their rooms page on the website they should all have desks:

https://www.marriott.com/hotels/hote...tt-waterfront/

Not doubting your story as an FYI just sharing my experience. If you ever go back at least you know to ask for a room with a desk.