Doppy

I wouldn't want to stay in that room even if the hot water were working.

babyg_wc

The reviews were hit and miss, but there were enough warnings that should have made me cancel before arriving. Sadly I took a risk and have paid the price, to be honest unless I want to spend 1000usd plus per night there doesn't seem to be many options in Barbados.

​​​​​​​We were finally offered a different room but the fixtures were of equally horrendous quality. They also managed to fix the issue after. 36 hours. I don't understand how this hotel gets repeat business to be honest, I think it's the fact the guests are more interested in the all inclusive aspect of the stay Vs the hard product. Having stayed at some sensational Marriott properties recently I wasn't prepared for such disappointmwnt.

I should mention that the primary reason for booking was this was points booking and barbados prices are silly money for what you get.

Truly a mistake on my part - should trust the reviews/research and walk away from somewhere where there's the potential for a holiday to be ruined by such low quality accommodation.

Marriott should be ashamed for buying these properties in Barbados and then doing the bare minimum on the upkeep/refurbs.

I'll post a review when I check out.

babyg_wc

​​​​​​
Agreed, thou there is nothing much around under 600!700usd, which don't look much better, we are looking at options including flying (it's 45mins away) to canouan, where they seems to be highly quality/better value options.

Kacee

Ouch. Good luck - hope the situation improves!

babyg_wc

So we are back from our Barbados holiday. Long story short the hotel are going to refund half of the points used on the booking, obviously we would have preferred an issue free stay but we are happy enough with what the hotel finally came back with. I have also chalked this one up to experience - basically trust the reviews and when they are hit and miss, don't focus/pray/hope on the good ones.

PS we ended up staying at the Hilton Barbados, originally I was hoping to get to Canouan, but getting to/from Canouan island proved to tricky and expensive. That said we we pleasantly surprised with the Hilton. Whilst its a massive/ugly building, internally they have been refurbishing, and they also look after Hilton Diamonds (at least in our case), we were upgraded to a very nice corner room/suite that had been refurbished and was very stylish with dual aspect, the staff and service was fantastic throughout our stay too.

margarita girl

Now that you’ve checked out, perhaps you can identify the property to help fellow FTers. If there isn’t a master thread already for that property, maybe you can ask the mods to change the title so this becomes that property’s master thread.

KathyWdrf

It's unlikely that Marriott owns the properties. Most hotel chains don't own many (or even any) of the properties that are branded with their name. (And occasionally, a property owned by one chain will have a competitor's brand name. )

The Road Goes On Forever

Actually, unless they were flipped quickly, Marriott might own the property in question.
http://www.bizjournals.com/washingto...etwork-of.html

jaejaez

FWIW, the two times where there were hot water issues in my 10+ years of being elite (one in Malaysia, another in Italy) I was refunded the full cost of the entirety of my stay (both two nighters IIRC). I think this is fair given how fundamental the shower is to a hotel stay (minimum standard).

KathyWdrf

Yes, you are right; as you say, "unless they were flipped quickly." Which they probably were not.



And although the article also says that "Marriott plans renovations to the Barbados portfolio once the deal closes," apparently that hasn't happened yet (or not completed).

Clhawks

I work at a Marriott property and we have only one working water heater, other two hasn’t been working for 1 1/2 years. Aimbridge refuses to fix. We run out of hot water by 7 am. Our property is severely neglected. We have no working a/c or heat in dining area and lobby. We have 25 rooms unable to fill due to broken a/c heat units. We can’t even get a new vacuum. Of course our front desk associates get cussed out and verbally abused constantly due to these issues. Aimbridge still says to sell out all working rooms. All employees are very frustrated.

TXJeepGuy

Would be nice to know where so we can avoid it.

JayeJ

I googled Aimbridge Marriott hotels -- looks like they are in Indianapolis?

KRSW

Looks like they're A LOT bigger than just Indianapolis: https://www.hospitalityonline.com/ai...lity/locations

I'm comparing their list of hotels vs. ones I've stayed at. There were only two of their properties I've stayed at and I wouldn't stay at those two particular properties again. Those two also happen to have some of the lowest ratings on Marriott's site for that area...which kind of lends credibility to Clhawks post.

Clhawks

Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott, NC