Eujeanie

Not until next year, so you'll be there first. Let us know how it went.

sanfran8080

Agreed that the only good hotel with solid sound proof walls is the FS Marriott....the other locations your doomed for a long night of listening to constant noise.

Eujeanie

I know this is the Marriott board, but I've had quiet nights at the Hilton and Doubletree (ask for away from the atrium), but I've got the 1-5 cert to use so I'll take my chances.

Keyser

will do....i'll be there either in the last week of november or the first week of december....will post an update after my stay....

hockeyinsider

I spent a night at the Newark Liberty International Airport Marriott. While I've stayed at the Renaissance Newark Airport Hotel before and was pleased -- I thought the food was actually good for an airport hotel -- the location of the Marriott was better and I knew it was recently renovated.

Service was pretty weak. I was never thanked for my platinum service nor addressed by name at check-in (not even the standard "thank you for your loyalty" line). I was automatically given the 500 points upon arrival. I politely asked if there was an alternative, which, of course, I knew was the $10 food-and-beverage coupon. None of my standing Marriott requests were fulfilled (extra towels, extra pillows). It took one Marriott mobile application chat request, three phone calls to managers and six hours of waiting to get extra towels. I was initially given a room on the 8th floor, but it didn't have a desk. I asked for a room with a desk and was moved to the 9th floor.

The room had been renovated and featured a nice new 55-inch TV. Interestingly, the TV was from LG. All of the 55-inch TVs in renovated hotels until now have been Samsung. The decor was nice and in line with what you see at many renovated Marriott properties, but a lot of corners were cut in the renovations. The bathroom is virtually unchanged -- it really didn't match the rest of the room. It had the old tub and tiles. All that changed was the wallpaper and the mirror. The bathtub looked original to the hotel's 1984 construction. There was an old exhaust fan outlet in the ceiling that was covered up with a square wood panel. The panel was half hanging down, as the screws had partially fallen out and weren't replaced. The door knob in and out of the bathroom was also old. Room lighting was bad as you had to manually operate 6 different lights. Why the hotel didn't install one central overhead light during renovations is beyond me. While the room had a desk (if you can call a chair at the console under the TV a desk) there wasn't a mini-fridge. There also wasn't a safe. I will say, however, that soundproofing is great. I heard zero hallway or exterior noise. The room had one bathrobe in the closet, but no slippers. The bed and four pillows were comfortable. Each nightstand had both electrical outlets and USB outlets. (My original room on the 8th floor was identical to the 9th floor room, except it had a renovated walk-in shower and lacked a desk and chair in the console under the TV.)

For what it's worth, Marriott.com says the bathroom amenities are from Bath and Body Works, but of course they aren't. They're from Thann.

I was surprised to find the hotel doesn't have a M Club, but rather a concierge lounge on the 10th floor. It was your typical concierge lounge offerings, which is to say average. Not bad but not great. The cans of Pepsi and Diet Pepsi were the small cans you see in Europe, not the standard American-sized cans. No espresso machine or anything like that. Just no-name restaurant coffee. Also, the concierge lounge is not keycard accessible at night on Friday, Saturday and holidays for Pepsi or Diet Pepsi.

The hotel also has Fresh Bites, which I used since I had the $10 coupon. I was charged a higher price than the in-room menu and the $10 coupon wasn't applied. It took two visits to the front desk to get the overcharge corrected and the coupon applied.

Keyser

stayed at the residence inn for a night earlier this month....my flight got into ewr in the evening & i didn't need to be in nyc till later on the following afternoon so decided to spend the night here before moving to the city....

i had a friend pick me up from the airport so never ended up using the shuttle, although the hotel provides one....by the time i got to the hotel it was pretty late at night....the property is in a compound surrounded by another 4-5 hotels like the courtyard, embassy suites & a country inn....there is an ihop & ruby tuesday right outside the hotel & the mills at jersey gardens outlet mall across the street....

check-in was pretty quick & painless....the agent thanked me for being platinum & asked if i either wanted the points or an item from the convenience store....i took the points & headed to my room....the suite is a bit on the smaller side....the living area was ok but the bedroom was tiny....the room felt dated although everything worked well so no complaints there....

breakfast the next morning was pretty average....i'm not much of a breakfast person so i just picked up a muffin & some coffee & headed back to my room....i had a few hours to kill before heading to the city so after breakfast i took a stroll to the outlet mall....it took me less than 5 minutes to walk across....

left for midtown around noon....uber x cost me $52 & took a little under an hour....

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the updates on the properties. Much appreciated.

Cheers.

lamphs

Arriving EWR mid-evening next week. Better lounge - Marriott FS or Renaissance? Which has the better breakfast? MR Gold, by the way. Thanks.

pvn

The Renaissance is better than the FS in just about every conceivable way other than convenience to the airport itself and runway views if you're into that (though they're still really good at the renaissance).

lamphs

Thanks. I'll try Renaissance and report back as a MR Gold.

lamphs

Checked into the REN last night, about 7:30 PM. From deplaning at C101, picking up at baggage claim, Air Train to P4, and then the hotel shuttle, to the front desk, was about 45 minutes. Not bad. I only mention it because it appeared that the shuttle to the Marriott was more frequent from P4 (not to mention the Marriott is closer to EWR).

Check-in was pleasant. Offered late checkout proactively. 10th floor room on Club Level. Agent told me that appetizers were still available in the lounge until 8. I stopped in, but food was fairly well picked over, so I went to the bar/restaurant for dinner. Nice area - tables, couches, etc. Great service.

Room was spacious and comfortable.

Breakfast in the lounge was fairly standard and statisfactory. Great view of EWR and NYC in the distance from the lounge. I noticed that there was not a tip jar in the lounge, like I have encountered at many other lounges.

I wish I had remembered to request a room with a runway view. I'll remember for next time.

Best wishes for the New Year to everyone!

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the update. Much appreciated.

Cheers.

hockeyinsider

Wouldn't Uber have saved you about 15-20 minutes?

I stayed at the Renaissance Newark back in August 2016. While the hotel itself doesn't really fit the new direction of Renaissance -- there's only so much lipstick you can put on old properties -- I thought the food was very good. I was impressed that they had shaved parmesan cheese in the salads. I believe the menu also touted that they buy as much locally (in-season, obviously) as possible.

mikebor

No it isn't, not by a long shot. The Renaissance is terrible. I stayed there last year and in my arriving to my room I discovered that the fridge in the room wasn't working, the tv channels weren't working properly, the ac unit wasn't working properly and the staff were awful. I asked for a manager who seemed indifferent and didn't even offer me(as a lifetime platinum member) maybe a drink at the bar or a complimentary appetizer in the restaurant or really anything for all the problems in my room.

Oh and this lounge in the hotel? I won't comment on the food offerings since I didn't get a chance to really experience it because I checked out the next day early, However the woman there at night was horrible. I walked in at around 9:30 pm and she was sitting at a table chatting away with another guest she presumably knew. I forgot what I took to eat but I started choking on it and had to spit out my food in a napkin by the garbage can. Instead of her asking me if I was okay, the woman gave me a dirty nasty look of disgust. I mean it is comical still thinking about it. And the kicker it turns out that I found out later that she passed this incident onto my "private" remarks that guests don't see but hotels can write and comment on us. I had another agent at another hotel a few months back tell me that that particular hotel commented about me in a horrible way, claiming I was spitting out food in the lounge, with no explanation as to why that happened lol. Just that I was being a problem or something. Just unbelievable.

So let me give MY OPINION. Stay the hell away from that joke of a hotel and stay at the Marriott on airport property. I left that Renaissance, checked into the Marriott and have never looked back. They treat me great, better facilities and in my opinion much better staff.

hockeyinsider

I've never heard of this.