I have been a LONG time Hilton Diamond member and have recently decided to change from Hilton to Marriott (due to SWA no longer being a choice with Hilton). My first 3 night trip to Dallas was a eye opener...

First Night was at the Springhill Suites in Addison. Rooms were nice enough, but having a water leak right outside my room that was being dried all night with an industrial fan running was a first for me...

2nd night was at the Courtyard in Addison on Midway. Older hotel, no elevators and very dated. Around 10:30pm that night, a maintenance worker from the hotel tries to enter my room without knocking (I had the Do Not Disturb on the door too). He claims there is a water leak in the room below. No leaks are found in my room. The hotel manager gets chewed out in the am....

3rd night was at the Courtyard on NW Freeway near Love Field. Scary hotel. Warning signs everywhere. Dark parking lots. Just a really sketchy property. Everything went OK with this stay, although I felt like I should sleep with my eyes open.

I know this is a small sampling and I have stayed at other Marriott properties in the area, but I just thought it was funny that I had 3 weird properties on one trip. I hope that this isn't a trend!!

I understand the issues you state, especially after being stuck in Addison a few times. Are you thinking this is Marriott inclusive by the title 'terrible experience' or limited to the Dallas are properties where you stayed?

Maybe report it as a trip report for these properties so people can find them later in the threads and be warned - great details were given of what to be warned about and to possibly avoid these properties.

Welcome to Marriott. First thing to do is to stay away from most Courtyards, ESPECIALLY the old style where the attitudes seems to match the outdated decor and functionality.

That said, I've had 3 decent one night stay in new / remodeled CY but they still aren't my first choice due to no free PLT breakfast - but they do in a pinch.

SHS are usually no picnic either but come in handy when traveling with family. The one in Dallas West End is OK as well and the reflagged / remodeled Marriott downtown.

I've stayed in all three of those.

My SHS Addison experience was actually pretty good - liked the hotel, liked the location. Well, given that it's in the middle of a Texas suburb...relatively speaking, it was nice to be able to walk to a bunch of restaurants/bars. It seems to be a newer build...I would think that maintenance issues, over a larger sample set of stays, should be minimal.

CY on Midway: stayed there about three times because of insanely low rates - AAA rates listed in the $42-45 range. Yes, it's dated...but I never had a problem there and actually got a suite two of the three times. The place always felt dead to me - few guests and it's in the middle of an office park, so there's nothing going on around the property.

The other CY is a dump. Since you're probably filtering on the cheapest possible Marriott properties in the area, you probably also saw the Courtyard LBJ: that one is a dump too...but I still hit it a few times in the summer of 2010 for the cheap rates and the Delta promotion. I saw police activity in that hotel parking lot more than once...and even more often in the run-down apartment complex next door. On the bright side, if you need a check cashing store, a payday loanshark, or a pawn shop...you've got 'em within walking distance.

If you want a cheap Marriott that's pretty nice, go a little north to the Courtyard on Preston in Plano (I think). New lobby, very clean surrounding neighborhood, walkable to restaurants/bars. They sometimes give "bonus" amenities to Plats - a bistro appetizer or a free drink, for example. Maybe 10-15 minutes from Addison itself.

On the bright side, I had good experiences at most of the full-service Marriotts in the area. In off-peak periods, many of these will have very attractive rates. The FS hotel rates would drop well below the Residence Inn rates. As such, although I hit most other Marriotts from downtown Dallas to Plano at one point or another, I never stayed in the Residence Inns.

Oh, and I believe we have an Addison or generic "north Dallas 'burbs" thread around here. I remember reading it back in '10 or so. Maybe merge this one there?

I don't think the "terrible experience" is really Marriott at large...I'm sure I could go find a ratty Hampton Inn near Love Field or on LBJ, too.

I stay in Dallas twice a month for a week each time. I would recommend the Marriott City Center, downtown, and the Renaissance right off of I-35. Other than those, I might recommend the Marriott up near the Galleria off the Toll way.

Samlev

From what I was going by, Courtyards are pretty much equivalent to Garden Inns and Fairfields are similar to Hamptons. The Springhill actually was the least bad of the stays last week...

I have stayed at many full serve Marriotts with no issues whatsoever. usually they are priced much higher than the similar Hilton properties in the area.

I guess it will be a bit of a learning curve to find the good ones.

L

I think it was more a bad start than anything. Just got me rethinking the decisions.

Are these business or personal stays? Are you limited to the limited-service brands, a particular price range, or are any chains either required or off-limits for your company?

The good news is that North Dallas is more awash with hotels then almost anywhere I've ever traveled regularly. It really seems like they overbuilt capacity in the area and only approach sellouts and high rates on very limited occasions. Therefore, depending on your situation, you've probably got a few different options...including staying within the Hilton family.

I was a split Starwood-Marriott guest, with a very brief experience with Priority Club to "crack the case" in early '11. (I never did HH in the area.) But if you want more ideas/thoughts about the area, you're welcome to PM me...

These are business stays. We aren't required to stay at any particular brand, etc. but we do try to keep it fairly reasonable. My personal comfort zone is around $110-150/night maximum, but have paid much more in places like Chicago or LA where prices are higher.

I really do try to maximize my WN yield/year and one way I have done so over the years was to use Hhonors points to transfer to WN miles/Points. I use a ton of free tickets, but often don't need the stays at a hotel...

the current Megamiles is great for WN earns....

Gotcha. In that case, probably keep working the Marriotts (is there a max on Megamiles?) and keep an eye out for good deals in the FS hotels. Try that Courtyard on Preston Road up north too... I'd probably give that Addison SHS another shot too - hopefully the maintenance issue there isn't a common theme.

If you're doing this often, get signed up for a status challenge if you don't already have Gold/Plat. Doesn't matter much at the SHS/CY but if/when you do start seeing good rates on the full-service hotels, it will be useful in the same way that Gold/Diamond is at HH. Marriott doesn't tend to do outright matches but the challenges are pretty reasonable if you have a few weeks' worth of biz travel and are in a place like North Dallas where hotel-hopping, if necessary, is easy.

Yep, those are the brand equivalents with Hilton and Marriott. As you are finding out, Hilton does much better with the limited-service brands while Marriott is generally better with the full service properties.

Even then, I think your experience with the Dallas properties was below the standard for those Marriott brands. I have stayed at the SHS in Addison and didn't have the problems you encountered.

The other bit that makes it difficult is that Courtyard has a very broad definition ranging from "95% of the service as a full Marriott" to "worse than Fairfield."

Seriously, Marriott is all over the board with this brand, whereas an HGI anywhere is pretty consistent. For whatever reason, there are quite a few of the oldest, lower-end Courtyards scattered across North Dallas. Seriously: whenever I would sort all Dallas-area Marriotts based on cost alone, these would appear first in the list: 4 or 5 Courtyards, before the first Fairfield Inn. Maybe it's because the area was a prime place to build new hotels when the CY brand was first conceived...I don't know. That one you stayed in on Midway looks a lot like 1989, doesn't it?

Thanks leeinct. Now we can comment. I usually avoid Courtyards unless an airline leaves me stranded. then it is the cheapest Marriott property with a shuttle or close by if I get a rental. I have found too many tired and forgotten that I wont check em out to see if renovations made em better.