Had a 5 night stay at the Courtyard in The Woodlands, TX. Knowing we were staying at a Courtyard we took an electric kettle, a French Press and a pound of coffee. No way I was paying for, or waiting for coffee every morning. The coffee maker in the room was the old slot drawer kind and some no name single serve brand.

We had a lot of extra room in our luggage, so this was workable.

I would have just went to the local store, bought a new one and expensed it.

Of course there will be some profit from the relationship, but I wouldn't call it "pure profit" and they do "nothing". Marriott still produces and supplies branded items in addition to managing a pretty large reservation system and website, all of which costs. Marriott has positioned the CYs as a more low-profile property and they don't have a lot of typical hotel trimmings by design.

thats a a great idea , but for most of us that�s not a solution- but super clever on your part!!

Ha, we do this all the time. If we don�t take a coffee maker with us, often we will buy a cheap one and just leave it in the room when we are done. You can get a coffee maker at Target for around $15. This is for personal vacations where expensing is not an option. At $3 a cup for 2x people that drink 2 or more cups a day this is a wash at about 2 days.

Or just order one from Amazon and have it sent to the hotel ahead of your arrival.

CY Coffee in the Room Rant:

I'll take a pass on using the in-room coffee maker. Many CYs keep the coffee maker in the bathroom or inches outside. When a toilet is flushed, bacteria circulates. I'll pass on toilet coffee.

Even if the coffee maker is far from the toilet, the coffee maker isn't cleaned. Have you ever seen a carafe on the maid's cart? Do you think vinegar is ever run through the actual machine?

I was at the otherwise great Montreal CY. There was a fancy Keurig machine in the room. It seemed new, so I used it. The coffee had a chemical taste. The hotel was supposed to bring a new machine, but later that day, I could still smell the chemicals. The hotel claimed they had swapped out the machine but brought a third machine up, which was still in the box. As the maintenance guy took it out, I asked if they ever rinse out the machine. He said no. I showed him the first instruction in the owner's manual, in red bold, warned it was dangerous to use the machine before running empty cycles a few times. Not only that, but there was tape in both machines that should have been removed. Lesson learned. The hotels have no idea how to safely put the machines in rooms. BTW, after that the hotel delivered as many brewed carafes as I wanted. I was concerned about drinking the coffee until the woman delivering it told me, unprompted, that she totally understood.

There are articles on the internet instructing how to cook pasta, clean underwear and mix Theraflu in the hotel coffee maker. Who knows what disgusting thing it was used for in the past. Yuck.

In room coffee: pass! End of rant.

Yes, the lobby machine can be dirty and unclean, but the chances seem lower.

That may be a reason why the new M Club lounges all have fancy self-serve machines that are serviced by a third-party, which also supplies the coffee.

I have stayed in plenty of rooms where I unused water left in the coffeemaker is cleaned out by the maid during daily service. Now, whether they properly clean it or just wipe it with a rag, I don't know. I guess I never considered that possibility before. I guess I now have to assume there are degenerates out there who urinate in a coffeemaker.

For what it's worth, salmon poached in the coffeemaker is supposed to be delicious.

^ Further monetizing by charging for stuff as cheap as brewed coffee and basic breakfast items is only going to cause Marriott to lose biz.

I haven't encountered this yet but that would be my dealbreaker.

It's tough to loose business when you're the only game in town. Marriott, post-Starwood, is literally the only game in town in many cases, unless you're willing to do a Best Western or one of the Choice brands like Clarion, Days Inn and such.

My favorite is when they have the Dark and Blonde roast coffees, but none of the Medium - or better known as "regular" - roast. (I find anything but Medium roast Starbucks wholly undrinkable.)

Even better is when I get attitude from behind the Bistro counter: "We aren't a real Starbucks, you know!" I'm looking at you, Ronkonkoma, NY Courtyard.

I�m in the Seattle area this weekend and switched my reservation for tonight to the Bellevue Downtown CY, after reading this thread. I don�t know why but I was expecting the breakfast here to be free for Plats (don�t ask me why I thought that, it�s a CY after all). I worked a full day in New York then flew here and the disappointment (and exhaustion) must have shown on my face, so the very nice women working the front desk comped tomorrow�s most important meal. Points for service here, breakfast TBD.

In most of my frequent personal and biz destinations, CY is not the only game in town. Even when visiting my folks in small town NM, there is a Holiday Inn Express that offers a full free breakfast with none of the Bistro fuss.

The CY in downtown PHL is a big-time outlier - does not even seem like a CY to me. Very nice.

CY's are hit or miss, usually because of the age.

Whoever designed these standard rooms should have their head examined.

The Bistro can be ok, and when I am on an expense account I don't mind it. But if on my dime and time permitting I'm going somewhere else.

They really should give Plat's some kind of chit or something.

I just had a stay at one of the crap CY's. It was quite painful.

Like the Courtyard at the Flint Courtyard, which is clean but completely rundown and dilapidated.