Courtyard By Marriott Charlotte City Center

“Good stay”

Friendly staff and spacious rooms and good price point. Hotel is centrally located and has good amenities like a gym, onsite restaurant, convenience store, etc. Room was a bit dated and carpet seemed a bit old - but bed was comfortable and I’d recommend staying here.

“Hey Marriott….what’s up with this?”

Hey Marriott. What’s up with the inverse relationship between hotel cost and free coffee? So I have been traveling with Marriott for for 20+ years and I am a stockholder, and have always been baffled by this phenomenon. I wake up early and I am always seeking out a cup of coffee. If I pay ... more

Hey Marriott. What’s up with the inverse relationship between hotel cost and free coffee? So I have been traveling with Marriott for for 20+ years and I am a stockholder, and have always been baffled by this phenomenon. I wake up early and I am always seeking out a cup of coffee. If I pay under about $150-200 at a “value” brand Marriotts there is almost always a free, self serve coffee bar in the lobby/breakfast area. (Actually breakfast is usually also free). As you pay more for the hotel, coffee is harder to get. $2-300 hotels has the lobby coffee bar and microwaved breakfast place where you spend 10 minutes in line to pay $6 for a “Starbucks” coffee served from the same squirt coffee dispenser that the Fairfield gives me for free. $350-1000 it’s the most difficult. At the St. Regis and Ritz, it’s almost not worth it. First you have to wait for the restaurant to open (in some foreign countries that’s 7am), then as servers scramble around getting the morning started you have to flag one down for a to-go cup, which they are often put out to make, as they are busy. It’s usually expensive and then it is a tiny cup… Here’s the deal, every hotel needs a self serve coffee bar. The nicer the hotel, the nicer the coffee service, but still free and self serve. It’s basically a warm cup of water strained through some strangely tasty dirt. Seems like the simplest (and cheapest) amenity you could offer. Here’s a marketing idea: partner with a coffee maker to make a signature Ritz blend that is served at all locations and maybe people will even choose your hotels because they know there is always a tasty, free, and easy to get cup of coffee waiting for them. (If you use this idea, you owe me a $0.01 per cup royalty). By the way, I realize you put those silly single serve coffee makers in each room. Skip it. Save the money. 1. The coffee is terrible. 2. If your traveling with others you have to fumble around in the dark and wake up the entire party to have a bad cup of coffee. Thanks for listening. I enjoy your hotels. Best of Luck.

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“Why The 3 Stars?”

My wife and I stayed at the Courtyard downtown Charlotte recently for three nights. The hotel has some big plusses going for it as well as some drawbacks that people should know about beforehand. We arrived on a Saturday and things were quite busy downtown. The young lady who checked us in was q... more

My wife and I stayed at the Courtyard downtown Charlotte recently for three nights. The hotel has some big plusses going for it as well as some drawbacks that people should know about beforehand. We arrived on a Saturday and things were quite busy downtown. The young lady who checked us in was quite pleasant and explained that for our stay we would not be getting housekeeping unless we chose it. For my status with Marriott we were given one $10 voucher between us for snacks. The vouchers expired daily, which I thought was unnecessary. The room was sizeable, had both a mini fridge and a microwave, a closet, and a comfortable bed. Unfortunately, the pillows flattened down to the thickness of pancakes, the blackout curtains let vast amounts of light in at the crack of dawn, despite keeping the a/c fan set for running at all times it did not which made the room quite warm at times, we were put in a handicapped room with lots of empty space but all in the bathroom, the connecting door made it quite awkward with sound traveling VERY well through it, and the nonexistent housekeeping kept trying to barge into our room daily without even knocking first (despite the DND sign). That's quite a laundry list and you'd be correct in wondering why on Earth I would give this place three out of five stars but despite some very substantial shortcomings the place is far from all bad. The front desk staff was among the very best I've dealt with in the country and much better than most of the world. They were extremely pleasant, kind, unusually helpful and gracious to a fault. Another strong point is the location: it's wonderful. There are lots of bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues within a few blocks. Another plus is the bar staff who, while perhaps not used to high volume, are fun and pleasant. The food from the restaurant is also good. In short, our stay was a really mixed bag with the room itself being a major disappointment. I think that if we had been in a regular non-connecting room with good blackout curtains and a/c (maybe the other ones work well) and had a little better luck with housekeeping then this would have been a 5/5 review. Sure that's a lot of ifs but my wife and I are not ruling out a return.

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