"My husband and I booked to stay here with our 2 small children so that we could take them to Disneyland. We made the booking in September (8 months in advance!).
On the day of travel, we received an email informing us that our reservation had been cancelled with no explanation. We were already on the train by this point and were due to arrive within 30 minutes. We started to panic, thinking where are we going to sleep with our 7-month-old daughter and son in tow.
My husband contacted the hotel whilst we were still on the train to be (again) given no explanation to which he replied saying that we would come anyway and that they needed to sort it.
Upon arrival at the hotel, Miguel who claimed to be the Hotel Manager, came to explain to us what had happened. He said that as we had paid friends/family rate (our close friend back in England works for Marriott) they had in-fact given our room to someone else at full price. Miguel also told us that no alternative room within the hotel had been arranged and that they had arranged for us to stay elsewhere, which was the Holiday Inn Express for 2 nights to then return to this Marriott hotel for the last 2 nights. My husband replied saying that we didn’t want to move halfway due to the upheaval of transporting the children, Miguel’s response was that there was no other alternative. We were offered return taxis to the Holiday Inn (The return leg of which there was no car seat for our daughter, and she sat on my husband’s lap- not ideal or safe!), 2 x free shuttles to Disney and after some haggling, breakfast on the day we checked out. This did feel like we were not valued guests and they were just shoving us out the way to make room for someone who would pay more. At this point, Miguel’s tone changed. At the beginning of the conversation, he appeared overly friendly, however when my husband expressed that he felt that this was very unfair, rather than being sympathetic and understanding, Miguel was ruthless and insensitive telling us that: “this is in the terms and conditions” and basically it was tough.
We were told by Miguel that our room at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel would be adjoining. Upon arrival, the 2 rooms that we had were not adjoining but in fact 2 separate rooms.
During the 2 nights that we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express we were all cramped into one room due to the non-adjoining rooms and had no access to a suitable travel cot. This meant, that we had to co-sleep with our 7-month-old daughter which is not recommended by The Lullaby Trust and potentially could have put her at risk, as she would have been safer in her own cot.
As our daughter is mainly bottle fed, there were no adequate facilities available to wash and sterilise her bottles. We had to ‘’make do’ by washing them in the bathroom sink and using the communal microwave to try and sterilise the bottles, this was far from suitable and again could have put our daughter at risk due to insufficient facilities. This is one of the reasons why we had chosen the Marriott hotel in the first place as it had a fully furnished kitchen and access to a safe and approved travel cot.
There were also a couple of other teething issues with the Holiday Inn Express such as no change of clean towels were offered and the beds weren’t made, whilst these might seem like minor issues, it reinforces the fact that the standard was just not comparable to the standard of the Marriott hotel.
After our 2 nights in the Holiday Inn Express, we then went to stay at The Marriott Hotel as originally planned. Upon arrival, the lady at reception didn’t know where our bags had been put (they had been taken to the house) and there was no travel cot or highchair in the house, however upon contacting reception, they did sort this in a timely manner. Whilst these issues again, might seem minor, it just highlights the lack of forethought and how undervalued as customers we were in the eyes of The Marriott Hotel.
Upon check out, my husband asked to speak to someone about the final bill and was again greeted by Miguel. He was told that there wouldn’t be any movement on the final bill and that the price would be the price. The same friendly attitude at the beginning of the encounter was quickly replaced with the unsympathetic tone that had greeted us before, when commenting that we were forced into all sleeping in the same room, he commented that was our choice and that we could have split and used the other room. Sensing that he was getting nowhere, my husband asked to speak to the person that was in charge and Miguel claimed this was him. When my husband pressed him on this, he conceded that he would see if there was anyone else. The site Director then came out and spoke to my husband, who although more sympathetic, was still unwilling to move on the price but did offer to cover our taxi to the train station.
Overall, an extremely disappointing experience that ruined a big part of our holiday. When we booked The Marriott Hotel, we expected to have all the facilities that we required for our children, in a great location to Disneyland with high standards that the hotel endeavours to meet, this was hugely clouded by this appalling treatment at the beginning of the holiday and will not be forgotten. Since we have returned to England, I have made it my mission to tell as many people as possible to NEVER stay at this Marriott Hotel and listed the above reasons. The owners of this hotel really need to look at their customer service training and try and adapt a more compassionate and human approach for ALL customers rather than just the ones that will give them the highest financial benefit."
