First let me preface this review with- prior to the last night of our stay, we would have given a solid 4-5- the hotel was clean, convenient, priced very reasonably & we were very pleased. Prior to our last night- the ONLY negative - not a complaint- we had was the room & bathroom lighting was very poor & the bathroom fan attached to the light was horribly loud. But other than that- we were happy bc not only was it exactly where we needed & what we needed- we have a child that attends school nearby & we thought we had found a great place to stay on our visits.
HOWEVER- the last evening of our stay there was a situation that changed our entire opinion. And we think it is very important. At approximately 7pm the fire alarm(s) started beeping. Not going off, but a very loud, very high pitched long beep. Over and over. And then it started to actually alarm/go off. So we evacuated. When we got to the lobby, there were people milling around, no one was sure what to do. There were 3 employees- 2 were standing in front of the electrical alarm board on the phone. The 3rd was continuing to check a visitor in. No one was providing any direction to the guests. We left the building & several people followed. We watched the fire trucks arrive. And then we watched them leave. No one told us what to do or what was going on. We watched people return to their rooms & assumed it was ok & made our way up the stairs to our 6th floor room.
The alarm continued to randomly emit the loud high pitched extended beep squeal for the next 2+ hours. We had no idea what was happening. We tried to call the front desk from the phone in our room. It rang & then a prerecorded message came on telling us the mailbox for the number we had called had not been set up. We tried a couple different choices on the phone but got the same message. Finally using our own phone, we called the outside number to the hotel- when someone eventually answered- my husband asked what was going on, what should we do, was there a problem, was the alarm an electrical issue. The female on the phone spoke very quickly in heavily accented English & all we understood before she hung up was someone was here now just coming & fix.
I understand systems malfunction. However- the fact that the alarm was going off, guests were evacuating & there was zero direction or information provided by the staff AT ALL is extremely concerning. There should have been an employee acting as a liaison w the guests- announcing what was happening, where to safely stand, when to come back inside & regarding the continued extremely loud random beeps that continued. When the system continued to malfunction for an extended period of time- it should have been communicated to the guest- via recorded message at the front desk or an employee calling room to room or a ‘robo call’ of sorts thru the Marriott system. As well, we provided our phone numbers as part of check in. Marriott has been able to send me multiple reminders about my points, my status, my bill, & when my room reservation officially became ‘no cancellation’ status.
This is a blatant safety issue. This is the reason people die when there is a fire. Marriott should have procedures in place to keep their guests notified in an emergency & notified when it is a malfunction.
We are incredibly disappointed & this circumstance is the reason we give our visit the lowest score possible.
