I really wasn’t crazy about staying in the FiDi for this trip, but I had a limited number of Bonvoy points and this hotel had the lowest redemption rate for a 5 night stay. I would have rather been more centrally located but this hotel served its purpose and wasn’t a bad place to stay at all. I got an early check in (1:30pm) and they honored my requests for a corner room with a bathtub. The room was indeed tiny, with just about 3 feet of moving around space around the king sized bed. But since I was solo, it worked just fine. The bathroom was also small with just the essentials. There’s no counter space around the sink but there’s a glass shelf above the toilet for somewhere to place your toiletries. The view was nice, with floor to ceiling windows on two walls looking onto other tall office buildings. The room was quiet (16th floor) and the bed was comfy. I only went down for breakfast one morning out of 5 and found the usual Fairfield inn offerings of powdered eggs, oatmeal, bagels, toast, etc. The smallish breakfast area was packed with people and a little claustrophobic, so I only went down on the one morning. The lobby is tiny, but has a 24 hour coffee/tea station and some lemon water was also available. The staff were great on the few times I interacted with them. I booked my return trip to LGA through the front desk and the price was reasonable and the car showed up right on time. It’s around a 6-7 minute walk to the Fulton street subway station where you can access the A, C subway lines. These took me everywhere I wanted to go and the wait time for trains wasn’t bad. There is a 7-eleven convenience store right on the walk to the subway and it was super handy for buying soda, water and snacks for the room. I was surprised by how much activity there was around the station at night when I would return to the room. People were everywhere. I expected this area to be a little more isolated, especially after dark. There were also several fast food restaurants and pizza stands along the walk to/from the subway. Overall, this hotel met my needs as a place to sleep and shower so I could explore the city during the day. I’d stay here again, especially since I now know how to maneuver from the hotel to the subway. If you’re like me and are looking for a bargain hotel in Manhattan under the Marriott brand you should give this place a try. Just be aware that the rooms are tiny and will be a tight fit for more than one person.

Be careful! Unfortunately we cannot reccomend this hotel because of their unethical practice - charging for previously paid accommodation. We paid in advance via Booking for our stay from 18.09.2024 till 01.10.2024. While checking in, we were told by the receptionist that our stay has to be split into 2 due to its long duration. We were asked to come to the reception on 31.09.2024 to formally check out and in again. So we did. We were charged 259.39 $ as a 'deposit'. Then it turned out we were charged for the last night 31.09.2024-01.10.2024 which was already paid via Booking, before coming to the hotel. We still didn't get our money back, the hotel stopped responding to our emails. This is unacceptable and not befitting for the Marriott hotel.

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.