I took my son to the Big Apple to celebrate his 10th birthday. I did a lot of research comparing the Renaissance, Marquis, and Fairfield, which are all a couple of blocks apart on Times Square. I chose the Marriott Marquis because of the benefits of the concierge lounge (we are Gold Members and have free access).
The food and views in the concierge lounge were quite disappointing, compared to other recent stays in DC and London. Because the lounge is in a narrower portion of the building, you really can't see Times Square very well (we actually had a much better view of it from our room) and really just saw into some offices in the next building--not an amazing view at all. The breakfast had fresh strawberries and pineapple, juice and coffee, water and soda, and not too cold milk. They had a few kinds of dry cereal, bread to toast, a couple of muffin/pastry (sort of dry and tasteless) options, and some sausage, and few other things. Nothing tasted especially good (except the fruit one of the mornings) and there were fewer options than we usually see in large cities. My son is picky eater and only had dry cereal and water. Disappointing for him and me.
In the afternoons, we did not find much of a snack other than apples and sodas, waters, etc. There was no evening dessert. They did have a light appetizer at the dinner hour (cut veggies, spring rolls, etc). My picky 10 yr. old did not like any of the options but wanted to enjoy the ambiance (rather than the hustle bustle of the Times Square pizza joint he picked for dinner) so he brought a slice of pizza to the lounge to eat with his Sierra Mist while I would actually get to enjoy a few fresh veggies after a day of fast food on the run. The concierge asked us to leave, stating that no outside food could be brought in during meal service time. My son was quietly eating his slice of pizza at a small side table and not bothering anyone. I tried to explain that my son is a very picky eater and would not enjoy the concierge food, but that I would and had hoped we could have a little relaxing time together at the end of a busy day of helicopter flight, Staten Island Ferry, and shopping in Times Square, but the attendant did not budge at all so we had to eat in our room instead. I had not seen anything posted about it and was very disappointed that all the extra money we spent for the Marquis to enjoy the concierge lounge seemed to be fruitless for our family.
The concierge lounge was located on the far end, away from the elevators, of a different floor than ours and seemed to take at least 10 minutes to move from our room to it. It seemed a great hassle to move back and forth, and the transfer time was not what we have experienced in other Marriotts in large cities. Actually moving throughout the hotel seemed to take much longer than we usually experience. When you are in a rush to experience a big city in just a few days, it seems frustrating to spend 10-20 minutes just moving through the hotel each time you want to go brush your teeth after eating, go to ask the concierge a question, or visit the front desk. I think the Renaissance or Fairfield might be a better pick for the ease of movement.
There is a long wait for everything, from checking in (even if only one person or two is ahead of you in line), dropping off your bags with the bellman (usually 10 to 20 people in line waiting), picking up your bags (again 10 to 20 people in line waiting), asking the concierge a question, or even waiting to push the button for the "smart" elevators. We liked the smart elevators in DC, because they took you directly to your floor. In NYC, the elevator assigned to you (ex "elevator A") might be around the corner and leave before you could arrive, even if running around the crowds of people and bags. Also, the elevator did not just take the people going to floor 30 like it did in Washington DC, it would take people to your floor-30-but also people stopping at floors 4, 12, 28, and 29. So it didn't seem as "smart."
The check-in desk is on the 8th floor, so it adds another stop to your journey. Our room was not ready when we arrived, so they said they would text us when it was ready. At 4 pm (check-in time, we still hadn't gotten a text so got back in line to wait for the check-in desk. We'd been given a piece of paper to "expedite" our check-in since we'd already been through the line once, but even though we were in the elite members line and waved our paper, we still had to wait maybe 20 minutes to speak to someone to check-in. One day while we were there, a large school group was checking out so the manager left a note stating that anyone else checking out should allow an hour or two for the process, because it would take extra time to check out, get bags from the bellman, etc. It's just a very large hotel and the added stop from your room, a long trek to the elevators, on the exhausting elevators, a long trek on the 8th floor to the check-in desk, and then the long trek back to the exhausting elevators, to the ground floor, just takes a long time. Nothing is quick in this hotel, which is frustrating because in an expensive city, you want to save as much of your day for sightseeing as possible and not just getting in and out.
Our check-in clerk (maybe Brad?) was a dream, though, and gave us a free up-grade to a room with a Times Square view, on the floor next to the gym. It was a large corner room and had a great view of the Disney Store and the big LED screens, which my son loved! Not only that!, but he also arranged to send a complimentary order of Dylan's Candy Bar treats and bottles of water to our room from room service along with a note congratulating my son on his birthday! My son was thrilled! (In a hotel where one kid's chicken tender meal costs $20 plus $5 in fees from room service, this must have been a $50 value.) WOW!
The lobby concierges were wonderful, gave maps and good directions, and insisted on figuring out whether a cab or the subway was a better price for us when we wanted directions to museums, etc. Most Broadway shows are within walking distance, which is nice. We actually saw Stomp which is off Broadway, and needed a cab to get there in time, so it was nice to have a line of cabs waiting under the building in the big rain storm that burst open just as we were ready to leave.
The concierge in the concierge lounge though seemed as if he couldn't be bothered to care about yet another tourist going to see the symbol of our country's freedom and boredly handed us directions to the Statue of Liberty without a map or any advice or help. Fortunately I had been there years before and remembered that as you exit from the subway, you need to veer right. When you first exit, you see the Staten Island Ferry station, which would be easy to mistake for the Statue of Liberty boats, but not a word of help or advice was given, even when asked for any tips. Later when we asked about timing for our car service to the airport, the same concierge again seemed a little condescending but did give accurate information about how long to allow for our trip to LaGuardia (by the way, Carmel is very timely and cheaper than a cab to the airport--they were there for us in minutes in a nice minivan even though we arrived an hour ahead of schedule).
In contrast, the London Grosvenor's Square Marriott concierges took the time to look up good directions via subway (though it was clear most guests there usually took cabs so it was unfamiliar to them) for us to each play we attended, find restaurants to recommend that my teen would like (as most London restaurants don't serve American kid food), and even helped us when a hung-over (and barely standing) music mogel was waiting to have an interview with a radio reporter in the lounge, despite our offer to let them attend to the other guests ahead of us, because we had arrived first. The London concierge lounge concierges went above and beyond to find DVDs my son would enjoy, get sodas he would like, answered innumerable questions we e-mailed before we arrived, and made sure to leave Harry Potter memorabilia and a birthday cake in our room before our arrival. We felt special and cared for, even though we were staying on Marriott points. In contrast, the NYC concierge lounge attendant acted as if we were a bother and just one more of many tourists he'd have to endure that day, even though we were polite, respectful, and patient.
As a teacher, I travel mostly on my husband's frequent hotel/airline miles to make special travel affordable. I had booked our stays for London (my 13 yr old son's b-day trip) and NYC (my 10 yr old son's b-day trip) using Marriott miles. I was unsure from the website whether all our points had been deducted for one or both hotels prior to our stay or if they would be debited later and wanted to make sure that I had enough points for both as it was hard for me to tell from the website, so called Marriott twice to confirm that we indeed had enough points for both trips and that they had already be deducted. They assured me we were good to go and both were already subtracted, but at the last minute they changed their story, and we ended up paying out $500, without any discount or recompense for the fact that their own employees had been in error. Even the individual on the phone saying that we had to pay extra thought from the records that our points had already been deducted for the stay and was confused by the records as well. It was disappointing that if they were unsure if whether the points were deducted from our total or not, that they would expect the consumer to be able to deduce it accurately from Marriott's system. If I had known, I just would have chosen a location that required fewer points for our two stays, so that it would have been free instead of $500...which is a lot on a teacher's salary.
All in all, the Marriott Marquis is a good location, has nice rooms, but it takes so much more time and effort that I wouldn't recommend it over the Renaissance, Fairfield or other locations that are only a block away unless you value a cool glass elevator over a speedy, easy to use location.
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