Visalia Marriott at the Convention Center

Er absolutely loved our stay

I like that is clean and pet-friendly. Breakfast was also good.

We asked for a quite room due to light sleep. She gave us in the upper floor the last room in the corridor. The room itself was great, Great bed, bath and everything you need. Breakfast was good.

Very good

spacious room, location

Was the ok in general

The room was nice.

Let me start out by saying I’m a Gold Elite member and just recently a former Executive Housekeeper for a premium Marriott branded property. No I’m not the Gold member who thinks I’m an Ambassador, I’m actually very understanding to the behind the scenes of a property and would never do a negative review, but after what I encountered and found, I think this was needed.

Pro: let me first start by saying the property on the side is very clean and spacious. You can tell that the grounds are taken care of management at least has a clear vision and direction of what their hotel is supposed to look like. Inside the lobby is also very clean and well lit. I do have to admit I love the spacious layout and it is very inviting. They are a pet friendly hotel and they have a really nice water feature, which is complementary for guests.

They do have a full kitchen from what I can see in the bar and the food is actually very good. During my stay, I use the pool, but I took a walk out there and I noticed the pool was a little dirty, but besides that the surround was veryclean and they do have a lot of games or activities that you can do by the pool. I mostly use the gym and I do think the gym was very well adequate and had the right materials and equipment for this type of an operation. It was also very clean and I couldn’t have any complaints about it.

Con: unfortunately, this is the thing that I hate the most about these type of reviews is the negative. Let me start by saying I did inform them through the app that I wouldn’t arrive until later when usually the auditor will be on duty. When I arrived, the gentleman at night was very friendly and welcoming. They do have a very odd layout of the desk, but that’s not any big deal. It’s more of a personal preference. But I did it was very robotic and he didn’t ask what brought me to the area or anything about being a member, to be honest, I was never greeted as a member until he was speaking about breakfast and that’s when he found out that I was a member. There was no offer of a late checkout, nor was there anything in regards to any type of perks that come with my account, which isnormal standard SOP policy that front desk or trained with for a Marriott property.

Now to the room, I do have to say the rooms are very spacious and ultimately are very well clean. With that said though as aformer executive, there is a big lack in either cleaning or inspection. What I do like is the rooms are not carpet, which makes cleaning a little bit easier so I know they use some type of a sticky roller for stay over service or for checkouts, but I myself have brown hair, very short and I found very long women hair in the shower and in the bathroom that was jet black. So I can tell that this room or bathroom wasn’t clearly inspected. Also, I noticed that the sink stopper was plugged, which means that the vanity area was also not clearly inspected. What else I found was the toilet paper was only half full, which means when the last guest checked out it was never replaced. I know that on inspections, a supervisor or manager would have caught this so that’s concerning. Once I started knowing it is seen a lot of stuff I went in my normal inspection mode which unfortunately when you work for Marriott property is a double edged sword. You want to get away on vacation, but you can’t help or do your job. As a safety issue, I found that the bathroom door lock does not work, which I took a video of. I also found that there definitely a bacterial growth forming on the bottom, slide plates of the shower, which are pre-mold indicators of moisture, as well as a lot of rust from the containers that can hold amenities for a guest in the shower. All of these can be cleaned by standard Ecolab lemon lift products that most hotels use. For my account I also make sure that I request extra towels and I normally don’t do any type of service for my room, as well as a high floor request. I did notice that there was only two sets of towels in my room, which clearly shows that they did not meet request and I was put on the second floor when I normally have a high floor request. First standard SOP training usually front desk do a GXP check ahead of time through Marriott to see a person‘s profile and what their legs are dislikes are clearly that was not met.

The other concerning thing that I noticed in the room was some type of event area that was fully exposed, and what looked to be the closetsection. This was bolted in by some type of screws that were not fully connected to the wall, which led me to actually open the thing. There was clear dust exposure, as well as a major safety issue for any guest to be able to puncture themselves with the screws. With this concern, and also not knowing if there are any type of rodents or bugs that could be going through the walls and easily coming out, really led me to want to speak to management in lease address this concern privately not to put anybody on blast but just to talk to someone hotel professional to hotel professional. From what I found in a room, most guests don’t understand or know that Marriott properties have a yearly MI Health Check that is mandatory, I feel that my room would’ve completely failed this health check and does not meet Marriott standards.

Now the rest of the day I can say was fine and ultimately the customer surf. This was actually very nice, but I do recommend that employee should smile a little bit more and be careful of the small talk that you have at the front desk because everybody can hear it. One thing that I wanted to point out is since I wasn’t offered my late checkout the day before my checkout I went in the morning,and I talked to the young lady at the desk who is by yourself and cleaning the Starbucks area. I asked her in regards to myself as my room if I can have my normal late checkout, which she responded by saying you’ll have to come by tomorrow or call tomorrow so we can check. Now for me, as a former employee, that doesn’t really bother me because I know she was alone, and she was having to clean an area. But for-the normal guest or an elite member, she should’ve took the time to actually check in the computer and identify myself and to confirm my status address the situation better. Later that night I spoke to the young man and the lady who is at the desk and the young man was very professional, checked my reservation and actually greeted me by name. He confirmed my late checkout and had no problem with it, which is different from the information that the young lady gave me in the morning. I’m not sure if this young man is a supervisor, but if he isn’t, I strongly consider training him to become a supervisor because he was-very professional, and I saw him also talking to other guests in a very polite professional way.

So on the day of my departure, I decided that I would leave just a little bit earlier than my normal late checkout because I had all my work done. I wanted to make sure that I checked out at the front desk because I was not looking for any type of compensation or any type
of a discount at least at that time because I thought as a professional it would be nice to just to speak to any type of supervisor or manager on and at least show them the photos and video and then just show them my concern. I spoke to the young lady after she got off the phone, confirmed all my details and asked if I wanted my folio printed or emailed. I asked for it to be emailed and that was it. Again, back to Marriott standard SOP of training this was her biggest point to see how a guest stay was and to ask him or her how their day went, which was completely overlooked. After the entire stay and also not being heard at checkout has led me to the feeling that either the guest are not cared for or my stay is just not important to management. This is the reason for my review, it is not to blast the hotel but it is a show an inside look from a hotel, professional, to let the hotel know that things should be better and can be better. Consider this constructive criticism, I wish I had the opportunity to speak to management because more than likely I wouldn’t have posted this review.

Now I wanna be honest, what I go back to this facility and stay here again, yes. I believe that hotels can change and do see that they do a lot of things that are nice so I can’t blame them for that. They have a lot of working parts for this big but I do think that a lot of things are very concerning on a Marriott standpoint.

Honestly, I expected more from a Marriott hotel.

When I checked in, I had requested a room away from the elevators, but I was assigned a room right next to the elevator. I went back downstairs to request a room change, and when I returned to the new room, the keys did not work.

Once I finally got into the room, I was surprised by the condition it was in. There were paint chips on the floor, construction dust piled up in the corners, and dust along some of the floorboards. The desk lamp was also speckled with what looked like spray paint. Obviously fresh paint but the fixtures in the room looked worn and dated.

The hallways were not much better. They appeared dirty, and it looked like debris from the rooms had been swept into the hallway but never vacuumed up.

On the positive side, the location is good, and there are places within walking distance in Visalia. But overall, this stay fell short of what I would expect from a Marriott property.

Unfortunately, noise level was another issue, between doors slamming shut and the outside noise levels, I didn't get a good night's sleep.

Breakfast was excellent & we stayed there for the event at the convention center.

Really nice stuff