SpringHill Suites by Marriott Norfolk Virginia Beach

The size of the gym

The breakfast attendees

Everything

Beautiful room and a continental breakfast

Location was okay, room was nice, being told to park by Denny’s was unusual.

Location

My, my, my, where to start. I guess I’ll start by saying that the initial looks from the lobby were deceiving. Of the 25+ years I have been staying at Marriott properties, this one was the worst at which I have stayed.

I had a 2-night stay at this Springhill Suites, that started on a Friday, to attend a family reunion. The night before I stayed at a different Marriott property, the Fairfield Inn & Suites Chesapeake, and based on my experience at this Springhill Suites property, I should have never left the Fairfield Inn!

Once I checked in, made it to my floor, and got off the elevator, I noticed the hallways were hot, no air conditioning was circulating. I am not sure what that was about and I didn’t bother to ask since my room was comfortably cool, and I was only there for 2 nights. Then I noticed the ice machine was not working on my floor, the 4th floor. Later, I found out that no ice was available on several floors, not just the 4th floor. In my case, I did find ice available on the 6th floor.

A few ants (no more than 10, but if I saw 10, that meant there were more) were discovered on the dresser next to my bed and the box spring of my bed the first night as I was getting ready for bed. I called the front desk and spoke to Sydney, who tried to find a remedy, as my request to move to another 2 double room could not be met, as none were available. She did offer a King room for the night, but my preference was to have 2 doubles, as I was sharing a room with my brother, so I indicated I would stay in the room, and I slept on the couch for the night. Sydney indicated I could speak with her manager Jen in the morning and that in the pass/notes she was leaving for her she would make the manager aware of the situation. I spoke with Jen the next morning and she genuinely seemed concerned about the issue and wanted to address it. We did discuss me and my brother moving to another room, and I initially was thinking to do that, but decided instead to let the staff clean and spray to try and deal with the ants, considering again, this was only a 2-night stay. So, while my family and I were gone for a few hours on Saturday, I understand that some cleaning and spraying took place in our room. So, imagine my surprise after being back in the room for about 30 minutes finding yet another ant crawling on the dresser next to the bed. With that, I decided it was time for us to move to another room (and I really did not want to sleep on the couch again), but wait, there's more...let me tell you about that.....

When I called to inquire about switching to another room, I spoke with Craig and was initially told no 2 double rooms were available, but then he put me on a brief hold and came back to tell me he would be able to move me down the hall to another room with 2 doubles, so I was grateful for that. Keys to that new room were brought up expeditiously. My brother and I packed up and made our way down the hall to the new room. Upon opening the door to that room, it smelled stale or like dogs or something, just had a not good odor. That room was also very stuffy. I looked at the thermostat on the wall, and the temperature was set for 60 degrees, but the temperature in the room read as 74, which is what it felt like. I don’t want to be in a 74-degree hotel room in August when it’s 90+ degrees outside. After turning the unit to the On position, from Auto, just so the unit would more continuously run, the room did not get cooler.

So once again, I had to call the front desk to ask that someone come and look at what was going on with the air conditioning. You can see by the pictures that the unit was a piece of crap. I called the front desk and they sent Richard up. He confirmed that the unit was broken within 5 minutes of seeing it. Thankfully, he was able to get us a new AC unit and installed it in our room within 25 minutes, so a big shout out to Richard. If not for Richard coming to swap out the decrepit, busted up AC unit that was in the room and replacing it with a brand spanking new one, me and my brother would have been sweating it out. Richard was the most helpful person in this whole hotel, coupled with the staff taking care of breakfast who were nice and attentive to our needs.

So the morning of check out I receive a bill that reflects the amount that I should have been expected to pay if I had a typical stay, however, we all now know that was not the case. So, upon receiving this bill in my email, I stopped by the front desk to inquire with Jen, who I spoke with the day before, to see what adjustments might be made to my bill for the inconveniences encountered during my stay. I shared with her what had occurred after she left the day before, that upon returning to our room after the spraying and cleaning, unfortunately, ants were still present, and that Craig moved us to another room, which presumably unbeknownst to him, had an AC issue. Jen did end up removing the charge for 1 of the 2 hotel nights, which is what I was hoping I would hear and thought was fair.

As Judge Judy would say, I "ate the steak" by staying there, so yes, I did believe that I should be charged something for my stay, but I did not think I should be charged as if I had a typical stay. Missing out on family reunion time to deal with these issues, the inconvenience of switching rooms (only to find the new room to be a sweatbox), sleeping on a couch for 1 of my 2 nights because I didn't want to risk waking up overnight or the next morning with ants in bed with me...no, none of that is typical, especially for a Marriott property.

I'm not sure who's running this ship, but I do understand that this is a franchise owned versus a corporate owned property. Maybe that's the difference, I don't know. So, all in all while this hotel looks nice and aesthetically pleasing upon arrival, once you pull the covers back, figuratively and literally (in my case), you will see that many improvements are needed to make it truly an A-list Marriott property. If you're able to stay at another property in the area, I would suggest you do so until this one can truly live up to the Marriott name.

The lobby is impressive for a midmarket hotel and Craig at the front desk is a fine representative with very warm greetings and willing to accommodate your needs.
Although located on a main street, not walkable with the exception of Denny's and a Mexican restaurant across the street. I never saw any supermarkets or pharmacies during the stay. I was very impressed with the cleanliness across the whole property. The housekeeping staff were friendly and efficient. The breakfast is good in light of it being complimentary. The only complaint I have is some of the guests would leave the lids up on the hot food. Two female workers would scream at the guests and continue to complain about it to each other quite loudly. I understand their frustration but to go on a tantrum and confrontation with guests is unacceptable. The noise level in general is quiet even with two large family reunion groups in house. Our meetings were outside caterers which were average so not a reflection of the hotel. A car is necessary transportation other than an Uber or Lyft.

Friendly staff

It was an easy drive to the airport.