Jeremy Bennett

Review of Vail Marriott Mountain Resort

Let me preface my comments with the fact that I am...

Let me preface my comments with the fact that I am a frequent Marriott visitor. Between the travel my wife and I conduct for business and pleasure, we happen to stay at Marriott hotels up to 4-5 weeks a year. We've grown accustomed to exceptional service and standards that Marriott provides. Vail however, was the exception in exceptional. After agreeing to pay in season pricing for service and convenience, we were extremely disappointed with the customer service and awkward encounters we were forced to endure during our short 3 day stay at the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort.

Arrival: Staff seemed startled that we were looking forward to skiing upon our noon arrival while our room was being prepared. Storing our bags seemed unwelcome as walking in the stone floored lobby with ski gear was strongly discouraged (A mere 3 hours later the whole lobby will filled with ski boot walkers coming in for the day). Marriott touted their mountainside concierge service with ski check so we went along and changed for skiing and walked over to the gondola to get on the mountain. Our skis were checked mountainside after our day of enjoying Vail Mountain and we headed back to the hotel. Our room was clean and pleasant and bellhop arrived shortly afterwards with our baggage.

Stay: Our stay in the hotel was comfortable. After a long breakfast, we made our was back to the slopes to get back on the mountain. However, my wife's skis were missing from ski check. We described them and the ski check radioed back to the Marriott storage to check if they had been left behind. A moment later, we overhear on radio they had found her skis back at the hotel and could hear an employee request for someone to meet her halfway there. After blank stares, I kindly offered to run back and meet the employee while in ski boats at which point one of the employees decided it would be better if he ran back. After 25 minutes of waiting, we were ready to ski. We were charged a $60 per day resort fee for this "service."

Departure:As we prepared to leave, we called the bellhop to bring a cart to our room to load up our bags. An attendant promptly arrived but told us to call back as we were not all packed up. They could not leave the cart so the attendant very begrudgingly said we will need to call back because he could not let us pack up our own bags on a cart. We called back 5 minutes later as the same attendant arrived providing awkward half engaged attention and showing clear signs of annoyance.

In retrospect, we had nothing but uncomfortable experiences at Vail Marriott. The hotel was clean and had all the appearances of a Marriott hotel but the service aspect was nonexistent and staff always seemed annoyed to be there.

I will reconsider where I stay while on business based on this experience. Needless to say, I have no desire to stay at the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort in the future. When in Vail, I will look to stay at an aribnb, VRBO, or other vacation rentals. I see no benefit staying in a hotel room where for the same price I can rent a home and receive the same level of service. I WILL NOT BE BACK.

Jeremy