Kyessa Byron Moore Thomas

Review of Springhill Suites by Marriott ...

A few things went wrong here: So, we had to check ...

A few things went wrong here: So, we had to check in late, arriving after a day of work and driving from NYC. We were staying for two days of fun for our toddler at Sesame Place starting the next morning, (and the hotel guests seem overwhelmingly to be families like us). Upon arrival after midnight, really very exhausted, we were given a room right off the lobby. And I mean first door off the lobby, around 1-2ft, and right next to the kitchen where they make breakfast for 630am!! Just Awful. Thankfully we brought a white noise machine with us as always, and it kept a lot of the noise to a minimum. Alas, although we had no intention of waking our exhausted toddler before she wanted to (since she went back to sleep close to 2am), the lobby noise woke her at 8am anyway.

Additionally, they gave us a room sans bathtub, just a shower! We have a 4yr old, we are going to a water park, there will be a sandbox and dirty chloriney-wet bodies... we need a bathtub to soak the grime off her!! We asked immediately, they said something with a tub should open up the next day around noon, but the hotel was booked solid and despite our advanced reservation, there was nowhere else we could be moved to. This isn't Europe or the Caribbean, so who puts in only a shower at a family friendly hotel with a giant cut out of Elmo in the lobby?!!? We had to waste time the next day, moving everything, and missing the whole morning at Sesame Place.

Finally, when they did move us, after we packed up all the stuff and wheeled it down the hallway, it was to a room of such noxious, horrible, fetid odour that I actually gagged and felt sick!!!! The smell was like a mix of some industrial strength cleaning powder and cigarette smoke and old food - just God awful! We had a small bottle of lavender room spray for the bathroom, but I used almost 1/3 of the 4oz bottle in the first hour trying to get rid of the smell. It had dissipated some by our check out morning... or maybe we were just immune to the smell and feeling of being sick by then.

And these issues leave out the cleaning person knocking despite the "be quiet we are sleeping" door tag we put on the outer handle- and the need to dress quickly to go see who it was when changing to go to the park! Only to have the woman say all casual and cavalier: "i saw the door tag, sorry i knocked." The tag is quite distinctive and very hard to miss.

It also leaves out the sad, sad, disgusting eggs at breakfast. We have stayed at all manner of "breakfast included" spots - Homewood Suites, Staybridge Suites, Holiday Inn, etc... - but these were by far the very worst eggs I have ever tasted!! 3mornings of eggs that were floating in a pool of water and actually tasted like the powder they must have come from. No amount of cheese or spinach or buttered bread could help.

So why only two stars lost? Overall the rooms were both clean (horrid smells in the second aside) and the staff were as friendly and accommodating as can be expected at a family water park adjacent hotel. The shower only bathroom was beautiful if also completely anti-utilitarian for parents with a toddler (see pic). The pool was working this time (during our 2016 one night stay, the whole thing was broken, this time just the hot tub was broken), although the pool is still of a criminally small size.

And honestly, we stayed there because it was walking distance to Sesame Place, so we knew it would not be Amazing, but we were happy for a quick commute in the event of a toddler meltdown. I imagine we might stay there again... maybe. But we would ask ahead of time for a room NOT so close to the front that you hear constant doors opening/closing and constant key card usage. And we would also specify up front that without a bathtub, the room is useless! We would ask for a non-smoking, non-noxious odour room. And we would probably plan to get our daily dose of cheesy-eggy breakfast protein elsewhere.