Matthew Ganong

Review of Courtyard by Marriott Philadel...

The location and the general hotel staff are fine....

The location and the general hotel staff are fine. The big issue is with the Bistro/Bar. We stayed here Friday and Saturday night. Friday night we tried to call down to order food from the Bistro, only to be told that there was only one person working there and we would have to come down and order in person (contrary to what the in-room menu said). Sure enough, we discovered that the bar/bistro, for which advertising is plastered all over the hotel, is horribly understaffed. There is one person taking orders, making drinks, and helping to prepare food. My wife waited twenty minutes just to place an order and get a round of drinks, and then we waited almost forty minutes for the food. The second night, my wife and I went downstairs at 8:45 for drinks. Despite being the only person in line my drink order was not taken until 9:00 and we didn t get the drinks until 9:15. During that half hour I stood at the counter and watched patiently as the lone employee prepared and delivered food to people who had clearly been waiting a very long time. We wanted a second round of drinks but by that time there was a line of 7-8 people just waiting to get their order taken and the bar closed in 20 minutes. Most of these people just walked away looking unhappy as the sole employee barely glanced in their direction. The lounge and bistro setup is actually very nice and if they were adequately staffed to serve customers I would have given this a much higher rating. As it is, the terrible service at the bar/bistro is a deal breaker, especially in light of how much advertising there is for it throughout the hotel. Extremely disappointing.