Huntsville Marriott at the Space & Rocket Center

Breakfast buffet, location, pool area

Nothing!

Easy and nice but expensive

Nice! No issues.

Fresh and comfortable has won the day. The staff was accommodating. Breakfast buffet was good and reasonable.

Well, once again this hotel disappoints in every way. I’ve been staying here since the 80‘s. Back then into the 90‘s it was the best place to stay in Huntsville. I’ve stayed away after my last experience here 3 years ago and had hoped that after the bissige before that were utter failures from 2020-2023 Marriott would have addressed the issues. Alas, they have not. Upon check in, the hotel staff LIED TO MY FACE making excuses why they gave away my room. When they told me they were putting me in the cabana rooms (sounds nice, but trust me this part of the hotel hasn’t been that since the 90‘s, despite the cheap renovation this hotel underwent a few years ago ago) I told them I specifically booked the tower rocket view with balcony room they proceeded to tell me that I had not and that there was nothing on the reservation for that. Funny enough, I pulled up my Marriott Bonvoy app and there the details of exactly that were there. I turned my phone to the RUDE and LYING desk clerk (the customer service st the hotel is abysmal still) and she said „oh I see that now.“ WOW. Then I politely told her I’ve been staying at this hotel since the 80‘s and am familiar with the property and the cabana rooms are unacceptable due to the noisy AC units and the room I paid for was more expensive in the tower with a balcony looking at the Space and Rocket Center for my kids so this was a huge downgrade plus we’d get terrible sleep due to the AC units in the rooms in that building. She then tried to sell me on the renovation. „Have you been here since our renovation?“ i politely responded „yes, Many times“ while in in my head thinking the cheap, tacky renovation done was little more than new carpet, paint and cheap beds and furniture. The hallways still smell of 1980 humid Huntsville - so much so they have air purifiers in them to try and mask it. They’ve recently painted the brown exterior brick the hotel is made of with black and white paint - it now looks like a convicts’s uniform black and white striped. The money spent on „renovating“ this hotel hasn’t been put in the right places. The window sills in the common areas in the cabana building are bubbling with the humidity of the past 40 years and are about the same as when I came as a kid through here for Space Camp. Dust and all. Marriott - this hotel needs a total reno or knockdown/rebuild to embrace being in Rocket City with the Space and Rocket Center next door. Embrace the theme - make the hotel Space centric. Between the thousands of families a year who come through here for Space Camp, Redstone Arsenal, FBI, NASA and commercial business you could have a year round stream of customers if you’d make this place an attraction hotel, rather than the sad painted over interior snd exterior and linoleum floored rooms you have done. Graduate Hotels has their finger on the pulse of what to do when you have a unique location. You are losing business at this hotel because of the level of customer service and what you get for the money. Many people I know avoid this hotel, even though it’s conveniently located to the business they are doing here in Huntsville. I won’t be booking it again, until you change this mess. The nostalgia held me to keep trying to give it a chance. I’m done. I I’d be willing to bet that the Space and Rocket Center or NASA archives would be willing to put historic items „on loan“ in your hotel if it were worthy enough. Back to my experience today, too bad, they gave my room away. No other rooms to accommodate my family. Maybe they can get me a room tomorrow (again, that I paid a premium for. At this point, I’ve been traveling all day to get here and my family is exhausted. Seriously debating sleeping in the car in the parking lot (which they charge you $ for which is absurd due to the size of the lot and the age of the property - this land is far past paid off). Stuck my in the horrible cabanas (where the AC units are in the outside wall and scream through the night) until they can „fix“ my booking to get me the right room. So a night of almost no sleep after traveling for almost 12 hours to get here sounds great. Left the lobby resigned to go to the horrible cabana room and called Marriott Bonvoy. Explained the situation. Asked them to fix the situation as the desk clerk was useless, rude and lied to my face. Bonvoy politely put me on hold and tried to call the hotel. NO ONE ANSWERED THE PHONE FOR BONVOY IN OVER 5 MINUTES. They came back and apologized profusely. I told them that the hotel was not busy (except the lobby „bar“ a term I use loosely here) and that this experience they had just trying to get in contact with the hotel exemplifies EXACTLY the issues going on with customer service at this hotel. At this point, I want a refund. I want my CORRECT room (or two king rooms of the same class I booked - with Rocket center views and balconies) comp‘d for the rest of my stay. Marriott you have failed for the last time for me in Huntsville.