We booked four rooms at the Element Anaheim Resort Convention Center for a three-night stay to attend a family wedding. What followed was one of the worst hotel experiences our group has had, involving days without hot water, one night with no running water at all, a security incident that frightened children in our party, and front desk staff who were dismissive at every turn.
Water Outage:
For the first two days of our stay, our rooms had no hot water. On the third day, the situation worsened significantly. From 11pm onward, there was no running water at all, meaning no working toilets, no showers, and no faucet water of any kind. Our group returned from a family wedding that evening to find the facility completely without water and no viable solutions offered by staff. A notice had been posted stating that only hot water would be temporarily unavailable due to City of Anaheim maintenance. In reality, all water was cut off. Furthermore, the hotel's own maintenance staff acknowledged that no other hotels in the area were affected, which directly contradicts the city maintenance explanation.
What is perhaps most troubling is that if this were truly scheduled maintenance, the hotel had advance notice and chose to do nothing with it. They continued checking guests in without disclosure. They made no proactive arrangements to move guests to a sister property. No manager appears to have been engaged to prepare for the outage or ensure guests would have access to basic facilities. Families with children returned from a wedding to a facility that was not habitable, with no plan in place and no one empowered to help.
Staff Response:
When we approached the front desk for assistance, the same staff member first told us that each room should share its toilet without flushing until water was restored at 5am. When we pushed back on how unreasonable that was for families with children who had no ability to flush throughout the night, he then suggested we use the pool bathroom, which also had no water, and then directed us to walk to a neighboring hotel and use their lobby bathrooms. When we pressed for clarity on the actual situation, he repeatedly stated there was no hot water and also no cold water, while never directly acknowledging what that combination meant: no water at all. At one point he said, "what do you want me to do, I'm a human too and need to use the bathroom." When we requested to be moved to another Marriott property, the best he could offer was free water bottles and free parking. When we asked to speak with a manager or obtain a manager's contact information, he refused. This was not an isolated interaction. On the prior nights when we complained about the lack of hot water, we were told on each occasion that there was no manager on duty and that staff could not share the name or contact information of any supervisor. We were traveling with children. Across every night of our stay, every request for a reasonable solution or escalation path was met with deflection.
Security Incident:
On our second night, someone was running through our floor and banging on room doors. We called the front desk and requested that security be sent and that video footage be reviewed. Neither request was fulfilled. Approximately two hours later, the same thing occurred again on our floor. We had children in our party who were frightened and woken up in the middle of the night on two separate occasions. The following morning, day staff had no record of either incident and no notes had been placed in our file.
Resolution Attempts:
We escalated to the hotel manager after day staff provided contact information. The response was an offer of points. We have since opened a formal case with Marriott Bonvoy. As of this posting, no one has contacted us.
Four rooms for three nights at a facility that lacked basic utilities for the majority of our stay, with a security incident involving children that was never investigated or documented, warrants a full refund. We understand that sometimes things outside of anyone's control happen, but staff being indifferent, rude and unprepared, and then management not following up appropriately and with apologies, is unacceptable. We have photos of the posted notice and video documentation of the water outage across our rooms. We are sharing this account so other families can make an informed decision before booking, and to create a documented public record of what occurred during our stay.
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