The Bistro - Eat. Drink. Connect.®

Never open except for breakfast, total disappointment for a Marriott hotel!

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

*** sorry as this is a long and detailed review *** On July 3rd, my family and I arrived to the Courtyard Marriott Newark downtown on Broad St in new Jersey. The first room we were in was 720 which was a handicapped accessible room. It was okay except the bathroom had a shower curtain that was about 8 inches off of the floor so when we took a shower, the bathroom floor became soaked and dangerously slippery. We asked for a room changed which was granted the next morning which was July 4th. We were moved to room 720. July 4th, my daughter woke up to raised bumps and blistering on her lower calf. I put some Benadryl on it thinking she had a spider bite or something. Well after another day of it looking worse, we reached out to our doctor virtually who viewed it and said it looked like bed bug bites. Well, we had switched rooms, so I reached out to the front desk to ask them to check the previously room before anyone else goes in there. The manager, Camille Grant reached out to me and stated she closed off the room and would keep us posted after environmental services check the room out. She asked us if we had any expenses that were incurred which we did...the doctor's visit and two medicines. I met with Ms. Grant when we returned to the hotel later that evening and she stated the hotel would pay for the doctor's visit but she wasn't sure if they would reimburse for the medicines. Ms. Grant offered to launder all of my daughter's clothes in hot water (which she did) and we checked her luggage to make sure everything was good. We also put peppermint oil on the interior of my daughter's luggage to kill whatever may be in there. The next day, we were informed that environmental services said no bed bugs were found on the bed. Okay. Fine. She stated no one would come in our current room until environmental services checked it out once we left. Fast forward to the night before check out, we came back to our room and realized we had fresh sheets and towels. Housekeeping had been in our room although we were told no one would have access to it. We pulled the duvet back and that's when we saw the stained sheets. My husband went down to ask for new sheets and Ms. Grant was there. He didn't want to cause alarm for other guests checking in so she told my husband that housekeeping would be up. Housekeeping lady comes up and brought the sheets and told us she was off and we would need to change the sheets ourselves. Say what now?! You brought the sheets up so how are you off. We need you to change these sheets and covers because obviously, items aren't being laundered properly. We reached out to Ms. Grant but she left before returning our call. I took a shower and as I was grabbing the towel, I saw something moving on it. Low and behold, it's a bed bug. A nice sized one. Pictures are attached of bed and towel. There is quite possibly an infestation on the laundry cart or in the laundry room. I went downstairs to talk to the front desk and ask for someone to come up. The front desk attendant is busy but the female housekeeping lady is still there standing near the coffee station with her hands on her hip. Wait a minute? I thought she was off, but I guess she has selective duties after a certain time because she had no problem grabbing items for other guests. At this point, my husband became irate as we had been in the lobby for 40 minutes, it was hot as the AC in the front desk lobby was out the entire week we were there, and the front desk gentleman kept asking the housekeeping lady to go to our room and she said no, she wasn't doing it. I have since reached out to Camille Grant, the manager and she has CC'd her manager on the emails with no response. Why ask what time I am available to talk and I tell you after 4pm to still not receive any phone calls or emails. Ms. Grant was there until 7pm when we were there for the week. This has led me to post a review because others need to know about this possible infestation. We checked out on July 8th. The security lady, front desk attendan

Had an actually good stay here recently. Location is behind the Prudential Center, easy 10-15 mins walk from Penn Station. Lots of surface parking lots nearby. Reception is on the 2nd floor, 1st floor door is locked and has a security guard desk which makes you feel safe in Newark. Check-in was efficient, lobby is nicely renovated. Room was good - spacious and clean. Air conditioning worked without any issues. Had a room overlooking a parking garage - no view, but no noise as well.

My experience at this hotel was shocking. Upon vacating my room, I saw bugs in the bathroom and doorway where my luggage was, this delayed my checkout as I wanted to ensure that I shook out my luggage as I didn't want to bring any home with me. During this time an extremally hostile staff member began to aggressively bang on the door requesting that we leave the room immediately as it was check out time . Before we could even respond the male staff member attempted to enter the room. As a female this made me extremely uncomfortable and nervous. Thankfully we had the door stopper on. I proceeded to ask him to give us a few minutes and explain about the bugs but he responded by yelling through the cracked door that he was going to call the police on us and charge us for an additional day. We were only 30 minutes beyond checkout time. His words were very threating and frightening. We did NOT deserve this. I do not understand why a Marriott employee would would be so aggressive and hostile towards their guest. Unfortunately, The hotel did in fact charged us for a late check out which was the cost of an full night stay. I have reached out to management sever times requesting a refund. To date I have received no response.

This hotel was one of the worst Marriott hotels I have stayed in. You had to lug your bags up a steep staircase to get to the lobby from the parking garage. The bed was broken on one side. It was if a 2000 pound elephant has slept on one side and crushed it. The staff was not friendly, probably because they were short staffed. They had nothing in the “Market“, not even water. I can’t imagine how they can manage crowds from a Prudential Center event. Please don’t waste your money here.

It is ridiculous that they charge $7 for coffee and $13 for a breakfast sandwich..

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 2

Not giving this hotel a glowing review. The location is the only positive. First off the front desk kept saying my reservation was cancelled, had to show them my reservation on the app. Finally got to the room, man did it stink of cigarettes. I sure hope the last guests were hit with the cleaning fee for smoking, it was bad. Asked to change rooms, thankfully that was easy. Not even sure why the heck that room was in service, it needs to be decontaminated asap. New room was good enough, except for the used shampoo bottle. It was half empty, never saw this before in any hotel I've stayed. Thankfully I was only here one night, don't think I would have liked staying more, one was enough.

1. When arriving, the first thing that you notice about this hotel is the amount of drug & homeless activity in front of the building… There was actually someone right outside of the hotel selling drugs. 2. I was told that my room would have several amenities like microwave and a.c. unfortunately There was only a mini fridge in my room & the air conditioner seemed to work occasionally. 3. One of the first thing that you notice once exiting the elevator is the stench of marijuana & cigarettes. It permeates the lobby, hallways & many of the rooms that my coworkers and I rented. 4. LOUD!!! It is a very noisy & busy hotel. Children in surrounding rooms were screaming at all hours of the night. Guests were actually racing down the hallway during very late hours of the night. Awaken by the sound of the smoke alarm at 0130am. 5. Random & unexplained “Incidental” charges applied to my bill. 6. The parking lot is shared with both the Marriott & the attendees of the Prudential Center. Marriott guests pay a separate daily rate of $40 per day, but if you’re attending an event at the Prudential Center & you have to use the same parking lot, it’s only $35… Oh yeah, it’s first come first served parking. 7. The televisions & internet are outdated. The Wi-Fi is spotty as well. 8. Accessibility to the Marriott by car during an event at the Prudential Center is timely due to all of the detours & road closures created by the police. 9. With the very limited selection of items from the lobby store to purchase & shortage of quarters at the front for laundry, guests are forced to walk several blocks to find convenience stores & restaurants. 10. Although management appears to be friendly and readily available, they seem to be both ineffective & incompetent. When presented with my grievances, I was constantly deferred to their corporate office. I would strongly recommend booking elsewhere.

Lot of plusses.....Locale (esp for event at Pru Center or heading to NYC), ....Staff is awesome (if overwhelmed)....Rooms, nice size and clean.. Neagtives.....ouch.....1 ice machine for 7 floors....horrible access if checking in when an event going on.....Access from garage DANGEROUS....rooms missing sofa bed material and ran out of TP, soap, etc......all replaced when asked but ugh.....

A one night stay at this Courtyard. My wife and I were attending a concert at QXT's Nightclub, a few blocks away. The hotel worked for our needs. Parking was attached and safe. The room we had worked for our needs. Clean, spacious with a comfy couch and bed. We were originally concerned about the activity outside the hotel, since Newark has a bit of a reputation. We exited the nightclub we were visiting well after 1 am and didn't have any issues walking back to the hotel. We would likely stay again.

The hotel security on first floor rude n unprofessional. She claim her name was Diana Henderson she worked last night Dec 1. 4X12 she do not know how to speak to people. She needs a position in a quiet room with no one near, not around the public. Unexceptable. The parking is not for any one over 65 unless in great shape too far to walk. Not for a place for family. Front desk n night auditor was pleasant n professional.

We stayed at the Courtyard Newark Downtown overnight to catch a flight the next day. This is after spending more than 10 days with another Courtyard Marriot Hotel in another city in NY. The room is clean, functional and spacious comparatively. Access to the reception lobby from the carpark requires you to lug the luggage up a flight of stairs (no elevator). The receptionists were friendly and helpful. Limited number of eateries nearby. We ended up walking about 10 mins to Burger King for our dinner. It doesn't feel safe to walk out in the evening as there are homeless on the street and you can smell weed walking past some areas. There is a cafe in the hotel that serves breakfast (not free) and the food is reasonable. The reason for the 2-star rating was the encounter with the airport shuttle driver. The hotel provides free shuttle service to and fro the hotel to Newark Liberty Airport (P4). On the day of arrival at the hotel, we returned the rental car at the airport. After returning the car, we went to the P4 to board the shuttle back to the hotel. The driver was watching video on his mobile phone and couldn't bother to come out to even open the heavy door. No greetings whatsoever but that was fine. After arriving at the hotel, we went into the lobby for a while and then headed out to buy our dinner. Stepping out from hotel lobby, we were startled by a loud horn. The shuttle driver horned at us and then came down to accuse us that we are not staying at the hotel but just catching a free ride. We have to pull out our hotel card to show him that we are indeed hotel guest. His tone and expression were that of discriminatory (we are yellow skin). If he is just being diligent in his job, he could have asked politely whether we are hotel guest and ask for proof. He just lashed out at us for no obvious reason. I have taken many airport shuttles before and most of the drivers will offer the basic courtesy of opening the door for the guests. He didn't offer any of that and on top it, false and discriminatorily accuses us. This completely ruined my experience.

The Courtyard by Marriott in downtown Newark NJ is the single worst hotel I have stayed at in many years. We took the train to Newark Penn Station. I had mapped out walking to the hotel from the train station because the hotel’s directions stated it was a 10 minute walk. It took 25 minutes made all the worse because I had just had spinal surgery. I had mapped out before I left home how to walk to the hotel, but that just did not help. There are two exits on either side of the station with no signs of which way to go to the main thoroughfares. I called the hotel and spoke to a very rude officious individual at the front desk and asked how to walk to the hotel. He gave me the address - which patently I already had. He told me to put in the address in my phone and follow the directions. It did not work. I flagged down a Newark police officer and asked her if she could help- and she did. but she had no idea of where the hotel was- and we were two blocks away. We checked in on a Saturday night and there was literally no restaurant either in the hotel or nearby. The only option at 6PM was a vending machine with potato chips or nuts. We were in downtown Newark and walking around was not a safe option. The room was a two room suite - a sitting room and a bed room. There were two television sets, one of which in the sitting room did not work at all. There was a smoke alarm in the bedroom with a bright white light that blinked all night. A truly forgettable experience.

When you arrive at the street address for this hotel, it has a no-parking zone in front of an unstaffed door. The lobby is one floor up. We had to call the desk to be told to make three right turns around the block into the parking garage. However the parking garage was sold out for the concert at the Prudential Center; apparently no entrance or spaces are set aside for hotel guests. We had to pay $40 to park in a surface lot and then after the concert, $30 more to park in the garage (after waiting for the concert cars to leave). We chose the hotel for the convenience to the Prudential Center, which was very good, but weren't warned that parking isn't guaranteed unless you arrive much earlier. Once we finally got into the parking garage, the entrance to the hotel had a step up from the garage and then inside you had to carry luggage up a full set of stairs. No ramp in either spot. How is this legal? We had a one-bedroom suite that was exceptionally nice. It was also quiet (on a higher floor), without noise from outside leaking in. However, there were no sheets, blankets, or pillows anywhere in the suite for the sofa bed. Since it was very late we took some off of the bed, but it was very annoying. Also the shower was very slippery and did not have any kind of grab bars. The elevator requires key cards to get to your floor. Both at night and then again in the morning, both we and other guests had their key cards fail to work in the elevators even though it was not near time to checkout. This wasted a lot of time in the morning trying to get back upstairs after breakfast to get luggage, and delayed us getting to our next event. After people retrieved their luggage, they had to carry it down the stairs to the parking garage entrance, some needing to make two trips up and down. I saw dozens of people do this, so if there was an alternative way to reach the garage, no one seemed to be aware of it. All of the staff members were very nice, and the rooms were very clean.

It's okay . . . a bit "tired" but the room was clean. Disappointed that the restaurant is not open except for breakfast . . . and that there is no free continental breakfast. Pluses: (1) next to the Prudential Center; (2) hourly airport shuttle; (3) an easy walk to Ellie's - gave it a five-star review after having lunch there.