Marriott Williamsburg

The Williamsburg Marriott has a beautiful lobby and efficient meeting area. The room was clean, quiet and furnished well with high quality sheets and fluffy towels. The staff was courteous, although the front desk staff could be friendlier. Didn't see many smiles from that crew. We had a little difficulty regulating the temperature of our room to our liking, but it was not a big deal.

The only issue is the distance to the Historic Village of Williamsburg. It would not be a feasible walk. They do not have shuttle service to the historic area. The only option is renting a car or the city bus, which comes once an hour. We were at a meeting and planned to sightsee, but had to rent a car to do it.

Stayed 1 night at Williamsburg Marriott late July 2004. Shd have been 4 nights but left early. Very disappointed in cleanliness and maintenance of hotel in general. Room smelled musty. Bathrooms need work. Tub was disgusting. Balcony furniture rusted. Bed blanket was stained. Pool water cloudy (no lifeguard). Men's room in lobby was filthy (would not let my son use it). They try to dazzle you with upscale-looking lobby, but when you really look at it, the carpets and tile are not clean. Tried sports bar restaurant -- very slow service with not many patrons.

My family and I just got back from our stay in Williamsburg. We thought the Marriot was great. Our room on the second floor was nice. I was actually quite surprised at how big it was. We needed a roll-away for one of our kids; there was plenty of room. The only down side to the room was the bathroom. Although clean, it was a bit dated.

Our kids really liked the pool. It is an indoor/outdoor which came in handy during a rain storm.

Staff was great, cafe and restaurant was good. Location to sights great.

We opted to stay at the Marriott this week because of its close proximity to the amusement parks. In the past, we've stayed at hotels closer to Colonial Williamsburg (like Embassy Suites), and had never had a bad experience. In retrospect, we should have stuck with what we knew, because we paid about 25% more for a relatively cramped room that was overall loud and unpleasant.

The Loud: if you didn't jiggle the toilet handle after every flush, it made a loud leaking noise. And the air conditioning/heating unit sounded like a freight train. We opted to sleep without air conditioning (in July!) in order to avoid this noise.

The Unpleasant: the rooms are small and not well lit, compared to other (cheaper!) chain hotel rooms in Williamsburg. The furniture was so small, and so piled up with appliances, that there was absolutely no room for the room service tray (though we considered moving the lamp and phone off the desk to make the room). We had to put room service on the floor.

Now for the commendables: the staff was excellent, and the main part of the hotel (lobby, restaurants, gameroom, pool) was so great that I'd be tempted to stay at this Marriot again one day, if only they'd update their rooms (or let us sleep in the lobby).

The Harvest Room restaurant has a decent range of very good food, and you can order that food from the Pitchers bar (if you want to eat in a more casual environment) or from Room Service. There's also a coffee lounge restaurant that serves Starbucks coffee and has a nice range of foods to eat there or back in your room.

This is important in Williamsburg hotels, because so many of their hotels have restaurants that specialize only in a particular kind of food (like spicy barbeque, or pancakes), which means you'll be wasting your vacation time looking for restaurants, so I really appreciated the range of "normal" good food at the Marriott.

But back to the bad -- the part of the hotel where you actually sleep is basically in another building (across from the outside pool area), and the layout of that building is terrible. You have to see it to believe it. I seriously got lost more than once in the poorly lit, labyrinthine halls, and it wasn't unusual to run into guests who were trying to find their way back to their rooms.

It's quite a hike from your room to your car, unless maybe you get one of the rooms at the very back of the building (near the trash dumpsters). And oddly enough, you have to use your key card to get in and out of the building, even from the gated pool area.

The rooms on my floor (ground level) had water leaks in the ceilings, poor lighting, inoperative appliances (like the phone), and overall an unmaintained air about them. And your laptop may not stay connected to the internet due to line noise (that may have just been my room, though).

If you could sleep in the lobby, this would be a five-star hotel. Unfortunately, when the pool and bar closes, or when you need to change clothes, you're "banished" to the Dark Labyrinth.

I was really looking forward to our stay at the Williamsburg Marriott, and was a bit disappointed in the hotel. The lobby area looked very impressive, but the room was lackluster. The bathroom looked like more of a motel bathroom ... the caulking around the tub fixtures was terrible, all cracking and crusty and not very professional. The bottom of the bathroom door looked warped and the paint on it was peeling, perhaps from the moisture. The mattresses were very thin, lumpy and uncomfortable. Once we were out all day and returned to our room at 5:00 p.m., only to find it had not yet been made up!

I did like the location, however, since it was out of the way of the main thoroughfare in Williamsburg, but close enough to get everywhere you needed within a few minutes. There was a little shopping center with a nice pancake house just around the corner from the hotel -- accessible either by turning a street before the Marriott, or going out the back exit of the hotel and winding through the corporate park.

I thought the rate was very high considering the condition of the room. I'm usually very satisfied with Marriott, so this was a surprise to me.

I arrived to the Marriott with my husband and 5 year old daughter for our Anniversary weekend. While my husband and I don't typically celebration with my 5 year old, this time we figured what the hect...it was Labor Day weekend and school was about to begin (our last horrah). We checked in with no hassel...once we shared with the front desk staff that we were celebrating 13 years together, they upgraded our room to a pool view which I must say after seeing the standard room, this was GREAT!! Anyway, while the floor plan and lay out of the hotel was a bit confusing...we enjoyed the room, indoor/outdoor pool and the breakfast all three mornings in the Grille...they even served lunch and beverages (including beer) poolside. All and all we had a great time...the Marriott Williamsburg isn't fancy but it was clean, the staff was pleasant and it accomidated many of the needs that a family with a small child would have (ice cream, pizza, swimming, a game room, even a pub with a pool table, she loved knocking the balls around the table while we waited for lunch to be served).

After spending years and years at another top hotel chain while visiting Williamsburg, we decided to give the Marriott a try. We were not disappointed. The hotel is exquisitely decorated, the attentive service is what you would expect for this quality of hotel and the rooms were very nice. We had a suite and with two rooms and felt like we were really on vacation. I'm booking another suite now for this year's stay.

We stayed at the Williamsburg Marriott during the week of September 4, 2003. I was a little anxious about the hotel because I am a bit hard to please! I was pleasantly surprised. The hotel is in a geat location....close to everything. The staff was incredibly helpful and curteous. The room was larger than I expected, although the bathroom could use some sprucing up. Also, the bed was on the soft side (could use a firmer mattress). Pitchers bar and grille was a great place to watch the game or to just enjoy dinner. You can choose from the Pitchers menu or from the Harvest Grille menu which has items such as prime rib and crab cakes. The crab cakes were wonderful. The pool area (indoor and outdoor) is also a great place to relax after a long day of walking. All in all, I have to say I would highly recommend this hotel.

We stayed at the Marriot Williamsburg located just one mile from Busch Gardens Amusement Park the week of July 25. Excellent location, room and staff. Small cafe (located in the lobby) was our favorite breakfast spot although we did order room service one morning. The pool and facilities were perfect for afternoon "down time" and a late night dip.

Pitchers pub served excellent late night snacks! On a scale of 1 to 10, the staff gets a 10+!!! Highly recommend a stay at this hotel!

While we have not stayed at the Williamsburg Marriott, we have eaten at the Harvest Grill, one of the restaurants in the hotel. It is excellent, with reasonably-priced American Cuisine and superb service.Marjorie and Paul Tongue