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Atlanta Marriott Marquis Thinks Guests Can Still Expense Everything

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  Site Where: 265 Peachtree Center Avenue [map], Atlanta, Georgia, United States, 30303
April 6, 2009 at 2:45 PM | by shiralevine | 5 Comments

It's always shocking when a major hotel like the recently-renovated Atlanta Marriott Marquis isn't super convenient for business travelers. In this time of recessionary layoffs and cutbacks, the business and conference hotel is still obnoxiously charging for Internet connectivity. How hard it is to switch from broadband to WiFi, Mister Bill Marriott?

At $12.95 for noon-to-noon service in the rooms and then a discounted $9.95 around the food court on the reception and marquis levels, charging on top of the $159 to $221.95 a night for a king size bed in a city view room still seems cruel and unusual.

Guests hunched over their laptops outside the in-hotel Starbucks were not happy. We actually found some working connections not provided by the Marriott Marquis. Interestingly, from inside the Marriott Marquis we got free service from the Hyatt Regency Atlanta just across the street.

Also not cool was the in-room cell phone reception. At any given time, guests could be seen roaming hallways and chatting on their phones in search of a few bars.

Of course, in a perfect world, along with free WiFi and perfect cell reception, we'd also like the people who design rooms like the ones at Atlanta Marriott Marquis to think about details like providing a broadband outlet near the bed so guests can eat their delicious and unhealthy southern fried food while unhealthily doing work from the bed. (On the plus side, the beds were super comfortable! Score!)

And one last request we have for interior designers: walk through the room and think of all the places you might want to hang something and put a hook there, please. One hook in the entire room doesn't jive.

All wasn't bad, though. Service was on point. In the business center, the first 20 copies of something were free. The power outlets embedded in the sort of design-y lamp bases on either sides of the bed were super, super convenient. Really, no one likes to fly out of bed early in the morning to take a business call.

Check out some snapshots from our stay; and if you can recommend a better Atlanta hotel for business travel than the Marquis — or you had a different experience at this Marquis than we did — as always, let us know.

5 Comments

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  1. shiralevine

    HotelChatter Contributing Editor

    and no bathrobes either!

    notice inside the closet there is NO bathrobe either! what's up with that? why are bathrobes considered luxuries?
    April 6, 2009 at 3:16 PM
  1. brandonwalsh

    HotelChatter Member

    Go Motel 6!

    I agree! Why do the all the motels I see (Motel 6 and Howard Johnson's) offer free wi-fi for a $40 room, but Marriott and the other big hotels charge $10-15 a day for Internet access in a $200+ a night room?  Internet access should be complimentary!
    April 6, 2009 at 3:52 PM
  1. Jenna

    HotelChatter Member

    I agree with everything Brandon Walsh says,

    and not just cause I am thinking of Jason Priestly.
    April 6, 2009 at 5:08 PM
  1. nashguy

    HotelChatter Member

    Re Interior Designers...

    I hate when they redesign rooms, give you these great rollout tables/desks, then tie all the cords and cables down with those plastic locking ties and give you a 2 foot ethernet cable! If you roll the desk out, the ethernet cable it too short to reach the ethernet box which is virtually locked to the stationary part of the desk!

    ARRRRGGGGHHH

    May 28, 2009 at 12:28 PM
  1. nashguy

    HotelChatter Member

    Free internet at cheaper Marriott properties

    It's even more illogical that my $149 room at a Marriott Courtyard gets free internet, yet my $269 room at a "full service" Marriott property doesn't!

    How is that rationalized? Is it just that those who pay $269 are more likely to be on expense accounts or have personal budgets that will have room for a $14/day internet access charge?

    May 28, 2009 at 12:31 PM

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