Oakland Marriott City Center

So as a Marriott Bonvoy Lifetime Platinum Elite member (Ambassador level even!), I tend to have a few expectations - considering I’ve spend over 20K on Marriott stays over the past few year. This recent experience at the Marriott City Center requires re-telling - and definitely requires some consideration if you’re planning on booking an upcoming trip to Oakland. This was a family trip to attend my son’s graduation from Berkeley, and I booked two suites for my adult son and us months in advance, requesting an early check-in (Marriott Bonvoy has a cool ‘My-24' policy for upper tier members) so that we could freshen up after an early flight, attire up in formal garb, and attend a pre-graduation event with my son. But that didn’t happen - primarily due to a ‘mis-communication by front desk staff. Sure enough, they had one of our two suites ready at 11am, as requested, but we were told by a charming desk attendant (who also neglected to conduct some status-specific customer service protocols, and abruptly left us at the desk for about 15 minutes to attend to another guest with a question) that my own personal suite wasn’t quite ready due to the hectic business of an educational event that was happening that weekend. Well, upon being fired to return to the desk, ultimately waiting until 4pm (5 hours after our reserved arrival), a new desk attendant replaced the first and immediately informed us that they were only waiting on the suite alongside my som’s room was vacant, since they thought my university-graduating son (whom I had already introduced the first desk attendant to) was until 21. Quite unbelievable! Well, we did ultimately get a suite, but that was FIVE HOURS LATER THAN RESERVED, and as a result, we missed the first pre-graduation reception. So our stay started off negatively, but then additionally; 1) amenities in our suite that were missing included, teas, soup bars for the bath, my logged ‘preferences’ as an Elite member for additional towels were overlooked, and garbage was present behind the desk and inside the refrigerator inside my room. To cap it all off, the hectic pace and business of the overbooked hotel made any service call for assistance to the from desk take from 1/2-hour to an hour of our time, and at times, the front desk staff were so busy that we stood in line for 15 minutes just to ask a simple question. Now if you glance at our prior travel reviews and history, you will see that we are not difficult guests, but I would hope that just because a Marriott property was ‘busy’ does not mean that a valued and loyal patron - particular one that has spend tens of thousands of dollars on Marriott suites, and who has earned one of the highest statuses with you folks - would be inconveniences or set aside for room selection or customer service - that’s one fo the quickest ways to encourage us to start patronizing Hilton properties, despite our history with Marriott. Finally, to cap off our experience at Marriott City Center, when we asked our concierge to suggest and offsite parking location for our over-height vehicle that would not fit in the Marriott garage, he suggested a lot immediately across the street - that night, our SUV had its tires slashed at that lot, and the time it took awaiting a mobile service to replace the tires made us miss a second reception at the university. Now of course, we realize that this last event was out of Marriott’s hands - but that parking lot was recommended by the concierge, and the entire trip was heavily impacted by these combined events - and the events that we missed, during this important family trip to the Oakland area. Read less

This hotel is well located if you need to be in downtown Oakland. The hotel rooms have recently been renovated, and everything is clean and well maintained. The room was on the small side, but adequate. There are lots of restaurants near by and a Starbucks one block away. The staff was very helpful. We were on the 21st floor, so it was very quiet. Might be noisy on lower floors. We took an Uber from Oakland airport and it was only $20 to hotel. Read less

I stayed here 3 nights for work and had a fabulous stay. Hotel location is perfect with lots of restaurants and bars within walking distance. The room was nice and clean with a comfortable bed. Checking in was a breeze thanks to Belia Hogue who was very helpful upfront. The M club is one of the biggest and nicest I’ve seen. Overall great place to stay and will definitely return. Read less