Marriott’s Lakeshore Reserve

Unfortunately, second time not the charm

We really liked staying here last summer so I booked same 2-bedroom villa for this year’s summer vacation. Check in again this year was unfriendly – no smile, no how was your trip, no conversation at all. I know Marriott has strict training so this must be by design? She says only room available was first floor by pool and we’d love it. UGH. Anyone can look inside these units so you’ll want to keep curtains shut and there is no view from dark, enclosed porch not to mention the noise from pool. My husband and I work long hours and wanted a quiet, relaxing room w/ balcony. She assured me there were no other 2 bedroom villas until….wait, after I say I know we’ll not enjoy, etc. all of the sudden she says she’ll look again and presto, locates another 2 bedroom villa. Not wanting to be difficult and as she had already given me keys to first floor unit, I said I’d go look at it. We looked at it and indeed, it had no view, a dark patio, people were walking by windows and we could hear noisy kids. So I called front desk and they let us move to Palermo building 3rd floor villa.

So we walk in the villa and are hit with the most unpleasant smell! My husband identified it as curry cooking odour. It was so strong that they brought up spray and an ozone machine but odor never left. The third night they said the only room we could move to was a 2 bedroom lock off (like 2 hotel rooms) which I looked at but it was not nearly as nice as 2-bedroom, 2 bath villa I booked w King, 2 Queens, full kitchen, etc. On the 3rd night, the manager called and advised a villa w/ 2 King beds were available but we would have to pack up all of our food, etc, and my sons said no to sharing a bed so we declined and stayed put. The manager ended up comping one night.

The disposal was clogged our first morning so called front desk who said they were sending up maintenance. We waited, and waited and called two hours later and same girl at desk said she didn’t know if maintenance was coming. We eventually left for pool and someone did fix it.

The other issue is housekeeping. We are not timeshare people but paying guests who are supposed to get daily housekeeping. I went grocery shopping our first morning at 10:50 am at which time I removed Do Not Disturb sign from door. We later spent afternoon at pool area to come back to room late afternoon and room not cleaned. A long story but I was eventually told we had Do Not Disturb sign on door all day and that was reason room not cleaned. I assured them that was not true and was actually argued with that I must be mistaken. I said the maintenance guy got in our room which meant there was no sign on door because they won’t go in room w/ sign on door. After arguing with me and offering clean towels which I declined as I found long, dark hairs on bathroom floor (I’m blond and was w/ 3 males w/ short hair) and wanted room cleaned to help w/ stench, blah blah. eventually, manager said they’d call housekeeping again. We then got call back that housekeeping admitted seeing Do Not Disturb sign around 10:30 am and ASSUMED we didn’t want housekeeping! They somehow found two women to come up and clean but we had to leave room disrupting our evening.

The front desk asked what was good time to have room cleaned rest of our trip and we said noon. Well, the next day, we leave room before noon just so they can clean and come back late afternoon and room not clean. So I called front desk who said someone would be sent up. Well, it took two more hours before they came which meant we were displaced again…no nap : ( . My sons just stayed in their room so it wasn’t even cleaned. Housekeeping didn’t replace lotion ever, didn’t replace Tide and coffee wasn’t replaced one day and coffee pot never cleaned.

Another issue in the room was the sofa – one of the 3 cushions was warped so you couldn’t sit or lay comfortably. On positive note, kitchen was nicely equipped, TVs had good pictures, wifi free and parking plentiful. Our boys enjoyed pool table and ping pong and servers very nice at the pool bar/restaurant.

Good luck finding a good seat at pool on the weekends. People reserve chairs in morning with towels so good seating reserved by people not using pool. We were unable to find chair w/ umbrella and my husband got sunburned first day so he was unable to enjoy pool rest of stay.

The resort itself is very nice – think our experience not the norm, however, not sure if we’ll return. We again enjoyed FAMAS Restaurant for delivery dinners, highly recommend.