I stayed at the Courtyard Vacaville on 20 and 21 July 2018. I have been staying at this Courtyard in Vacaville for nearly two years now as it is much nicer than the Residence Inn or Fairfield Inn which is just down the street.
I have really come to appreciate the frequent upgrades to the corner suite, room 248. I believe the last four times I was there I was treated to a nice upgrade.
Additionally, the front desk host who usually checks me in is one of the nicest and most professional out of all the Marriotts I stay at throughout the year.
Sadly, this particular stay was also one of the worst stays I have experienced at a Marriott.
I was traveling with my family this weekend, and we brought our swim trunks so that we could enjoy the hot tub before bed.
When we arrived at the hot tub, there was one other gentleman in the hot tub already. We slowly got in and moved to the side opposite him. After a couple of minutes, he unpacked a Bluetooth speaker from his bag and started to play loud country music with vulgar profanities. It became very distracting. We tried to move a bit further away and then he turned up the volume to where we could barely talk to each other. We sat a bit closer to each other to do our best to still be able to hear each other, though we did have to really raise our voices.
At this point, he started taking pictures of us with his cell phone. He would hold up his cell phone, point it at us, push the camera button, the flash would turn on for a second, and then it would flash brightly a few times. After taking several pictures we decided we needed to leave the area and report this behavior.
On our way out of the hot tub, we saw the pictures of us on his cell phone. He appeared to be texting them to someone.
We returned to our room and called the front desk. The front desk didn't answer for about five minutes. When she did answer she asked if she could place me on hold.
After another couple of minutes, she returned to the line and I was able to explain to her what had happened. I described the man in detail for her and she said she would go out and speak with him.
After about 20-minutes I called the front desk again to find out what had happened. Again, it took about 7-minutes to get through. When she answered she told me that she asked him to turn down the music but she wasn't able to do anything about the pictures because he wasn't taking pictures of anyone while she was out there.
I explained that I felt that what he did was illegal. She said it was private property and there was nothing she could do about it.
I explained how this was the first time I ever felt unsafe at a Marriott property and I was not comfortable with this situation. She acknowledged that she would have been uncomfortable too, and then she reiterated that there was nothing she could do about it.
I asked if the hotel had any security and she told me no. I then asked if I called the police myself and they came to the hotel, would she be able to provide the name and room number of the guest to the police. Again, she told me no.
My entire family and I really felt unsafe, exposed, violated, and helpless at this situation.
When I asked how is she going to prevent this from happening to other people, she said the pool closes soon so he will be asked to leave then.
In an effort to help improve the staffing or policies of the hotel, I have tried to work with the general manager the last month, though they believe that they are appropriately staffed and they will not respond to my other concerns about not cooperating with the police.
This is entirely, 100%, unacceptable! There needs to be a resolution on this matter. New policies need to be implemented to protect loyal paying guests or a warning needs to be expressly provided in the information for this hotel that your family may be filmed by other guests without their consent and be exposed to hostile, and uncomfortable situations which the hotel will do nothing to correct.
I have never been more shocked with inappropriate handling of a situation than this weekend. read more