Bittersweet Stay at Marriott NY Downtown
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 6/25/08
Every February we look forward to a saturday evening in Chinatown in New York City to celebrate the Chinese New Year with our adopted daughter who is Chinese and several other adoptive families and their children. This year we were able to find a room at the downtown Marriott for $250 (room plus tax) and decided to stay overnight so we could catch the famous Chinese New Year parade on Sunday. Since we had to drop off my older daughter at Newark Airport on the way, I printed out the directions from the Marriott website. Unfortunately, the directions were incorrect, indicating that you should turn right onto Laight street after exiting the Holland Tunnel. Since we rarely drive into the city, I turned right onto Laight street and was promptly stopped by a cadre of police officers who were pulling one car after the other over and ticketing them for not going straight as the green arrows indicate. There is no sign indicating that a right hand turn is illegal. Shortly thereafter, we arrived at the Marriott - valet parking is the only way to go as it is $50 for the night. Our room was well appointed, comfortable and private. Yes elevators are slow. We took a quick 10 minute taxi ride to Chinatown to meet up with other families where we enjoyed a wonderful Chinese meal and then toured the endless row of stores and outdoor bazaars. We decided to take the 30 minute walk back to the hotel with another family and enjoyed the peacefulness of the area as well as the architecture. Since the hotel is very close to the ground zero, we stopped to observe the construction site of the memorial structure that is being built and comtemplate for a moment amid these peaceful and sacred ruins where so many lost their lives. The hotel has a wonderful indoor heated lap pool. While the discount on the room was a selling point for us, the first floor concessions are very expensive for families of modest means so on Sunday morning I walked several blocks to buy some affordable croissants and muffins. After returning home, I contacted the hotel's customer service to let them know that as a result of wrong directions from Newark Airport on their website, I was confused upon exiting the Holland Tunnel and ended up getting a traffic ticket. I was not expecting that they pay my fine but thought they might take some responsibility for the erroneous directions, e.g. correcting the directions on their website and maybe offerring a small credit for the inconvenience that we incurred. I did receive a verbal apology but the directions were never corrected and remain incorrect as of today, 6/21/08. I then wrote a letter to the CEO of Marriott and received the same response - a letter apologizing for the inconvenience but no remuneration of any kind and no change to the incorrect directions. If you decide to visit this Marriott, follow the Mapquest directions, not Marriott's!