Le Méridien Эр-Рияд

Hello, I stayed at the hotel for four nights in a business trip to Riyadh. The receptionists were friendly and informative, the sheets were clean, and the dining services were perfect. . I send special thanks to the Egyptian guy at the restaurant for he kept serving me every morning with delicious and well-made beans plates (فول), I really enjoyed his service. . My only complain, which happened to be a major one, is the Spa and Fitness Center services. The one in charge there, I believe his name is Alvin, was not friendly at all, he gives the impression that he doesn't want to work or do anything except puting obstacles and limit your expectations from the Spa service. He told me he is the receptionist and the massage expert, but he didn't show me any of his expertise answering my questions, as if it was a "take it or leave it" situation, and when he found me insisting on knowing the benefits of the massage package I chose he kept repeating the package price with a tone that it is expensive and doesn't worth that much. He ended up angry at me saying that I should ask "the company" to give him "training"! What has this to do with my experience at the hotel? He didn't allow me to access the pool insisting that I should wear a sports' shoe! I didn't grasp any of his altitude and why he has done so. . I ended up conducting my meetings frustrated and not relaxed at all. This being said, I don't think this place will attract international companies anymore. . Best,

Terrible experience, despite being upgraded and impressed with the suite, hygiene was a major issue! I found traces of clipped nails under the sofa and despite reporting it to reception it was still there 3 days after until I complained for the 2nd time. Nothing was done about this other than receiving a standardised apologetic response. To make matters worse, I wasn’t awarded my full Marriot Bonvoy points, to date I made 4 attempts to raise this by email with guest services team and not received a single response. For a stay that was in excess of 10,000 SAR I was awarded 2,400 points! I hope the management team reviews my comment here and remedy the situation, never staying there again!

It's unfortunate that despite having a very beautiful building with charming rooms and a great location, the management of the hotel is among the least professional that I have experienced so far. It presents a difficult trade-off, where you can stay at a nice hotel but endure disappointing service by poorly trained staff. And while I can live with not having my Titanium Elite status acknowledged or rewarded, during my last check in the hotel gave me a lessor room than the one I reserved and paid for. The front desk officer seemed to lack the training to understand this error and asked me to revert the next morning with the supervisor. The next day I was indeed moved to a room fitting with what I paid for, but even that was done as if it was complementary, and no compensatory measures or gestures were made. Housekeeping is inconsistent, room service is slow and the food is mediocre, and you rarely get offered help if you're pulling your luggage or getting in and out of vehicles. One ends up wondering if this hotel is run professionally at all.

Having stayed in this hotel for close to 100 nights this year due to a business trip, I cannot rate this hotel any better than this. Despite the 5-star rating, service level is not reflective of this, especially compared to other Marriott chain hotels with 5 star ratings. 1) Do not expect to be blown away but staff friendliness or competence. The only exception is the Club Lounge team - Ranjit, Christian, and Mohammed - who are only that provide a service expected of a 5 star hotel, and an honourable mention to the concierge team and porters who make effort to make a guest feel welcome. 2) Front desk staff scarcely seems able to deal with the simplest request and tasks, such as issuing correct invoices, sending invoices to mail that is in system or accommodating room preferences. 3) Housekeeping is abysmal - expect missing bathrobes, inadequate cleanliness, and no laundry bags. Despite calls to reception daily to have those items provided, teams either do not communicate among each other or are completely oblivious to providing a quality service. Even on weekends, when the hotel is mostly empty, it is a rare occurrence that housekeeping will come around before 4 or 5pm, usually upon one's inquiry to the front desk whether the entire housekeeping staff is on vacation. 4) Breakfast service in the hotel restaurant during weekdays is decent enough, with attentive staff. However the weekend shift will regularly need half an hour or more to fulfill a breakfast order, despite low levels of occupancy. There is no breakfast served in the Club lounge, and evening meal service there is very limited and repetitive. 5) Laundry is collected irregularly, and the hotel is prone to losing items given to laundry service, with a lot of guest effort needed to locate them, if even possible. Finding another guest's laundry returned to one's room is not uncommon either. 6) Assigning a correct amount of Marriott points upon check-out seems to be low on the list of priority for the front desk staff. 7) Absolutely zero effort (with the notable exception of the Club lounge team) is made to feel long-term and repeated guests feel particularly welcome. I have never witnesses such level of nonchalance towards this repeated guests, and that is most uncharacteristic of the 5-star hotels in the Marriott chain. 8) Rooms are decently large and furnished contemporarily, however, despite the hotel being relatively new, the signs of inadequate upkeep start to show. Unfortunately, solving the equipment issues - such as repairing a non-fully-functional TV seems to be low on the list of priorities, requiring multiple requests to address the issue. 9) Rooms on higher floors suffer from noise that is probably caused by rooftop installed AC units and is rather bothersome, even to the level of preventing a good night's sleep without earplugs. The sound insulation between rooms seems decent enough, however is not adequate at all towards the hallway and the atrium. 10) The advertised turndown service does not exist. Overall, the hotel seriously lacks properly trained staff and reaching a service level worthy of a 5-star hotel leaves much to be desired.