Residence Inn by Marriott Indianapolis Downtown On The Canal

Negatives: Na

Negatives: The Residence Inn holds a premium position of being the only hotel on the canal, but it is not a premium property. Why not? It could be so much better with a few repairs and upgrades. We shared with the wonderful staff the photos of things in our room (#325) that really need attention: two areas on the ceiling that show nasty water damage and are bubbled and flaking, the patchy paint job on the closet doors, and the hair and crud my husband had to pull out of our bathroom sink because it wouldn't drain. (We asked Sunday morning for maintenance to clean it but no one responded all day, so he took care of it.) I didn't mention my disappointment and irritation that because the large wooden bathroom vanity cabinet has FAKE/non-working doors and drawers (what??), it is not only ugly and outdated, it provided no storage for our toiletry bags, the hair appliances I travel with, extra towels, etc. Our bedroom windows had a lovely view of the canal walk, but the windows themselves are old and not thermal so any moisture occludes the view. The right one opened for ventilation and stayed up but the left must have a broken mechanism. It was hard to lift and fell immediately once we let go. The shower was a little weak but adequate. Finally, the HVAC is significantly noisy in the bedroom. That doomed my light-sleeping husband to three fitful nights, despite the comfortable mattress and linens. The elevator shows signs of cosmetic wear that could be easily rectified, but it's also small, slow and creaky. We were concerned every time we used it that it might grind to a halt. And, while having the hot breakfast was convenient, the dining space was not serviced during the busy Sunday morning my husband and I went down together and that was clearly off-putting for some of the guests. (Ironic, since simultaneously I could see a guy carefully washing the windows and front door. Maybe he could have been wiping tables instead.) So, overall, it was a mixed bag.

Negatives: I’m only rating it a 9 because we had ZERO hot water for our shower. Though no fault to the staff this was a big issue for us as we stayed for a wedding and needed to clean up for that event. My only other complaints were the view of the canal was great but the windows were so extremely dirty we could hardly see out of the smudges on the glass. I would have expected that to be clean often.

Negatives: There was construction happening around in the middle of the night. The sofa bed was vey uncomfortable

Negatives: The bed was terrible, the elavator was worrisome, the air conditioner was extremely loud and inefficient.