Service
I am currently staying in the Mariott Hotel, Riyadh. It was booked through the company where I am working. The 'at your service' option in the Hotel is quite bad and leaves a lot to be desired. In the first few days, I requested for a longer DSL cable for Internet. Someone came back with a electricity plug instead. He promised to send someone with the cable but no one turned up. I called up again the next day and I was told that someone would be coming soon. After sometime (about 1 hour) I inquired about it again and was told that they do not have a longer cable!!. This is for a service for which they have billed me about 1800 SR per month!(Not a small amount by any standards). So much in the name of service to a customer who they know would be staying for almost 2 months. The hotel could not even offer to get a longer cable.

My second experience was with the shoe-polish. After calling the 'At your Service' twice (everything has to be requested twice), the shoe polish guy came. He brought back the shoes a few minutes later after having dusted them instead of polishing them(two pairs). I complained about the quality and asked for him to come back (requested twice yet again). Sheepishly he came back saying that 'they' have given him a brown polish now. Unfortunately only one shoe could be polished because Mariott doesn't have the liquid polish for my other leather shoe. So the other shoe can only be dusted for the next 1 month that I am here.

Food
There are two restaurants. I have eaten only once in the restaurant near the lobby so cannot comment on it. As far as 'Mosaic' is concerned, the breakfast is good (most of the times), however, being a vegetarian, there are very few options for me during the Lunch and the Dinner. I requested a couple of times that I will be staying for a long time and it wold be great if they can add a curry to the buffet. Every time I am told that Mediterranean cuisine has few options i.e. potatoes(always dry), and white rice.(if you are lucky you will find spinach rice sometimes). The only alternative is to survive on salads and desserts. Other options include pizzas and pasta but then that has to be ordered from the Menu and it is not a part of the buffet. The staff was kind to me sometimes to give me steamed vegetables or heat my salads(!!) so that I can eat warm food on some days. The city is not near enough to walk down and after a long day, the last thing one wants to do is to go in the city hunting for food. It is surprising that there are so many Indian guests in this hotel and yet there is hardly anything close to their food. The least that is expected that they should add some veg curries in their menu (even if the buffet is Mediterranean). The restaurant manager says he is helpless (no idea who decides the menu) and the hotel manager is on vacation. So well, there are not many people who I could turn to with my requests.

Ofcourse, non-vegetarians may not have these problems.

Gym
The gym is okay in term of machines etc as most of the five stars do not cater to fitness enthusiasts so it is understandable. The sad part however are the locks/collars of the barbels, which are very loose that they do not fit on the bars and the weights can slide off anytime and cause a serious injury to someone. I pointed it out to one of the attendants so he directed me to a specific bar and only that can be used because atleast on one side of that bar, the lock fits properly! Other facilities like the pool, jacuzzi, steam, sauna are good and it was a good experience.

Others
The cleaning of the room, replacement of complimentary water bottle, laundry service are done well so no complaints on that front.

So much for now. I will be staying here for 1 more month trying to navigate through the above issues. Would like to observe the management response to this post and then write another review at the end of my stay.

I stayed at the Riyadh Marriott from July 15-18, thinking it would be standard Marriott quality- certainly not.

First, the location. There isn't anything close by/within walking distance, except to say the airport is only ~25-30 minutes by car. To get downtown, it's a 15-25 minute taxi, depending on traffic.

The interior of the hotel seems like it's out of the 70s. It was hard to believe this was a Marriott in a city where a lot of well-paid American businesspeople come. The service was fine, but upon arriving to my room, there was only a narrow window in one corner that never provided sufficient light- it was like staying a closet. The desk chair creaked like it was going to fall over at any moment, and the interior was generally hum-drum.

I ate in two restaurants- one near the lobby that was way over-priced, but decent quality, and I also ate the buffet, which was fine. I worked out in the health club, which is actually quiet nice, but humid due to the pool.

Compared to the many Marriotts I've staying in around the world, this one is well below average.

This hotel is horrible, it is very old and not worth the price we paid.
The room is dull with a very little window and old cupboards and bathroom- think 20 years old.
This is not Marriott standard.
Tried the breakfast 1out of the 3 days i stayed and it wasn't great plus it cost an extra 80SR!!

Excellent hotel, I stayed here for 5 months this year. The rooms are good. You can always get a good nights sleep. The hotel is clean and well looked after. The breakfast is the best I've ever seen in a hotel. The only negative thing about the hotel might be that it's a bit old, so it has an older style to it, but apart from that, everything else was perfect.
Also, it's located in the middle of the city, so you are close to everything.