After a long six months in Quito, and a series of travels throughout Peru, me and my parents ended our trip staying at the luxurious JW Marriott. Out of all the places we stayed, the Marriott was definitely the most Americanized hotel. It was what anyone from the United States would expect. Located directly within the heart of the city, near to the Mariscal Sucre, or what locals call "Gringolandia," it was close to almost anywhere you would want to go.

Overall, our experience was akin to that of any hotel in the U.S. Large, luxurious bathtubs, soft beds, and beautiful facilities. We did, after returning from a sidetrip to Mindo, have trouble finding a room whose wireless worked. We ended up having to switch rooms three times after having problems with communication between the hotel engineer (who only spoke Spanish) and the front desk. That was a little problematic, but the hotel gave us free wireless internet for the rest of our stay after the problem.

Pool was great. The restaurants were overpriced for Quito at large, but reasonable for the most part. We did have slow service at the Breakfast restaurant one day, but other than that, the food was great. The hotel recommends good places to eat, good places to do laundry, and will store luggage for side trips from the city. They also will provide transportation, if necessary, although you can save five or so bucks if you just walk down to the curb and hail a taxi yourself.

Overall, good trip for anyone wanting a luxury hotel at a bargain price. Well located, friendly staff, but more impersonal than most of the hotels within the city. If you're looking for an Americanized place to stay, the Marriott is it. If you want something more personal, look elsewhere.

Intro: Stayed one night our last night in Quito before heading back to the States. We used points to get a free room, and they upgraded to Executive lounge on 9th floor

The Good: Service, Food, Rooms, Gym, Bathtub and shower, Beds, Outdoor pool and jucuzzi, executive lounge, awesome breakfast

The Ok: May feel a little corporate to some

This has the feel of a 5 star property. Grandeour and excellent rooms, great food, and a gym that would fit in along any in Las Vegas. I used the gym twice, night of arrival and in morning, they bring you a cold towel every 30 mins.

Rooms are large with big comfortable bed, huge bathroom with shower and oversized tub. TV has CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX in English. Wireless internet at executive lounge.

Service was aweome, they wrapped up some painting we acquired for free. Pool area was fun, 3 pools appear like 1, but are different temps. Hot tub is super small but piping hot.

Regular whirlpool tubs in avaiable in health spa for no charge.

Overall: I am not sure on the value cause our room was free but this place in my opinion warrants $200 a night

Advice: Quito isnt a pretty city, it looks amazing from afar but up close its pretty dirty with only a bit of charm in old town. Mariscal the main district is fun, but the main area (where you want to be) is actually about a 5 block by 5 block radius. If you want to escape from it all but still be close to Mariscal this is the best place.

The following is my letter I sent to the Marriott:

We took some guests down to Quito, Ecuador last week and had a very poor experience at the Marriott hotel in Quito. The following is a brief summary of the major problems, and while my time is very limited, I think it is incredibly important this is put in writing, even if the losses have already occurred. The staff at the hotel was not helpful in resolving issues, and at times rude about the problems.

1. They charged our entire bill of $1742 twice. When we reserved the rooms (4 rooms, 3 nights) we put a credit card on file to hold them, and when we called the hotel to review some details they suggested we prepay since it was a large amounts of rooms and we did not want any problems. My agent went to the hotel in person and paid the entire bill, which we have a receipt for, in early March. While we were there they charged my cc that had been holding the room originally for the entire amount again mistakenly. At first they did not believe a mistake had been made, and until we argued with them persistently, they checked their records and eventually grudgingly and slowly fixed it. We were in their accounting office for over an hour, but this mistake had to be fixed, I could not afford to leave it.
2. They charged extra taxes to my guests, that the hotel said was a “new” tourism tax. I reimbursed my guest for this which cost us $30.00. When we checked in my guests put cc on files for extras, and even those who bought nothing were charged this tax. The hotel said it was a new policy upon check out but never informed us or our guests up front. We argued with them, but it was not worth it. This was separate from the entire bill and original quote which we had in writing and prepaid to avoid situations like these.
3. The charged us $30 .00 for airport pickup. This is the one thing that I am still trying to find in writing, but we may have made a mistake and not gotten it in writing, but we were under the impression was included in our group stay.
4. We were offered a welcome cocktail, but they did not believe us because the person who originally wrote our offer was no longer with them, and we did not have that paperwork with us that evening. They offered us a less desirable substitution of orange juice, which we had no choice to accept, because we had not brought our paperwork that evening to “prove” the issue to them.
5. I was credited only 5 miles to account #, I have faxed paperwork to your offices here in the US, but based on my other experiences, I doubt this will be resolved. The first agent I spoke to laughed at the problem because even he saw how obvious this mistake was, but he like nobody else could fix it, he is my favorite employee so far.

As you can probably tell I am not satisfied with the Marriott, and will not be returning ever in Quito, and I do not know in the US. We are taking another group down to Ecuador in December, and have already made reservations elsewhere. Since we started taking small tour groups down to South America, we expected problems with South American service. As of this point the only major issue we have had with any transportation company, attraction, accommodation, or restaurant in South American was with the Marriott.

By the way, this is the second time I wrote this letter because your website timed out. I hope you understand my concerns. Best, Adam

We stayed here as part of a trip organised by Celebrity Xpedition on the way to the Galapagos Islands.

The hotel is very attractive and we were allocated a lovely room with great views on the 7th floor. It even had a balcony.

As we were tired after the long flights from Uk we had room service which was OK and went to bed. At 12:00 midnight we were woken by the loud thumping sound of music coming from the night club across the road. The sound was coming in through the balcony door which wasn't sound proofed.

We put up with it until 2:30 am when we asked to move rooms! 20 minutes later we were in a different room away from the noise and managed a few hours sleep. The next night was OK but the music was on again.

This is a major problem at the Marriott. Beware of rooms to the right of the hotel as you look at the front. Ours was 705.

Other points: breakfast was good; public areas are light and attractive; the pool is beautiful; the staff helpful (at 2:30 am!).

Stay there but watch which room you get.