Marriott Residence Inn Princeton at Carnegie Center

PROS
Free wifi
Free breakfast
Free coffee available all day
Free parking
Spacious & fully furnished hotel room
Two TVs
Sofa bed
Full Kitchen with stove and fridge
Separate bedroom
Comfy pillows
½ mile from Whole Foods Market (literally around the corner)
Clean bathroom WITH BATHROOM VENT (Alleluia!)
Great location — near highway/​interstate & shopping malls
CONS
No king beds
Thin walls — can hear upstairs plumbing (shower/​toilet) and loud foot steps
Will definitely stay here again the next time we’re in Princeton!

TV’s outdated! Doesn’t have hdmi port. Not your option if you’re going to stay here for a business trip

In this day and age to not provide TVs with HDMI input at this location is terribly behind the times ! I’ve been to numerous Residence Inns and this was the first location that has outdated TVs ! I like to stream my movies and output from my laptop to an HDMI input for the larger viewing screen ! I also imagine that people traveling with their gaming consoles can not use them at this location without an HDMI input there is no way to connect it to their TVs ! Literally when I return to this area I will not be staying at this locations anymore because of it, Residence Inn Management update your TVs !

We stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn at Carnegie Center in NJ and wanted to share our experience with you. Before I posted this blog, I gave the GM of that hotel every opportunity to resolve the issue to our satisfaction. Even went to Mr. Marriott’s office and was told that the GM of that location, Denise Bonder, had the final say. Ms. Bonder was made aware that we were not satisfied with the resolution yet she would not budge. The story — we decided to use our Marriott points to stay at a local Marriott so our kids could enjoy the pool and the grown-​ups could use the hot tub. We called the property directly and confirmed that they had these facilities. The hotel is 10 miles from home. We arrived early evening Saturday and went down to the pool. The air and water was cold. The desk clerk raised the room heat but said she could not raise the water temp. We waited a little while, maybe 10 or 15 minutes, and gave up as it was just too cold. Sunday morning we tried again and it was perfect. Unfortunately the hotel did not inform us at the time we made the reservation that the hot tub was down for scheduled maintenance. Odd since I specifically asked about the hot tub, making the reservation only a couple of days before the actual stay. I wrote a letter when I got home and I was refunded 15,000 miles. The GM, Denise, would not agree to refund the 15,000 for the second room. I was referred to Mr. Marriott’s office. Today I found out from Mr. Marriott’s office that the GM would not change her mind and that she has final say. The woman I spoke with in Mr. Marriott’s office agreed to credit us 7,500 additional miles, but not the rest. She told me she asked the hotel to send her the video so they could see how long we used the pool Saturday night. I asked if the video showed we left quickly, would they credit the balance. She said no. It was just for documentation. I again tried to explain we were not traveling. We only stayed so we could swim. Bottom line, they did not care. What should have been an awesome adventure would up really disappointing the girls. As they say, penny wise, pound foolish. The GM gets the final say but I get the final word. There are tons of hotels and long term hotels along the route 1 corridor in this area. Based on my experience, and giving Ms. Bonder many chances to change her mind, I would not recommend staying in a hotel with a GM who makes such short sighted decisions. I am cancelling my Marriott Visa card immediately and unless I have no other reasonable options, will NEVER stay in a Marriott property again. So Ms Bonder and Mr. Marriott, I hope you are feeling good about your decision. I grew up with a dad, Bernard Libou, who traveled extensively for business and he only stayed at Marriotts. He achieved the highest level in their awards program. The rest of our family followed his lead. Until now. Takes years to build a loyal customer yet one bad decision like the one Ms Bonder (and Mr. Marriott supported) to turn a loyal customer into a former customer. Ms Bonder, I hope you are proud of your decision. Hilton, here we come!

This is my third stay at this hotel. It was NOT a good one this time, and I do not think that I will be back. After incessant barking of a dog for 90 minutes, I called the front desk to inquire about why. I was told curtly that it is a «dog friendly hotel.» I wondered if it is also a people friendly hotel, as I was not prepared to listen to the loud high pitched non-​stop barking any longer. I was told that there was one dog in residence. I told her that I had seen at least two, entering the side door. She said that all dogs «must enter throughout the lobby.» I said it didn’t happen. She said she could make an attempt to see what the problem was. I thanked her and said I could not stay while the barking continued. I left with a headache. When I returned later the barking had stopped. At 4am, I was awoken by the sound of loud dripping water. It seemed to be dripping into the ceiling or wall. I was never able to fall back asleep. The dripping continued for hours. I am very disappointed and exhausted from this terrible experience.

*ANY ONE WITH TODDLERS OR YOUNG CHILDREN PLEASE READ* LIFE THREATENING INJURY CAUSED BY NEGLIGENCE TO POSTING OF CAUTION SIGNS OR SAFETY GUARDS*
We decided to stay at the Residence Inn Princeton at Carnegie center during our little family get away to Sesame Place for July 4^th weekend. We (four adults and two toddlers) checked in to our two bedroom suite on Friday, and the front desk agents were aware of our TWO toddlers (17 & 21 month old) they had the maintenance man set up our pack and plays and gave us welcome bags with sesame place cookies for the little ones. The property was beautiful, and we were excited for the weekend. We returned from the pool and were cold, so we turned on our gas fire place. We started to get ready and the fire place was turned off. A little while later, one of our toddlers was attracted to the glass and without us realizing that A) The glass does reach multi hundred degree temperatures and B) That the glass would still be burning hot after it has been turned off for a while — our toddler places her hands on the glass and received second degree burns. She was in excruciating pain and had to be taken immediately to the hospital. I informed the front desk of what was going on, not once did anyone apologize or offer anything besides «do you need us to call an ambulance?» I’m sorry but when a toddler receives and injury like this, you bet your butt if I were the manager I would be upstairs in a heartbeat to see what I can do to help. As two adults took the poor little girl to the hospital the other two stayed behind. A front desk agent came upstairs and knocked on our door about 20 mins later and wanted to check on things. I explained to her that the girl has been severely burned and is at the hospital and the doctor has diagnosed her with second degree burns to both of her hands, she seemed a bit sorry and then left. A few moments later we receive a call and the front desk girl was asking for information for a «report» for her manager. I told them that they can ask the parents of the girl them self for any information. The manager never once came up to our room to speak to us. The next day, the toddler who was injured’ father asked to speak to a manager and showed the front desk how badly his daughter was hurt (she is now wrapped in bandages, covering her entire hands) and they said they would tell the manager to reach out to us when they arrived. We received a call about an hour later again asking for names and information. No apologies on the phone, no offers of help– so the girls father decided to go down and speak to the manager face to face. She claims this hasn’t happened in her fourteen years of being there. That was it. As we woke up the next morning our full bill was slipped under our door, our credit card on file already charged. Upon arrival, we had asked to pay in cash at checkout, not to be charged on the card. You would think after a life threatening injury to a small child (god forbid she fell into it instead of placing her hands on it) they would have the decency to acknowledge our request. We went to the front desk and I explained to them that after the awful weekend we had, they could have at least done what we asked but that I believed we should not even have to pay for our stay, the front desk agent nodded and agreed but I’m assuming had no say in the matter — he wasn’t the manager. Besides asking if we were ok no offers of any help or assistance or additional accommodations were made. We had to make multiple stops to buy bandages and wraps for this poor little girls hands. Medicine runs and everything. If you are going to make us pay for the stay that RUINED our weekend because there was no warning signs, nothing covering or guarding the fireplace, you should at least be kind about it and help us out. If the Marriott doesn’t want to shell out money for warning signs or safety guards (they have a sign on our door warning us not to allow anyone under 16 alone in the pool area) then the least that could of been done is a general safety tip upon check in. We live in the city, we don’t have fireplaces and haven’t had any experience with gas fireplaces. If we would have just been told that the fireplace glass shield got hot, or to be careful with the fireplace– we would have never turned it on. Shame on everyone at the Marriott Residence Inn. A lot could have been done to turn this situation around and NOTHING WAS.

Business Travelers Beware!
Trying to keep this short, I will say that their cancellation policy is terrible and customer service did nothing to fix my problem. I was booking multiple one day stays in different hotels for a recent east coast business trip. I accidentally booked this hotel for the wrong date, I booked for the current day instead of two days later. Upon receiving my confirmation I realized my mistake and called the hotel to fix the mistake. It was less than 10 min after booking online, but hotel staff said they have a 24 hour cancellation policy and they could not fix my problem and I would be charged $ 200 for my key stroke error! My company always stays at Marriotts and most allow you to cancel up until 6PM day of, which is a great policy for business travelers. This hotel does not subscribe to that policy!
I was also informed that they would open up the room and if someone else rented it I would not be charged. However, the hotel appeared sold out online for rest of the evening. I was not until the next day that they informed my the did not have the room appear available online, and the ONLY way someone would know a room was available was if they walked in and asked!
In the end, I was charged the $ 200 for my keystroke error and the hotel did almost nothing to help the situation. If you are traveling on business where schedules can change, be careful if thinking about booking this hotel, or any other hotel with this cancellation policy. I have generally been very happy with Marriott, this is my first terrible experience.

Very clean. Very nice rooms. Great location 2.5 miles from Princeton and across the street from mall, movie theatre and restaurants. This is a five for a residence inn this is not meant as a four star full service. It’s four star kid and dog friendly hotel.

I lived at this facility for 11 months while my home was being repaired after it was badly damaged by a storm. I can not say enough about the staff, they are incredibly kind and caring. They truly made our bad situation better. They have gone above and beyond what is to be expected. This is a great spot for a long or short term stay.
The only complaint I have about the facility is their choice of Lodgenet as their carrier for Direct TV. It always goes out and often freezes up. It has made me realize how good Comcast really is (something I thought I’d never say). The Ethernet is slow, but tolerable.

I have stayed here routinely when traveling on business. I am looking for other options in the future as the wireless is slower than the Pony Express and I found lipstick on 1 of the glasses. I reported it to the Asst. Manager and he offered me 10,000 points (equivalent to 1 night at a low-​end) in exchange for possibly contracting Hep C.

First time at a Residence Inn. I expected a nicer place.
We asked for a suite with two rooms, instead we got a suite with a loft that is totally open.
It is spacious and could sleep six, but not the kind of place I would go to again.
I was surprised to see breakfast served on plastic plates at a Marriot!
When there was no food in the serving dishes, the answer was that they cannot cook it fast enough. I would suggest checking that the people who eat there are hotel residents! That would keep the kitchen staff from being overwhelmed with customers, eliminate empty serving platters and prevent chaotic atmosphere in the dining room.
I did not think the staff were very friendly, but I could see how working in a crowded place would cause the employees to be less outgoing.
Also, the pool was not heated! That is not advisable in the Northeast!
This is not the place for me.

This is not for a business traveller. It is great for a family but not for a business traveller.

I will not stay here again. It’s new and it is in keeping with the usual Residence Inn formula, but this property really disappointed me. When you expressly cater to business travelers you should do a lot better than this:
1) Busy traveling professionals expect, in 2010, for the in-​room wireless and internet to be reliable. I had lots of work to do one night during my recent stay, and the internet connection would not stay up and running. Over the course of a valuable evening, they had to keep rebooting the router or whatever, and seconds after you’d reconnect, down it would go. And the connection when it was up could be very slow at times.
2) The room I had was horribly laid out. No desk to work at. You could not see the television straight on from either the sofa or the bed – I actually had to move a big, ugly, awkward cabinet holding the widescreen tv and try to turn the damn thing so I could see it from the bed where I was working late.
3) Smoke alarms going off in my room due to the shower running? I had to run and open all the windows to kill the alarms. Good grief.
4) Again, catering to business travelers, can’t you do better than frozen White Castles, a couple package of Stouffer’s meatloaf, and some Lean Cuisine fish dish in your little store for those hungry people who have been stuck on airplanes and racing down I-​95 from Newark all evening and can’t find an open restaurant? Why do you have dozens of choices of hamburgers, chips, and ice cream but 3 real food options that one could heat up in the in-​room kitchen? Come on, put a little more thought and effort into it.
5) The bathroom in my suite was a disaster area. No tub, the shower drained directly into the middle of the bathroom. I had to step around a lake after my first shower. What?!
This is close to my company’s east coast office, handy to several of my largest customers, but when I’m back in the area I’ll pass on this place.
PS, the free breakfast in the morning was really subpar compared even to the last Courtyard I stayed in. Rubbery waffles, unripe fruit, somebody picked super spicy breakfast sausage.

The Inn is new, squeaky clean; the carpets are even still out-​gassing a bit. Included: internet access, breakfast each morning, a «social hour» Monday through Thursday, pool, workout room. Not included: smoke. (It’s a 100% smoke-​free property and doesn’t have residual cigarette odor from times when it wasn’t.) It’s within walking distance of the MarketFair Mall and a very impressive Whole Foods. Rooms are really small suites, with living and kitchen areas.
It can be noisy. The walls are not super-​thick, and the TVs are loud. The refrigerator in my room, which is about 12 feet from my bed, is not a totally quiet object.
There are a number of complexes like this in the Princeton area. Business must be good.