My primary reason for choosing to stay at the Calgary Airport Marriott was so that I could sleep in a bit before catching my 10:30am flight back to San Diego. It’s conveniently attached the main terminal, so there’s no need to mess with the hassles of getting to the airport. You wake up and you’re already there!
A full review of my 1 night stay at the Calgary Airport Marriott
Of all the in-ariport hotels I’ve ever stayed in, this was one of the best. It felt like it was brand new – or at least recently renovated. The hotel is attached directly to the main terminal (not set back like the Westin DTW and ORD Hilton) with windows that directly overlook the gates. It’s neat.
Getting there
The entrance to the Marriott YYC is large, grand, and very bright. It’s easy to miss though (even if you’re following the signs), and I walked right past it on my first attempt. It blends in very well to the decor of the airport terminal.
Just follow the signs to the Marriott YYC in-airport hotel.The Marriott is easy to miss if you’re not paying attention – the entrance is up just ahead on the right.
The lobby
It didn’t seem all that busy when I arrived (at about 5:20pm on a Saturday evening), and there was no waiting to check in. The woman who checked me in was happy, helpful, and fast – all three things essential for a great customer experience. She even walked me to the elevators, which was totally unnecessary but a nice friendly gesture.
This is certainly one of the nicest airport Marriotts I’ve ever seen! Here is what you see upon walking through the main entrance. The check in desks are along the back wall, with the restaurant to the left.The lobby was really impressive. Here I am looking towards the bar and restaurant.This is an airport Marriott? Really? If the lobby looks this nice, I can only imagine what the room is going to look like…The overall size of the lobby was impressive as well. This is a big hotel!I really appreciated this computer setup which was for printing boarding passes.
Getting to my room
Alright, now lets check out that room! Here’s the 6th floor guest room hallway.635 was my room for the night.
The view of the airport
Upon entering the room, I did pretty much what any serious aviation geek would do: run to the windows to check out that view! The rest of the room matters not in cases like this, and I didn’t even notice anything but the view from the window for the first 5 minutes of my stay.
I love pulling back the curtains to reveal amazing sights such as this. Wow!!The views are even better at night. YYC isn’t a very busy airport, but standing right on top of the action like this (wearing nothing but my underwear) was quite an experience. AvGeek heaven!
For aircraft spotters and photographers, the Marriott at the Calgary Airport is a very (very) good place to sit and watch airplanes. I was able to get a lot of good pics of aircraft parked at the nearest gates with just a 105mm lens, but you’ll need more reach than that for aircraft taxiing past in the distance.
300-400mm would be perfect, though not required to have a very satisfying experience here.
The room
This is a hotel review after all, so let’s pull back bit and have a look at the rest of the room. That bed sure was comfy!As far as Marriott’s go, I found this one to be quite modern and stylish. A far cry from the Courtyard Marriott here at YYC I stayed at the previous night.These chairs came in handy after I turned them around to sit and watch airplanes all evening.This Marriott had a very “Westin” feel thanks to the white linens and dark brown wood accents. It’s basically on the opposite (good) side of the “cool” spectrum compared to the Dulles Airport Marriott.Simple. Clean. Well designed. Just my style!I found the asymmetry of the desk / TV / closet to be very well designed. Not very traditional, but cool nonetheless.Even the alarm clock was hip and cool. Hard to believe this is an airport Marriott!That bed felt so amazing after a long day of driving out to Lake Louise and back.I can’t say enough good things about the style and design of this room – loads of good design elements here which I really liked. Not all hotels connected directly to an airport are nice (the Miami International Airport Hotel is one such example), so I appreciated the attention to detail.Here’s a wide angle shot of the entire room, looking towards the windows.And here’s the view looking the other way towards the door.
The bathroom
The bathroom. All I was muttering at this point was “this is really a Marriott?” over and over again…Bathroom fixtures are where Marriott tends to get cheap (you can see exactly what I mean in my San Francisco Airport Marriott review), but there weren’t any corners cut here. This is a really nice bathroom!While simple, the size of the shower was nearly perfect.Lots of room to spread out next to the toilet!Nice presentation of the bathroom amenities here.The amenities are by THANN, BTW.Finally, a wide angle pic of the entire bathroom. Well done Marriott!
The restaurant
I was really hungry upon arrival, and the limited room service menu (which was on the TV, not on paper) disappointed me a bi. I knew that I would have to venture downstairs find another option. Luckily, the menu of the onsite restaurant looked really good so that’s where I had dinner.
The on-site restaurant (located just off the lobby) was good – though a bit pricey.I was trying to be healthy by ordering a turkey breast sandwich, but it came with an irresistible pile of french fries…
Final thoughts
As you can see, this is a very nice Marriott. I’ve never had many nice things to say about airport Marriott hotels, as most of the ones I have stayed at have felt dark and dreary with no sense of style at all (*cough* IAH Marriott *cough*). Such was not the case with this property.
If I didn’t know it was a Marriott, I would have been floored if someone told me after the fact. The entire experience felt a bit more high-end than I would expect for this brand, and that was a very encouraging thing to see. Is this the direction that Marriott is heading? I would sure hope so.
