Review: Marriott Toronto Markham during the Gilmore Girls Fan Festival

I stayed at the Marriott Toronto Markham couple of weeks ago while attending the Gilmore Girls Fan Festival in Unionville Ontario. As you may recall, I confessed my obsession with the show Gilmore Girls a few years ago when writing about my brief visit to the town where Gilmore Girls was filmed.

Shortly after that, someone from the Unionville Business Improvement Area (BIA) reached out to let me know the event organizers were in talks to hold the 2019 festival on Main Street Unionville. When it was finally announced, I booked a ticket right away.

The Marriott Toronto Markham hotel was a 10-minute Uber ride from Main Street Unionville. I was initially going to stay at an Airbnb, but the only remaining listings were a little shady. This seemed like a safer option.

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How I booked it

The room block at the Marriott Toronto Markham was sold out by the time I decided to book my room, but I was able to secure two nights using the annual free nights from my dad and brother’s Amex Marriott Bonvoy cards.

These free nights are good for a hotel stay of up to 35,000 points and this hotel was going for 25,000 or $130. I just wanted to save money on this trip and I had no foreseeable use for these certificates. The $130 value exceeded the annual fee on these cards, so I redeemed them.

With all the Bonvoyed horror stories I’d heard, I was worried that booking two reservations under two different Marriott numbers would be a disaster. Luckily, that turned out not to be the case.

Before my stay

To my surprise, two days before check-in, my dad got an email from the hotel letting him know he had been proactively upgraded to a Garden View room with lounge access. My dad has Marriott Gold status, so this was a surprise. The person also wanted to know whether he had any special requests before the stay. 

My dad emailed the hotel back, asking for my name to be added to the reservation. I wasn’t able to do it online for some reason. Any time I modified the reservation, it just reverted back to his name.

I had asked him to call the hotel to make this change. I certainly didn’t expect this to be taken care of via email because often, hotels that send emails like this won’t actually respond. 

To my surprise, they responded a couple of hours later and said my name had been added. We were off to a good start and my fears of being Bonvoyed were completely unfounded.

Check-in

The Gilmore Girls Fan Festival was starting at 10 AM the morning of my arrival. I arrived at the hotel at 7:10 AM and figured I’d drop my bag off. Luckily, they had a room ready and let me check in early…8 hours in advance! 

Right away, I was impressed by the hotel’s gorgeous lobby and terrific staff. The agent, Howard, was the most professional, hospitable and friendly check-in agent I’ve ever dealt with.

From that point forward, everyone else I interacted with was exactly the same. This begs the question: Does this hotel provide exceptional service, or are they just Canadian? 

The agent informed me I had access to premium wifi and that my reservations had been combined so I wouldn’t be locked out of my room. He clearly didn’t know who he was dealing with: Of course I would get locked out of my room and require a new key.

It’s in my nature to lose every single hotel key I’ve been given or lock myself out, multiple times during my stay. But at least this time, it wouldn’t be for technical reasons.

Marriott Toronto Markham Garden room

The Garden room at the Marriott Toronto Markham was very spacious and offered tons. 

The room was nicely decorated with a vibrant painting to off-set the neutral tones. It featured a King bed and seating area.

I only got 3.5 hours of sleep on the redeye to Toronto, so I was really grateful for the opportunity to nap before the festival. It helped that the bed was super comfortable.

Even though the room was an upgrade, you wouldn’t think so based on the view. A room with a garden or courtyard view is generally a notch below one with city views. But I guess it’s better than a brick wall.

I remember reading a few years ago that Marriott was doing away with desks because “Millenials don’t use them.” This philosophy didn’t seem to be at play here because the room featured a large desk (or table) spanning the entire bedroom. 

It was equipped with stationary and a coffee maker.

The power strip was convenient for plugging in multiple electronics. I brought two power banks, a laptop and a phone so I needed all the outlets I could find.

My only complaint about the room is that the heater was really loud. It being the dead of winter compared to back home, I had to keep the heater on all night.

There was also a large tv mounted on the wall facing the bed. It was hooked up to Netflix, making it perfect for streaming episodes of Gilmore Girls. 

The bathroom

The bathroom just sparkled. And it wasn’t just because of that super chic lighting that leaves shadows all over your face so you walk out, not knowing if you look well-rested or like you put your makeup on in the dark. 

The bath products were from a brand called This Works. They smelled great and made my hair soft and shiny, but the soap would not wash off. I always felt like I had soap residue on my hands despite trying to scrub it off vigorously.

I found the makeup removing wipe from Soapbox to be a nice touch. 

The club lounge

On my first morning, I called the front desk to find out if I had lounge access. The email they sent my dad mentioned it, but it wasn’t confirmed at check-in. The agent informed me that I did, but that he wasn’t sure my key had been coded for access.

He told me to go down to the 4th-floor lounge and he would send someone up with a new pair of keys. As predicted, I ended up leaving them in my room that night and had to have a new one issued. I told you all, this is just bound to happen.

The lounge was pretty impressive, though the food selection was just so. I only went there for breakfast and a late-night snack.

Lounge breakfast

The breakfast spread consisted of a cereal and coffee bar right by the entrance.

Further down the hall and to the right was another food station consisting of eggs, bacon and turkey sausage. The eggs were that terrible fake egg mix I really despise and the sausage was dry. 

Next to that was a selection of fruit, yogurt parfait, along with an espresso machine.

What appeared to be fresh-squeezed juice was available across from the hot food station. The orange juice tasted bottled, so I can only assume that was the case for the other juices as well.

Lounge seating area

Entering the seating area, you’ll see a large island with what I think is a gas coal fireplace. In any case, it looked cool and gave the room a warm vibe.

The lounge had plenty of comfortable seating lining both the walls and window.

There was also a nice little seating area facing the television. The segment was on an overhyped Netflix show called The Politician. It’s best described as a mix between Glee and Ugly Betty. Also, Gwyneth Paltrow is in it, so you know its extra awful. Watch Succession on HBO instead. 

Snack selection in the lounge

When I dropped by the lounge around 10 PM that night, it was unmanned. The counter to the left of the entrance featured an array of snacks. There were jars filled with jelly beans and pretzels, bags of potato chips and granola bars. 

There were also two jugs of water, one containing strawberries and the other grapefruit.

The mini fridges below were stocked with all kinds of drinks. I grabbed a bottle of cold water. 

Room service

On my last night, I decided to order room service since I had to get up at 3 AM for the airport and needed a quick, easy meal. The room service menu was pretty extensive and after consulting with the attendant, I ordered the chicken with “Canadian potato lasagna.” 

Yes, I was confused by that too. I asked if this was indeed lasagna layered with potatoes (Why? Why?!) or if this was a joke/misnomer, the way “Canadian tuxedo” denotes fancy attire but really refers to the opposite.

I wondered if it just referred to potato gratin. She confirmed that it was indeed layers of potato between layers of pasta. Sounded good, so I ordered it. 

I asked her about dessert and she recommended the vegan peanut butter cake. She told me to let her know how I liked it. She also thanked me for being a loyal Bonvoy member (I got that a lot during my stay) and asked if I needed anything else. Bottled water, she reminded me, was complimentary.

About 20 minutes later, I heard a knock on the door. What arrived was an undercooked chicken floating on a plate of gravy with a side of congealed mashed potatoes and a slice of peanut putter dressed up like a cake.

The food was pretty bad, though I would have gladly traded in the chicken for more Canadian potato lasagna. 

Meeting the cast fromGilmore Girls

When I say I’m a superfan of the show, I’m not exaggerating. I’ve watched every episode probably a minimum of 50 times. I tuned in to the show in 2005 and have had it on a continued loop every day since.

When I’m home, I always have episodes playing in the background while I’m working, studying or wasting time on the internet.

One morning, I was heading down to the lobby and forgot to hit “G.” I ended up going up to the 6th floor. The elevator door opened and who got on? Liz Torres and Emily Kuroda AKA Miss Patty and Mrs. Kim! 

Marriott Toronto Markham: Worth it?

Overall, I really enjoyed my stay at the Marriott Toronto Markham hotel. Sure, there were a few hiccups and the food wasn’t great, but the room was really nice and the best was probably the most comfortable I’d ever slept on. The service was also great and the hotel was located close to Main Street Unionville.

If the Gilmore Girls Fan Festival returns to the area, I will gladly stay here again.