Amway Grand Plaza

We came to Grand Rapids to visit family for the holidays. Unfortunately there are no 5 star hotels in the area, so we decided on Amway. The hotel room was small, dated, and not very clean. The bedding felt like sandpaper and we didn’t even have proper sheets. There was an oversized sheet tucked in as a fitted sheet, the lumpy duvet didn’t have a proper duvet cover it was just sandwiched between two scratchy sheets. Housekeeping consisted of taking out the trash and leaving fresh towels, nobody actually cleaned our room. Usually hotels make the beds, change sheets if needed, clean the bathroom, vacuum, etc. There was also dirt and debris behind the dressers and the shower was rusty. Everything felt old, overused, and dirty. The room was also noisy we heard every car driving by at night. I guess next time we will try the JW Marriot. I really wish GR would get a decent hotel.

I had high hopes for this stay, choosing the hotel because of fond memories staying there many years ago, and for the great indoor swimming pool, which was hyped up for my 8 year old daughter. Upon checking in we were informed, after asking what time the pool closed, that it was out of service. Big disappointment, and not mentioned on the website at time of booking earlier that same day. They allowed use of the adjacent JW hotel pool, but disappointed nonetheless. Our room was in the non-tower area and was less than impressive given the high nightly rate. We found crud in the corners and behind the TV (I saw that because I had to plug the tv in to turn it on). The beds are stiff, well past their useful life. And wow was it a noisy room - any chatter in the hallway comes right through, and construction outside was loud in the early morning. Service seemed phoned in; no line at check in, but made us stand there awhile and barely looked up. A large wedding party took up a huge common area for one day, which would’ve been a good place for us to sit and play cards. I’d look elsewhere downtown until this place gets some renovation or new ownership.

We recently held a college reunion at the Amway. The customer service, at every point (from check-in, to restaurants, valet service, etc etc etc) was 5 star. The hotel is beautiful. Rooms spacious, very clean and quiet. Several members of our group were given free room upgrades. It is very close to the Gerald Ford Museum, Meijer Gardens, and restaurants. We highly recommend this hotel.

The Amway has a beautiful property, but sadly our guest room left a lot to be desired. Dirt in the corners of the bathroom and room, dust and build up on many surfaces of the makeup mirror, stains on the carpet, discolored sheets. Very unimpressed for the price.

The hotel itself was beautiful, however, our room and the customer service had much to be desired. The first and biggest issue was that we did not have hot water in our room for the first 12 hours of our stay. We notified the front desk immediately of the issue and they indicated that they would inform their engineering and maintenance dept. We finally got hot water the following day. The second issue we had was that the room was hot and humid. The thermostat registered 76 degrees when we entered the room. We immediately turned it down. We then left the room and were gone for several hours. We came back to change for the evening and the room was still extremely hot and humid. It never went below 76 degrees. We contacted the front desk regarding this issue, as well. The hotel staff merely stated that they were “sorry we experienced that”. That was it. They did nothing to rectify either situation quickly or at all. They did not offer to switch our room. They did not offer any type of compensation for our inconvenience. No parking pass, breakfast voucher, discount on our room rate, not even a bottle of water. Absolutely nothing. Given that this is supposed to be a 4-star hotel, with a high daily room rate to go with it, parking is not included. Parking is an additional $40-45 per day. There is also no included breakfast of any kind, the rooms are quite small, and the sheets and pillows are just standard, everyday linens. There is also no in-room mini refrigerator or microwave. We would not stay there again. The value and service just did not meet our expectations for this caliber of hotel.