Courtyard Columbia Downtown at USC

I wanted to use some of my Marriott reward points for my husband to stay at this property. I called Marriott's reservation line to book his room to ensure his name would be on the reservation since I was not traveling with him. When my husband arrived at the hotel, he was told the room was cancelled. After some back and forth, they re-instated the room and he spent the night. After the stay, I had two charges put on my credit card for the "canceled" stay. In an email exchange with one manager, I was told there was confusion on the room because of the two names on the room. He refunded one credit card charge, and debited my points balance for the stay. I waited to a few days to see if the other charge would be credited to my card. When it did not get refunded, I emailed the manager and asked him to remove the charge. He did not respond, so two days later I called the hotel. The person I spoke with told me the points reservation was canceled because they tried to charge a security deposit to my credit card on file and when it failed, they canceled the room. Why charge a security deposit or penalty before a guest arrives? And how did the cancellation fees go through on the credit card when the security deposit failed? They told me they could not do a refund for me -- that would need to call back again and ask for the general manager. I asked if there was an option for the general manager to reach out to me, and I was told that was not an option. This should have been a really easy reservation. I am not clear how I still don't have a full refund for the hotel's mistake or an apology. I guess I need to keep working on getting this resolved. In the meantime, I am happy to warn others that basic reward reservations and customer service are outside of this property 's skill set. I encourage anyone reading this to stay elsewhere.

The hotel was lovely. Very friendly staff. Parking was easy and covered. Beds were comfy.