Stayed in December 2011 just after Christmas. The location is great for walking to things in old town and for easily getting onto the interstate to drive elsewhere. The lobby was very comfortable and rooms were fine. Pool is small but adequate. The staff were very accommodating and helpful. We ate pizza out one night and had lots of leftovers which we kept in our in-room frig. Next day lunch the staff said we could eat in the closed breakfast restaurant and we heated the pizza in the lobby microwave.

We wanted to stay downtown but a convention took all the hotel space. We settled for the Courtyard in the Old Town and what a lucky choice. Firstly the Old Town with a vibrant night life is three minutes walk. The transit stop is 5 minutes walk and a $5 pass gives unlimited travel around this beautiful city. The rooms were up to the standard you would expect from this chain but a lot cheaper than downtown. Staff very friendly and helpful.

I'm sure that it will be all sorted out in the end. But at the moment, this hotel is not fit to be open.
It is in the middle of major building work, it is dirty, dusty, much of the main area is under construction as is much of the accommodation area, and the lift is being used by the contractors so it's dirty. The parts of the hotel that aren't under construction are tired. Courtyard is not a brand I use regularly but Ive always had good experiences.
The staff were courteous, they must be having a terrible time. There was no fuss when I checked straight out again after seeing the extent of the horror.

I made a reservation for this hotel in July 2011. I had stayed at the hotel several times in the past few years and while it had not been updated to the new Marriott Courtyard standards, the property was "ok" and the service always excellent.

I happened to check on the hotel website a week or so prior to our New Year's Weekend arrival and discovered that the hotel was undergoing a MAJOR renovation. Great for the hotel, bad for me. Had a received advance notice if this via email (they had all my contact information) I would have changed locations. 10 days prior to the stay on a holiday weekend that was no longer an option.

Arrived at the hotel to find:

Portable bar type unit as a front desk
Portable bar as the bar,
Temporary tables as the dining area

All of this in an semi open type area with strip heaters on the ceiling.

Had to walk through the "real" lobby that is totally torn up to get to the only working elevator. No temporary covering on the pathway to the elevator so dust everywhere

Drywall dust and minor debris scattered in the guest corridor.

Arrived at our suite (had been upgraded due to Marriott Rewards status. The room had a strong mold/mildew smell. My wife opened the drapes to see outside and discovered the room darkening shade was covered with mold. This room should not have been in service. They obviously don't actually inspect the rooms for potential health issues.

Back to the front desk where we were moved to a standard room (was fine with that) that was newly renovated. Nice room but.. the new toilet leaked at the base and there were two lights in the bathroom that did not work. Not fixed during the two night stay.

The stay was on a free night award (not points related). I was not going to complain about the situation but when the hotel pulled 20,000 from my wife's account in addition to using the free night certificate that was already attached to the reservation.

Since I had to talk with Marriott to get the points refunded, I made them aware of the lack of notice about the construction and the service failures.

In the resulting dialog with the property it became clear that they just don't care about guest satisfaction. Their response was an offhand "sorry"

They are off my list of properties I stay at in SoCal.

They should be off yours as well!