I am a big fan of the Residence Inn overall - it's usually a top choice for our family. But after spending three nights at the nearby Fairfield Inn & Suites, the Residence Inn felt like a little bit of a stepdown. The carpeting, furniture, etc felt really dated. And the bathrooms, towels, bedding, etc weren't up to the standards of Fairfield Inn. We were ousted from our home by Hurricane Sandy so we spent 3 nights at Fairfield Inn & Suites and 4 nights at the Residence Inn. The benefits of staying at Residence Inn for us was the bigger kitchen, separate rooms for sleeping and at the top of the list was the pool (and hot tub) to keep the kids happy!! Also there were more children's channels offered on the television at the Residence Inn, which was great for our kids. The staff was very nice and friendly. We were a little disappointed that the breakfast at Residence Inn was not as good as Fairfield Inn, but it was still okay. I would give Fairfield a 5 out of 5 for their breakfast and the Residence a 3. They offered coffee and hot water for tea around the clock, which was great!!! On our last night they had one of their manager's receptions which was great - they had vegetable and meat lasagna with salad. It was more then adequate for dinner and really good!! Overall I would recommend the Residence Inn in Somerset to anyone needing the kitchen facilities and the pool. But if you just want a nice room with a living room area, sleeping area, refrigerator, coffee maker, microwave, two tv's - I'd stay at the Fairfield Inn & Suites since it's the same price range. I think once the Residence Inn gets a makeover it will be fair competion though! On another note - one negative that we experienced at Residence Inn was the rate change. Before we moved over to Residence was called the confirm our reservation and our hotel rates. There person we spoke to on the phone told us she was putting a note in the computer to maintain our rate for the duration of our stay. Unfortunately, the manager of RI did not honor this, although he didn't deny the notation was in the computer. He said that "considering the circumstances and high demand for rooms, he could no longer honor that". We were upset by this because on our 4th night the rate was going up almost $100 per night. Thankfully we were able to check out and go home after the first night of our rate change. But we were planning on shopping around for a less expensive hotel, finding friends to stay with, etc. Because the price at RI jumped way beyond what we could afford for and extended period of time. We were a little disappointed in being told they would maintain our rate and then being told otherwise.