We live in Santa Fe & are frequent travelers and often stay at 4-5 star resorts. When we stay in Albuquerque we stay at the Fairfield. It has an indoor pool, hot tub, workout room, nice rooms, and permissable access to the attached Hilton with a sports bar, outdoor pool and good breakfast restaurant. We find the staff friendly, rooms clean and rates are very reasonable.
Overall probably average for a low cost hotel in Albuquerque which isn't exactly a clean city but the bedding pushes it into the simply awful catagory. There is a small badly worn pad between you and the mattress which doesn't cover the mattress so your head or feet are in almost direct contact with the mattress through a near threadbare sheet. The staff makes the bed in a way that when trying to pull the bed down for entry you cannot help but pull the non-fitted bottom sheet out from under the nasty mattress - further putting yourself at risk of sleeping directly on this artifact from a dumpster. The light blanket and comforter would not even be suitable for selling at Goodwill with wear and tear evident all over and smelly too. Unfortunately I have to stay here on occasion as my employer arranges accommodations. It does have a reading chair (surely taken from the dumpster along with the mattress) in the room that you might be able to sleep in if the intolerably noisy room airconditioner didn't blow it's horribly foul air directly onto it. But hey... the room has high speed internet and you can get a continental breakfast on styrofoam in the lobby!
In November 2005, our hotel renovated its bedding package to the new bedding program created by Marriott. All new bedding has been in place and is receiving high marks from all of our guests. Should you have the opportunity to revisit our hotel, I believe you will be pleased with this new bedding program.
I usually stay near the airport in Albuquerque, but this time needed to spend a lot of time in the University area and knew there was extensive road constuction near the airport so I stayed at FI University. I had several family members with me, so we rented 5 rooms. The pool area, which you have to go outside to get to, was filthy. There had been guests partying all weekend there and none of the staff seemed to want to clean up the empty pizza boxes, beer and soda cans, cake plates, etc. even though there were housekeepers collecting towels who must have noticed the mess. Also, the jacuzzi had VERY dirty water in it. Our rooms were okay, though we didn't get the room types we requested. The ice machine on our floor didn't work, and the soda machine gave up Vanilla Coke no matter which button you pushed. Our bills were messed up when we checked out. The clerk wasn't able to readd them to get a correct total so I had to do it myself.
We attempted to talk to the front desk clerk about the mess in the pool but there was just one person working and a line at the door. So we wrote to the manager when we got home. He responded, but he got my name wrong, he told me that he isn't responsible for the conduct of his guests in the pool area, and that he didn't believe the place was a mess all weekend, and that if more than one guest has the same last name the bills are bound to get screwed up. With that attitude I'm not surprised the staff doen't bother to clean.
I usually stay here 3-4 times a year. The earlier reviews pointed out problems that I've never seen here. The staff has always been very nice to me. The room decor is somewhat uninspiring but the rooms have always been clean and the air conditioning in fine working order. The area isn't much to look at but I like the ease of getting on the freeways to get to the other parts of the city. I like this hotel but I may not be as picky as some.
We have stayed at this hotel a couple of times and it doesn't seem to get any better. Most Fairfields I've stayed at are clean and pleasant. This Fairfield needs some makeovers fromt he hallways to the rooms and bathrooms. The worst of it is the bathrooms. Mold, mildew and dirty tile etc. Badly stained carpet in the rooms doesn't help either. If you can find another hotel for around $60 go for it. Oh yeah, watch out for the Circle K after dark, avoid the gangs.
Terrible. Grubby all round - litter strewn in the corridors and elevator stayed there for the two days we were there - staff just walked past it.
The usual continental breakfast was ok - but the breakfast room was in need of redecoration.
The bedroom needed refurbishment urgently, and as for the balcony (!) we were blessed with.... Let's just say it was somewhat two-dimensional - you could stand on it sideways but not turn round for fear of coming into contact with the absolutely filthy black walls. Yeuch! Who wants to stare at the junction of two Interstates anyway!
On the plus side you could use the pool of the adjoining hotel, which wasn'y spotless but we risked it anyway. Rather a lot of ants about though.
Oh, and the staff were rude.
Apart from all that, that the place was lovely. Or at least it will be when they tear it down.
