Update 1/28/21: We recently stayed at the Candlewood Suites Abilene again and as a result of that stay, I’d recommend avoiding this hotel.
Our experience from our first stay wasn’t amazing due to all the issues in our room (see the complete review below for more about that), but I gave them the benefit of the doubt that we were just unlucky.
This latest stay has made me reevaluate the hotel. When checking in, they put us in a room which was right next to a room where they were doing construction. That construction started with banging at 8:30am which is unreasonable. Shae went to the front desk to discuss the issue and look into whether we could move rooms and Lani (the Operations Manager!) at the front desk was incredibly rude and repeatedly gave Shae attitude.
In addition to that, the hotel has non-existent COVID protocols. Our visit was in January 2021, so still during the pandemic. None of the hotel staff wore masks – we saw at least five different front desk staff members not wearing them, housekeeping staff didn’t wear them when cleaning rooms and vacuuming hallways and none of the construction crew wore them either. None of the guests wore masks either and, unsurprisingly given their own lack of mask-wearing, the staff didn’t ask them to put masks on either.
As a result we left one night into a four night stay and will never stay at this property again.
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We stayed in Abilene, Texas for four nights while on our 5 year, 50 state road trip. It was a surprisingly fun place to stay, with storybook sculptures, ruins from the 1800s, prairie dogs and more.
We’d originally booked a stay at the Candlewood Suites Abilene using points, but changed that to a paid stay thanks to a low rate and the bonus points on offer from the latest IHG Rewards Club promotion (more about those in the ‘Cost’ and ‘Points Earned’ sections below).
It’s a nice enough hotel with friendly and helpful staff, although we got unlucky with the room they placed us in. Here’s a full review of our stay at the Candlewood Suites Abilene, Texas.
Check-In
We arrived at about 5:15 pm and got checked in quickly as there was no one else checking in at the time.
Seeing as we’re traveling with our dog Truffles, the front desk agent offered to put us in a room on the first floor next to an exit which we appreciated. We’d booked a studio queen suite as that had been cheaper than a studio king suite, but I asked when checking in if it would be possible to upgrade to a king suite instead. The person checking us in did this without it being an issue; I have Spire Elite status, so I’m assuming that helped.
The entire check-in process was very quick and we soon had our keys to room 100.
Room
In case you’re not familiar with the Candlewood Suites brand, they’re an all-suite brand where every room contains a kitchen.
When entering our room, the kitchen was on the left, the closet and bathroom on the right and the main bedroom area straight ahead.
Bedroom
Our king bed was comfortable, so we slept well every night.
To the left of the bed was a fairly comfortable reclining armchair.
On the opposite side of the room was a dresser holding the TV and a DVD player. All Candlewood Suites properties have DVDs you can borrow from the front desk for free.
Along the left wall was a desk/dining table with both an office chair and a dining chair. It was nice having the two chairs as it meant Shae and I could work at the desk at the same time.
To the right of the room’s entrance was the closet. This only contained an iron and ironing board (some Candlewood Suites hotels we’ve stayed at have had a laundry basket).
Kitchen
Opposite the closet was the room’s kitchen. This included a sink, full-size fridge-freezer, microwave, dishwasher and double stove top.
The kitchen’s amenities were a little disappointing. Some of the Candlewood Suites we’ve stayed at recently have had place settings for four people which means you don’t have to wash the dishes as frequently.
The Candlewood Suites Abilene on the other hand didn’t even have full place settings for two people. There was only one small plate, one tall glass, one short glass, etc.
They also didn’t have any dessert spoons – only teaspoons. Most Candlewood Suites kitchens have a saute pan, a large pot and a small pot, but this one didn’t have a small pot.
Bathroom
When entering the bathroom, the sink and vanity were straight ahead.
There was a small bottle of shampoo, along with a couple of bars of soap (one of them had already been placed on the bath).
The bathroom also had a bathtub with shower. The shower was perfectly fine – it had good water pressure and didn’t take long to warm up.
Room Issues
Our stay was a little unusual as they’d given us a room where everything either disappeared from it or where they went to die. The wall-mounted hairdryer in the bathroom didn’t work, although there was a separate hairdryer under the sink.
It was the bedroom and particularly the kitchen that had the bigger issues though. For example, our blackout curtains weren’t blackout curtains as one side looked like the window had put on a growth spurt and so the curtain was no longer long enough to cover it. I’ve never seen anything like this at a hotel and I’ve no idea what possessed someone to hang it up given that it also provides zero privacy, especially considering we were on the first floor with the parking lot immediately outside.
We reported the curtain to the front desk straight away and they sent someone to replace it within an hour which was good service.
The kitchen also had numerous issues. In the photo of the kitchen earlier in this review, you can see that the vent cover of the microwave is missing.
The ice maker in the freezer didn’t work as the switch was missing…
…there was no button on the range top timer which meant it wasn’t possible to turn on the stove…
…the handles of both kitchen knives had several splits, etc. It’s understandable that a room might have one or two issues, but this one had such a weird collection of broken and missing things.
To be fair to the hotel, when we reported the curtain and hob timer issues, they fixed those very quickly. It did leave me wondering though whether maintenance normally used room 100 to take things they needed to fix other rooms.
Amenities
Breakfast isn’t provided at any Candlewood Suites properties, although they do have the Candlewood Cupboard where you can buy snacks, meals, beverages, toiletries, etc.
The Candlewood Suites Abilene has a fitness room with a few pieces of equipment.
In the same area as the fitness room is a guest laundry area. This contained three washing machines and four dryers, all of which are free to use. You have to provide your own detergent and dryer sheets, but those can be purchased from the Candlewood Cupboard.
I mentioned earlier that you can borrow DVDs from the hotel to watch using your room’s DVD player. You can find the DVD selection and borrow all kinds of other items like board games, blenders, crock pots, etc. from the Lending Locker.
The hotel had an outdoor swimming pool which I think might have been closed for the season (we visited at the end of October), although I didn’t check.
Also outside is a covered seating area with a couple of grills you can use.
If you need to get online or print something off during your stay, there’s a small business center with one computer and a printer.
Pet-Friendliness
The Candlewood Suites Abilene is a pet-friendly hotel; that’s one of the reasons we chose it was we have Truffles with us on our 50 state road trip. They have a fairly reasonable pet fee consisting of a $25 deposit and then $10 per night, up to a maximum of $150.
The hotel has several grassy areas, along with sidewalks around the hotel so that you can safely take longer walks with your dog.
There’s also a nice off-leash dog park about 10 minutes away called Camp Barkeley Dog Park which is next to Abilene Zoo. Camp Barkeley Dog Park has separate areas for large and small dogs, both of which are a decent size.
Service
Service at the Candlewood Suites Abilene was very good. Their front desk staff members were friendly, said hello when we returned to the hotel and quickly resolved the issues we’d reported about our room.
Wi-Fi
The Wi-Fi connection at the hotel wasn’t great and there were a few occasions where the connection completely disappeared. We also had to log back in to the internet a few times during our stay which was a little inconvenient – I much prefer it when you can log in once and it remains logged in for the rest of your stay.
Location
The hotel is located on the southwest side of Abilene, only about 10 minutes from Red Bud Park with its prairie dog preserve and a similar length of time to get downtown if you want to go storybook sculpture hunting. If you’d like to visit Fort Phantom Hill, it’s only a 20 minute drive away.
Parking
The hotel offers free parking and there’s plenty of it.
Cost
I mentioned at the beginning of the review that I’d originally booked our stay using points. The Candlewood Suites Abilene costs 10,000 IHG Rewards Club points per night which is pretty good value. I have the IHG Premier credit card which offers the fourth night free when using points, so our four night stay would’ve only cost 30,000 points.
After making that reservation though, IHG launched their new promotion. That promotion had targeted offers; one of my tasks was to book two stays of four consecutive nights or more. That task didn’t include award stays though – it had to be paid nights.
I therefore cancelled our points reservation and rebooked it as a paid stay seeing as cash rates were so reasonable. We ended up paying $76.13 per night including tax, so a total of $304.52 (not including the pet fee).
I also booked through TopCashback which was offering 10% cashback on IHG bookings at the time. Cashback is paid on the pre-tax rate, so we’ll be getting $26.48 back, giving our stay a net cost of $278.04 (or $69.51 per night).
Points Earned
As for points, I earned 500 points as a welcome amenity thanks to my status. I also earned 2,648 points for the stay – 5 base points per dollar on the pre-tax cost and 5 bonus points per dollar thanks to my Spire Elite status.
The stay was also paid for with my IHG Premier credit card which earns 10 points per dollar. That means I should earn an additional 3,695 points as that’s calculated on the cost including tax and pet fee.
I’ll be earning 12,000 bonus points after a second stay of four or more nights, so this stay was effectively worth 6,000 bonus points as we have that second stay booked already. This stay at the Candlewood Suites Abilene also counts as one of the three brands I need to stay at to earn 38,400 bonus points, so that’s effectively worth an additional 12,800 bonus points.
Taking into account all of these points, our four night stay earned 25,643 points. That would be enough to book 2.5 nights at this property which is a great return.
Final Thoughts
I have mixed feelings about our stay at the Candlewood Suites Abilene. I wasn’t very impressed with our room due to how many things were missing or broken. Having said that, the hotel quickly resolved the issues we reported, so they can’t be faulted on that front.
Would I stay here again? I think so, as it offers good value whether paying cash or using points.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives this hotel three paws out of four – pawsome! She didn’t award all four paws because even though it was nice to be on the first floor near an exit, a lot of people seemed to use that exit. One of those people – I think a member of housekeeping – had jangling chains that sounded like a dog leash, so Truffles wasn’t happy as she kept thinking there was a dog outside our room as that person walked past our room to use that exit several times a day.
Our Rating
Room = 3.7 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.2 / 5
Food = N/A
Location = 4.1 / 5
Service = 4.3 / 5
Overall Value = 4.6 / 5
Total = 4.18 / 5
Address
Candlewood Suites, 3050 Catclaw Dr, Abilene, TX 79606
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