After staying 11 nights at the Hyatt Place Tucson-Central, Shae and I moved on to the Country Inn & Suites Tucson Airport.
My parents were due to fly over from the UK the following week to join us on the road trip for a while. We therefore decided to switch to the Country Inn & Suites for five days for a change of scenery, plus we figured it might help us focus on the work we needed to get done during that time as we were pausing our travel for those five days.
My parents had to cancel their visit in the end due to COVID-19, so our stay there was a little more relaxing than we’d expected it to be. It was a nice hotel, especially considering how great value it was using points. It has some good amenities, hard-working staff and we received a nice upgrade despite only having Gold status with Radisson Rewards.
Here’s a full review of our stay at the Country Inn & Suites Tucson Airport, Arizona.
Check-In
I have Globalist status with World of Hyatt, so we took advantage of a 4pm late checkout from the Hyatt Place Tucson-Central. Loading our car and driving the 15 minutes to the Country Inn & Suites meant we arrived at about 4:30pm.
We’d booked the stay under Shae’s account, so she went inside to check-in while I unloaded the car. In case you’re not familiar with what we’re up to, we’re on a 5 year, 50 state road trip and travel with everything we own, so loading and unloading the car at each hotel or Airbnb takes longer than it does for most people!
Both Shae and I have Gold status with Radisson Rewards (the loyalty program that Country Inn & Suites is part of) thanks to having one of their credit cards that automatically comes with that status. We’d booked a studio suite, but we checked their website just before arriving to see if they still had any one bedroom suites available, which they did. When checking in, Shae asked if it was possible to get an upgrade to a one bedroom suite. The lady at the front desk confirmed that we could and, in fact, upgraded us to what she advised was their Executive Suite which is apparently the highest room type at this property.
In addition to the upgrade, we received a goody bag as a welcome amenity containing various snacks, along with a couple of bottles of water.
Executive Suite
Our suite was room 318. When entering the room, the wet bar was on the right, the living room straight ahead and the bedroom and bathroom off to the right around the corner.
The photo below was taken a few feet inside the door, so there was extra space to the right of where the wet bar was. Having extra space to store bags was particularly helpful because we’d brought everything in from the car to sort through before my parents arrived as we’d been planning on putting some of it in storage so we could fit them in our car.
Living Room
The living room was a good size, so we enjoyed having so much space. There was a sleeper sofa and armchair, although there wasn’t a coffee table which was a bit of a surprise.
Opposite the couch was a desk and office chair, as well as the room’s TV on top of a dresser. For it being an Executive Suite, the TV was surprisingly small. The volume on the remote didn’t work, so we had to adjust that manually on the TV itself.
There was a good selection of TV channels though.
Back towards the room entrance, there was a wet bar with a mini fridge and microwave. Similar to the TV, the mini fridge was smaller than expected. It had a small freezer section which worked well which was nice as it meant we were able to refreeze our freezer packs.
Bedroom
To the right of the living room’s desk was the door leading through to the bedroom. This contained a king bed which was a little softer than normal, but it was still pretty comfortable. The curtains didn’t seem to be proper blackout curtains (or weren’t as close to the window as they should be), so it wasn’t quite as dark at night as we would’ve liked.
There were power outlets available on both sides of the bed, but you have to pull out the bedside tables a few inches from the wall to access them.
Opposite the bed was a closet with another TV. In the closet was a luggage rack, along with a pillow and blanket for the sleeper sofa. To the right of the closet was an ironing board.
Bathroom
A nice room design of the Executive Suite is that the bathroom had two sets of doors – one in the bedroom and one in the living room.
The bathroom was pretty large with a bathtub and shower. From what I can remember, the shower had good water pressure. As a guy, the toilet was a little frustrating as the toilet seat wouldn’t stay up without holding it up.
The toiletries were Country Inn & Suite’s standard toiletries and are decent enough.
The suite’s ironing board is in the bedroom to the right of the closet, while the iron was attached to a wall in the bathroom.
Breakfast
Breakfast is complimentary for all guests at the Country Inn & Suites Tucson Airport and is served from 6:00-9:30am during the week and 7:00-10:30am at the weekend.
The breakfast area was a good size and we didn’t have a problem finding somewhere to sit in the morning. If the hotel is very busy during your stay, I can imagine it might be hard to get a table, particularly at the weekend.
There were a few hot options available which rotated each day. The day I took the photos there were biscuits and sausage gravy, sausage patties and scrambled eggs. Other days there was bacon, omelets and more, with my favorite being the breakfast tacos.
The other breakfast options tended to be the same each day:
Amenities
One of the reasons I enjoy staying at Country Inn & Suites properties is because they tend to have a good array of amenities; the one at Tucson Airport is no exception. For starters, there’s an outdoor swimming pool and whirlpool at the back of the hotel. The swimming pool is heated, so it was a nice temperature.
The Hyatt Place we’d been staying at before this didn’t have laundry facilities, so we appreciated that the Country Inn & Suites Tucson Airport had a couple of washers and dryers. The washing machines cost $1 per load and the dryers were $0.75 per load, so both very reasonable prices compared to laundromats – and more convenient.
One of Country Inn & Suites’s USPs (Unique Selling Points) is that they offer a Lending Library. This is a bookcase in the lobby where you can borrow a book. If you don’t finish it by the time you check out, you can drop it off the next time you stay at a Country Inn & Suites, even if it’s not the same property.
Also in the lobby was a business center consisting of a computer and printer.
Their fitness center is open from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm, had a few pieces of equipment and was in a fairly spacious room. The temperature could be controlled by guests which is nice because when that’s not an option, hotels tend to set the temperature too high for my liking.
Complimentary Otis Spunkmeyer cookies are served at the front desk every evening and are delicious. The hotel also has a drinks vending machine and ice machine.
Pet Policy
The Country Inn & Suites Tucson Airport is a pet-friendly hotel and has a pet fee of $25 per stay. That’s great as it’s a $25 fee regardless of whether you stay one night or ten.
When staying at the Hyatt Place Tucson-Central, one of the downsides was that their pet walking area was a fairly small area with stones and cacti. The Country Inn & Suites on the other hand had much more space to walk your dog, including several grassy areas that were immaculately kept considering how dry it is in Tucson.
Service
We didn’t have many interactions with staff at the hotel, but all the times we did have any contact with them they were great. That started when checking in when they gave us a better room upgrade than we’d hoped for.
Another day when Shae was heading out to Catalina State Park, she’d forgotten to grab her water bottle when leaving the room. She was in a rush, so she asked the front desk if she could get a bottle of water, even thought those seem to be for guests checking in. They were more than happy to give her a bottle to take with her which was nice.
A couple of days into our stay, we received a call from the front desk early in the morning letting us know that a guest on our floor had symptoms of COVID-19 and was awaiting their test results. This was still fairly early days (US-wise) in the pandemic as it was before travel shutdowns, social distancing, etc.
The hotel dealt with it incredibly well though. They offered to let us check out early with a refund of any unused nights, although we decided to stay. Their housekeeping staff worked incredibly hard for the rest of our stay keeping public areas clean and sanitized. They were cleaning walls, constantly wiping down the elevator, etc. The hotel seemed to deliver meals to the guest who had been tested for COVID-19 so that they could self-isolate. All this was mid-March, so it was before there was generally good awareness about what needed to be done, so I was impressed with how prepared the hotel seemed to be.
In the end it was a false alarm, as apparently the guest tested negative. Still, I appreciated how diligent the entire hotel staff was with how they dealt with the situation.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
You can check-in from 3:00 pm, while check-out is at 12:00 pm.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is complimentary for all guests. We had to reconnect every 24 hours which was a little annoying, but nothing too major. Their internet speed was also slow at times, but again, nothing major.
Location
As the name of the hotel suggests, the Country Inn & Suites Tucson Airport is only a couple of minutes from the airport. It’s about 35-45 minutes to Catalina State Park depending on traffic and a similar amount of time to Saguaro National Park.
There are several fast food restaurants nearby, with grocery stores within 5-10 minutes.
Parking
Parking is free at the hotel and there were plenty of spaces both at the front and the back of the hotel.
Cost
The Country Inn & Suites Tucson Airport is a category 2 property in the Radisson Rewards program, so it only costs 15,000 points per night. That’s great value considering you can earn 120,000 points as a signup bonus by applying for their personal credit card at the time of writing this review. The bonus on that card could therefore get you eight free nights at this hotel which isn’t too shabby.
Paid rates for our stay would’ve been $167.50 per night including tax. That’s for the studio room we’d booked on points, rather than the Executive Suite – I’ve no idea how much that would’ve cost, but I imagine it would’ve been in excess of $200.
Based on the $167.50 cash cost, we got 1.12cpp (cents per point) of value by using points. That’s about triple the value that you can normally expect from Radisson Rewards points, so this was a great use of them. It’s worth checking paid rates for your dates though as the price seems to greatly fluctuate. I just checked the price for April 11-16 which is exactly one month after our stay and it would cost $80.19 per night, so less than half. That might be partly seasonal, but more likely due to the impact COVID-19 has had on the travel industry.
Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed our stay at the Country Inn & Suites Tucson Airport. It might seem like I pointed out a number of faults (e.g. the small TV, slow Wi-Fi at times, toilet seat not staying up, etc.), but those were all fairly minor issues.
More importantly – for me – is that we received a great upgrade, there was a good variety of breakfast options, the staff were excellent and it had lots of good amenities. Even small touches like the grass outside for our dog were appreciated.
If we return to Tucson in the future (which I hope we will as we both loved it there), this Country Inn & Suites property will be one of the first places we consider.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives this hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! She loved the Executive Suite as it gave her more space to chase after her ball, plus having the separate bedroom meant she couldn’t hear any noise in the hallway at night.
Having grass around the hotel was something she appreciated, while their $25 pet fee per stay is nice and low. She also found their pillows extremely comfortable.
Our Rating
Room = 4.6 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.7 / 5
Food = 4.5 / 5
Location = 4.2 / 5
Service = 4.8 / 5
Overall Value = 4.8 / 5 (based on using points)
Total = 4.6 / 5
Address
Country Inn & Suites, 6681 S Tucson Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85756
Leave a Reply