After spending a couple of weeks in Los Alamos, we moved on to Albuquerque for 12 nights. We had several good value options for hotels to stay at when using points and we ultimately chose the TownePlace Suites Albuquerque Airport due to the potential for an upgrade to a one bedroom suite.
We had a pretty good stay overall, with only the breakfast and Wi-Fi situation not being ideal. Here’s a complete review of our stay at the TownePlace Suites Albuquerque Airport.
Check-In
Our check-in experience started about 36 hours before we arrived at the hotel. I mentioned above that we’d booked the TownePlace Suites due to the potential for an upgrade to a one bedroom suite. I’d booked a studio suite as that was the only option when using points, but they had one bedroom suites available to book when paying cash.
A couple of nights before we were due to check in, I reached out to the hotel using the chat feature in the Marriott app (read more about that process here). I asked if it would be possible to get an upgrade to a one bedroom suite due to having Titanium status with Marriott Bonvoy. I did this in the early hours of the morning and by the time I got up later that morning I’d received a reply from the hotel confirming they’d upgraded our reservation.
One bedroom suites are particularly useful for me and Shae as I’m up much later at night than she is and she’s up earlier than me in the morning, sometimes teaching classes early in the morning. Having a separate living room therefore helps ensure we don’t wake each other up.
We arrived at the hotel at about 2:30pm and got checked in quickly. They confirmed that we were booked into a one bedroom suite and we soon had our keys for room 410. This was the top floor of the hotel which was nice as it meant we didn’t have anyone in a room above us.
One Bedroom Suite
When entering our suite the bathroom was immediately to the right, the kitchen off to the right beyond that, the living room straight ahead and the bedroom through the door off to the left.
Living Room
The living room had a sleeper sofa and wide armchair. These seem to be fairly standard issue furniture pieces at TownePlace Suites properties and I like the armchair’s wooden arms as they’re wide and flat enough to rest your drinks on.
There was also an ottoman with a wooden lap desk/breakfast-in-bed tray, along with a taller table/laptop desk and side table.
On the other side of the room was a TV on top of a small dresser drawer and a desk with a chair. For some reason the TV didn’t allow us to use our Fire TV Stick and so we were stuck with the limited selection of TV channels offered by the hotel.
That desk next to the TV was just one of three desks in the room. To the left of the bedroom door was a large storage unit which had a built-in desk, along with a desk on wheels beneath that.
To the left of that storage unit was a closet.
Kitchen
Every room at the TownePlace Suites Albuquerque Airport (and any TownePlace Suites for that matter) has a full kitchen. This includes a full-sized fridge-freezer, double stove top, microwave, toaster and dishwasher.
In the cupboards and drawers were plates, dishes, silverware, cookware, etc. There were four place settings which was appreciated as it meant we didn’t have to run the dishwasher as frequently, plus I liked that they had good-sized mugs rather than the small ones that Candlewood Suites properties have.
Bedroom
The separate bedroom had a queen bed which was very comfortable. There were tables on both sides of the bed, with the lamps above each table having a power outlet and USB outlet. Blackout curtains kept the room nice and dark, although we had to use a hanger to clip the curtains together to help ensure it stayed dark.
The bedroom was a little larger than I was expecting which was a pleasant surprise. In addition to the side tables with dresser drawers, there was a large closet with extra storage options along with two other dressers and a TV.
Bathroom
Rather than being attached to the bedroom, the bathroom was out by the living room and kitchen. Some people might prefer the convenience of having the bathroom just off the bedroom, but I preferred this setup as it meant I didn’t wake up Shae at night by having to come through the bedroom to use the bathroom.
The bathroom had a bathtub with shower; the shower had good water pressure.
Rather than having small bottles of shampoo and conditioner and bars of soap, there were larger bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body wash. There was a bar of soap for the sink though.
Breakfast
The breakfast at the TownePlace Suites Albuquerque Airport was a little weird in a couple of ways. For starters, the times were unusual because it was from 6-9am from Tuesday to Saturday and 7-10am on Sunday and Monday. The later breakfast times at hotels are usually on Saturday and Sunday, so I went down at 9:30am for breakfast one Saturday only to find out it had already ended.
I didn’t end up having any luck the next day either. I went down at about 9:45am to get breakfast, only to be advised that they’d run out of food despite breakfast not being due to end until 10am as it was a Sunday morning.
The general setup of the breakfast was a little unusual too. Although hotels generally aren’t offering buffet breakfasts like they did pre-COVID, most hotels have some kind of grab and go options. However, at this TownePlace Suites they had everything kept in a separate room and you had to ask staff members for whatever you wanted (assuming they actually had any food!)
Seeing as we had a kitchen in our suite, we just ended up sorting out our own breakfast each morning other than one time when Shae snagged an egg and sausage breakfast sandwich by going down early enough.
Amenities
TownePlace Suites is an extended stay brand and so they have good laundry facilities. There were several washers and dryers and each load cost $1 which is a very reasonable price.
The fitness room was available for guests, but they were restricting access to one guest at a time. They did this by booking 45 minute time slots each hour, thereby leaving at least 15 minutes between each guest.
There’s an outdoor pool and whirlpool, although those were both closed as we were visiting in March.
In addition to the seating that’s normally available in the pool area, there was a separate covered seating area which was primarily used by smokers.
In the lobby there was a business center with a computer and printer, along with a pantry area.
Pet Policy
The TownePlace Suites Albuquerque Airport is a pet-friendly hotel. They accept up to two dogs per room weighing up to 25 lbs each and there’s a $100 pet fee per stay regardless of your length of stay.
There are a few grassy areas around the hotel, while there are sidewalks at the front and back of the hotel if you want to take your dog for a longer walk.
Albuquerque is home to loads of dog parks. We checked a few out when we spent several weeks in Albuquerque at the start of the pandemic and revisited Kirtland Dog Park and North Domingo Baca Dog Park during this visit.
COVID-19
The hotel seemed to be dealing with COVID-19 very responsibly. The front desk had tables lined up in front of it to help ensure distance between staff and guests. Access to the fitness room was restricted to one guest as a time and all staff (and guests for that matter) did a good job of wearing masks. As inconvenient as the breakfast setup was, I guess at least it was COVID-cautious.
Service
Service during our stay was good overall, although we didn’t have many interactions with staff beyond checking in and out as we declined housekeeping during our stay.
Towards the end of our stay our garbage disposal wasn’t working and our toilet got blocked up. We let the front desk know as we headed out for the day and when we returned both issues had been fixed, so we appreciated their prompt attention.
Wi-Fi
The hotel’s internet speed was fine, but connecting was annoying. Any time we left the hotel we had to reconnect our phones to the internet, even if we just walked Truffles down the road out of range.
We also had to reconnect to the internet every day when turning our computers on and even more annoyingly had to reconnect every 24 hours after we’d first logged in after arriving at the hotel. This was problematic for Shae on several occasions as this happened mid-afternoon which meant that she’d be in the middle of teaching her Outschool classes and she’d be kicked out of the classroom because the internet connection would stop. She’d therefore have to turn off her VPN in order to reconnect to the internet and then get back into the virtual classroom – not an ideal situation. It’s beyond me why hotels don’t just let you remain connected or let you connect for x number of days based on your length of stay.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
The check-in time at the TownePlace Suites Albuquerque Airport is 3pm, while check-out is at 12pm.
Location
As the name of the hotel suggests, it’s near the airport and so is only about five minutes away. It’s on the south side of the city, with the north side of the city about 15-20 minutes away by hopping on I-25. There are plenty of restaurants and grocery stores within a five minute drive of the hotel.
Parking
Parking is free at the hotel and there always seemed to be plenty of spaces as there was parking both at the front and back of the hotel.
Cost
In addition to the fact that there was the potential for an upgrade to a one bedroom suite (which we received), another reason we booked a stay at this hotel is because it was good value when using points. It’s a category 2 property and also happened to be on Marriott’s PointSaver list at the time of booking which meant it cost even fewer points than normal.
Marriott offers every fifth night free on award stays, so the fact that we stayed 12 nights means both the fifth and tenth nights were free. Our 12 night stay ended up costing 83,000 points which is an average of 6,917 points per night. The cash price of our originally booked studio room was $107.04 including tax, so that means we got 1.55 cpp (cents per point) of value by using points which is about double what you can normally expect to get from Marriott Bonvoy points and so it was a great value redemption.
Final Thoughts
We enjoyed our stay at the TownePlace Suites Albuquerque Airport. It was fantastic value when using points and my hotel status meant that we got upgraded to a more spacious one bedroom suite.
I liked the precautions they took for COVID and the hotel seemed quiet noise-wise. The breakfast and Wi-Fi situations weren’t ideal, but they certainly weren’t deal breakers and I’d be happy staying at this property in the future.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! Having a one bedroom suite meant it was quiet at night, while she liked having plenty of space to walk around the property and near the hotel. Although a $100 pet fee per stay is fairly high, the fact that we stayed 12 nights meant the per-night cost wasn’t bad.
Our Rating
Room = 4.7 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.5 / 5
Food = 3.5 / 5
Location = 4.2 / 5
Service = 4.3 / 5
Dealing With COVID-19 (A new – hopefully temporary – category for our hotel reviews) = 4.7 / 5
Overall Value = 4.8 / 5
Total = 4.39/5
Address
TownePlace Suites, 2400 Centre Ave SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106
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