Element Albuquerque Uptown — Hotel in Albuquerque

I am an Albuquerque local, and we picked the Element as Bonvoy members familiar with the brand wanting a staycation. We haven't loved the Marriot options in the city; most are pretty dated. This new Element has filled that space for us. This property has a lot of great things going for it and some more nit-picky things that could easily bump it to a full 5. ||Pros:| The staff was great. They said everything they needed to and were friendly and chatty. All grounds looked and felt clean throughout. Best Marriot staff we've encountered.||Location: It is in Uptown and close to shopping, restaurants, and Trader Joe's. While there are a decent number of ABQ brand unsheltered people who walk up and down Louisiana, this property is set back off the road far enough that we didn't see any foot traffic. It gets an A for safety. ||The beds are comfy, the linens are good, and there is lots of light. The rooms are new, so everything feels fresh and modern.||They honored early check-in and late check-out as a Bonvoy perk. ||Room well stocked with a microwave and a large personal refrigerator. It also had dishes and utensils. They supplied a sponge and dish soap. |||Cons:|Water pressure isn't great. Not strong, just eh okay.|| They stock a 2-in-1 shampoo/conditioner in the rooms. This doesn't work for my family's hair and is a little cheap for the Element brand. The shampoo smelled nice but left our hair very greasy. I typically just shampoo with what's in the hotel and use my own-bought conditioner, but the 2-in-1 prevented that.||Not impressed with breakfast. The one "hot" breakfast is a small tapas-sized entree like breakfast tacos or breakfast nachos (the item changes by the day) cooked in front of you. One plate is not enough for a meal, and we had 2 plates of it. The large potato chunks in our food were not fully cooked and had to be thrown away. The other food options were standard cereal, yogurt, and bread. The espresso machine was already labeled as broken.||The motion sensor in rooms that run AC force-turns it off and makes it hot at night. This is not a property-specific complaint. Marriot does this in its new hotels. Our sleep was not great because Albuquerque is way too warm to shut the AC off when we sleep. We got up to trigger it "on" a few times at night. || Pool renders were misleading. The pool pictured when booking is not the pool at the property. They informed us they had photographers there that day to fix it. The pool does not have shade or umbrellas and faces the parking lot and business park.||The cons are not big enough to stop me from booking this property again, but it should set your expectations regarding amenities. If you're looking to fill up on free breakfast to save $$ on your trip or have a higher-quality shower and unwind experience, that won't happen here, but that's okay. I recommend this property if you want to stay within the Marriot brand over any other...

There’s a Homesuites and Hilton Place right beside The Element. Go there. Don’t stay at The Element. The price was very high, over $230 per night, but they had chargers for my EV so I was willing to pay a little more. What they didn’t say was those chargers cost $4 per hour! So overpaying for the room didn’t cover the cost of the charger. $4 per hour is insane. NO ONE charges that! The first night I decided to plug in until I took the dog out. It was raining and he was asleep, so I didn’t take him out. When I woke up, it $54 dollars later and my EV had been full for hours! Ya. They KEEP charging you $4 per hour even after you’re charged. ||Don’t have an EV? Still do not stay here! It’s expensive! What do you get for the extra money? Luggage carriers with bent wheels that do not allow you to get your luggage into your room. (The Element is only a month old when I stayed there). Breakfast that starts late, a chief that won’t make you omelet even though the front desk clerk said he would the night before, no coffee even though the lady said it was full, but it wasn’t, no maid service, so the coffee and towels you used the night before are used. I stayed in a handicap room because I need the bigger shower and not a tub. The “ADA” shower had a handle 4’ high and a shower head 7’ high and 0 water pressure. No pressure at all. The water just falls out of the shower head, so if you’re in a wheelchair, your feet will get wet, but none of that water will reach you. And you cannot adjust the head so that maybe the water will fall on you. Checking out? Good luck. No one was there when I tried checking out. The phone behind the desk didn’t work, so I couldn’t call. So I got to sit and wait. All of this for $700+ for 2 nights. Never...

There’s a Homesuites and Hilton Place right beside The Element. Go there. Don’t stay at The Element. The price was very high, over $230 per night, but they had chargers for my EV so I was willing to pay a little more. What they didn’t say was those chargers cost $4 per hour! So overpaying for the room didn’t cover the cost of the charger. $4 per hour is insane. NO ONE charges that! The first night I decided to plug in until I took the dog out. It was raining and he was asleep, so I didn’t take him out. When I woke up, it $54 dollars later and my EV had been full for hours! Ya. They KEEP charging you $4 per hour even after you’re charged.

Don’t have an EV? Still do not stay here! It’s expensive! What do you get for the extra money? Luggage carriers with bent wheels that do not allow you to get your luggage into your room. (The Element is only a month old when I stayed there). Breakfast that starts late, a chief that won’t make you omelet even though the front desk clerk said he would the night before, no coffee even though the lady said it was full, but it wasn’t, no maid service, so the coffee and towels you used the night before are used. I stayed in a handicap room because I need the bigger shower and not a tub. The “ADA” shower had a handle 4’ high and a shower head 7’ high and 0 water pressure. No pressure at all. The water just falls out of the shower head, so if you’re in a wheelchair, your feet will get wet, but none of that water will reach you. And you cannot adjust the head so that maybe the water will fall on you. Checking out? Good luck. No one was there when I tried checking out. The phone behind the desk didn’t work, so I couldn’t call. So I got to sit and wait. All of this for $700+ for 2 nights. Never...