Spark by Hilton Albuquerque North I-25 — Hotel in Albuquerque

I was not planning on leaving a negative review of this hotel, however after receiving the following email from the local establishment, from a no reply email, I feel compelled to tell the other side of the story. Also, my brother convinced me that I should so that other disabled persons would understand this facility.

The following is the text from the Hotel's email (in quotes), with my comments following each point to set the record straight.

"Additionally Paul, we are disabled friendly. Our pools are equipped with handicap chairs, we have handicap parking on all sides of the building, as well as several handicapped rooms."

Actually, no you are not handicap friendly. You do not have handicap parking on all sides of the building, only on the front and the back. And the staff never informed me that the long walk from the handicap parking in front, to the room, could have been avoided by parking at the handicap spaces in the back, which were a bit closer to the room. This just shows the handicap/disability tone deafness of your staff and management, as the email exhibits.

Also, while you may have handicapped rooms, you only have one that you claim has a walk-in shower. Obviously, you don't understand that there are many types of disabilities, and being in a wheelchair and needing a larger room with wheelchair access, and having handicap chairs for the pool, does not address people with severe leg injuries are not able to easily lift their leg above the tub to get in the shower.

Many hotels have walk-in showers in the handicapped rooms, and also have parking very close to the handicap rooms so that handicap persons are not expected to carry their luggage long distances just to get to their room. In fact, the hotel I was at the previous night, the Best Western in Kingman Az, gave me a handicap room with a walk-in shower, and the parking 10 ft outside the room, and did not ever mention that it was a more expensive room. In fact, I did not even have to ask for the handicapped room, they saw my limping conditions and just gave it to me. What a concept!

"If I recall correctly, you were upset because you booked a regular room, at the regular price, but wanted a handicapped room, a more expensive room type that must be booked separately. You were basically upset that the hotel gave you the room you booked."

Please see my previous comment.

"We offered to switch you rooms at no up-charge. You accepted, and immediately came back saying you refused to stay there because it wasn’t a king bed, and opted for the original, non handicapped room."

Yes, you did offer the other room but I did not say I refused the room, that's a misquote. I was grateful for that, however when I went down to look at the room, it did not have a walk in the shower which is what I needed, and thought that's what you were offering. Therefore, I would have the same issue in that room as I would in the original room with the king bed versus the queen bed. So, your premise that I opted out of that room because of the bed size, Is not correct. It was because it did not have a walk-in shower, as I explained in the previous comment, that is what I needed for my disability.

Once again extreme tone deafness with handicap/ disability issues!! News flash not all people that are disabled are in a wheelchair!

"Clearly, the handicapped amenities were not a high concern for you."

Another example of management's extreme ignorance related to handicap disability issues.

"We also offered to help you move you stuff-again you refused, saying that “you are a marine and you didn’t need help”.

Again, another example of extreme tone deafness related to disability issues. Did ever occur to you that handicap/disabled people like to do what they can for themselves, when they can, and don't expect pity or sympathy? Corporate management can serve the disabled/handicap community greatly by requiring you, and all of your staff, take awareness training on...

I would love to give this place absolutely 0 stars! As while I was staying there I experienced theft I reported it to the front desk filled out an incident report I asked if I needed to file a police report and was told no but they would take care of things by the front desk. And that the general manager would follow up with me as I waited clear into the next day I had yet to hear from her so I called her. At that point things went down Hill further as she treated me with this Dis respect. I was told at that point I need to make a police report I was also informed incorrectly that the camera only pointed at the elevator. As I have proof that it does not as the camera is located down the hallway which the view which show people coming from the elevator the laundry area and straight down that hallway. I had already had enough and contacted the corporate office in which they were polite I made the police report it was asked once I did that i call back with the case number. During this time our stay was getting extended due to my boyfriend's job. I was contacted by front desk over the payment for the extending days I fully discussed with him we had a complete understanding shortly after that hotel staff came to the door pounding on it telling me I would be forcibly removed if I was not out of there soon. I had ask that they contact the front desk since I just spoken with them and had everything arranged, Apparently that was too much trouble I also had my boyfriend call and discuss with them everything was good and then I received a call from the general manager calling me a liar about my discussions with their front desk as well as my boyfriend's. I was told after that that we were to leave the hotel. I was told by the general manager that I was a liar and that I was not allowed to speak because she was speaking. I have since provided the case number to them and have also been told we won't do anything with that information. The worst experience I have ever encountered as if being stolen from was not bad enough they made the experience a horrible time!! I would never put my worst enemy in their hands!! In my opinion to general manager needs to be retrained or fired better yet!! This is the location on Pan American highway in Albuquerque New Mexico. I won't even get started on the bedding, lack of soap and the trash and crumbs found...

Very old and run down hotel in desperate need of gutting and full renovation! We had booked couple months beforehand (to attend annual Balloon Fiesta) based on past experience with Best Western Plus hotels, expecting a decent property…. especially one termed “Executive Suites” and especially with the horrendously high price charged (now we know it was absolute price gouging). We did expect a high price due to Ballon Fiesta, but still had expectations for a decent property. Boy were we wrong! ||Beware …. the hotel is not in a good area. The hotel exterior did appear recently painted and lobby area somewhat updated. But that’s where it ended. The hallways are dingy and lowly lit, carpet probably original to installation decades earlier. We at first were confused about where our room was located as there was no room number to he found. A staff person happened to be walking in our hallway and helped us. Really Best Western?! You cannot manage to put a number on the door or at the very least tell us at check-in to look for the room with no number??!! (BTW, front desk person who checked us in was unfriendly to the point of being rude….communication was not his strong suit!). You can tell this is an extremely old property as each room has a window(!) on the hallway - I remember seeing this odd feature at a hotel at least 30-40 years ago. I have to say that our room was large, but still very disappointing. It smelled like garlic - or maybe it was sewer(?). We opened our window (even w/AC running) to rid the smell which never did fully disappear. The room was dingy and old, dimly lit. We cleaned the countertops with disinfectant wipes as they didn’t look very clean. The carpet had to be original to the hotel - looked so dirty. On the plus side, the bedsheets and bathroom looked fairly clean. We only stayed one night tho we had reservations for two. We’ve only ever departed a hotel early one other time, but this was one of those rare times that it felt gross to stay there any longer than necessary. Hated to forfeit the prepayment we had made, This was our second very disappointing experience with a Best Western property on our trip, so I think we’ve now crossed Best Westerns off the list for any...