Fairfield by Marriott Inn & Suites Ashtabula — Hotel in Saybrook

Unlike the positive reviews I read, I did not have a good experience.

My best friend and I arrived at this hotel, and I requested an upgrade due to my lifetime gold status. The desk clerk told me that there was a poster in the back saying that gold members were not to be upgraded. That is not Marriott Bonvoy policy. Then she told me that even if she could upgrade me, she could only upgrade me to a king suite. I told her we needed two queens, which is what our reservation was for. She said although those were available, she could not upgrade me to them.

We asked her what time breakfast breakfast was in the morning. She said it ran until 10 AM. We arrived to breakfast at 9:10 AM the next morning, only to find that breakfast ended at 9 AM. The eggs were cold, and things were being removed when we got there. You would think the desk clerk would know what time breakfast was served.

We asked the same desk clerk where to find ice for my friend’s water bottle. She sent her down to the end of the hallway that has the fitness center. No ice machine. My friend went back to her and asked her where the ice machine actually was. Then she said MAYBE It was down at the end of the other hallway, but if not, we could just go up to one of the other floors, because there were ice machines next to all of the elevators. Is this not something the desk clerk should know?

I told the manager about this the next morning. I don’t know that anything was done, because she never bothered to follow up with me, although I was there for two more nights. They do have the Fairfield Guarantee, but although it’s on the front door, I guess they just ignore it at this hotel. Nothing was done to make this right.

This same desk clerk told us that housekeeping would be every other day. So the first morning when we left, I did not put up the do not disturb sign, because I was told housekeeping would not be there except for every other day. When we got back that night, housekeeping had been in my room. This is unacceptable, as I prefer no housekeeping during the time of my stay.

The room was your basic low end motel room. There was mold in the shower (room 304), and the wallpaper was peeling next to the shower. There is no mirror in the room itself, only in the bathroom. This is very inconvenient if two people are trying to get ready at the same time.

The positives? It’s just off the highway, there’s ample free parking, the beds are comfortable, and the breakfast had lots of choices. If it weren’t for the service issues, this might be a good place to stay.

I would not recommend this hotel until they get their service...

Iliaba Rosado made the experience horrible. Key 1 did not work, I returned to the front desk and back upstairs 426, and repeat 2 more times. I was told I must have had the key by my phone but I did not it was in my hand while holding nothing else. In the 3rd trip to the front desk I asked for the phone number so that I could call the front desk instead and was ignored so I got a Guest Setvices card off the desk and once upstairs again and the key did not work I called the front desk instead of returning to the front desk again.I am a disabled veteran over the age of 50 with mobility issues so I asked Rosado to call the room because the other guest was in a deep sleep with a CPAP on and does not hear my knock at the door. Rosado could not do that, she could not leave the front desk to bring another key to the 4th floor nor were there any other staff on the premises to assist me getting in the room per Rosado. She further focuses on the other guest in the room with no regard to what I stated about the CPAP. I advised I would beat on the door waking up everyone on the 4th floor and it was apparent Rosado did not care. While Rosado was still on the phone I did just that started beating on the door like a police kicking in a door for a raid. Other guests came out of their rooms and was looking I did not care because Rosado did not care. I beat on the door about 3-5 minutes and it finally woke my guest in the room up. What's interesting at least 15 minutes after I got in the room the front desk called to advise that I was locked out and at the door. Had the front desk called sooner when asked I would not have disturbed other guests with my banging. If I was the other guest I would have been furious by banging. I did what I had ti do since at 8:50p on on April 26 Rosado was the only staff on duty as she stated. But get this it was not Rosado who called the room it was another staff member that was on duty when we checked in. My complaint will not end with just...

All in all, we enjoyed our stay here and this was a very nice hotel! The rooms were modern, clean, and beautiful. We chose this hotel rather than the Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn nearby mainly due to the modernness and the large TVs, which turned out to be quite nice. We stayed in a suite, which has 2 55 inch TVs and I was very glad to have them compared to the competitors’ 32 inch screens. The downside to the multiple TVs was that there was only 1 remote to control both TVs in the room, and it proved to be nearly impossible to adjust one tv without the other one following suit because of the close proximity. This was a very annoying issue and ultimately the solution was to move very close to each TV while using the remote so as to not set off the other TV. Another con, which is only relevant to the suites, are that we personally found the couch to be very firm and uncomfortable. Both of the receptionists were very pleasant, and there were no questions asked even though we checked out about 15 minutes later than the scheduled 12:00 checkout time. However, for those who care, beware that masks are apparently optional for employees of this hotel as of February 28th, 2022, because the receptionist who checked us in was not wearing one, although the receptionist who checked us out the following day...