Fairfield by Marriott Inn & Suites The Dalles — Hotel in The Dalles

Of our hundreds of Marriott stays, this was one of the most disappointing. I don't feel that the property should be marketed as a Marriott as it is far below the standard set by others. Below is a detail of the insufficiencies: The inside of the room's window had numerous bugs. This was the first part of the problem-but was likely solvable. The response by the desk was the ultimate problem, however. When I called down, he appeared to be irritated by call. He said he "could try to come up and vacuum them but that was all he could really do." I asked what would occur should that not solve the problem and he indicated that "there wasn't really anything else he could do." I asked about a discount and he said "we could do a small discount" and told me it would be 10%. I said that it was unacceptable and would be asking for further discount. He did come to the room and vacuumed the bugs but made no effort to further open the window to access the bugs beyond where the window would open. Additionally, he continued to appear to be annoyed and offered no other support. Ultimately, this is the most incongruent piece of this issue. Marriott has always had very helpful, sincere employees and this location is miles from that.

When I spoke with the morning desk crew, they were more sympathetic but offered no further support. The room smelled. In our last stay at this location I had the same experience and asked for a transfer which did solve the problem. I thought it smelled of body odor, my daughter thought plastic. The sign in the lobby indicates that the property is operated by Escape Lodging-what does this mean? Breakfast has deteriorated from our previous stays at this location. It was tidy enough but seriously lacking in options that aren't wrapped in plastic. The health and beauty items in the room are either absent (all items typically seen on the counter) and those in the shower area are of low quality. There are no USB ports in the rooms. The general tending of the rooms is average and lacks the clean look of Marriott rooms-beds are not nicely made, towels are older and loosely folded, comfort items (pens, tiny notepads, etc) are absent. All of the above are not outside the realm of motel/hotel quality. The problem we have is that the property is marketed as a Marriott but managed at a lower Motel 8 quality AND price. If it were marketed as a Marriott Lite or Marriott Jr. and the price reflected it's offerings, there would not be an unacceptable disconnect for customers.

We will not be staying at this location again. Which, is a loss as my husband works in the area and is often in...

I typically don't stay at Fairfield Inns, and this visit reminded me why. They offer clean, modern, very standard hotel rooms at exorbitant prices. The rooms are so standard that if you were to look up "hotel" in the dictionary, this would be the example - something very neutral with beds, desk, window, TV and the ubiquitous air conditioner - nothing more, nothing less. On this visit, we paid over $220 for a standard room with two double beds: Nothing special about the hotel or location.

The hotel provided free, middle-of-the-road WiFi with no password, but as with all things Marriott, you could pay an added fee on top of the insanely expensive nightly rate to get "premium" service for 24 hours.

The room also boasted a smallish TV, which was outfitted with an add-on box so Marriott could control the content and serve up their own ads. No problem: These days I carry a Fire Stick on trips so I can watch what I want without the 30% ad content of regular TV. It's usually easy to hook up, but in this case, Marriott tried to circumvent it by disabling volume control with their add-on box. Once I unplugged their ethernet cable from the TV, it worked fine with the Fire remote, but it took a few extra minutes to figure out.

Long story short, the room was clean, comfortable and average - worth about half of what they were charging. Staff were polite and the location was relatively safe. If you don't mind the cost and the efforts to upsell you on "premium" services, then this is an okay place to stay. I won't go back unless everything...

We stayed at the Fairfield Inn The Dalles for a few days while my husband and sons were taking kite surfing lessons in Lyle, Washington. We wanted to use our points and this was the closest Marriott hotel. We got two rooms and ended up staying 3 nights. The rooms were sparkling clean and the beds were very comfortable. We have traveled all over the world and slept in a ton of hotels and these beds were above average and gave us a great nights rest. Pillows were adequate as well, and towels were quality without being scratchy. The rooms were also very quiet which is really a plus. Breakfast was good (although carb heavy), but was nicely stocked with many items. We did not use the pool or gym, but did enjoy the firepit outback each morning while we sipped our coffee. That was a thoughtful touch I didn't think much about when considering this hotel, but really made the back porch area inviting. The biggest downside to this location was the limited number of restaurants nearby. There were a couple of brew pubs in the old downtown section that are trying to offer inviting dinners and outdoor spaces, but we ended up eating in several other locations around Hood River two of the three nights. The staff were very helpful, really accommodating, and friendly everyday of our stay without exception. It's refreshing to deal with competent, happy people. I would stay here again if...