The Hotel is located close to the Tucson airport, not more then a mile to the front door. It is definitely a walkable distance if you are not taking a rental car or if a shuttle is not available. The only problem about the location is there is limited signage on the main road coming from the airport. The hotel is stuck way back in the corner by itself, which in a way is nice. There are quite a few restaurants near by, mostly fast food, for a decent sit down meal you will need to drive about 25 minutes out of the area. The same goes for a local food store, requiring a short drive across town you will find a newer shopping area that has a new Food City supermarket.
Service: 7/10
The overall service provided at the hotel was very good during my stay. However, one small annoyance that I have been experiencing at many other Marriotts is the lack of attentive front desk staff when checking out. I don't know what it is, all of the front desks have access to a camera that monitors the desk from the back room, yet three time in a row, at separate hotels in totally different geographic areas I needed to wait 10 minutes for a staff member. Two of those times required me sticking my head around the corner and this time required a hotel maid to enter the back room area and get the person to check me out. A big deal? Not really because I had plenty of time, however it is becoming an annoyance. Some of the hotels offer an express checkout by using your tv to check out, although nice, it frequently does not work reliably and requires a visit to the front desk.
Facilities: 6/10
The entire hotel surroundings are very clean and newer looking. I didn't find garbage anywhere and the pool was clean, working and had functioning waterfall. There was also a nice grill located near the pool, although it was too cool outside while I was there to cook out, I checked to confirm the grill worked and lit. Definitely a nice area to cook outside, the next time I am at this location I am going to pick up some steaks and make them on the grill outside, definitely worth it!!
Since these are "suites" or mini apartments they contain a full kitchen, however I would call it more along the lines of a "mini" kitchen. The stove is electric and small, no oven, just a microwave and large refrigerator with freezer. The counter tops are a nice marble-stylistic material, they provide some cooking pots and pans, but don't get your hopes up for any Wolfgang Puck style cooking pans, these are straight up metal pans. If you plan on cooking, make sure you pick up some Pam!!
The bathroom was very well done, full marble-stylistic counter tops and screen printed tile (not the real stuff but the made to look real stuff) which appeared to be installed in a professional manner. The flooring was clean and there was no dirt or debris around the room. There was a large stain on the carpet near the bathroom, looked like a bleach type spill or some sort of cleaning liquid that was attempted to be fixed.
Overall: 7.5/10
Not bad. That's what I could give this hotel. I will be back in a week staying again for five nights so I will do another review on the facilities and hopefully use the grill. I did have some oddities in my room that were corrected quickly, one was missing batteries in the TV remote and a missing light bulb in of the lights in the room. Yes....two odd missing items, however they were both fixed quickly and two pieces of chocolate and a "fixed" card were left behind, nice touch!
I am looking forward to my next stay here as the location is prime from the airport, and as with anything in Tucson, it's a drive to find what you need or want, but it's not horrible either.
