Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Austin Northwest/The Domain Area Review

Booking & Stay Details

I was staying at the Hyatt House Austin/Arboretum and had to extend my stay for another week. Unfortunately, the hotel was sold out over the weekend, and I was unable to extend my stay. I was hoping for some last-minute cancellations, but nobody cancelled. I wanted to stay in the area and looked for alternatives. There was a Hyatt Place not far away, but I ultimately decided on staying at the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Austin Northwest/The Domain Area. They had cheaper rates than Hyatt Place and I had two Chase offers and one Amex offer I could take care of when staying at the Fairfield Inn. To use all my offers, I created multiple consecutive reservations with always two days to get over the minimum spend amount required for the offers. This plan worked out fine. I didn’t have to move rooms, just swipe the new credit card and “check in” again. As I had to extend my stay yet again, I decided to book the “suite” to be able to review that room as well. Prices were also coming to normal levels again as I paid the last few days around $240 at either the Hyatt or Marriott property here.

Location

The Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Austin Northwest/The Domain Area is located north of downtown Austing. It will take you about 15 minutes to get downtown and 20 minutes to get to the airport. 

The Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Austin Northwest/The Domain Area is located close to The Domain, a huge shopping mall. Unfortunately, train tracks behind the hotel separate you from the mall and there is no quick way to walk to the shopping mall.

From the hotel you have easy access to southbound Highway 1 (MoPac Expressway). To get on the north bound side, you have to make two U-turns and almost drive in a circle before you can get on MoPac Expressway.

Parking

There is plenty of parking all the way around the hotel building. The parking lot never really got full even though the hotel was sold out for a few nights. Parking is complimentary for hotel guests.

Shuttle Service

No shuttle service offered.

Check-In

As usual, checking in was no issue at all. The front desk is close to the main entrance of the hotel and the check-in process was quick and easy. I was given a choice of what floor I wanted to be on, as they had my room type available on every floor. I chose the top floor, of course. There was only one downside. Their key card machine, which they use to make room keys, was broken. They had to use the fallback keys, which give you unlimited access to your specific room number as the keys never expire like normal keys would. They also use the old magnetic stripe keys, which I don’t like at all. 

The elevators are right around the corner from the front desk. The hotel has two elevators, but one is broken, and I am not sure if the hotel knows about it. I realized it after my second ride on the elevator as always, the same elevator door opened. During my whole stay, I always rode the same elevator which is statistically impossible. Besides that, the last working elevator is also super slow, and the doors are slow as well to open and close. 

King Guest Room, Guest room, 1 King (Room 418)

This is a typical standard room as you find it at many hotels. It is located very close to the elevator, which can be good or bad depending on your preferences and the noise level of other guests. 

As you enter the room you have your bathroom on the right. It comes with a vanity with a single sink and a wall-mounted mirror. A bathtub/shower combo unit is also found in the bathroom. Three wall-mounted dispensers inside the shower area provide soap.

As you follow the entryway along it opens to the bedroom area. Here you have a king-sized bed on one side of the room. On either side is a nightstand with a lamp on top of it. The base of the lamps come with two power outlets. Next to the bed is also a small chair. 

Opposite the bed is a work desk with an office chair. The extended work desk also holds the in-room TV. Underneath the TV is a medium sized refrigerator and attached to the desk is a dresser which also doubles as a suitcase rack.

A small niche in the bedroom area doubles as closet. It comes with the obligatory iron and ironing board.

The window in the room faces out the back of the hotel. You will notice the train tracks and there are quite a few trains going by here. If you are a light sleeper, I would ask for a room with an odd number which faces the front of the hotel. Even though the trains don’t use their horn, but you can hear the engines going by sometimes very loudly as they pull long trains.

Suite with King Bed, Guest room, 1 King, Sofa bed (Room 425)

The suite is nothing special, it just offers you more space. You have a long entry way into the room itself. Immediately to your left is the bathroom. It is a decent size and comes with a vanity with a single sink and a large wall-mounted mirror. There is a bathtub/shower combo unit in the bathroom. Three wall-mounted dispensers inside the shower area provide soap.

As you continue along the entryway it leads into the living area. This area holds a sofa bed, work desk with office chair, a wall-mounted TV, mid-size refrigerator, coffee maker and microwave. The office desk comes with enough power outlets you most likely need. 

The bedroom area is separated from the living room area by a column and a pony wall. However, there is no physical door which would separate the two areas from one another. The main part here is the king-sized bed. It has night stands on either side of the bed with a lamp on top of each one. The base of the lamps come with two power outlets.

Opposite the bed is a TV which sits on top of a dresser which has a built-in suitcase rack. Next to it is a dressing mirror. In the bedroom area there is also a small closet which holds iron and an ironing board.

The window in the bedroom area faces the front of the hotel and underneath you will find the A/C-unit. The controls for it are on the wall in the living room area.

Public Areas & Amenities

Lobby

The lobby area consists of the dining area for breakfast as well as the front desk area. The area surrounding the front desk has some seating options. Great if you wait for friends or family members or for your rideshare or taxi to pick you up.

Business Center

Opposite the front desk is a small business center. It comes with two workstations and a printer in case you need it.

Fitness Center

The fitness center is located down the left hallway of the hotel and to the right side where another hallway leads back out to the parking lot in the back. The fitness center is on your right, and you can’t miss it as there is pretty good signage pointing you in the right direction. The fitness center is a bit small. It has a suitable selection of equipment.

Hours: 24/7

Swimming Pool

The heated swimming pool is located outside at the back of the hotel. The area is fenced in, but you don’t need a room key to enter it. The pool area has a few chaise loungers and tables with chairs to sit down. A BBQ grill is also located in the pool area which is complimentary to use for hotel guests.

Guest Laundry

A guest laundry facility is located on the ground level at the end of the left hallway. You need your room key to enter the laundry facility. The washer and dryer are coin operated, and you can get change at the front desk. Inside the guest laundry room is also an ice machine.

Compared to the Hyatt House Austin/Aboretum the Fairfield Inn offers dry cleaning service. There should be a laundry bag and paper slip in the closet of your room. If not, ask at the front desk.

Dining

Breakfast

You get the usual continental breakfast as you are used to from any other hotel and the Fairfield Inn brand. Breakfast wasn’t really anything special. I only missed the juice dispenser normally every hotel has. Here you get only pre-filled orange juice boxes in the fridge but no other juices.

I was really surprised how good the scrambled eggs were here. I really liked them, but they only had them for the weekend before they switched the whole week to other things like breakfast sandwiches and didn’t offer any scrambled eggs anymore until the following weekend.

Market

Next to the front desk is a small market where you can buy beverages and some snacks. They also have an ice cream chest there with a big variety of ice cream. That might be something you crave during the hot summer days, but it was very cold and rainy during my stay here.

Conclusion

Overall, it was a pretty good stay at the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Austin Northwest/The Domain Area. The staff was always friendly and welcoming. The issue with the broken key coder machine was a bit annoying as you couldn’t get a second room key or if you demagnetize the fallback key, you will have to get someone from the front desk to let you in and out all the time. It was also the weekend when that happened, and the part wouldn’t arrive until the beginning of the week anyway.

I also had internet issues on my first day. You couldn’t use the portal to log on to the internet. Normally you must provide your last name and room number, but the system had issues and it always came back with an error message that the entry is invalid. After calling the front desk, they gave me the number to the internet provider, and I had to call them. Now you had to give them your IP address for them to log you in and you had to do this for every device you wanted to use on the hotel’s WiFi. The issue was fixed the next day but now the system only gives you 24-hour access before you must log on to Wi-Fi again. It wasn’t necessary anymore to call in, but you always had to take the extra step, even though I selected a duration of 15 days for my stay. Very annoying but manageable. Otherwise, no complaints.