A Fairfield Inn hotel stay generally does not warrant a hotel review. Fairfield Inn, along with extended stay brand TownePlace Suites are the lowest hotel market segment brands in Marriott International. These two brands are classified as Upper Midscale hotel brands according to STR Global U.S. chain scale ranking for hotel brands. This is the same market segment as Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Country Inn & Suites.

Two reasons I want to give Fairfield Inn Cherry Creek (Marriott Rewards category 3) a brief write-up.

The first reason is I have not stayed in a Fairfield Inn since my LatinPass 1,000,000 bonus miles mileage run days when I stayed at the brand in Miami the night before flying out to Bogota, Colombia back in the year 2000. I do not remember that hotel with fondness for the brand.

The second reason is this stay was a successful experience with Marriott’s Look No Further best rate guarantee for 25% off the lower rate found. I’ll briefly share how I seek out lower rates at online travel agencies while I am searching for hotels to get even bigger discount rates on my paid stays. Read More…

• Grand Hyatt Denver with a suite upgrade.
• Fairfield Inn Cherry Creek with a Look No Further 25% discount rate.
• Crowne Plaza Denver with a Best Price Guarantee free night.

After basking in the 80 degree sun of Monterey Bay with sea otters and sea lions on Friday, Feb 15, I had my hands freezing on the chilled steering wheel of a Toyota Corolla driving out of DIA, Denver International Airport 48 hours later on Sunday night. Despite the one-day hot spell in Monterey, the temperature this winter has been abnormally chilly in central coast California with overnight lows frequently in the 30s since December. I packed the right clothes for a high plains drifter spending time in cold weather Denver.

Southwest Airlines out of San Jose got us to Denver on time and we were on I-70 heading to the Grand Hyatt Downtown Denver before midnight. One interesting observation is the rental car rate offered at the time I booked my Southwest Airlines ticket was $90 from Payless for four days and that rate was comparable to the best rate I eventually found from FOX car rental at DIA.

Grand Hyatt Denver was part of my four night Denver hotel plan since the AAA rate was $89 last Sunday night for a downtown Denver hotel. Rates went over $200 per night for Monday and the hotel was sold out for Tuesday during the weekdays when a banking conference was in town. I had a Diamond member suite upgrade to burn before expiration at the end of February. Read More…