Casas de Suenos

09/18/07

Apart from the visitors, it was nice!

by dpizzari at Citysearch

If you enjoy spending $170 on rustic, country accommodation, this place is for you! After walking across to the Old Town for dinner, we returned to our little cottage (The Ivy) ready to collapse into bed after a long day of travelling and sightseeing. Our exhaustion overcame the hard, cheap bed and we fell into a deep sleep. Until... we were woken at around 1 am by a scratching noise that we attributed to an animal outside our window (we had the windows open for fresh air). We tried to return to sleep but the noise, which was unusually loud, persisted. Eventually we got up to investigate, only to discover inside our cottage a fury friend (citysearch won't let me use the "m" word) chewing through one of our backpaks to obtain a muesli bar and some throat lozenges. After moving the food items to the regrigerator and placing all of our possessions on furniture, we attempted to resume sleep, but the scratching noises persisted. We got out of bed another two or three times to investigate and eventually fell asleep again around 3:30 am. This was definitely not a good experience, and not one that you would expect after paying $170 for a room. We informed the desk of the problem and he in turn informed management, who indicated that they'd call me to apologise and arrange to pay for replacement of the mouse-eaten backpack. After we left, I checked the receipt and discovered that my address details had been entered incorrectly and at no time did they ask for my phone number. I'd be pleasantly surprised to see a credit on my credit card. If we had our time over again in Albuquerque, we'd definitely stay on a higher floor at the DoubleTree - our second choice of hotel in the Downtown area.

• Pros: Friendly staff, lovely courtyard, decent breakfast
• Cons: Rodents