TownePlace Suites by Marriott Loveland Fort Collins

The rooms are fabulous, but the breakfast and fitness setup brought my rating down. The breakfast had lukewarm scrambled eggs and decaf coffee at 6 am when it opens. The desk clerk kindly got a fresh batch made, but the newly brewed coffee was extremely weak. La Quinta had a better breakfast. It was far below the rooms, and at this price point in an expensive town like Loveland, CO, I would've expected those issues not to be there. There is a coffee shop just 200 feet from the hotel's front door if you want good coffee. The workout room was adequate. It had a large screen TV with an exercise channel, plenty of towels, a water dispenser, and big windows facing the outside yard. The laundry next door was convenient for washing clothes while exercising. There were three treadmills that seemed to work, two ellipticals, two peloton bicycles, and a rack of weights in good condition from 5 pounds to 50 pounds, plus two benches. I missed having a weight machine for pull downs or abductor and adductor exercises. The pool was tiny and cool to the touch, with no hot tub. After sitting all day at a conference, I really wanted a hot tub. I stay in hotels about 10-40 nights a year, and compared with other places, the pool, lack of a hot tub, and missing weight machine were disappointing. The breakfast and coffee were poor, and the workout experience mediocre, though those things depend on how I travel, so take that with a grain of salt.

I've stayed here several times and each visit has been good. It's a clean place with nice rooms, a well-run property, and friendly staff throughout. The complementary breakfast is very good.

The gym was the one letdown for me: just one of its three treadmills was working. Still, that didn't put a dent in my stay. I really liked the hot breakfast, especially the eggs packed with chives, and the lobby always had free lemon-infused iced water, which was a nice touch. Having a little kitchen in the room made the weekend feel promising, and the location delivered too. Bars, places to eat, coffee shops, and shopping were only a couple of blocks away. They also gave us a pass for the garage across the street, so parking was covered and we could leave the car there overnight.

At checkout, Tabbi charged me an unexpected $8.63 "foundry complex fee." It wasn't listed anywhere, and she couldn't say what it was for, only that I had to pay it before leaving this awful place. She said it was separate from the refundable incidental fees. Hotels.com also doesn't make clear that parking is only in a garage, which is a problem if you have a tall vehicle.