Janice K.
Yelp
This may be a review saying something about Albuquerque, rather than the Inn, but the Inn does share the best and worst of Albuquerque in my opinion.
When I originally booked the 'casita' for 8 nights and received the email confirmation, I noticed that they had made a small error in the calculation, and after the deposit had a balance due that was $40 too high. I thought at the time that I'd just sort that out when I checked out.
I would be driving a long distance and arriving late, so I asked about that. One of the major reasons why I had selected Casa de Suenos is that they indicated that they had free parking, breakfast, wi-fi, etc.; I'm very leery of hotels/inns where I pay half the cost of the room in additional charges.
There is major road construction going on as of February around that area, and I ended up getting fairly lost, parking somewhere nearby, and walking around until I found the entrance. This was not easy in the dark after an eight hour drive. There seems to be minimal staff, there's a placard with a number to call at the front desk. The very nice person who came out showed me to my room through the gardens. She was very, very nice, but I felt a bit apprehensive that I would ever be able to find it on my own, 'warren-like' was how I immediately thought of it. The property is very large. Again, it's very charming, but meeting a group of people in the courtyard who were also lost and had to repark, I couldn't help but think that it's okay for some amount of charm and ambiance to be lost, for some well-lit clear signage and pathways.
I don't remember how many 'casitas' there are, but there are a lot, and they look very similar and are tucked away. Maybe just what one wants, but emphasizing here that they aren't marked, or if they are, it was beyond my capability to see :)
The casita where I was staying was truly impressive. I couldn't believe how big it was, and nicely furnished. The price is remarkably low for a space like this. It's such a nice, large, private, artistic and charming setting, yet near the airport and downtown, I'd think a wedding here would be perfect.
However, the coffee maker, TV, hair dryer, etc. proved to be too much for me to figure out how to operate, when I wanted to operate them. Maybe you don't need that stuff for an interesting nice vacation, but it didn't occur to me that you have to flip the wall switch for the power in some outlets, etc. in my pre-coffee mind, but it did occur to me that they just threw those things in there so no one would complain, but it's not what they are about. There's no information. I couldn't find a phone. The coffee maker in particular threw me for a loop. It was huge, and on a counter where if you lifted the lid, the lid hit the cabinet on top, so you had to relocate the whole thing to use it, but then there's the outlet question, etc. I know this sounds pretty trivial, but if you want coffee in the morning and have a casita with a kitchenette and a coffee maker, it can be pretty frustrating to think that no one at the Inn has actually thought through what anyone would have to do to make coffee there. I'm just as certain no one at the Inn has ever actually tried to sleep in the bedroom, if so there's no chance they would have put the cheap blinds there, where the sun exactly hits the bed in tiny blinding stripes.
There's plenty of coffee available though in the dining room though, along with a very nice made to order breakfast available, as well as the usual continental suspects out. The staff is so friendly. This is not the kind of bed-and-breakfast where the guests co-mingle though. Privacy is great and this may be a plus, but I've never before seen a guest actually rush someone in their party over to a nice table, before I had a chance to take it, far from greeting anyone with a good morning.
My casita had a private driveway where they said I could park, so I drove around and parked there. I was really pleased about this, don't know how other guests parked. I was a little less pleased when I discovered there is a large tree overhanging the driveway, and my car was completely covered with droppings the next day. My car isn't particularly clean, mind you, but I'm not talking a few, I'm talking about must-immediately-go-to-a-car-wash-while-trying-not-to gag. It was about an inch think under the car, I guess I didn't notice it in the dark when I originally parked.
Running out of room :) So, on the last night, someone tried to break in through the window on the street/driveway side, broken glass, the whole bit, but they were foiled by the iron bars. They must have thought to open the door next to the window, but there's an additional iron screen door. Be sure to lock this, lucky we did!
They were nice about it, and said that it had never happened before. I was pretty surprised when I went to check out, they had already run my credit card, and presented me with an invoice that was not broken down.
We left quickly.
