Fairfield by Marriott Hotels in The Woodlands

I booked through hotels.com and was asked for a CC at check in for incidentals, which is normal. I was given a piece of paper to put on our dashboard. A $20 hold was placed on our CC. At 1:30am I received a text that a $10 charge had been hit our CC. I inquired about the charge at check out the next morning and was told this was for parking and should have been told at check-in. She stated the fee is also on the website. It is not. The hotels.com website states ”parking available” and ”self parking” is listed in amenities. There is nothing about a fee. This is a no-frills hotel with a very small, unsecured parking lot. So, just a heads up there. Our room was very spacious and clean (King with couch). The bed was comfortable. The bathroom had a very nice large shower stall with pump bottles of shower gel, shampoo & conditioner. I really liked this as it's economical for the hotel and convenient for the guest. There was not a blow dryer in our room but I was able to get one from the front desk. The A/C was a problem. There is not an option to keep the fan on so the air circulates. The room would get stuffy & hot when the A/C was not blowing so we didn't sleep very well. A ceiling fan in the room would have alleviated the issue. The hotel is located very close to the highway so expect to hear a lot of traffic noise. Bring ear plugs if you're a light sleeper. Breakfast was so-so. The area is small and not enough seating. The check-in staff were very friendly - the check-out, not so much. I have a feeling she gets asked often about the sneaky parking fee since the check-in staff did not mention it. Had we not received a text in the middle of the night, we wouldn't have known we were charged for parking until we received our credit card statement because we usually take advantage of 'express check-out' without going to the desk.

Pros: Comfortable bedding, plenty of drawers. Cons: One set of reading lamps over the bed didn't work and the fixtures were loosely attached. Rust on the two light fixtures in the bathroom, plus shower light was out. Two bugs found and some strands of long hair attached to the walls of the shower Had a stomper above us late at night and very early in the morning. Room located near the balcony and could hear front desk conversations along with other travelers and phone conversations. Surprisingly, had to put a $40 deposit for ”just in case”, but would be refunded in a few days--no mentioned of this charged when booked. If you stay more than one night, be sure to notify front desk if you want to have your room clean; otherwise, it will remain the same until you leave, I guess. In the bathroom, a chunk of wood was missing from the bathroom door frame exposing the sheet rock. The bathroom's exhaust fan made a loud screeching noise when it was turned on for several minutes.....bearings worn out? I can only speculate that booking this room through a website resulted in poor room assignment. The Marriott caliber did not meet my expectations, and I won't be returning to this hotel. Absolutely disappointed. I hope this is not a practice of hotel management in treating customers with sub standard accommodations by booking through independent trip websites. I