Our travels would have us passing through the centrally located city of Kamloops, British Columbia. It’s a town on the Trans Canada Highway that is about 5 hours from Vancouver; making it a natural stopover for gas, food and lodging. We’d stay at the Fairfield Inn Kamloops on this visit through town, and we’d discover a new build hotel Fairfield Inn property that met all our travelling needs.

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This post is one chapter on our trip through the mountains of British Columbia, Canada. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status and Hertz President’s Circle. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada.

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While I wouldn’t normally consider the Fairfield Inn and Suites to be an aspirational travel brand, I figured since it was part of the trip, and a location that is consistent with travel through the intersecting city of Kamloops, I’d do a quick review on the property. It may be of use to motoring travellers, business travellers to Kamloops or perhaps even someone looking for an airport hotel (that’s not exactly near the airport) on their way to and from Sun Peaks Resort.

Booking the Fairfield Inn Kamloops:

Our accommodation for the next two nights was at the Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. While there is a choice of two Marriott properties in Kamloops, British Columbia, the older Delta Hotels Kamloops is a full refurbish of a much older property with smaller seventies era rooms, and requires paid parking in an older downtown district. We opted for the cleaner and newer Fairfield Inn and Suites, with easy highway access to and from where needed to be.

During our stay, I managed to find a rate of $151 CAD ($120 USD) per night, this was only a $15 CAD ($12 USD) upgrade from the regular room rate. Anticipating slim upgrade odds under the Marriott Bonvoy Program, even as a Marriott Titanium elite level, I just booked the suite outright since it was only a minimal extra cost. With not wanting to leave all the ski gear in the car overnight, I figured we’d need the extra space.

The property is currently a Marriott Bonvoy Category 3 property. Rooms are available for between 15,000 to 20,000 a night, with 17,500 points per night considered a standard rate. If you value Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.005 per night, you’d have to have a room rate under $87.5 CAD ($69 USD) per night to have a better value by paying cash. Despite this, we ended up paying cash as there was a generous Marriott Bonvoy double elite night and double points credit, which would help us easily re-qualify for Titanium status next year.

Arriving to the Fairfield Inn and Suites:

1475 Hugh Allen Drive, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada

The next day, true to vacation form, we had a sleep in. We departed the Delta Grand Okanagan by Marriott Kelowna and drove the two hours up to Kamloops. The hotel is located near the Coquihalla Highway Route 5, and accessible to all of Kamloops by car. It’s also located about four and a half hours drive from the Greater Vancouver Regional District, making the city of Kamloops a reasonable overnight stopover for those continuing eastward onto the Province of Alberta.

There was no one at the desk when arrived but we enjoyed the modern lobby, thanks to this being a fairly recent new build property.

The reception agent turned up very quickly. A friendly check in agent offered the usual 500 Marriott Bonvoy Titanium points as welcome gift, in addition to two free soft drinks from the hotel canteen store as a welcome amenity.

Like many other Fairfield Inn’s, most lobby areas have a fairly standard layout. There is often a large lobby space for working, meeting or relaxing. In this case, immediately opposite from the front desk was a small television along with workspace computers. Printers were also available for those needing to print items.

The Lobby also contained the breakfast area. The Fairfield Inn brand offers a complimentary breakfast to all guests, which is typically served in the lobby. While the breakfasts are pretty standard, it’s still nice to have the convenience of not having to chase breakfast, or otherwise kill time seated in a restaurant if you plan on getting on the road quickly. For what it is worth, there is also a Cora’s Breakfast Restaurant less than five minutes drive from the hotel if you prefer a proper breakfast restaurant.

The Room: A One Bedroom Suite

We led ourselves up to room #329, which was a one bedroom suite. The halls were decorated in the usual colorful hotel carpets.

Our One Bedroom Suite was a corner one bedroom room suite on the third floor. The suite was a proper suite, in that it featured two separate rooms. The suite offered a large space, although the building design didn’t offer too much in the way of extra light even though two outer facing building walls were available; the design of the room limited the windows to one side building wall.

Upon entering the room, there was a small reception area. We headed straight ahead in the U shaped room with bed on one side and living on the other.

The Bedroom: One King Size Bed

The Bedroom offered a king size bed with television. The Bed offered crisp bedding, along with space on each side of the bed for stands.

There was limited suitcase storage space in the bedroom itself. There was room for one suitcase stand immediately next to the television.

There was an ensuite attached to the bedroom that also doubled as the main bathroom for the room. The Ensuite offered jack and jill style entry off ensuite, and into foyer area.

The Ensuite Bathroom:

The bathroom in the suite offered everything that you’d expect from a hotel bathroom. It included a stand up shower with an embedded tub, with a single vanity sink. The toiletries were the standard Paul Mitchell brand, as is frequent with Fairfield Inn’s brand.

The Living Room:

Heading over to the other portion of the room, the living area offered functional space. The room was actually quite large, although I found that the couch was a little offset with the TV unit, making for an awkward viewing angle. The feng shui of the room was a little off, in the living space with a bit of an oddly configured space.

There was a small desk area along with a small television for additional viewing. The desk did not have many power ports, which was perhaps the only disadvantage to the room. It wasn’t ideally set up for working.

The living space contained a separate microwave, Keurig Coffee Maker and mini refrigerator, which was tucked into the corner with a tall combo wall unit, mini closet.

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The view out of the room’s windows was not too exciting. It offered a standard Fairfield Inn view of city streets and office parks. What I appreciated most about this property is that it was new.

For those that are interested, there appears to be only one suite per floor. The upgrade opportunities likely aren’t to be too good staying here.

The Included Fairfield Inn Breakfast:

As I had mentioned earlier, all guests at the Fairfield Inn’s are offered a complimentary breakfast. While I was expecting a mostly continental version, I was happy to report that it was a pretty full American Breakfast version. This visit was during the pandemic, so guests were encouraged to complete breakfast cards in advance, and the staff would then fill the others.

It took about 45 minutes to get through the breakfast line on Sunday morning. The staff were quite cheerful about completing dozens of custom made order items. Since it was during the pandemic on our visit, we ended up taking the breakfast up to our room on a tray, and enjoying the breakfast in our room.

Around the Hotel:

Gym

The hotel offered a small gym with a few treadmills and small weight center. I never saw anyone using it the entire time that I was there.

An Indoor Pool:

There was also a small pool area. It was a small pool but would be a good distraction for those travelling with kids. The pool didn’t have too much room to sit and spectate, as the space was a little small.

The hotel stay was reasonable and we had some solid sleeps in the bed in a room that was reasonably quiet and free from noise.

My Thoughts on the Fairfield Inn Kamloops:

The Fairfield Inn and Kamloops was a reasonably priced and clean facility for a highway hotel. I was most happy about this place being a new build, as everything was clean, well put together and had minimal wear and tear. The minimal cost to increase to a suite was of terrific value, and we appreciated the extra space to stretch out.

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If you’ve frequent these types of roadside hotels, do you regularly choose a Fairfield Inn ?

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