Finally Marriott has finally opened in Nepal and I decided to check it out in less than a month of it’s opening. I really wanted to see how it would compete with other major international hotels in Kathmandu namely Hyatt Regency, Club Carlson Radisson Blu, and IHG Crown Plaza. After my two separate stays in Fairfield I can safely say that it offers something different than above mentioned brands and is most welcomed by locals and tourist alike.
Location
Fairfield is located in Thamel which is the center for tourists in Kathmandu. Thamel is the neighborhood where most tourist prefer to stay, eat, and generally handout. One of my stays at this hotel was on occasion of Nepalese New Year 2074 BS (short for Bikram Samvat) and the streets of Thamel was full on party mode.
celebration of 2074 new year on Thamel
The streets of Thamel itself are mostly narrow and as such walking around is preferred over riding a taxi. Since this is a tourist center you’ll see folks walking in street even at night time.
Additionally, at about 3 minutes walking distance from Fairfield lies the famous Garden of Dreams. The garden itself is of historical importance because it lies within Kaiser Mahal which was once build and resided by Prime Ministers of Rana reign.
Last but not least the Narayanhity Palace lies in walking distance from Fairfield. Narayanhity palace now turned museum is of significant historical importance because until 2008 last 4 generation of Kings of Nepal resided in the palace.
The Room
Every room in this hotel are identical so the only possible “upgrade” you can get preferred higher/lower floor room. I think the rooms were intentionally made small so as to maximize the number of rooms they could have.
The closet and bathrooms were build within the walls to save space. Some toiletries (namely body wash, shampoo, and lotion) were not available in small portable size and obviously the big ones were hooked into the wall. The toilet papers themselves felt cheap and were rather rough.
The view from the hotel isn’t going to be anything speculator. The picture below display views from window of two different high floor rooms.
Fairfield provides standard amenities like mini fridge, coffee/tea maker, etc but no welcome fruit basket like they’re often provided by other chains in Kathmandu.
Gold get Complementary Minibar
If you want items in freeze, you have to request it otherwise you may find your mini fridge completely empty. Now this property does provide complementary minibar to gold members. On my second stay I requested that the minibar not contain any alcoholic beverage and they were happy to comply.
Breakfast
As a gold member we also received complementary breakfast. On our 1st stay we noticed that they had a lot of local food and (almost) everything we tried was rather delicious. Now had we not made a 2nd stay we would have walked away thinking this hotel had better breakfast Hyatt Regency Kathmandu. On our 2nd stay options on local food was rather lacking and the ones that were available were rather terrible to a point that we still believe it was a catalyst in us eventually falling ill during our soon to follow Mustang travel.
While the dining lounge is rather standard, Fairfield somehow made it feel a little extra special – it may have something to do with the greenery on the left of above pictures.
Is the booking cost worth it?
This Fairfield property is category two and thus costs a mere 15k Marriott points per night. On the other hand this property generally seems to cost $75-90. I personally wouldn’t pay for this hotel because that amount of money can go very far in Nepal but I was rather pleased with my points booking.
Closing Remark
If you’re looking for an international brand hotel with relatively low cost and yet superb location then this is it. If you’ve Marriott Gold, which is easy to obtain through various credit cards, then free minibar and breakfast might be a huge plus for you.
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