Do yourself a favor if you want to get some sleep......

and don't stay at the hotel blue. (at least not on a weekend night!) While the decor describes itself as a chic boutique, it is hardly anything but! The building is old and parking is a headache! The rooms are small and the bathrooms skimp on towels. The front-desk staff leaves something to be desired and needs to work on being more professional. WE WERE KEPT UP ALL NIGHT BY LOUD DRUNK KIDS RUNNING OUTSIDE THE CORRIDOR PAST OUR ROOM ALL NIGHT! Like one other reviewer, I felt like I was at spring-break in Mexico or something, and I myself am a twenty-something college student!! The traffic on the street down below is also noisy and you can hear tires squeeling, people honking, and what sounded like cars racing each other. The only redeeming features of the hotel were an ample continental breakfast and a comfy bed. But what difference does that make if you can't fall asleep because of all the damn noise??!! They also accept pets, and I see why too. They don't have an area to walk your animals, and have to walk across the street to a nice, shady park in order to do so...so the city cleans up after your dog's messes, and not the hotel! I would not recommend this hotel to anyone with the exception of partying kids who want to get to sleep at 3 a.m.!!!!

Enjoyable stay

Clean room, good desk service, prompt shuttle service, well-stocked breakfast table. Liked the gated parking. The cleaning staff could have been better- didn't get new soap or glasses one day. The TV was a bit fuzzy for cable. Nice location- plenty of good places for lunch or dinner near by. Would stay there again.

Bad parking, unfriendly service

could not find a parking!!!!!, no smiles, suspected the employees were getting high! , loud weedend visitors, many drunks stumpling around in the lobby, outside was approached by transits everytime i exited the building asking me for money, verry scarry,one homeless man would not back off , at one point i asked someone to escourt me out the building, worst stay of my life

Just like Spring Break...

I stayed at The Hotel Blue on a Saturday night passing through Albuquerque on my way to Gallup, NM. The property has been very nicely renovated in a charming art deco motif and the rate was very reasonable. Unfortunately, The Hotel Blue has become the crash pad of choice for downtown partiers after the bars on Central close. The hotel staff could not control the several loud groups shouting from the balconies late into the night; I checked out at 2:30am. The desk staff was very pleasant and helpful, reversing the charge authorization on my credit card; she stated that she often has this type of situation on the weekends.

Blue--Great Price and Convenience

Hotel Blue was a bargain at the internet price and the convenience to the fun Central strip was great. The decor is unique too. However, the desk service could be greatly improved with some customer service training (smile, greet customers when they walk in the door--especially if they have to wait for check-in), and ditch the tacky fake plants in all the planters.

Convenience and Value

Hotel Blue offers comfortable rooms close to Old Town and the Central Avenue restaurant-shopping scenes. A large, free breakfast. Shuttle service to airport and surrounding area is available. Rooms have hair dryers and irons/ironing boards. Get a room on the park-side of the hotel, and watch the hot-air balloons drift across the sky every morning! Check out the on-line bargain rates for even better value. Front desk staff is a little inexperienced, but pleasant.

A Good economical hotel

While looking for hotels in Albuquerque on the internet, I came across The Hotel Blue. I decided to book my stay there. I have to say, if you're looking for a hotel that is centrally located in Albuquerque, this is the one. The rooms are spacious and clean. They were recently renovated and so everything is new. The staff was exceptionally friendly (as are all the people in Albuquerque) and helpful. The hotel is located right on Route 66 and is just blocks from the convention center. I walked the distance each day in under 10 minutes. Old Town, the Albuquerque Zoo, the Albuquerque Aquarium, the Albuquerque Botanical Gardens, and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History are also within walking distance. However, if walking isn't your thing, the hotel offers a free shuttle anywhere in the city, 24 hrs. a day.

Although I didn't go swimming, the water looked clean. And the free breakfasts! They offer your standard bagels, toast (including cinnamon raisin), cold cereal, fruit and yogurt, but also waffles and French Toast. They have several types of juice and tea plus coffee with flavored creamers. I'll be staying there again if I ever go to Albuquerque.

Encountered some problems

We found the Hotel Blue on an intenet seach and made the reservations on their web page. When we arrived that night about 10pm with a copy of our reservation the clerk could not find it and was very rude to us and any other guest who happened to come near her desk. When we eventually got a room I came out of the shower to discover that the only towels in the room were small hand towels. The Hotel Blue describes itself as a boutique type of hotel and they may eventually get there but are not there yet. I loved the location which was very near a lively downtown scene.

Great bargain with kids

We stayed there October 2002, and will do so again this year. It's a bargain for stressed parents with two kids: we get a suite, with a king bed and bath in our room, and a pull out queen sized couch & bath in the other, and a door in between! Great TV, close to Old Town, Natural History Museum, the zoo, and the West side with its newer shopping and restaurants. The pool was closed when we got there (broken glass in it) but the great breakfasts included in the price and the off street parking more than compensated. This is a superior value. We paid $79 a night for this suite, which with breakfast included (that the kids would eat! they loved making their own Belgian waffles) makes a savings not to be overlooked.

You Won't Be Blue Here!

I stayed at the Hotel Blue in summer 2002.

From what I understand, the Hotel Blue is a renovated/rescued former Ramada. The current owners are trying to put a 'chic boutique' into an older hotel with a different standard. I think they do a good job of it.

The room: It's an old Ramada room, and structurally, there isn't much to be done about that. The decor and furniture kept to the hotel's art deco theme. There was a large screen TV with a wide variety of satellite channels (including some you don't find in many hotels, like Turner Classic Movies). The bathroom had a nice variety of amenities, including oatmeal, glyercin and regular bars of soap and shampoo, body lotion and conditioner in futuristic bottles.

Rooms in the rear of the hotel overlook Route 66/Central Ave. The night view, with all the neon signs, is quite nice.

Other facilities:--Complimentary breakfast is served in a cute retro-style restaurant. They had a wide range of cereals, pastries, juices and fruits--possibly the heartiest hotel breakfast I have seen outside of Scandinavia. The breakfast room was clean, quiet and bright.

--The free airport shuttle is possibly one of the nicest features of the Hotel Blue. The driver was very pleasant.

--The pool is open late, and has underwater lights. It's well maintained, but the rambunctious college students make it unpleasant.

The Staff: They were perfectly pleasant and helpful. I didn't get my nonsmoking room, but they handled my 5AM wakeup call and shuttle reservations well. The staff even asked the shuttle driver to wait for a few minutes so I could finish my breakfast. Cons:

1. The hotel has exterior corridors. This is not indicated anywhere on their website. All of the hotels in ABQ I saw seemed to have exterior corridors, so perhaps it was an honest omission.

On the plus side, the only way to access the corridors is through the lobby or a locked gate in the secured pool area. People can't just walk in off the street. Rooms in the rear of the hotel are mostly protected from street view.

2. The hotel needs to take control over unruly guests. While I never felt unsafe in the Hotel Blue, I was annoyed by the pack of college-age kids hanging over the railings and a huge unleashed dog which bounded out of the elevator and nearly jumped on me. The staff should have asked the kids to quiet down.

Bottom Line: I liked the Hotel Blue, and I wouldn't hesitate to stay there again.