Thunderbird Inn

I arrived at Thunderbird at 4:00 in the morning, desperately looking for a place to sleep, having been referred by the night clerk at The La Fonda. No one was at the office, so I called the after-​hours number listed on the door.
It took three times before the manager, Yolanda, picked up. She was immediately rude, explaining that the phone number was for tenants only (a fact which was not advertised on the door sign). I explained I had been referred by the La Fonda and was looking for a place to stay for the night.
She nastily told me that they only rented by the month (which is not what the La Fonda had told me). I asked if there was any way that she could make an exception, but she was adamant that they only rented rooms by the month. I offered to rent it for a night and then rent for a month if I liked it, but she stubbornly refused the offer.
I asked if there were empty rooms at all, and she said that there were if I was interested in renting for a month, but not if I was interested in renting for a night. By this blatant contradiction, it was clear she was lying to me.
Fed up, I told her if she would not rent me a room, I would simply sleep in my car in the parking lot, at which point she threatened to call the police. Not wanting to be hassled by the cops, I made a last ditch effort: I began knocking on the doors of the rooms.
At the first door I knocked on, an elderly gentleman, Pat, answered, and I explained my situation to him as politely as possible (which wasn’t easy, since I was worked up from talking to Yolanda). Long story short, he very graciously allowed me to sleep on the floor of his room.
I think this goes to show that if you are patient and kind to people, even when they do not behave the same way towards you, that positivity will eventually come back around to you.
Ironically, I ended up getting a room for free, due to Yolanda’s abysmal customer service.
I guess all I’m trying to say is, «Suck it, Yolanda». I’d also like to thank Pat for being so generous to a complete stranger. You are a model of altruism.

We (a respectable-​looking and amicable couple in our 30s) drove in to this place at 10:30pm on a Friday night to ask about a room. The man behind the counter said $ 45. We asked if we could see the room first, and the guy hesitated and said «it’s too late to see the room». Huh? When we said that we just wanted to make sure the room was ok, the guy got visibly angry and told us to «just go!»
It was really creepy.
The King’s Rest motel a block away was also $ 45, the manager had no problem letting us look at the room, and the rooms were actually quite nice for a cheap motel.

This motel, Not HOTEL, pretty much always has rooms available that are affordable. Back in the 1980’s, much like the Silver Saddle (before they Silver Saddle got their new terrible sign), a lot of the local kids would rent out rooms for their private parties during the high school graduation season…
There used to be a food bank that worked at the park right up the street, so there used to be a traveling circuit of homeless people in the area, but that has changed ever since the park has gone through it’s current rennovation…
I would pretty much call this place a good and inexpensive place to stay if you want easy access to the doiwntown area via the bus, but there are much better places to stay in the area like the El Ray inn across the street and the Sage Inn, (which is closer to the downtown area)…
Eh… I wouldn’t stay here…

This is a very cheap place to stay. No real accommodations to speak of at all, but it is easy to get a room. Having stayed in Santa Fe for two nights I found other places that were only five to ten dollars more and a lot nicer.

Yeah, gotta agree with Elayne H. (she’s my wife & we stayed here togehter – rofl): this place is a white trash nightmare. We stayed here because of Let’s Go’s _Let’s Go Roadtripping USA_​guidebook & man was that a mistake. The desk monkey said it was under new ownership & management (he being the live-​in manager) which made me wonder how bad it used to be if this was supposed to be an improvement.
When we got to the front desk, the patron ahead of us (he’d cut us off in the parking lot as he blazed to a stop in front of the office in his rusty 4×4) unfolded a tale of woe in angry tones (a very angry guy) as he grew even angrier when the clerk wouldn’t bargain with him since he was paying in cash – he just wanted to deposit his drunk buddy (out cold in the passenger seat in the aformentioned rusting hulk of a 4×4) for the night to sleep it off. I deemed it wise not to offer that drunks left alone sometimes aspirated on their own vomit & died (He was big with greasy long hair & greasier jeans with one of those pocket knives – gaint-​sized – you can flip open with your thumb stuck in a pocket).
After he left, the clerk shook his head and offered, «We get some characters in here.» My wife & I looked at each other, paid the man, & went to our room.
In the room: the garish orange blanket on the bed sported a random pattern of cigarette burn-​holes. I kept expecting someone to knock on the door & offer us a dime-​bag of meth.
There was no remote control for the TV, but, like the blanket, a nice row of cigarette burns across the top of the set where someone had apparently laid their butt while changing channels. Maybe it was better there was no remote control as the screen had a green cast that made everyone on it look like they were underwater & reminded me of the first color television my family got, used, when I was 7.
The clerk came by with the extra pillow my wife had asked for and begrudgingly handed it over – now we had an overwhelming abundance of 3 – & we went to sleep, so we could wake up & get the hell out of there the next day. Oh, but wait, we’d paid for TWO nights. .. Argh!

Yes, it’s cheap, but it’s scary. It has a weird locking system on the knobs where there are no locks on the door from the inside, but you always need a key to get in from the outside. It also has doors connecting the rooms that don’t seem very secure. When we arrived, what appeared to be a very drunk-​thinking-​he was-​a-​rock-​star-​type was crudely trying to negotiate a price with the manager (and he wasn’t taking no for an answer). Also, I asked for an extra pillow and the gentleman working the night-​shift looked at me like I’d asked for the moon. Pay a little extra and stay somewhere else, or better yet, save some money and camp somewhere.