We booked this hotel for our 7 night trip based on 2 things, we wanted to return to Scottsdale for golfing and its AAA 5 Diamond status. We had a great trip full of good experiences at the hotel but it just wasn’t what we expected.
Husband is a Lifetime Platinum and current Ambassador status. We arrived 10am from the East Coast, waited till 1pm for our room. The front desk employees were very welcoming, friendly, told us all about the hotel and gave us free breakfast vouchers for each day. We went to breakfast then waited in the lobby until the room was ready. But you’d think they would send housekeeping to our room immediately to get the status traveler in their rooms ASAP. Yes, we realize 1pm is still earlier than 4pm. The hotel was not full as ALLOT of their rooms/suites are being remodeled.
Positive:
1. 90% of Employees everywhere on property were absolutely exceptional! The other 10% were average.
2. We ate at every restaurant atleast once if not several times and the food was always excellent. The service was mostly excellent.
3. The fitness center is top notch for a hotel. 10 out of 10. Quality equipment, open 24 hrs, 2 walls of glass provide natural lighting, water station, towels. Excellent.
4. Pool- Tons of pool towels and plenty of umbrellas. 3 levels of pools were nice as it spread out the guests. 6 days were the perfect capacity, 1 day was busy. Water temperature was refreshing but not cold, perfect. Tip: if you are an early riser- I went to the pool each morning 6am and no one else came till 8:30am so I got 5 books read.
5. Housekeeping was excellent, changed our sheets daily, lots of towels and water.
6. Valet- excellent. Several days they picked us up at the Casita and brought us to the main hotel. Friendly and fast.
7. SPA is lovely
8. Nice lobby bar
9. Afternoon Tea Thursday-Sunday $100/pp
Average:
1. Golf- great employees, very helpful, run efficiently, nice golf carts w/GPS that tells you the location of carts infront of you on each hole, decent Pro Shop where hubby bought new shoes, 2 polos, a club head cover, a dozen balls, I forget what else but about $800 worth of stuff. The course itself is fine for a hotel let’s say a 7 of 10. If you’re a “weekend” golfer you’ll be good, if you belong to a Country Club at home then it’s a 3 out of 10. No color except in neighbors yards, a couple water holes but nothing special nor great. No wow holes. We met a few Golf-Members early mornings and they were very nice, golfed with a couple guys that use the course as weekend golfers, so that made sense. Fairways mostly decent, some very wet holes w/cart path only. Not much rough. Signage on the course & bathrooms are good.
2. Casita Firepit 1st floor building A- to be honest we couldn’t tell if our room was remodeled or not… that’s not good! The positives are the mattress was extremely comfortable, the shower water pressure is excellent & the bathroom lighting is great for doing makeup. If it has not been remodeled… then okay, it will get better. If it has been remodeled… the interior decorator should be fired. The carpet looked new but dizzy pattern and off center, the couch fabric is scratchy, there is only enough closet space for 2 people… if you have kids I have no idea where you’d put stuff, no artwork, drapes look old and heavy, and the bed “looks” plain-all white. So aesthetically the room is basic but again the 3 important things for us are great… mattress, water pressure and bathroom lighting. So it’s a mix.
Negative:
1. Pool loungers are terrible! They are rusty/aged, extremely hard & uncomfortable. If you are planning a pool vacation, geez, prepare to be uncomfortable or pay $450+ for a bay bed or $600+ for a cabana as it’s the only way you’ll get a pad. The cabanas a BASIC and right on top of each other almost attached in appearance. We spring for cabanas at most hotels but these were way too basic and I didn’t want to be on top of my neighbor. The daybeds we did consider, they are more spread out and have a thick pad but there is no room outside the daybed meaning you either use the umbrella for shade or no umbrella for sun but no extra chair if 1 of you wants shade and 1 wants sun. Yes, that is a going rate but these cabanas are totally subpar. Frankly… if the pool loungers had even a 1”pad or built-in pad meaning no extra pad but apart of the lounger… we’d come back and might have overlooked some things but the pool is a huge part of our day and these loungers I’d expect at a Hampton Inn and we’re not staying nor paying for a Hampton Inn.
