So hubby and I decided to do a midsummer "staycation" in the Valley. We chose this hotel because my dad had stayed there on a recent visit. I booked for one night and then changed to two the day before we checked in. Another interesting connection is that my office building happens to be right next door. So I was definitely curious to check out this place.
The hotel is very new and nice. The lobby is clean, large and well appointed (nicely decorated). The front desk staff were pretty friendly. I did have a problem where they couldn't find where I had added the second night, but they said they could accommodate the second night and in fact we would not have to switch rooms, which was nice.
The bar and restaurant area is quite stylish. More on the breakfast bar below.
Because I love to swim and I checked out pictures of the pool online and thought it looks very nice, my first order of business was to try it out. While it was outdoors, it did have nice shade umbrellas sprinkled throughout as well as a pergola-covered hot tub. Being it was 115 in the shade both days of our stay, I did not feel a need to get in the hot tub. But the pool was lovely. It was warm from the moment I stepped in--not sure if that was outside temp or it was heated or a combo of both--and stayed temperate throughout. It had a "deep end" in the middle, which I had never seen, and it only went down to five feet. I think a lot of newer pools are designed like that to help prevent drownings. It had six "waterfalls" (squirty water shooters), two on one side and four on the other with benches to sit on under them. It had steps to get in and out on all four sides. I couldn't do laps either day because there were so many kids and families in the pool, but I'm used to that at hotel pools. Mostly I just power-walked/did "water aerobics."
The room was well designed to make the best use of space and multi-task where possible. Like right when you enter the door there is a "closet" (open) off to the side that has two tall and skinny cabinets one with an ironing board and iron. In the middle is an upholstered bench with two "dresser drawers" below it where you could (and we did) sit to get dressed/undressed a couple times. It has a dorm fridge and coffeemaker also tucked into the nook. The only odd thing was no microwave. Almost every modern hotel even "discount" ones usually have a microwave in the rooms.
The TV was mounted on the wall and so were the nightstands, which were essentially two staggered shelves on each side. There was a narrow shelf below the TV that widened to a desk on one end. Very clever design.
It was quiet most of the time and definitely for sleeping at night. We did ask for a "quiet" spot so they placed us on sixth of the eight floors and toward the end of the hall. The bed was fairly comfortable and the bedding nice but it was one of those modern platform frames so no box springs. Luckily they had a couch with a chaise longue ottoman so I took to that both nights after my hips started to hurt. The room didn't keep temp to the 68 degrees we like for sleeping at home, but then again it was 110-115 outside the entire time we were there.
The views of the Gila River Indian Community Reservation and South Mountain to the west were to die for, and they had a big picture window on every floor at the elevators to enjoy the view. It was stunning at sunset in particular.
There was a wedding reception there the second night so lots of people dressed up in fancy clothes. They have a lot of meeting/party rooms, which is nice. They also have a very large workout room with tons of treadmills, weights, etc.
In the morning after our first night, we went downstairs to check out the breakfast situation. We had asked about it the night before and were told there was a breakfast buffet. We assumed it was like most hotels and was included with the price of the room. Nobody told us otherwise. But I noticed that my room keycard did not work on the tapper by the glass sliding doors to the breakfast room. A staff member standing there said nothing to explain the situation. However, there were lots of guests coming and going and after not too long someone came out so we just went in. Nobody corrected us. We enjoyed a hot breakfast of scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy (nice that it was vegetarian as hubby is vegetarian and it had green chilies, which gave it a nice Southwest kick, not the standard sausage gravy), hot oatmeal with fixings, cold cereals, bread, bagels, muffins and danishes, yogurts, hardboiled eggs, juices, coffee, etc. In other words, pretty standard hotel breakfast fare. The second morning, however, we could not get in and there were a lot fewer people inside so we asked at the front desk. We were informed it was $30 extra. Oh wow! It was definitely not a $30 breakfast! So we just skipped it and checked out.
Would I stay here again? Probably, but I would go somewhere else for breakfast. But I would go again just for the pool! read more