The Scottsdale Plaza Resort & Villas

Having lived in Phoenix previously I had always heard good things about the Scottsdale Plaza. Having stayed there for three nights I have zero good things to say about it myself. I booked this hotel through a third party booking site which indicated upon booking that there would not be any resort fees. I need to hit a certain mark spending wise for my business and adding resort fees would be over budget. I even screen shotted it so there would be no argument from either them or the hotel. When I got to the hotel they requested my credit card for incidentals and the dreaded "resort fee". I showed them my conversation with the website and they would not budge on the resort fees. I called the website and was assured this wouldn't be the case. I finally got the hotel to promise not to charge me the resort fees, however each day in the room the television will show you your room charges and the resort fees appeared each day. Upon checkout I was assured that this would not happen. Lo and behold when I arrived home my credit card was charged "resort fees". I called to complain and was told they would be removed. Took almost 10 days for this to occur. Was absolutely ridiculous. Now to the room itself. All of the rooms at this hotel face to the outside just like a Motel 6. It is a very large and spread out property. My room was so far away from the pool that I didn't even bother using it. My room was to the back and faced a large courtyard that is available for events. The hotel itself only has two story buildings without elevators. I was placed on the first floor. I requested a room on the second floor, but was denied. Normally I refuse to stay in a hotel that will not honor that request, but having dealt with the front desk long enough before checkin I just gave up, which I think is their approach to all guest requests, just slow play them long enough and they will give up. The room was just ok. It was very dark with limited lighting, probably because of the intensity of the Arizona sun. The water in the shower was a little warmer than luke warm. The beds were average. The refrigerator is a joke as I don't think it got below 37 degrees. It started off in the 50s. If you don't have anything in it it decides it won't cool the fridge, so I had to wait several hours for my off property purchased drinks to cool down. I checked in on a Sunday to go to work Monday at 6 am having traveled from the East Coast. I wanted to go to bed early Sunday night, forget that however. The hotel scheduled a wedding reception for a Sunday night, who does that? The music was so loud I was talking to my wife on the phone and she finally says, " I can't talk to you anymore the music is too loud". She wasn't on speaker phone and I was behind the walls of my room. There were maybe a half dozen people dancing at this wedding reception. I called the front desk and they said it would be over at 11. This hotel should not be booking rooms that face something like this if it is going to be as loud as it was. It's rude to all the guests who aren't there for the reception. There were plenty of guest in pajamas angrily staring at the reception from just outside the courtyard. I write all of this to say after day one at this Godforsaken property I elected to not spend one dime extra at this place. No gift shop purchases, no dining at the restaurant, no spa appointments, nothing! The only thing good about this hotel is leaving, NOTHING ELSE!

I've stayed here a few times and always have a great experience. The staff is super nice and the food is amazing. The pool is always clean and fun to hang out at. They have amazing gelato in their store too. This is a great stop to stay at before going to the Grand Canyon or Sedona too!

We stayed at the Scottsdale resort and spa for five days this March. Overall, the staff is extremely attentive, and the property is well kept. It’s a little bit of a drive to old town, but that is actually what I wanted for this trip as I did not want to be constantly on top of all the touristy areas. There are a few things that I would like to see the resort do better on. One is the housekeeping was not consistent. Our room was clean upon arrival, but it took two days for housekeeping to come back and do any sort of cleaning, once they did, they were there consistently, so I’m not sure what happened with that. Others have said that the rooms are outdated. I thought the rooms were fine, albeit, the lighting across the board inside the room needs to be improved. Even with every light on, it was dark inside our room. We couldn’t keep the drapes open as we were on the first floor. So there is area for improvement in that regard. I would also like to see the pool area more attended too as we did see a lot of children running around unattended (parents please!) and Saturday night there did seem to be a total lack of supervision as well as staffing to clear out plates and glasses as they were everywhere along the pool area. I understand it was busy being the weekend and it was beautiful weather this weekend but plates near the edge of the pool could be an issue. On the positive side I will say that we were told that the hot tub is the largest hot tub in Arizona. I will state that it’s probably one of the biggest ones I’ve ever been in. The restaurants on site were very reasonable in the food was good as where the cocktails. The pizza oven was down the entire time that we were there. Not an issue, but it would be nice if it were up and running. We also enjoyed sitting at the fire pits at night to wind down. The only other issue I had was that there was an outdoor wedding over the weekend….. our room was in direct line of fire of not only the wedding, but the lasers and lighting of the DJ. It was one of the only times that our room was fully lit up. I think the staff could also have done a better job of putting the wedding party in those rooms that are closest to where the celebrations were to take place and try to move others elsewhere. On the flipside when we did call the front desk they did say that there was a noise ordinance that goes into effect at 10 o’clock and that everything would shut down at 10. And it did not even a minute after 10. We did have a big day planned for the next day and had to be up early and out the door to drive north. So I would just maybe check to make sure that nothing is scheduled like that upon check-in next time I stay. But overall, it was a very nice place to stay close to everything, but not on top of everything.

Terrible. Traveled with a friend. The room is large but dark, musty and dank. No closet either. If you open the shutters, everyone can look in and we caught people looking in as they walked by. We had to keep all 5 lights on for good lighting. The person checking us in explained nothing. Ok fine we have a map. The pool was crowded and not enough chairs or service. Just one young man (excellent employee but seemed totally overworked but that could just be my impression)running the food and one bartender taking orders. This is not what you think of when you hear resort. We had a huge problem with items taken from our room. Never had this happen before ever in my 51 years. They did not guide us properly on what we should do. Now They are ignoring my phone calls and emails. Just don't stay here. We had a beautiful visit to Arizona and this place ruined it. The shuttle bus drivers and the waiters were the only good things. Front desk not helpful at all and when I called I had to pry out the woman's name as she didn't want to tell me her name and acted curt and evasive. We just keep getting passed along to other supposedly higher up individuals and managers who are just ignoring us.

This was the worst vacation. There is literally zero supervision at the pool. Nothing but kids playing in the hot tub and throwing around tennis balls and I got injured. I brought this up to the front desk staff and they didn’t give one care. I will commend the shuttle staff and the room, cleaners, and the security guard that showed a little bit of empathy when I complained. The rooms are very tired and old and lots of squeaking in the air conditioner. I would not recommend this. This cost me about $450 Canadian a night and not worth it at all. The grounds are beautiful and some of the staff are fine, but overall not worth it. There are many other hotels nearby that seem to have more satisfied guests when I met them at local restaurants.