Guest reviews The Phoenician, Scottsdale

by Jay D Papillion, Nebraska

An Epic Desert Experience

My wife and I embarked on a voyage to Arizona in February of 2021 and stayed in a casita at the Phoenician. From the moment of check in to the sad drive away, we truly had a top of the line experience. The decor in the room is upscale and modern. The restaurants each have their own specialty and satisfied our needs every mealtime, especially the steakhouse:) We are counting down the days until our next stay!

by D8457FZscottm Scottsdale, Arizona

Beautiful place.Terrible Service

If all you care about is looking at Camelback Mountain and a bunch of out dated Brass this is the place for you! The Employees all feel like you are pretty lucky to be there. Complete lack of Customer Service here. I’d literally book anywhere else but here if you appreciate service. There’s many many resorts within a few miles that do WORLDS Better service if that’s what you like

by bigjoe950 Berkley, Michigan

Delightful

Having never stayed in a resort before, I didn’t quite know what to expect. My wife had been to the Phoenician may 25 years earlier, and the one thing she remembered was that there was one gigantic pool. There are now five pools with one of them being adults only. This is where we spent most of our time outdoors. In our two days there we had every meal on site. Here’s a tip: we looked and looked for a good rate and finally found one that included breakfast. We had a $65 daily breakfast included, and each day we spent $58. I know, $65 for breakfast? It was quite good. The first night we ate at a steakhouse which was OK, but we get better here in Michigan. The second night we went to the same restaurant where we had breakfast. Again it was good but nothing spectacular. I recommend you stay in for breakfast and go out for your other meals. The resort was clean, and our room was updated. When you see the main building there’s no doubt it was built in the 60s or early 70s. For some reason I had a hard time getting past that, but after seeing it I got used to it. Every staff member we ran into was incredibly polite, especially our first day at the pool. One worker came up to us, took our towels, got us an umbrella, and set up towels up on our beach chairs. He was so incredibly friendly and even brought us a picture of ice water. I noticed everyone’s Ice water, including ours, was regularly refilled. You can go buy your own drinks at a close by bar, or someone walks by and you can order. Undoubtedly that costs more, but if you’re staying at the Phoenician you can afford it so we chose to just have someone bring them to us. The bed was comfortable, the shower was fantastic, and the bathroom was large. We sat outside on our small deck, if you will, and enjoyed the shade. I guess it comes down to it would you recommend someone to go there or not, and yes, go to the Phoenician. We would go back too.

by Meghan P

During covid 19 this place is GROSS. Not clean at all

I generally don't like to post bad reviews, but in this case, I feel people should know how disgusting this hotel is. We looked at several hotels for my husband's 50th birthday week and chose the Phoenician. We thought with the amenities on the resort it would be a perfect family vacation. Upon checking in, we ran Into trouble with our key, we had to get a new key every time we left our room for 4 days. The staff were condescending and rude. Dinner reservations were impossible to get and the pools were overcrowded and there was zero social distancing. Our room had a broken toilet, broken lamps, stains on upholstered surfaces and my daughter's pillow case had blood stains on it. There was dust everywhere proving their commitment to sanitization is merely on the posters and not something they actually do at the resort. T his is not sanitary during COVID 19. We paid roughly $2000/ night for a suite with gross stains on surfaces and a purple hair in the bathtub. I strongly suggest you stay elsewhere. It's not sanitary, it waaaay overpriced disgustingly dirty and the customer service is non existent.

by 816FiveStarTaveler New York City, New York

Nothing compelling about this large factory hotel

From a distance, we had high hopes for this property - beautiful with Camelback Mountain as the backdrop. The main lobby is grand but very dated, think 80s Dynasty/Jackie Collins-esque. Our room wasn’t ready when we arrived at 1pm, nor was there an upgrade available despite our Virtuouso reservation. Understandable, it’s a super busy weekend. So we went to the pool. Families jam-packed on what looked like hundreds of lounge chairs. Definitely no COVID here. Pools are small for the size of the resort even though there are numerous pools. We were lucky to get chairs, but there wasn’t an empty chair on our first pass. Overall feel is like an “all inclusive” in the Caribbean- nothing luxury or charming about this place in the least. Impossible to get service at the pool, but all servers are super nice and helpful when you walk up to the bar and order. One positive. We got into our room and it was pretty awful, ugly browns, overall beyond tired. Again, this place is stuck in the 80s and needs a major face lift. Love the Byredo amenities, such a sharp contrast to the rooms and overall property as Byredo is chic, luxe and modern. The Phoenician is tired, a mass-market, non-distinct and soul-less place. Gym is great, the basketball court was a huge win for my 12yr old. Those two features were the highlight of our stay. I popped into the spa to see whether I wanted to book a treatment, but as you walk in through the massive brass (I think) doors (which are very cool and impressive) you walk into a giant marble lobby of chaos. I’ve been to hundreds of spas and this was by far the LEAST relaxing or inviting spa I’ve ever seen. There is no soothing music, the staff and even spa director are at the front desk stressing over the onslaught of guests, the stress is palpable. Staff is very friendly but you feel like you’re walking into a Nordstrom’s- busy, impersonal and masstige. That is basically what the overall resort is- masstige. Restaurants feel like big chains. Food is average, menus are uninventive (below average) - again, think a meal at a mall from some restaurant chain. For the $, skip this place, overpriced mall-like mass offering.