Phoenix resorts

Contras: They seemed to be incredibly short staffed in terms of housekeeping. On our first night, our room wasn't ready for check-in at 6:30pm -- 2.5 hours after the hotel's check-in time of 4pm. It seemed like it would work out in our favor because we got a room upgrade since our assigned room wasn't ready. But then on our second day our room wasn't cleaned until 4:30pm and on our third day, they didn't clean the room at all -- and we were out of the room from 10am until 9pm! When we called the front desk, they offered to send someone to clean the room, but it took 40 minutes for someone to show up.

Contras: Smoking in the general seating areas outside

Contras: Was billed as a five star resort when I booked it. Don't get me wrong, this is a nice place with a lot of history. However, a five star resort implies attention to little details that separate you from other resorts. Those little details were missing. While I understand the main entrance is under renovation, the concrete blocks holding down the umbrellas for the valets looked cheap and haphazard. Not a good first impression. Upon arrival, no one offered to help with my bags, merely pointing me to the direction of the temporary main entrance. At that entrance, there is a small lip in the doorway, making it difficult to maneuver a roller bag. While the front desk did ask if I needed assistance with my bags, no bellhops were around if I did, and given the room location, they should have been more readily available, as my room in the garden wing is on the second floor accessible only by stairs. Upon check-in, I searched for ice (which with a bellhop could have been a non-issue at least for the first day). I could not locate the ice machine, or anything in the in-room literature to direct me. I found a housekeeper and asked her. She did not seem to know either. A maintenance engineering department employee coming out of a guest room overhead the conversation and immediately led me to the nearest ice machine himself. Unfortunately it was broken. Not only that, there was a bus cart full of dirty dishes stowed in front of it. Again, this is the kind of little detail a five-star resort takes care of. The ice machine in the adjacent paradise wing seemed more designed for "back of the house" rather than for a guest to be accessing it. Service at Frank and Albert's was very nonchalant. It did not seem as is they cared if we stayed to eat or not, or enjoyed our meal. Everything seemed to be under construction at once, causing noise throughout the day, from early in the morning until afternoon. When I asked about this, several, employees' response was "well, it's the slow season...." as if I should have lower expectations because it's August. Again, a little detail a five-star resort should nail. Guests should not notice a difference in staff attention regardless of "season." A few other "little details": In the lobby bar, the cords for the TVs and speakers were haphazardly hanging, not neatly along the wall. There was visible water damage on one of the corner speakers. A large cobweb was hanging in the corner and blowing with the AC. There were several areas where grout or paint had dripped onto the pressed concrete blocks from recent renovations but were left there, not removed. The pool desk was open and appeared to be staffed, but was unmanned for five minutes, leading me to walk behind the desk to help myself to clean towels as no one was around. Ultimately, we cut our stay a day short and moved to a different area five star resort, where we did not experience any negative issues.

Contras: Garden room had a single window unit type AC that did not sufficiently cool the room. Hotel is currently under construction, which makes it very hard to get around. I found bits of cracker on the floor around my bed upon check in, but was too tired to deal with it at the time. The matress in my room felt old and sagged on one side. The pool bar closed at 5. The famous Catalina pool has many broken tiles. I was promised an emailed receipt at checkout, and have yet to receive it. I've made two calls to their accounting department and they have not returned my call.

Contras: Room needed updated

Contras: nothing.

Contras: Can be expensive. Self parking- quite a distance away.

Contras: Hot tub not warm, bed sagged in middle, no robes, landscapers started gas power hedge trimmers at 8:35am for 45 minutes in courtyard next to room.

Contras: Check in was delayed until after the check in time and there was no apology for this. Staff at pool were not very friendly and very slow.

Contras: The power went out.

Contras: Nothing

Contras: Rooms are a bit dated, but still clean and well kept

Contras: Expensive Resort Fee $40/night + tax... ouch! I thought $20 was the standard? Room Service charge $x delivery fee + 23% gratuity... 23%! Highest we've ever seen. (And the food wasn't that great) Got a great deal on the room, but the resort fee and expensive food options will keep us from staying there again.

Contras: No microwave

Contras: This trip we experienced a lot of horrible service, missed room services, not being attended to while at one of their restaurants. the exception was the last night we were there. I spent $5000 over a course of 6 nights we stayed..I would expect way better service when ones pays this much. Im considering not coming back due to the service not matching the price I paid. I also feel the resort could use a bit of updating and repair. Eep in the room when we had burnout light bulbs and once again they were never replaced on our stay.

Contras: There's a resort fee that should just be included in the price but it's for a good reason and the room service is a bit high .

Contras: Bar closed at midnight

Contras: Tasteless coffee forces you to go to the Starbucks counter or dining room. Be sure to turn on the exhaust fan in the shower and/or keep the bathroom door mostly closed when showering. Learned that the hard way when the smoke alarm over the bathroom door was set off. According to the woman at the front desk, some of them are sensitive and can be set off so you have to open the terrace door to get it to stop.

Contras: menu choices for romm service a little limited

Contras: They do not have supplies/equipment to handle the capacity. We needed another blanket and were told they ran out. They do not have nearly enough chairs at the pools. There were 10 lounge chairs at our pool. I know they cannot provide enough chairs for every guest but there is absolutely no excuse why there were not at least 30-40 chairs at each pool. There was certainly room for that many. People at the pools were angry. The teenagers that work at the oasis pool were rude. Instead of being a relaxing experience, it was over-crowded and stressful.

Contras: Water park hours vs check in/out time. I checked in on Friday night and water park didn't open til next day and I had to check out prior to going to the park.

Contras: Bed was not the most comfortable I have used in a hotel. Especially for the money. As to be expected, the food service on site is extremely expensive. Resort fee is high and not optional - they get ya!

Contras: Furniture somewhat dated; very small bathroom; stained carpet in living room (except for that, the suite was very clean).

Contras: cost of food & drinks to expensive

Contras: We didn't love not being able to bring a few snacks into the waterpark. They make sure you have to buy them there.

Contras: How busy the pool area is with kids. I am not sure how they can help adults that are not traveling with kids but I'm sure they would be annoyed with the level of kid noise. I think the parents allow the kids too much freedom with little parent supervision even late at night. I feel they should have curfews for the kids. If you are seated over the bridge you must bring your shoes to the lazy river or your feet will be burned. I feel they should have more entrances to the lazy river to much congestion in one area

Contras: The waterpark was supposed to open on February 18th per the website and a phone call to the hotel - so we booked from February 20th to 24th. What they failed to inform us was that the Waterpark was only open the weekend before and the weekend afterwards. When we arrived on the Monday the person who greeted us and showed us to our room talked about the Waterpark being great and only later did we find out it was closed. We got 2 nights of the facility fee refunded, however the other 2 nights were not refunded and we chose this hotel especially because of the waterpark. Very disappointing.

Contras: No ice machine on every floor.

Contras: Resort fee seems over the top considering daily rate being charged

Contras: The food and drinks at the pool were very expensive and not worth the money.

Contras: Restaurant had good quality food just a little overpriced.

Contras: Requested newspaper three times - never received - front desk and "grand service" said that paper would be delivered as it was part of " resort fee" which I was required to pay Asked for creamers for coffee in room never delivered TV says you can check out via tv but cannot - line was half hour long Facility is nice but dated and worn Service in bar was understaffed, "free" appetizer (with two drink minimum) never arrived Mandatory $45.00 plus tax resort fee seems excessive considering poor service

Contras: DO NOT LIKE THE EXTRA CHARGE AT THE DESK OF $49 FOR WHATEVER. I WAS CHARGED AN ADDITIONAL $110 WHICH $55 IS REIMBRUSED AFTER SO MUCH TIME. CHARGE WHAT YOU WILL AND LEAVE IT AT THAT. WE COME FOR THE SLIDES & LAZY RIVER LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. BUSINESS MAYBE DIFFERENT.

Contras: Staff service was shockingly bad. The property claimed there was an upgrade ... still old and dirty looking. Price of food was very high. They call this a resort ... more like a glorified hotel. Would not recommend this property ti anyone.

Contras: The room was clean, great location close to shops restaurants and more. Plenty of things to do at resort.

Contras: Most things shut down about 9pm. The waterpark closed at 8pm, which was fine. The resturants closed at 9pm. The Lobby bar closed early was well. The resort was great for the kids, but left few options for parents.

Contras: As a 4-star resort, I expected just a bit more. Water pressure was poor, not all of the shower features functioned properly, dirty towels were left by the cleaning staff outside our door for extended periods. The $50 + tax resort fee per day seemed a bit excessive - especially when the water park was only open on the weekend and we were not able to use it.

Contras: Many reviews have the Arizona Grand Resort on the top of their list, but the truth is the options are few, the facilities are dated, and the atmosphere has very little energy. Don't get me wrong, this is a nice hotel, however, in terms of resorts, it does not belong in the same conversation with any of the Scottsdale or Sedona facilities. Very disappointing considering what was being sold. A three-night reservation, we left after one evening.

Contras: Dated

Contras: For the cost the facilities were very dated.

Contras: Nothing to complain about

Contras: How early check out was not the best.

Contras: They boast "millions of dollars in recent renovations" but the rooms are just awful. I remember this resort from many years ago, and at the time it was very nice. They have basically let the whole place become run down and have milked it for all the money they can get out of it. It is a run down crappy "resort" now, and should be condemned.

Contras: Hvac was loud. Tv had cords and boxes hanging out the side. Guests ran around screaming and play until 11pm

Contras: Rooms are a bit dated. Water park was smaller than I was hoping. Not a lot of choices for dining on resort during summer.

Contras: We were unable to check in early, so they said they would text us when our room was ready which should have been by 4 because that's the time of check in. Around 4:30 still no text, so we decided to go check ourselves. When I spoke with the woman at the front desk about checking in she said our room was still not ready. Luckily she moved something around and got us into a room, but what if I hadn't gone to the front desk and just waited for a text who knew how long we would have waited. If check in is at 4 then we should have been in a room by that time. Also the housekeeping never came to clean our room on the second day which I found very odd.

Contras: The practice of a mandatory resort fee seems to be a gouging tactic if you don't use the services. Not against this property specifically, just the industry practice. Other than that, a pleasant stay.

Contras: Rooms need updating. Pool dirty. 90% kids. They should advertise this resort as a kids and family resort. Not a good value for the money

Contras: Pool was gross - they didn't bother to skim it over 4 days if was there and there were tons of dead bugs including bees and a cockroach. Saturday morning they had no towels and weren't even trying to fix it. Maids entirely blocked the hallway with their carts and didn't bother to move to let us off the elevator. Lazy river is nice when it's not busy, but was very crowded on the weekends.

Contras: Our room was dirty. It didn't look like the bath tub had been cleaned at all. I had to rinse several hairs down the drain before I could even shower my kids. The carpet was absolutely terrible which became extremely noticeable once my 10 month old started crawling on it. The service was ok some of the staff was super friendly and helpful others were almost rude. All of that being said, I would still stay here again with high hopes of the room being a little cleaner.

Contras: There are a few small areas that the resort could improve on: -I noticed it was very difficult reaching hotel staff by phone. I tried every single line (ie Guest Request, Room Service, Front Desk..) just to try to reach someone. This happened to me about 5-6 times within my first 36 hours. They could work on beefing up availability of folks to answer phones. -The spa was fantastic, and one of the showers was very dark, and had one ceiling light which was not in the shower. This made the room dark after pulling the shower curtain. It didn't do justice to the overall appearance to the spa. -Also I would recommend the spa supplying a few creature comforts in the locker room, such as disposable combs for people to use after showers.

Contras: The upkeep has gone downhill, things out of order or in need of repair / upgrade.