About

My mom recently came for a short two-month stay, and since the kids were on school break, all four of us went out to travel together. Our final stop was Phoenix. The last time I visited was years ago, when we went to Tucson (Tucson).

This time we booked Andaz Scottsdale. I’m fairly sensitive to noise between rooms, and I don’t like wearing earplugs, so I mainly chose this property because the whole hotel is built in a lodge-style layout and has strong soundproofing reviews.

This trip we stayed in luxury hotels all the way, and they all exceeded expectations, so I came in with very high expectations for this one too.

Booking

This hotel does not allow extra beds or sofa beds, so the four of us redeemed points for two rooms. We used P1’s QiuKe account, and after booking under P1, the reservation was transferred to P2 and GOH was automatically added once the free GOH vouchers were used up. So the two rooms were under P1 and P2 respectively, and both had QiuKe benefits.

The hotel sent a welcome letter a week in advance, and I carefully replied, explaining our situation and saying we hoped to have rooms together. The hotel sent a template-style response.

Check-In

Check-in day was very busy, with a few front desk staff in the lobby handling arrivals. No wait; a Black staff member checked us in. He issued the key cards and told us the two rooms were far apart. The check-in desk was very small, and everyone was working on laptops. He had me look with him at available room types, saying the hotel was full these two days. We looked together for a while and found two rooms about three to four minutes’ walk apart. He said one of them would require a $50/day paid upgrade, and I thought that was okay, so we agreed.

They gave us a welcome drink. While I was drinking it, I suddenly realized something was off. We had requested rooms together, and the hotel had clearly overlooked that. Even if it was full, it should not have been impossible to arrange after informing them a week in advance. Also, both rooms had QiuKe benefits. Why would the hotel charge for a GOH upgrade just because of their own oversight? I went back to the front desk to ask. Another staff member handled it after a few steps.

Even after the upgrade, the rooms were still far apart, which was pretty inconvenient for a family. Parking was also only possible in the area between the two rooms.

Rooms

Before coming, I thought each lodge had only one room. I was naive. Each lodge actually has 5-6 rooms. The soundproofing between these rooms is not great at all. If the neighboring room pulled their curtains, we could hear loud noises very clearly from here. Even a sneeze in the bathroom was audible. Luckily, during our two-night stay, the neighbors (at least at night) were quiet.

When we arrived, we discovered there was no soap or hand soap in the room and only one bottle of mineral water, so we checked the other room and compared—there were supplies there. Then we messaged the front desk to ask for replenishment. They were very generous with water this time and promptly provided several bottles.

Aside from that, the hardware in the upgraded room was still good and modern. Compared with it, the unupgraded 2 queen room felt a bit like a tiny “black room” and was noticeably smaller. Still, it was also new.

The mini bar included free cactus drink and a chip bag.

Public Areas and Activities

The courtyard is beautiful. The map even marks photo spots for social media. The whole property is definitely very “Instagrammable.”

The hotel has daily wellness-related activities.

The main pool water temperature was very warm—by far the strongest heated pool among the hotels I’ve stayed in.

Our stay happened over a weekend, and it seemed like the hotel had social events every evening. There was a strong Sichuan pepper aroma near the restaurant, and it happened two nights in a row.

The hotel offers a free s’mores setup, which was the kids’ favorite. We needed one every night. There were few children staying at the hotel. The next day when I went there, the Black staff member at the front desk already recognized my child and warmly offered to make him a s’mores kit.

Breakfast

Both mornings we had to wait a few minutes at the front desk before someone showed up to serve us.

On the first day, the server couldn’t be found and even brought the wrong food. On the second day, a new female server made it better, but staffing was still so stretched that we could barely find anyone. Breakfast staffing was seriously short.

Breakfast is order-at-bell style. The menu has quite a lot of pork. On the first day, only the few items we picked were borderline edible—the eggs Benedict was barely okay. We ordered those again the next day. The other dishes were frankly pretty bad.

The above images are all from breakfast on the second day. After the lesson from day one, we ordered items that wouldn’t be mistaken, and they were enough to fill us up. But the quality-to-price gap with the hotel’s positioning is still obvious.

And the value is low. If paid out of pocket, these items in the photos would total $260.

Billing Issue

It has now been two weeks since check out, and this unresolved billing issue is still ongoing...

Both breakfast servers insisted that we only needed to sign and the bill would automatically apply the QiuKe complimentary breakfast benefit.

At checkout, because the service had already been weak, I reviewed the bill carefully, and sure enough, the day-one breakfast charge was listed. By that time, we were already on our way to the airport, so I still contacted the hotel by text and asked them to write off the charge, and reminded them to write off the second day as well. After that, they stopped sending us any bills by email, so I thought they had finally become reliable.

Over the weekend, we checked our credit card statement and it came back—the second-day breakfast charge was there again. I texted again, explained both charges, and asked for both to be written off. They again promised to do it, and the front desk manager Colin Brady also asked me not to send more text messages, and to send any issues to the Front Office Manager by email instead.

Then, as expected, only one of the two charges was refunded... Following Colin’s request, I emailed him, and four or five days later there was still no response.

I had to text again. The front desk insisted that the money had already been fully refunded and sent me a screenshot. I told them I had two charges, but there was only one in the screenshot. The front desk replied, “Oh, we missed that part of your message—this is the second charge being refunded now.”

Two weeks later, we are still waiting on the second refund.