Arizona Biltmore

Amazing service. Amazing rooms. The pools. The architecture. The property. The gym. The location. The food. Did I mention service? Everyone helps and says hi. My sole criticism would be the bars/lounge. The service menu and drink selections in the lobby and spire bars didn’t quite hit the mark. But that wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme

I rarely leave negative hotel reviews, especially over smaller inconveniences, but my stay at the Arizona Biltmore was disappointing enough that I felt compelled to share my experience. For a property carrying the LXR name and the reputation and price point of the Biltmore, I expected significantly better. I was staying at the property for a convention and was assigned a Villa that was about as far from the convention facilities as you could realistically get. I understand room placement can simply be luck of the draw, so I would not necessarily fault the hotel for that alone, but it became much more frustrating given the number of times I ended up having to walk back and forth to the lobby during my stay. I arrived after dark, and finding the Villa was surprisingly difficult because the signage around the property was poorly lit and not particularly clear. I’m willing to concede that part may have just been me being unfamiliar with such a large property. The room itself was otherwise very nice, but it had a connecting door to the room next door that provided very little sound insulation. You could easily hear through it, and even see light coming into the room from underneath the door. That became especially noticeable on my first night. Between roughly 9:00 and 11:00 PM, the neighboring guest was repeatedly running and restarting their dryer directly on the other side of that connecting door. I could clearly hear the Samsung dryer chime over and over. I contacted the front desk through the Hilton app chat and security was sent. Oddly, rather than contacting the room creating the noise, security knocked on my door and came inside my room so they could listen to it themselves. It was an unnecessarily awkward way to handle a fairly straightforward noise complaint. The following day, I came out to find the walkway and patio immediately outside my Villa covered in muddy standing water from an apparent leak. I’ve included a photo because it was considerably more than just a small puddle. Later that afternoon, I returned to find that the electronic lock on my room had stopped working. The property relies heavily on the Hilton mobile app/proximity key for room access, pool access, parking gates, etc. Since the app would not unlock my door, I had to walk all the way back to the lobby — which from my Villa was legitimately more than a quarter mile — in approximately 100-degree heat to get a physical key card. I walked back to the room and that key did not work either. At that point I insisted that someone come to the room rather than having me make another trip to the lobby. Maintenance eventually determined that the battery in the door lock was dead, and another employee then had to come out to replace it. Unfortunately, the key problems continued. When I later left the property and returned, neither the mobile key nor the physical key card would operate the parking gate. I ended up going back to the front desk two additional times and was issued replacement keys, none of which worked. Eventually security had to let me through the gate. Throughout my stay there was also consistent construction, maintenance, and landscaping noise outside the Villa during the day, including work related to the pipe or leak near my room. Another frustration is parking. Self-parking is $28 per day and valet is $35 per day, with essentially no realistic alternative nearby. At a resort already charging premium room rates, that felt excessive, particularly given how unreliable the parking access system was during my stay. My conference ended two days before my prepaid reservation did, so I had the option to stay and enjoy the property for another two nights. Given everything that had happened, I decided I would rather leave. I notified the front desk that I intended to depart, even though I was not asking for a refund for the remaining prepaid nights. I was then told I would be charged an early checkout fee on top of forfeiting the nights I had already paid for. I told them never mind and that I would remain checked in rather than pay an additional fee simply for physically leaving the property. Despite that conversation, the hotel proceeded to check me out anyway. Thankfully, I was ultimately not charged the early checkout fee. Any one of these issues by itself would have been relatively minor. The problem was the accumulation: poor sound insulation, late-night noise, water and mud outside the room, a failed door lock, multiple nonfunctioning key cards, repeated walks across a massive property in extreme heat, parking gate problems, daytime construction noise, and then the attempted early-checkout fee. The Arizona Biltmore is a beautiful and historic property, and the room itself was attractive and comfortable aside from the connecting-door issue. I was there because my conference was being held at the resort, and once the conference ended I had two fully prepaid nights remaining that I could have used simply to relax and enjoy the property. After the experience I had, I chose to leave instead. That probably says more about my overall stay than anything else.

We recently spent a long weekend at the Arizona Biltmore while in town for a conference. The resort is amazing; a definite oasis in the desert. The pools and grounds are beautiful and the staff attentive and helpful. Averie, our server at McCarthy's our last night created one of the highlights of our trip. She was friendly and took a special interest in us. When we told her of our reason for celebration, she sincerely congratulated us and brought a free glass of champagne. We also wanted to give a shoutout to our nameless room cleaners. Rather than receiving a cursory cleaning (or none at all) offered at other hotels, they provided us with a fresh, clean room each day that was as nice as that offered on only the first night at most resorts. Yes, it is expensive but I highly recommend this resort for those who can afford it.

There were so many dining and entertainment options on property. We loved being able to relax on at the resort on the days we weren’t exploring the area. As diamond members, we were upgraded to a suite, which was a lovely surprise. The architectural design throughout the resort was beautiful, and the history was interesting. Thanks for the hospitality. Looking forward to visiting again in the future.

We were looking for a 5-start luxury property to celebrate our anniversary and since we had friends in the area, we opted to book a stay at this iconic property, now part of Hilton's Waldorf Astoria. Our stay was in a "cottage" near the Citrus Club (more about that a bit later). As this was our anniversary, I had contacted the concierge in advance to have roses delivered to my wife to help set the anniversary mood. We were delighted when we accompanied the porter to our room to discover those roses already placed in the living room along with a box of chocolates and a note from the hotel offering anniversary best wishes. As expected the room was scrumptious with a full large bathroom as well as a half-bath that was located in the living room portion of that cottage. Outside was a seating area and fire pit for evening unwinding. And the Citrus Club ... was a total hit for breakfast, lunch, snacks, specialty coffees and yes, mixed drinks. It was a separate oasis away from what was already an oasis of a fantastic property and given the typical cost of food/drink at this five-star property, the Citrus Club easily saved us multiple hundreds of dollars and provided a club-like get-away and all of this was for us about a 20 second walk from our cottage. The pools, the on-site restaurants, the incredible lobby helped us celebrate our anniversary in style and the staff make us feel like royalty. I could continue this review forever, but presumably you've already read the praise from many other reviewers. Yes, a visit to this property will cost $$$$, but IMO, the cost was 100% worth the phenomenal experience.