Just got back from a nice 2-day experience at the Four Seasons in Scottsdale. Overall, a very nice stay. We booked it through our Virtuoso agent (DavidO), and the Virtuoso package got us upgraded at time of booking to a Deluxe Casita, free breakfast each day and a welcome gift (was supposed to be fruit, but turned out to be gorp and snack mix, which was fine). The rate was $595 per night.

The hotel itself is about 30 minutes from PHX and not near any of the other resorts or restaurants/malls that seem to be everywhere in Scottsdale. The best part of the resort is the view, which is not in any way to put down the service. But the view is just stunning, and words/pictures cannot begin to describe it, so I won't even bother to try.

We arrived at the hotel at about 10 am and were told that our room wasn't ready, but that they would call us when it was. For the first time in my life, a front desk worker actually did call us when the room was ready, only an hour later. The casita itself was huge and right at the foot of self-park, which made it very convenient. We had a great view. Overall, we were very happy with the view.

For those of you who like quiet by the pool, the hotel is 1 for 2. There are three pools, a kiddie pool, an "everyone" pool and an adults-only pool, which the hotel did a respectable job at keeping adults-only. We noticed a few teenagers (with their parents) lounging on the chairs and swimming, but since they weren't causing any problems, no one said anything. The only thing we didn't like is that there was no "cell-phone free" zone, meaning that we got to listen to all of our neighbors screaming into their phones as they made calls that were too important to wait until they got back to the room. The quietest area, by a long shot, was actually near the kiddie pool, since only one or two families were up there and they kept a close eye on their little people. The staff did a great job setting up around the pool, passing out fruit, etc. The only complaint we had was that they were a little heavy-handed pushing drinks on us.

We didn't eat much at the hotel, but what we did have was fine. Breakfast was either menu or buffet, with an omelet station and the usual breakfast buffet "stuff" that you find at most resorts. The $25 per person was included in our room. We did make the mistake of ordering a room service pizza one night, which I can say was one of the five worst pizzas that I have ever had. I don't know what it is about FS, but they can't make a decent room service pizza anywhere--there's at least one other thread on FT that talks about bad FS pizza.

Service was its usual outstanding, and the staff went out of their way to take care of the guests. They are also selling fractional ownership (time share) on property, and I have to admit, $7,500 to purchase a week in low-season sounded good, until they threw in a 2k per year maintenance fee.

Overall, it was the typical strong Four Seasons property, and we would probably return.

Mike