nwhsd

One last bump!

JDiver

If I Google The Boulders General Manager, I come up with some answers; I suspect you could too.

TiredOfTooMuchTravel

How about calling the hotel and asking to speak with the GM? Or at least asking who the GM is?

Sweet Willie

did you have any luck? I was thinking of doing the same.

mspreh

They won't take a tip from you, even if you try. The resort fee they charge covers all gratuity throughout your stay. Even the valets for your car.

huegli

Does anyone have any recent experience with the Boulders in terms of good/bad and Diamond treatment ?

jsocpa

Bump? Any recent experiences? Diamond treatment?

gbearbuck

We were there over Labor Day weekend (late August/early September). We booked the cheapest room available and were upgraded to a sonoran Castia due to Diamond status. We received free drink vouchers, and coupons good for 20% (I think) off the spa and the onsite restaurant.

The resort is made up of a bunch of small castia's with between one and four rooms in each castia. The Sonoran castia was in a "prime" location (basically one of the castia's on top of a very small incline) and was on the second floor (so the views are really good).

During the summer they offer a lot of dinner specials in the restaurant, so check to see if they have any specials when you are there (basically a shared app with two entree's and a desert for a reasonable rate). We were not upgraded to a suite, and it actually wasn't very full over the holiday weekend (still very hot at that time of year... well over 100 degrees). So I highly doubt a suite upgrade is ever given (if it was we would have received one).

jsocpa

Thanks for the response! We are actually going to be there in January so I am unsure how busy the resort will be. Any sense of how this compares to some of the other resorts in the area? We have previously stayed at the Sanctuary at Camelback Mountain.

Thanks for your help.

RossG

We stayed there in March with a reward stay. Love the resort, but the service was lacking.

The bellman were wonderful. Our room had spider issues and the Wireless Internet woud not hold a connection. When I need to print a boarding pass, the front desk referred me to the computers in the lobby that charged 1.00/min for internet use. I just left and printed them at the airport.

We also went to the laughing donkey for dinner. Sat there for 20 minutes and noone ever came to bring us water or take our order.

Overall, this is one of 3 recent stays that has me moving away from Hilton hotels this year.

gbearbuck

I'm not much help there... I had family in the Phoenix area for a while (not living there any longer so almost all of our trips involved free lodging with family). We've only stayed at the boulders and the biltmore in the Phoenix area. Those two resorts are totally different. Due to the location (in town) we almost always stay at the biltmore when we're in Phoenix (that and as frequent guests the biltmore really does take care of us regarding upgrades to casita suites).

Friendly Traveling Deathmerchant

Time for an annual bump.

I've apparently planned poorly because there's this thing "Spring Break" tying up all of my usual hotels in PHX Mar 23-28, so looking outside of my go-to's and trying something different. Have kids in tow, so perhaps I qualify as one of the spring breakers...

Diamond benefits/experiences, how's the pool, close to any good restaurants, etc.?

Thanks!

ericgdukie44

Considering a stay in Phoenix just before the Christmas Holidays. As an HHonors Diamond I figured I'd contact The Biltmore and The Boulders and see what types of discount(s) they gave for the Diamond MyWay Benefits. I was pretty disappointed to find out that The Boulders gives a free drink at their bar + 20% off a $50+ purchase in their gift shop. No golf discount, no spa discount, and no restaurant discount... I don't even drink, so the free drink would get me a soda/lemonade/tea woo hoo!

Just seems like a pretty sub-par offering, has anybody else experienced similar or do they know if I just got the wrong information from The Boulders from their own experience there?

BOSOGG

MyWay W/A Diamond page reads:
Choose TWO of the following:
--1,000 Hilton HHonors® points per stay
--One complimentary in-room movie (where locally available).
--Discount at Hotel/Resort Facility - either Spa, Golf or Restaurant as designated by the Hotel/Resort.

The best benefit of W/A Diamond is the potential to be upgraded.

ericgdukie44

I know exactly what it reads. They are not offering:

"--Discount at Hotel/Resort Facility - either Spa, Golf or Restaurant as designated by the Hotel/Resort."

I'd forgo 1,000 HHonors points ($5 value) for 25% off of golf or even off a massage.

Clearly it's not the biggest deal in the world, but it's just disappointing that they're only giving a discount for their gift shop. I'd much prefer golf or spa over a gift shop discount.