Horace

My understanding is that categories such as Upscale and Upper Midscale are terms that are meaningful to those in the hotel industry.

Wyndham and other companies have brands in the categories below anything in the Marriott (including Starwood) portfolio of brands.

Fred 3

I stayed there last week, and thought very highly of the place. Games brought back some memories, free drink, room decently comfortable,

Meals a little pricey, but overall, I will come back to this place again, provided it stays a moxy

markko

This is correct. They are called "Chain Scales" and are determined and updated annually by STR (Smith Travel Research), and based on the previous year's ADR (Average Daily Rate) for each brand, systemwide. These categorizations have nothing to do with the quality or services a hotel property provides. They are most useful for hotel managers and developers. They will use data from STR reports (referred to as "Star" reports) to compare the performance of their property to other properties in the same chain scale in their area or region.

There are six chain scales: Luxury, Upper Upscale, Upscale, Upper Midscale, Midscale and Economy. Don't confuse these with service categories - such as Full Service or Select/Focused Service. The main difference between Upscale and Upper Midscale (as far as STR is concerned) is that the ADR for an Upscale property is higher than that of an Upper Midscale property.

If interested, you can download the 2018 list of chain scales (based on 2017 ADR) from STR at: https://str.com/resources/documents
(It's an Excel spreadsheet).

STR's definition is as follows (appears at the bottom of the spreadsheet pages):

nexus7556

I just finished a two night stay here. Overall it was just ok.

Check-in - Was slow. When I asked about my welcome benefit they said they gave me points since most guests wanted that. I prefer the F&B credit, but they said it was too late to change it despite not ever being offered a choice. I asked about a mobile key, and they said the property doesn’t have mobile keys (app says it does, and the second day into the stay I received the mobile key and it worked).

Lobby Bar - actually pretty great, the night of checkin I spent a few hours here and Kai is a fantastic host! This was the highlight of the stay

Room - “Studio, 1 King, Sofa Bed, Pool View, Balcony” 4th floor,The room is large, about 2x as large as a normal Moxy room, which is nice, but they didn’t put it to good use. Lots of large empty space. A closet would be nice. The balcony was nice but it was not clean, there was bird poop everywhere. Bathroom was nice, but the fixtures in the shower could use updating, the paint is flaking off. The room is also very loud, the traffic on S Rural Rd is obnoxious, lots of muscle cars revving, plus the room has no sound proofing. The wifi was often slow, and sometimes I could never connect

I also requested a late checkout during mobile checkin. On my day of checkout housekeeping knocked on the door and told me I didn’t have a late checkout. I called the front desk and they said they were not able to do a late checkout despite being Titanium, stating its “based on availability”, which is not true per the T&C. I am about to leave, The Westin a few blocks away was able to accommodate an early checking

Kacee

With respect to the failure to provide a choice of welcome gift, be sure to request your $25 for breach of the elite benefits guaranty prior to check-out.

pinniped

Ugh. About to make my first return visit here in several years. Sounds like it's struggling with some basic service aspects.

I'll probably keep my reservation just for the location. Frustrating when mobile key doesn't work...that is such basic table stakes for a hotel in 2022.

xxxxx

This is the only hotel I’ve even been to where I’ve had to check out immediately after seeing the room.

It just wasn’t suitable for us as it was a four night stay and we travel with lots of luggage so we checked out and stayed at Marriott Tempe at the buttes instead.

pinniped

Just curious: what was in the room that caused you to check out? (As opposed to ask for a different room...)