Kacee

I certainly would not. Had an extended stay at the villas several years ago for work, and really enjoyed it. I wandered over to the resort one afternoon, and it felt crowded and chaotic by comparison.
Coffee on the balcony was a great way to start the day.

Bfhause

Ask for either a corner balcony and/or one that overlooks the golf course, it's an extremely peaceful way to start your day. Even if you have a 2.5 year old...

Kacee

Just spent a night in the Villas, following arrival from Tokyo. As noted upthread, I had a positive experience here several years ago. Not so this time.

I rejected initially assigned room based on location (right over the outdoor bar and across from elevator) and a funky smell. Second room had a better location but also smelled a bit "off." I was in a hurry to meet a friend and didn't want to deal with another room switch, so just dropped my bags and headed out. Returned around 10 pm and discovered that the source of the funky smell was a disgusting mess of food (fried onions and some kind of browned meat) in the kitchen sink and garbage disposal. The room really smelled awful, but I was dead tired so opened the windows and sliders and went to bed. The room did not smell any better in the morning.

Front desk also failed to offer me a welcome amenity. When I raised this later, fda offered me breakfast plus the 1000 points. I think they actually owed me $100, but I didn't push it. Breakfast was a sad looking order-at-the-counter "market" like they have at Courtyards. I took a pass.

They offered me a free night certificate as service recovery for the housekeeping fail. I turned it down. Just not interested in a return stay.

habshabs444

We just recently returned from the Villas a couple of weeks back after another 'bounce back' offer which I think was our 5th time staying there. These offers we have used several times and usually cost $995 for 4 nights + 100K bonvoy points + having to endure a 90 minute timeshare spiel which I feel is good value in mid to high season. The downside is you get one of the smaller 1 bedroom units which is short on space and natural light. I enquired the week before how much a cash upgrade would be for the much preferred 1 bedroom premium units and was told that although the first night they were full, they could move us for the remainder of our stay for a very reasonable $30/night. Upon check-in, I was informed that I had been upgraded for free for the entire stay (not sure if this was due to my plat status or not). As well, we elected for the breakfast benefit which consisted of $20/day at the restaurant.

Overall, we had another fantastic stay. The villas suit a young family extremely well with full kitchen and dining table. Service at WKV has and continues to be one of their strong points. In fact, we were remembered by several employees from our last stay in March. The vast majority of employees have worked their for years with the lack of turnover speaking to how well run the hotel is. As well, the location is fantastic with a quick free shuttle to a variety of dining/shopping. The only downside was one of our car seats failed to make it to PHX on our Air Canada flight. Air Canada gave us a brand new replacement to keep (albeit lower quality) and stated that we would be notified when it was to be delivered the next day. We were never in fact notified so we assumed it was sitting at the airport waiting for us upon our return. When we enquired at the airport, we were told that it had been in fact delivered, but we weren't notified on either end. I called the hotel and they had had it for several days, but why it didn't get delivered to our room is beyond me. The front office manager apologized profusely and it was fedex'd back to Calgary arriving several days later.

Although I don't feel there is value in shelling out $30K for a 1 week timeshare here, there is definite value in their bounce back packages for which we bought another one. A sub 3hr hop from YYC with a couple of young kids in tow makes the Villas an ideal respite for an extended long weekend from the harsh Canadian winters.

redbirdsj

I have a 5 night Cat 5 certificate to use before the summer. Wondering if I should use it here for spring break with the kids. Would be the resort rather than Villas. I am Hyatt Glob and Marriott Gold so it'd be a big status drop v. staying at Gainey Ranch. I'm assuming there's no chance for lounge access as a Gold.

Do resort guests get access to Villas amenities? We like the lower key pool and service v. the insanity of the resort even though we will use the water features as well.

FlyerJ

No, resort (ie hotel) guests do not get access to the Villas (ie timeshare) pools.

The villas pools are great, but relatively small — so they keep them exclusively for Villas guests.

davidw70

No lounge access at all in the main resort as it has now closed.

bcmind

Stay 5 nights in July 2021. No platinum suite upgrade. Breakfast credit only. Stayed with points and they will charge resort fee so it's not really "free", need to pay for daily parking but the gate was wide open all 5 nights I stay there. During the night they were showing Olympic games outside on the BIG screen which was very nice. Kids club is closed. They have "smores kit" (forgot if it's $15 or $25 each) that you can purchase and use at the outside fire pit. Had a cocktail before bed and most people don't really wear mask there. Lazy river was OK, but the FlowRider was only open 1 day out of my 5 nights stay. Maybe appoinement is needed? There is a pool slide but not too intense. Kids got bored with the pool on the 4th day.

All staffs are very friendly. Location was great for foodie, very close to other restaurants in the area. Pool wasn't big which is a negative.

Room is clean and looks new. Not dated. Bed is ok, no noise problem at night.

mikeef

Still a nice property, but not as good a value as it was under the Starwood days.

Pros
1. Nice rooms, decent pool. They definitely turned down the speed on the lazy river, though.
2. Great staff, very family friendly. Whoo-hoo, the free smores were back at night! Lots of kids activities during the day.
3. Excellent location, walking distance to Kierland Commons (If you like breakfast foods, try Snooze.).

Cons
1. The Bonvoy-ization of Westin continues. When we were here under Westin, there was a nice lounge that did breakfast and evening snacks. We had two rooms for four people but, since there was only one platinum member, we had to pay for breakfast for two of us.
2. It was really, really expensive. The weak breakfast buffet was $19. Cabanas (during high season) were $450. Etc. If you don't have to buy it at the resort, you're better off not doing so.
3. Housekeeping every third day. People had nothing to do with their trash, so they just piled it in the hall.

Other Stuff
1. After a little bit of battling, they gave us a 2:30 checkout on one of the two rooms, so we had a place to store stuff. They're a resort, so they technically didn't have to do anything, but please don't make it seem like you're moving heaven and earth to get us a noon checkout.
2. They gave us a $200 Visa GC to do the timeshare presentation next door at the villas. Normally, we don't do those, but we had a block of time in the middle of the day. It was supposed to be two hours, but ours barely went an hour. It was pretty clear from the beginning that we weren't going to be buying.
3. I spoke to the manager about all the changes under the Bonvoy program and she knew how we felt. She gave each room a $100 credit.

Overall

A lot of the staff that we spoke with had also been there under Westin, and everyone agreed that Bonvoy has degraded the product. They genuinely seemed to take pride in the hotel and noted that we weren't the first to bring it up. Room rates were $600-800 per night (spring break), so we would have been disappointed if we hadn't used points.

I wouldn't rule out a return, but our next trip to Scottsdale will probably be to Gainey Ranch.

Mike

TheTravelPlaybook

Had a chance to check out the property earlier this month. I can echo a lot of the thoughts above. While there have been a lot of changes since the SPG days, I will say the property is still amazing physically. I do like the room renovations, and love all the small touches like the mining themed bar and desert animals in the lobby. I did a full tour of the place for folks that may be visiting soon and want to see what it looks like.

smilee

Just completed a stay here. It is a beautiful property but has a bit of a soulless feel to it. A bit of a bonvoy machine.

As a Platinum member was given an upgrade to the room I booked lol. The pool area is beautiful and there are some chairs that are even free as are towels and water. I believe chairs cost $75 each. There are cabanas that you can rent too but not sure of the price.

There is a $35 resort fee and I think parking is about $30 too. I parked on the street at the golf course for free.

As a Platinum I selected the free breakfast which could be the buffet . My wife ordered waffles and wasn't charged so happy about that.

It is a good hotel that commands some outrageous prices that most guests seem happy to pay. If it wasn't for points I don't think I would be staying here but certainly many people and conference goers are happy with the value.

As far as Platinum benefits, don't expect anything other then a solid breakfast.

SkyTeam777

Is the club lounge still open? It doesn't appear when trying to make a reservation for an executive room online.

davidw70

It hasn’t been open for a number of years I’m afraid.

YYJMSP

anyone know where they are doing breakfast now and the Platinum options?