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The Arizona Biltmore is a Waldorf Astoria property located in the heart of the Sonoran Desert. Especially during the winter season, it is generally quite expensive. Like $700 expensive, plus resort fee, plus taxes. Fortunately, Hilton Honors points and free night certificates can come in handy, as it means you can avoid all of the fees besides parking. Overall, I thought I had a great stay, as I found all service (except for one person) to be very good, and my room, amenities, and breakfast were also great. Furthermore, I would say that you’d be hard pressed to find a more family friendly Hilton within the Continental US. Read on to find out about this Arizona Biltmore Review.
In This Post
Booking
We booked the Arizona Biltmore quite last minute. My mom and I had Easter off, so it meant that we had a long weekend. She has a Hilton Aspire card, which means that she gets an annual free night certificate. Our calendar is pretty full for the next year, so we figured we might as well use it when we get a chance.
For our nights, the hotel nightly rate was $600 per night, plus a $55 resort fee. However, the points cost is 90,000 points. This means that we got over half a cent per point, which is overall quite good. We stayed here for 3 nights, so we used the free night certificate for one, and then 180,000 points for the other two. Thus, I think it is a great return since it is over $2400 for the 3 nights otherwise.
In my opinion, this is the only good Hilton in Phoenix to use points at, as a Hampton Inn in Downtown Phoenix was either 60,000 points or ~$200 per night. Compare that to the Waldorf Astoria, which is only 30,000 points more compared to $400 more per night.
If you didn’t have the points and/or didn’t want to book with cash, this is a great property to book through Hilton Impresario. Even if you are a Diamond member and booking with cash, you would get the food and beverage credits in addition to free breakfast, as well as double points. The benefits are as follows:
- Breakfast for 2
- A $100 Property Credit
- Late Checkout Subject to Availability
- Double Points on the booking
Overall, in my opinion, these are compelling benefits, and have the potential to be very useful, regardless of your Hilton elite status. If you are interested in booking this property, or any other Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, or LXR property, feel free to email me at [email protected], and I’d be happy to help.
Location
The Arizona Biltmore is located near the Wrigley Mansion, which is all up against the McDowell mountains in Phoenix. It is super close to Scottsdale and Paradise Valley, as it is only a 15-minute drive. I really enjoyed the location, as there is some stunning scenery near the hotel, and also some great hikes nearby.
Unless if you want to pay high prices for on-property food and beverage, I’d highly recommend renting a car as there is not really any good restaurants within walking distance. If you are looking for good Mexican food, one place in particular that I enjoy is Caramba’s. It is super affordable, and the food is consistently phenomenal.
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Upgrade Shenanigans
The one thing I was a bit disappointed about was how upgrades are at this hotel. We only booked this hotel a week out, so about an hour after booking our stay, I called to see if there were any upgrades available, as there were multiple 2 queen rooms available in better locations. They refused and said I’d have to wait until check-in. I waited until the day of check-in at around 8 PM, and I then texted the front desk. They told me I’d have to wait until we arrive to see if there were upgrades available. Once again, there were multiple queen rooms available. We were arriving at around 11 PM, and I basically said that they probably won’t be selling these rooms anyway. They still refused and said too bad, and wait until you arrive. Sure enough, there were no upgrades available when we checked in, yet they were still selling them on the app.
Overall, I find this whole situation to be very disappointing. “Credit Card Diamonds” are probably a major reason why it is hard to get upgrades in the US, but the way this hotel handled it wasn’t great. According to Flyertalk, this seems like nothing new, and they aren’t great at upgrades, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. But at the same time, this is definitely a far cry from how hotels are in Southeast Asia, and it shows how worthless Diamond status is in the US.
Arizona Biltmore Review – Check-in
We arrived at the hotel at 11 PM and parked at the parking garage. It’s a bit of a walk and costs $23 to park there, but it was nice to stretch our legs after driving in from Vegas. We were greeted by a stunning lobby, and there was no line to check in. We were greeted by a friendly front desk agent, who went over what we got as a Diamond member, which is the $25 credit per person for up to two people, per day. After that, we went to our room.
Room
Our room, 1405, was located on the 4th floor in the Main Building. I’ll discuss the property layout more later on.
When you enter the room, there is a bathroom on the right. The bathroom has a sink, shower, and a toilet. The amenities are property-specific.
Further down, there are two beds and a bedside table. The bedside table has power plugs, as well as a lamp.
Further down, there is a view of the Saguaro pool, along with the Spire bar.
Across from the beds, there is a tv, as well as a desk. The TV also has Hilton’s new in-room controls system, which allows you to control the TV with your phone through the Hilton app.
Thoughts on the Room
Overall, I enjoyed this room a lot. This room was bigger than most, and it definitely looked like it has been renovated recently. The only thing I didn’t really like was that there was a connecting room door at both ends of the room. This was a bit annoying, and I found that the walls were definitely very thin. That said, it was quiet throughout our stay. Otherwise, this room was great.
Food and Beverage
We ate at two restaurants during our stay: McArthur’s and the Spire Bar. McArthur’s was where we ate for breakfast, and Spire Bar is where we ate dinner one night.
Both restaurants were very expensive. For example, a margarita costs $23, and an açai bowl costs $18. Yikes…
That said, I did find the food quality to be great. My dad enjoyed his açai bowl each morning, and I tried the breakfast burrito, eggs, and waffles to be all great. You really can’t go wrong.
The Spire bar was also great. My parents and I both enjoyed our food, and I found the service to be excellent. The total came out to $120, but the Hilton Aspire annual resort credit wiped that off.
Citrus Club
There is a small club in the Ocatilla Wing known as the Citrus Club. Diamond members don’t receive access to this club, but it is possible to access this club if you are in an Ocatilla room. Based on some of the reviews I’ve seen, it doesn’t seem to be worth the cost. That said, I did see people eating breakfast there in the morning, so if you don’t have Hilton elite status, it could be worth it. It is also adults only, for better or worse. I would recommend checking the price of the Citrus Club before booking a room to see whether or not it is worth it.
Arizona Biltmore Review – Property Layout
The Arizona Biltmore is huge. I found it super easy to get lost, and there is an endless number of paths and walkways. The Arizona Biltmore is not the best hotel if you have mobility issues, as there might be long walks from your parking lot to your car, particularly if you are staying in Ocatilla, Valley, or Paradise Wings. Here is a link to the property’s map.
Arizona Biltmore Review – Amenities
The amenities at this hotel are amazing. You really don’t have to leave. There is 7 pools, a tennis court, a pickle ball court, as well as a very large gym. Most of the pools have a pool and a jacuzzi, but the noteworthy pools are the Saguaro and Paradise pool. The Saguaro pool is adults-only and seems to be the newest. It was always empty at night, so I used it then. 😉
The Paradise pool is the most crowded pool, as it has three water slides. During midday (around 12-2PM), there was not a lot of lounge chairs left, so that could be an issue on a busy weekend. The largest slide is the “floor drop” slide, and then there are two twin racing slides. It’s always great when hotels have waterslides, but I will say that the floor drop slide was a bit rough on my back.
In addition to that, there is also a gym located near the Paradise Pool. It was always pretty crowded, but it was very large and had great gym equipment.
The Vibe
I found the hotel to be very friendly. The only hotels that I’ve been to that might be better for families are the Hyatt Regency Hill Country, Hyatt Regency Maui, and JW Marriott Hill Country. Otherwise, this hotel is such a great hotel for families. The number of pools is great, and there are a lot of lawn games to keep kids entertained as well. I’d say ~70% of the guests at the hotel were families, and most people had young kids.
History
This review couldn’t be complete without all of the history of the Arizona Biltmore. There is a daily tour of the property, and although I didn’t go on it, I’ve heard great things about it. The hotel opened in 1929 and was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and Albert Chase McArthur. This hotel has also hosted every president from Herbert Hoover to George Bush.
I also found this hotel to have one of the perfect balance of “old meets new”, as while much of the public spaces looked old, it was very well maintained and had a great historical feel.
Service
I found service to be great, and much better than most American hotels. All of the hotel staff were very friendly, and best of all, I didn’t find that any of the places we visited were short-staffed, which I feel is very rare to find in the U.S. travel industry.
The only rude person I encountered was a security guard. I brought my 12MPH electric scooter from Las Vegas, and I wasn’t even riding it, I was just waiting in the lobby. He came up to me and told me about how I couldn’t ride it anywhere on the property. I understand that I shouldn’t ride it in lobbies, hallways, etc., but the way he handled it was quite unprofessional in my opinion.
Arizona Biltmore Review – Final Thoughts
Overall, I really liked my stay at the Arizona Biltmore. There was only one service hiccup, and then there were also some upgrade games being played. But otherwise, my parents and I loved our stay. I’m unsure if it was worth $800 per night, but that proves how helpful points and miles can be. Thus, I’d highly recommend staying here, and I’d gladly return.
What are your thoughts on the Arizona Biltmore? Let me know in the comments below.
I’ve lived off and on in Scottsdale, AZ and also have stayed at some of the local hotels when I was living elsewhere.
The fee game hotels play cause me to avoid most of them. As you said no only is the room costly, you have fees, parking and taxes on top of all of that. They also greatly over charge you for everything at the hotel.
There are a ton of restaurants at all levels around Phoenix and Scottsdale and I would recommend anyone who has a car to go out and eat elsewhere.
There are two Hiltons on Scottsdale road (Hilton Resort and Villas and the Doubletree). At one time they were solid hotels for the money although no where in the class of the Biltmore.
You also have the Phoenician, JW Marriott, Fairmont as 3 very high end resorts.
I prefer something nice but not that high end like the Scottsdale Plaza. A nice resort that often has specials which eliminate resort and parking fees. Not a good choice right now since they are working on the tennis courts and the main pool until November.
For non-city hotels I do my best to avoid any place that is going to charge me to self park. Most of Arizona has tons of parking so charging $25 or $50 a night is just crazy.