Andaz Scottsdale Resort & Bungalows Review

Andaz Scottsdale Resort & Bungalows Review

In what has become an annual tradition, my sister and I visited Scottsdale for the President’s Day Weekend.  Last year we stayed at the Fairmont Princess.  This year we decided to try the Andaz.  We redeemed 60,000 Hyatt points for the three nights as the property is a Category 5 Hyatt property.  Room rates for the weekend were $400+ (including the $39 resort fee).  Stays booked with points have the resort fee waived.

Location

The Andaz Scottsdale is located on N. Scottsdale about 3 miles north of Old Downtown Scottsdale.  Compared to many of the Scottsdale resorts, the Andaz footprint is small.  The property only has 185 rooms spread across the property in one story bungalows have 6-10 rooms per building.

In between the buildings are lawns and palm trees, rivers of rock and wood bridges.  Dotted throughout are fire pits.

Map of the property:

Check In

Check in occurs in the Guest House.  In typical Andaz form, there is not a front desk; instead you are greeted by the staff with iPads and a welcome drink.

The Guest House also includes the on-site restaurant and bar and small gift shop.

My favorite part is the large all gender restroom.  I appreciate when properties do this and I think this will be much more common in the future.

The look of the property is minimalism with some mid-century influence.  Lots of straight lines and natural tones accented by bold colors.

Room

Using points we reserved an Eames 2 Queen Beds room.  While there is more diversity if you book a single bed room, the only option with two beds is the Eames set up which is the most basic room type.  We were assigned to 32F, room F in Building 32.

The main entrance to the room opens into a small entry with bathroom on the left.  Just past the bathroom is a small open closet area before you are in the main room.  Robes and sandals are included.

The two queen beds are against one wall.  The headboard is backlit in addition to various lighting options around the bed.

On both sides of the bed are outlets.  In between the beds is a small table with two shelves perfect for laptops.

Opposite the beds is the desk, wall mounted TV, coffee maker and mini bar.  The TV has a built in Chromecast.  Despite being somewhat tech savvy (and having a Chromecast at home), I was unable to get it to work.  However a helpful employee (Nathan) was able to quickly get it working again.

While the coffee maker slides out, there is no outlet so you have to move it to the desktop.

The minibar selection is quite large but on a few of the items are complimentary (water, soda, orange juice for drinks and chips, pretzels and chocolates for snacks).

A second door leads to a small patio with two chairs and a side table.

Bathroom

The bathroom of the Eames room is small.  Fortunately it an be sealed off from the rest of the room with a barn style door.  In the middle is a modern sink with very limited counter space.  To the left is toilet with privacy door.

To the right of the sink is a large glass enclosed shower.

There is only one knob for the shower.  Once you turn it on, turn it all the way for hot water and turn it back adjust the temperature down.  There is only one standard shower head but it does provide good pressure.  Even with the glass door shut, the shower still leaks into the floor of the bathroom.

The bath products are Jonathan Adler.  I found them difficult to wash off my skin (not sure if it is the product or the water).  Oddly, during the last day of housekeeping we were supplied with Hermes bath products.

Pool & Resort Amenities

There is one pool accessible to all guests at the center of the property across from the Guest House.  Cabanas are available to rent but there are plenty of lounge chairs and umbrellas.  A raised hot tub is in one corner and a bar in the other.

The food and beverage prices are reasonable; cheaper than at the Fairmont.

There are two other pools on site: one at the spa and accessible with a day pass or treatment and the third at the “retreat” area, accessible only to guests staying in a retreat room.

The gym is located by the spa on the far end of the property.

The Palo Verde Spa offers standard treatments.  In addition, guests can pay $20/day per person for access to the spa facilities that include pool,  and gender separate jacuzzi and steam room.  The spa staff were extremely friendly, remembering names.  The facilities are quite small.

There is only one restaurant on site, the Weft & Warp Art Bar + Kitchen located in the Guest House.  While they don’t have a happy hour, there is a bar menu available from 3-5pm that offers lower priced snacks.

Service

The Andaz Scottsdale opened in December 2016.  During our stay (February 2019), many of the staff were new within the past year including higher level employees as well.  All were very well meaning and friendly.  However I found the service to be inconsistent.

One example is when I called to ask for a 2:00pm check out as an Explorist.  The agent was able to get it, but said he would really appreciate it if I would leave earlier.

When there were other small issues, the staff was overly willing to fix them.  It just seemed like the staff was still learning the ropes.  I think the service will go up if they are able to retain staff as they all seemed eager to help.

A quirk of the hotel is that the front line staff do not wear uniforms.  This includes servers in the restaurants, front desk employees, management.  Most wear a small Andaz pin, but it is confusing as to who is working and who is a guest.

I did enjoy that they offered various activities for guests.  I made some spin art one afternoon.  Other activities included a mimosa cart, exercise classes, nature walk and cocktail making.

Overall our stay at the Andaz Scottsdale was very good.  If you are looking for a typical Scottsdale resort experience, this isn’t it.  The Andaz is a smaller property with one pool and one restaurant.  It also isn’t particularly kid friendly; which is a positive in my book but families might be disappointed.  While the cash price of a room seems high to me, the redemption of points is a pretty good value.

Have you stayed at the Andaz Scottsdale?  What was your experience?

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