The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Scottsdale, AZ

AN HONEST GUEST REVIEW 🛁🛁🛁🛁

God, I love the desert…if for no other reason than my hair always looks good when I’m there. I have this in-between curly and wavy hair that is severely allergic to humidity. Awesome, I live in New Jersey. But in Arizona, I can have sleek hair year-round, because, as they say, “it’s a dry heat.” I fell in love with Scottsdale for the good hair, yes, but also for the shopping and restaurants. It’s a playground for a shopaholic like me! The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess sits about a mile away from two of my favorite Scottsdale shopping centers, Kierland Commons and Scottsdale Quarter, making it prime real estate. We’ve stayed elsewhere, but the Princess is our favorite by a landslide.

The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess sits on a huge campus and has tons to offer. The grounds are beautiful, serene South West, with several gorgeous pools (even one with water slides for the kids), high-end shops, restaurants, bars, and a golf course. Oh, and let’s not forget the spa—it is truly to die for! If you took a trip to Scottsdale and stayed at the Princess just to go to the spa, it would be worth it! At the Princess, we’ve stayed in many different room categories over the years, including the villas (casitas) and Fairmont Gold, but we like the location of the Sunset Beach building best. It sits at the end of the property (near the spa, yay!) overlooking Sunset Beach pool and the mountains, but isn’t so far off the beaten path that you get lost trying to find the lobby. Yes, the property is that big—you can easily lose your way and end up walking for miles in your flip-flops. I know this from experience. Back to the room, the Sunset Beach one bedroom suite gives a weird first impression. You open the door and enter into a perpendicular hallway—so you open the door and the first thing you see is a wall. You lose the “wow factor” of walking directly into a beautiful suite with a view. When you enter the hallway and turn left, it leads to a dead end with a locked adjoining room door. Turning right leads to a powder room, and if you take a hard left at the powder room, you finally find the suite. The living area is spacious, with a kitchen table, large wet bar with a mini fridge, desk and couch. The majority of the far wall is sliding glass doors (good thing because it is very dark in there) that open to a sizeable outdoor space with a table, chairs and small couch. The bedroom is standard—king bed with side tables, though it also has a wall of glass doors that opens to the same deck. The bedroom is connected to the master bathroom via the closet, and has his and hers sinks, a glass stall shower (no shower curtains, the Princess would never!), stand-alone tub, and toilet area. All in all, it is a very large suite with a great outdoor space.

But…and there is a ‘but,’ though it pains me to admit…UGH, Princess, girl, you are killing me! Why are all the rooms so old? Ok, I’m being dramatic, maybe not all of them, I believe they recently updated the casitas, but a lot of the rooms could use some TLC, especially the Sunset Beach one bedroom suite. The Sunset Beach building is 10 years old, and you can tell. You can literally see every bit of the normal wear and tear breakdown of the past 10 years in the furniture, bathroom fixtures, carpet, etc. Not good. To be a 5-shower curtain luxury resort, you always need to be upgrading, re-inventing and/or redecorating to stay relevant to the times. What was luxury 10 years ago, and Sunset Beach certainly was, isn’t necessarily luxury today, especially if you don’t replace that which is ripped, stained or broken. So, keep that in mind as you read on.

Let’s talk about the décor. The Sunset Beach one bedroom suite has a minimalist, standard Southwest theme. Think leather, lots of browns, woven wall hangings, and desert-inspired artwork. The suite is very simple to the point of almost boring. Interestingly enough, we’ve stayed in the deluxe room at Sunset Beach and I gotta be honest—the smaller room has the same amount of furniture and artwork (minus the kitchen table). The smaller room looks chic, put-together, designed. The suite looks empty, and less cohesive, kind of like they took any leftover furniture from the standard rooms and threw it in the suites. Now, about this furniture, it is absolutely worn out! The kitchen chairs have leather seats full of deep scratches. The couch is sagging, with fraying cushions and some staining (yuck). Even the table, which looks and feels like it is made of concrete, is stained and chipped. These details are disappointing to me. If a leather chair is scratched, reupholster or replace it. I hate to see such a great hotel allow itself to go downhill.

How about the bathroom? This is where I get very picky. The bathroom is good-just a solid good. I appreciate his and hers sinks so that is a plus for me. The lighting over the sink is decent. The river rock behind the mirrors was impressive at one point, but today, it feels dated. I like a glass-door shower, also a plus, but the showerhead was so old and clogged with something (Minerals? Limescale? Hard water deposits?) that the water came out as a trickle. I had to use the ‘pulse’ setting to rinse the shampoo and conditioner out of my hair, and even that was weak. The tub itself is standard size, nothing special. I do like that the Princess provides a bathtub tray with some bath salts and soap. It is a nice touch that makes the room feel special. Now, if I remember correctly, in the past, the suite always had a separate toilet room, which I prefer. I believe we were in an ADA accessible room this time, so the bathroom had a more open floor plan. On that note, I will mention that the grab bars near the toilet and in the shower had been caulked and re-caulked to the walls numerous times and were still loose. Ten years of wear rears its ugly head once again.

I feel like I’m making it sound all bad, but it isn’t, I promise. I’m just particular, especially when paying top dollar. Let’s talk about the good. The Princess does a great job with hotel amenities. First, we were greeted with a very nice welcome gift of snacks—dried fruit, trail mix and chocolate covered almonds. My husband ripped into them before I could snap a pic, but the trio came packaged in a lovely box. Major points to the Princess for stocking the bottled water. This is the kind of hotel where you are offered a water upon arrival by the bellmen, then again at the check-in desk, and water is provided in your room and replenished twice daily with housekeeping and during turn down service. Quick, impressive word about the housekeeping staff—they left us a handwritten note! I give kudos to any establishment that understands the importance of personal touches and exceptional customer service. Bravo, Princess!

The Princess provides great toiletries, all high-end, Le Labo brand. The hand soap was rose-scented, but everything else: shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and lotion were classic Le Labo Santal 33. This is a perfect choice for luxury in the desert as Santal 33 literally smells like an expensive cowboy. Spicy, leathery, but also slightly floral, and outdoorsy. This would not be my scent of choice in real life, but for a few days in Arizona, I don’t mind smelling like Clint Eastwood. All are solid quality, though the lotion and shower gel were better than the shampoo and conditioner. I don’t think Le Labo is known for its hair products, but it doesn’t matter because as I said before, hair always looks good in the desert! The Princess provides individually packaged cotton rounds (such good quality that I take them home with me), cotton buds, makeup remover, flossers, a dental kit and mouthwash. All in all, it’s a thorough toiletry set. They also supply a shower cap, shaving kit and sewing kit, along with a shoe shine brush and mitt, shoe shine service bag and laundry service bag. The Princess stocks each room with an iron and ironing board and a steamer. Obviously, a place like this is going to have turndown service with little chocolates left on your pillow along with slippers and fluffy robes. The blow dryer is where the Princess falls short. It is so old that the finish is coming off the handle—so much so that the handle is sticky! It does not have a diffuser attachment and it is very heavy, though it gets the job done. The Princess doesn’t scrimp on the amenities; the place is just getting old and it’s noticeable.

I struggled on how to rate this hotel. In the past, the Fairmont would’ve earned the coveted 5-shower curtain rating. Now, though, with the wear and tear, dare I say shabbiness? I’m leaning toward 4 curtains. The campus is beautiful and has so much to offer (especially at Christmas!), it’s a great location for any trip-family vacation, romantic getaway, girls trip, golf trip, etc., and has all the high-end amenities and customer service you’d want, but the rooms themselves just don’t meet my expectations anymore.

AN HONEST GUEST REVIEW 🛁🛁🛁🛁Four Curtains—world-class resort, world-class amenities, but someone needs to call the interior decorator!