Whenever I do a review for Trip Advisor, I attempt to accentuate the positive about the place I’m reviewing. After all, there’s enough negativity in the world these days. In the case of the Best Western InnSuites Phoenix, that’s going to be a bit of a challenge. So I’ll get the challenging part of this review out of the way first.
The BW InnSuites Phoenix has fantastic location, just west of the AZ-51 freeway off Northern Avenue. The views of the foothills to the north are very nice, if you can get a northern facing room. And the rooms themselves are quite nice: many of them are two room suites, one for sitting/entertaining friends, the other is the bedroom. I found my two room suite to be well furnished. And in those two room suites, you have a television in each room. The complimentary breakfast every morning is well stocked with a variety of hot and cold items, and the BW InnSuites Phoenix also features a social hour daily from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM, featuring free wine, beer, soft drinks and snacks (chips & salsa, popcorn and pretzels.) Finally, the staff is quite friendly and helpful.
With the good points addressed, it’s now time to delve into some of the problem areas with this hotel. I found out when I checked in that this hotel is undergoing some renovations. The most significant of these is to the plumbing system, and I don’t know how long these renovations will take until complete. This manifests itself with the water being turned off in the particular building being worked on between 10:30 AM and 2:30 PM. (The hotel complex is made up of three buildings featuring the rooms, surrounding a pool deck.) That time frame for water shut off is done to correspond with the time guests will be out of their rooms on business or sight-seeing. If, however, you aren’t planning a day out, during this time you won’t be able to get a glass of tap water, wash your hands, take a shower or use the toilet.
Part of my morning routine is to watch a particular business channel on cable I’m rather fond of. Not many hotels carry this channel on their array of cable networks, so I was quite pleased when I checked in and found the BW InnSuites Phoenix did carry it. But I discovered after settling into my room that while the television in the bedroom got this channel, the television in the sitting room gave me an error message when I tried to tune it in: it read “Weak or No Signal, check the antenna cable connection.” When I enquired about this at the front desk, I was told this was another facet of the renovations taking place, but they would ask maintenance to investigate. Whatever maintenance did, it didn’t work: the following morning, neither television got my business channel. And a quick channel surfing expedition revealed my favorite business channel was not the only one affected with this error message. Still, I’m guessing not many people come to Phoenix on vacation or business simply to spend time in their room watching TV, so this might not put you off.
The final issue to bring to light is wake-up calls. Let me advise you up front that if you plan to stay at the BW InnSuites Phoenix, you would be well advised to bring your own alarm clock. Both nights I stayed, I requested a wake-up call at 5:00 AM, and both mornings, the call did not come. As a result, both mornings I ended up starting my day 45 minutes later than I’d intended. If you’re on a tight schedule, don’t rely on the hotel’s wake-up call system to help you start your day.
On balance, while this hotel is well located and offers many amenities travelers will appreciate, I cannot in good conscience recommend this place until the renovations are completed. And hopefully, part of those renovations will involve a repair to the wake-up call system. less
Mila S, Director of Sales at Best Western InnSuites Phoenix Hotel & Suites, responded to this review
Dear Valued Guest,
Thank you for your survey. We here at Best Western always want to hear all of our guests comments. It is so nice to hear both positives and negatives. We are so sorry for all the issues you encountered while staying with us. We have a new owner and he is planning on doing wonderful renovations to the property. That being said we are currently working on plumbing and cable. I have yet to hear about the cable until now. We are doing plumbing in every room right now and unfortunately with the age of the building and the way it is set up there was no way of getting around the water being shut off. We are trying our best to get it complete during the week Mon-Fri and not working on it during the weekend. I would love for you to come back and stay with us when all the renovations have been completed Dec-Jan. As for the wakeup calls not having been received there is absolutely no excuse. I will be speaking to all front desk clerks about this. Once again thank you so much for your survey i really do appreciate your approach on this response as well.
Thank you,
Mila Stouffer
mstouffer@bwphoenix.com
602-997-6285 ext.309