JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa - Phoenix, Arizona

Carla S.

This was one of the best resorts that I have ever stayed at. We had a conference rate because we were here for business. I think the normal rate is a bit more. But oh my goodness what a beautiful resort. It’s very large, but not so large that you feel overwhelmed with walking. There are plenty of pools and recreation space. The desert botanical garden is just stunning. Loved the little swing there. The classes are beyond wonderful. All of the instructors were very friendly and helpful. I totally recommend getting a spa treatment and using the spa facilities for the day for free. The spa pool is very quiet and relaxing and there are no kids in that area. The spot is absolutely beautiful and includes steam rooms, hot tubs, and a bistro with lots of healthy yummy foods. Take time to walk through the beautiful gardens that the staff have worked so hard to maintain. A special shout out to Christina, one of the gardeners at the resort, and Lauren, yoga and sound healing guide. My experience at this resort was beyond compare and I cannot wait to go back someday.

Nmesh

Stayed here over Memorial Day weekend and it was an amazing place to be. From high end hotel rooms to attentive and caring staff. The experience is what you’re looking for on a vacation getaway. The pools and amenities, like the gym, are top of the line and well maintained. The pool area has restaurants, catering to your seats, tall and fun water slides, a lazy river, and nightly fun throughout the summer. If you’re staying in Phoenix, Arizona and looking for a place to stay, this should certainly be on your list.

jeg3894

After having lived in the area for over 17 years, we had stopped at this resort numerous times in the past for drinks, appetizers and dinner meals at the restaurants. Now visiting the are we spent several days taking in the amenities of the resort which we never had the opportunity to enjoy when we lived there. There are so many amenities to utilize as one would e pest from a JW. Staff is very friendly, helpful and attentive to your needs, rooms are nicely furnished and attended to, the pool area is very large with plenty of lounging opportunities. Would have give it five stars, but their restaurants are not places we would ever return to. Two of the feature restaurants are under the same chef and they need to change that. There is not really a restaurant with a full breakfast menu, only specialty items chosen by the same chef. The Meritage restaurant has such a very limited menu that we walked out after reviewing it. When we return, there are so many great dining opportunities in the area outside of the resort. We would recommend dining elsewhere.

MGoBlue99

We came to Scottsdale for spring break with one other family, and spent half of our vacation at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge. Here is my review of the resort:||GROUNDS: It was a really nice and laid out resort. It's definitely on the bigger size, but not so large that you can't easily walk everywhere. They had some nice walking trails that we did at night in the cool breeze.||POOLS: The new waterpark was one of the main reasons we booked the JW, and it was great. We all loved the lazy river. The slides are a lot of fun also. They are thrilling, but I wouldn't call any of them scary. The various pools were nice too. It was fairly crowded when we went, so we did have to play the "towel game" to get seats.||ROOM: We booked the basic two bed room. I would say the room was adequate. The bathroom was small, with only one sink and a very small shower. On the bright side, the shower water pressure was strong.|The balcony was small but had a nice view of the pool areas. Next time, I would consider booking an upgraded room.||DINING: We ate at the resort a few times and had tasty meals. The breakfast buffet at Tia Carmen was terrific. They had your standard breakfast items, but also some unique stuff such as Native American grain rice and Mexican fresh juices. The poolside food was solid as well, especially the nachos. They also have a full sized Starbucks. ||KIDS CLUB: We went to one afternoon art activity at the kids club. The kids club was surprisingly small, but the activity was fun (and free). The staff there was really nice. There is also a sizable arcade at the JW, and the kids enjoyed playing games there also. You have to load money on a card to play there though.||AREA: The large outdoor Desert Ridge development across the street was really convenient. They have a big grocery store, so you could get some food and drink for the room. There are also some good restaurants such as In N Out, and we visited the Dave N Busters there one night also. ||Overall, we had a really nice stay at the JW Desert Ridge. I would definitely recommend it for families.

Navigate657947

This staff makes this place so special! S/O to Laura F at the front desk for being absolutely amazing! Between my boyfriend and I, we stay here 1-2x a year (from Chicago) and this past experience with the front desk was above and beyond. Laura and I made conversation about us both working in the hospitality industry, she was extremely professional and kind. Even later on that afternoon after I had changed clothes, I had gone to the desk to add parking onto my card and she came over to compliment me on my dress! It truthfully was so genuine but also above and beyond! It’s so small but I’ll never forget that experience. ||This is the absolutely most relaxing property in Arizona! I highly recommend exploring the botanical gardens or the garden. You’ll see a lot of hummingbirds in the garden and they even have hummingbird juice that you could wear as a ring to get them to come close to you. My first time here - a women was attending the garden and struck up a conversation with me. She showed me the baby hummingbirds that she was feeding and it was truly such a cool experience. ||Love this property and will continue making it a tradition to come down here just to relax!||Also LOVE that the gym has pelotons!! You normally only see those at Hyatt properties and as someone who is obsessed with the Peloton brand - having these in your gym totally makes you stand out!!

dimes008

Tia Carmen had great dinners. Pools are nice and waterslides were fun for the kids. The lazy river was nice. They loved the kids club and kids play area. Some pools were cooler so they’d run to the hot tub to warm up. Parking is easy, check in was easy, on site Starbucks allowed order ahead. Can refill your water bottle with lobby infused water.

Mrinalini L.

Family of 4 (8 & 10 year old kids)
Room: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - stayed in executive corner 1 br suite and it was very spacious with large bathroom and balcony. Wished it had a mini table where we could eat breakfast inside (there was one on the balcony for 2 but it was so hot while we were there we couldn't use it). There was enough space in the room and it would have made a big difference! TV in room technically had ability to sign into your own Netflix account but the Internet was so bad on the TV it was very pixelated - surprisingly, wifi worked fine on our personal devices.

Housekeeping ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - very responsive and kept the room tidy every day

Front desk ⭐⭐ nice at check in but then found out they didn't enter our request for late check out correctly at the same time telling us that we definitely had late check out. When I called to confirm the day prior I basically got yelled at by the manager saying that it's not guaranteed and the request wasn't on my account. Frustrating because that impacted our plans for the last day.

Pools ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ so many nice pool options and kids loved the water slides.

Racquet center ⭐⭐⭐⭐ you get an hour of free court time included with resort fee, and they allowed us to split between pickleball and tennis. ($30/hr after that if you want to play more) Everyone was so nice and kids loved the scented cold towels after our games. The only thing I'd say is: 1) it is very very hot with no shade on courts, 2) bring your own tennis racquet, even for beginners like my kids the quality of loaners was pretty bad. That being said at least they had racquets in every size including kids so we were still able to play! There are a ton of pickleball courts and 3 tennis courts, but we almost always got our preferred time if we just called the day before.

Other pro's:
- free laundry machines in building with soap / dryer sheets (4th floor)
- Starbucks in lobby with mobile order ahead
- microwaves available in 4th floor laundry room (and fridge in our hotel room). Just noting this because I heard another guest ask about microwaves availability and they were told there were none - but then I saw these so wanted to share!

Other cons (for us):
- mandatory daily resort fee is pretty high
- daily fee for self parking -- and parking lots are far from rooms, so even to run out quickly you needed to plan for walking to/from the lots
- far from downtown Phoenix so definitely need a rental car and plan on 20-30 min drive to almost all non-hotel activities
- almost all the restaurants in the area are chain restaurants - this was quite annoying for us as we prefer local small businesses over chains
- the "arcade" was small and a lot of claw machines / ticket games - definitely head to Dave and Buster's across the street instead of if you want your kids to have an arcade experience
- note there are no showers / changing rooms in the pool area so even though you are allowed to be use the pools on checkout day there is no place to shower after. (This is why I was so annoyed by late checkout confusion). I asked if I could use spa facilities to shower and front desk said no, but maybe racquet center. The RC does have a single shower in the changing room, but it is sooooo far from pool area, I don't know why we couldn't have just used spa facilities (probably because we had kids). Every other similar hotel I've been to had at least some kind of shower room available for check-in / check out days, so I find it so weird they didn't have one! This is really important for people to know who might be arriving well before their check in time or leaving hours after check out hoping to still use pool.

Overall, I think I wouldn't call this a luxury hotel at all, but a nice family hotel mainly for pools and tennis/pickleball courts. So not expect a super luxe beyond that. Also seems good for large business conferences.

David K.

Great vacation hotel as the water park and pool area are the real deal. Onsite restaurants were pretty good, and I enjoyed the onsite golf. We had a hiccup with our room upon check in late at night, and we ended up in a lower category room than we booked. However, management followed up the next day and went the extra mile to make it right. I would advise not to splurge on the junior suite type room if traveling with kids, because the sofa bed is in the same room as the king bed - better to just book a two queen room.