Marriott's Canyon Villas — Attraction in Phoenix

Reading prior reviews of Marriott’s Canyon Villas, I am reminded of the concept of one’s glass being half full, vs half empty. Our recent experience at Marriott’s Canyon Villas, was that our glass was in the way more than half full category.||First, I should say that we’ve vacationed at Marriott’s Canyon Villas countless times, since the resort opened, which is now more than 20 years ago.||Amongst our “draw” to Marriott’s Canyon Villas, is its location, the convenience of flying nonstop to PHX, and Canyon Villas close proximity to the airport, the beautiful, well designed, well maintained, well managed and well-staffed, Marriott’s Canyon Villas “VILLA” resort, and Marriott’s Canyon Villas close proximity (beside) and access to the amenities of the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort.||Our most recent stay at Marriott’s Canyon Villas, and vacation there, was as exceptional as prior ones. I can’t imagine not having a great time, and great vacation at Marriott’s Canyon Villas.||We particularly enjoyed the wonderful design of Marriott’s Canyon Villas, the facilities and amenities, and the wonderful Marriott’s Canyon Villas staff. Our Marriott’s Canyon Villas vacation and “resort experience” was greatly enhanced by Canyon Villas guest access to the spectacular JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort, next door to Marriott’s Canyon Villas (during 5 of 7 days of our vacation at Marriott’s Canyon Villas).||Our two-bedroom, two-bath “villa,” was a comfortable, well designed Vacation Home. This year, it seemed that the villa interiors long ago exceeded their useful life. While our villa was, in general, clean, and well maintained, the villa was exceedingly worn out. It seems that Marriott Vacation Club should have refurbished the villas at Marriott’s Canyon Villas, way more than a year ago. We were told that the villa renovations would commence in November 2024; that, in my opinion, is way overdue. I am concerned that this upcoming renovation is a “soft goods only” renovation; it seems that a significant portion of hard goods in our villa are way overdue for replacement, for example, outdated kitchen cabinets, floor tile, interior louvered closet doors, etc. The soft goods in our villa were way overdue for replacement, as well. As in our previous vacations at Marriott’s Canyon Villas, our villa was largely clean, upon check-in, however, on each of our visits to Marriott’s Canyon Villas, it seems that the Housekeeping Department has significantly missed the mark, in at least one significant area. I work in the domain of “High Reliability Organizations;” I’d refer to the Housekeeping Department at Marriott’s Canyon Villas, as highly UNreliable. It is a shame that Marriott, highly regarded for its “Process Engineering,” has a housekeeping department at Marriott’s Canyon Villas, that is very shy on High Reliability and Process Engineering.||One thing we noted on this visit, was a Coffee Maker that does not have a coffee pot/carafe. Trying to figure out how to use the damn coffee maker required a PhD. I believe it would be wise for the Front Desk to have a PDF annotated User's Manual for the coffee maker, dishwasher, and other appliances, that they can e-mail to guests, who are struggling to use certain appliances in their villa. ||The common areas of Marriott’s Canyon Vilas are well maintained and clean; on this visit, we noticed many common area enhancements, from prior years. The pool areas are well designed and maintained, the same is true for the gym/fitness center, although, for the life of me, I cannot imagine why Marriott’s Canyon Villas removed the inflatable balls from the strengthening gym. In my experience, inflatable balls are an integral part of many gym patrons work-out routine.||The staff at Marriott’s Canyon Villas, particularly the Front Desk staff,|are warm, welcoming, professional and efficient.||While we generally vacation at Marriott’s Canyon Villas in the wintertime (Canyon Villas Peak Season), we have for the past few years vacationed at Canyon Villas in the summer time, as well. It’s not hard to notice that Marriott’s Canyon Villas gets a very different client/guest (much lower Socio-Economic Status) in the summertime, than they do in the wintertime.||I would highly recommend Marriott’s Canyon Villas for an exceptional...

It was just OK... although a little disappointing.

The rooms were fine, except be advised that when you get a 2 bedroom Villa... it's not really a 2 bedroom villa, but is instead a 1 bedroom villa with an attached room. The master bath in the villa is nice, but the attached room has just a normal bathroom with standard tub/shower, etc.

The staff didn't seem motivated or welcoming. The check-in experience was particularly poor, with no orientation. The lobby was small, which made the four different conversations going on very distracting.

The pool was closed for work while we were there. No notice that it was going to be closed. It was supposed to reopen a day or so after we arrived. It didn't. The way we found out that the closure was being extended is because, well, it never opened. Zero communication from the staff. And nothing to try to make up for the closure. For example, they could've run more frequent shuttles to the neighboring JW Marriott, but they didn't. (The walk there is short, except if you are trying to carry a lot. And there is no direct route; you need to cut through parking lots, etc. And there is no signage directing you how to find things) One time the shuttle arrived just as we were walking by the front office, so we were delighted that we could catch a ride. That is, until the driver notified us that the bus would not leave for another 15 minutes.

Access to the JW Marriott was nice, but it's a bit pricey. Four of us ran up a $400 tab for drinks and food over a 6 hour visit. Cost aside, I thought the staff there was very friendly and fun. We also ate at one of the restaurants one night and they were great there too.

We did receive a newsletter at check-in, and it looked like there were a lot of cutsie activities every day. I don't remember specifically, but it was stuff like salsa making, or other crafty activities. We had plenty of other things planned so we never attended anything, but if we had planned a day to hang out at the place, it would've been fun to check them out. Maybe something fun to kill some time.

The rooms were clean, although there is no housekeeping for the entire stay. Unfortunately you can hear other guests in the hallway. One morning at around 6:00 AM other guests were leaving and yelling back and forth about luggage and logistics. Probably not much the property can do about that.

There is insufficient parking, which makes finding a spot hit or miss. And I don't think they were heavily booked when we were there, so it could be worse during peak times. It can be frustrating to return back after a beautiful scenic hike only to find 4 or 5 parking spots consumed by staff carts, which could easily fit on the sidewalk and keep more guest parking available. (or at least park 2 carts in one parking spot!)

The view from our room/balcony was on to the backs of some man-made rock structures. Maybe they are normally a water feature, but with the pool shut down there was no water flowing.

In the end the rooms were fine and we just worked around the inconveniences. I'd probably stay again, and would probably like it more with lowered...

Pros: |For a family, the accommodations are ideal in the rooms with 2 bedrooms. We had plenty of space to gather and have some privacy, and we didn't need anything extra - there's a washer and dryer with laundry soap provided, dish soap to clean dishes, an ice maker in the full size fridge, 2 bathrooms stocked with the essentials, coffeemaker, microwave, etc. ||The rules at the pool are pretty relaxed and we felt free to bring in drinks and snacks without worry. The staff around the pool area and at the cafe were all very welcoming. It was also nice that the pool was open until 10pm, compared to 5pm at the JW across the street. But another big pro is you can use the pool, slides and lazy river at the JW for free if you require more adventure. You just have to make sure the days aren't blacked out. Even parking there is free if you ask at the pool for a validation ticket ($12 if you forget like we did the first day).||Cons:|We were in 2300 building on the 3rd floor and were awaken by the sounds of construction at 5:30AM the first two mornings and 5:20AM the last morning. There is a huge project going on in the empty lot right beside this building. There was no mention of construction at any time during check-in or on their website that I could find.||I messaged the front desk at 6AM the first morning saying I realize the construction is not within their control, but at over $300 per night after taxes, I asked what our options are. ||I got an initial reply from the night manager pretty quickly, asking if they could pass my concern onto the day manager when they arrive. I said of course but I didn't hear back from that manager until 6 hours later. ||By then we had already packed up to spend the day at the JW. His initial solution was that we immediately move to the next building over. When I told the manager we were not currently in the room and while moving would have been feasible hours ago, I wasn't going to ask my 75 year old mom and my son to pack up from our water day, drive back to the Villas, repack all our things and move in 115 degree heat. The manager suggested this a second time, adding we'd have to hurry because we would have to be moved in the new room ASAP so they could move another customer into our old room by check in time. After stating once again I wasn't going to spend our main vacation day moving, I asked if they could please offer us a resort credit or discount on the room. ||Our conversation started at noon and didn't resolve until nearly 4 since the manager had "stepped away" from our text for 2.5 hours mid-discussion. At 4, the manager finally texted back saying he had given us a $50 food credit. ||While I enjoyed the actual hotel, I did not feel like owner of the Villas cares much for their patrons. I'm disappointed as overall, this is a great place to land with your family; but, they should have been honest about the construction at check-in and I wish there could have been more of a discussion before the manager decided what our peace of mind was worth. It's highly unlikely...