Amara Resort and Spa — Hotel in Sedona

I stayed 2 nights at Amara on Super Bowl Sunday weekend. My stay was Saturday night and Sunday night. The staff at check in was very accommodating and kind. They made the process very easy and were very helpful with valet and bring my bags to my room. I reserved a Courtyard King room, and the room itself was lovely, as was the patio. I was concerned about noise level because it was near the outdoor dining area, but I did not notice any of that sound coming into the room. I used the resort bike on the first evening of my stay, and it was a fun experience. A much easier way to navigate uptown Sedona on the weekend. Sadly, when I returned to my room I discovered that my upstairs neighbors had checked in. I heard every single step they took, and evidently they were heavy steppers. Fortunately, the staff at the front desk were sympathetic to my dilemma and they were able to relocate me to a second floor room. The room was a down grade from my booked room and for that I was sad, I really liked that king bed, but ultimately, a quiet room is better than a large bed in my opinion. It must be said that the front desk was super kind and accommodating when I raised concerns about the noise. Once I was settled into my new, downgraded room, I ordered dinner, room service from Salt Rock, the onsite restaurant. I visited the hotel during COVID, and was trying to limit my exposure and social distance as much as possible, so all of my meals were room service during my stay. The first evening I ordered the Seared Salmon. It was cooked well, but unfortunately, the salt was very heavy handed and it was difficult to enjoy. I also ordered a El Classic Margarita, which was fine. The following morning, after a pleasant evening in my room, I had the Vortex breakfast which was quite good. I called down the the concierge seeking assistance in booking a manicure/pedicure somewhere nearby. The Spa does not offer these services. When I called down, I spoke to a most unhelpful young man who told me that he had no idea and had no suggestions. I was rather surprised at his complete lack of assistance. I did recall an metal I received from a self titled "concierge extraordinare" so I contacted her as well and left a voicemail. She returned my call promptly, and was immediately able to respond to my inquiry. A stark contrast from the first fellow I talked to. After breakfast I enjoyed a few spa treatments on site. The spa is a short walk from the front door of the hotel, it's right across the parking lot. The spa is very nice and relaxing, and the facilities are well kept. My technician was fine, during the first treatment, a sugar scrub, she was chewing and popping gum, which I found to be rather distracting and ruined the relaxation of that treatment. However when I returned for my relaxation massage, she no longer had gum and the massage was quite pleasant. In between treatments, I had an Uptown Chop salad in my. room, which was delicious. After my massage, I took a walk along the Oak Creek - there is an easily accessible trail a short walk from the rooms. Once I returned to my room I had dinner from the Salt Rock once again, this time trying the Grilled Octopus and adding a side of the Herbed Ramona Farms Ga'ivsa Risotto. Both were delicious. My final morning in the room, my breakfast was the Buttermilk Waffles, which were highly disappointing. I'm not sure if they are typically served cold, but they were and the waffles themselves were not good at all (I've had better at an IHOP). I had also asked if the maple syrup served with was warmed and they said yes. The waffles I received had NO syrup and when I called down to request, I was sent up cold syrup. So I had to call back down for warm syrup, even more important to me now, since the dish itself was not warm in the slightest. I was a bit saddened that this was my last meal - since it was such a disappointment. Overall, Amara is a fine hotel. The staff is very professional and...

My husband and I stayed here for 6 nights for a big birthday/anniversary celebration. I have to agree with other reviewers who have said, "It's good, but next time I'd spend my money elsewhere."

Pros:

-Julian @ the front desk. Exceptional service from him. -Billy and Danny @ the bar. Amazing cocktails with an emphasis on using agave, not sugar. -The waitstaff at the restaurant were all fantastic. I remember Jacob and Daisy, in particular. -Nothing on the menu is labeled as gluten free (my husband is a celiac), but we learned they could modify things. Food was great, but wish things were labeled for allergies. It's a huge benefit when you're traveling. -Nice grounds. We had the hot tub to ourselves a couple nights during the week. The weekend got crowded when we left, however. -The fire pits and common area are nice to hang out in with a great view of the red rocks, trees, etc. -Room had a nice view of the creek -Valet guys were exceptionally friendly and fast.

Cons:

-The room is a little run down looking. Nothing terrifying but also, for the $$ you're paying, you might expect better. -They don't use bottom sheets in this hotel. Normally that's fine, but the sheets were ill-fitting and we were thrashing around the bed constantly because the sheet kept coming loose. We asked for a fitted one and never got a response. -We asked for a few things from concierge during our stay, and got about 50% of them. They just never showed up, and we were too busy/exhausted to care. -Front desk only answers the phone about 20% of the time. This was annoying when we wanted a quick answer about something without having to walk all the way down to the front desk. -Climate control in the room was bad. Either too hot or too cold, constantly. -There are motion-sensor lights that come on in the hallway and bathroom. So when you get up at night to use the bathroom, they come on and wake up your spouse. No way to disable them. -The bartenders were overall great, but not exactly creative. I asked for a modification on a drink and was met with a bit of snobbery about how they "don't do that here." -One morning, coffee was delivered to the room with no charge. Next morning, it was $16. Huh?

The biggest let down, however, was that I did extensive research before our trip and booked a couples massage at the spa 2 months in advance. I read the spa is usually booked out, so I made sure to reserve early. 20 minutes before our massage (which we planned our whole day around), the spa called and told me they had to cancel one of our appointments. I asked if they could reschedule us together (since the whole point was to get a couples massage), and they refused to accommodate us. We were staying another 4 days, mind you. I called the spa back, they didn't answer, so I had to hike downstairs to talk to the concierge, who then had to call, and then hike over to the spa to get me some information. Only after an entire hour of conversations with various people did the concierge offer to give us a $100 room credit as an apology. And the concierge's attitude was entirely dismissive and rude. We carefully planned our trip and desperately needed massages for chronic pain, and Amara did nothing proactive to help us. They didn't even attempt to rectify the situation until I complained to three separate people. It's unacceptable when you leave with a $4,000 bill for a week-long stay and you aren't treated with a level of respect. They should have offered to squeeze us in somehow, but nope. Appalling. And at that point, we weren't able to find massages anywhere else because Sedona = tourist town. Everything was booked. It was a huge damper on a special celebratory trip, and was probably what we were looking forward to most.

Overall, we didn't get the service you'd expect from this caliber of a hotel. I would happily pay even a bit more (or less!) and stay somewhere else to ensure a more consistent, stellar...

Where do I start.... We received a weekend getaway from our friends that booked our stay at the Amara resort and paid for 2 nights as a wedding gift. When we arrived and checked in with our confirmation number we were informed that only 1 night was paid for even tho the confirmation email states otherwise. So they not only charged our friends for 2 nights but also charged us for a night as well. When we arrived at our room it was ok was expecting more for $400 a night the bed was not comfortable at all and I'm guessing we were put in the party side because everyone that passed our room was loud as all get out. When we woke on Saturday morning we went to the lobby hoping to get a cup of coffee and we were greeted instead by a very rude worker. When we asked if there was coffee we were informed that we could walk up to the shops and go to Starbucks. So not only did we get over charged for our room but for $400 a night we can't get a cup of coffee and rudely told to go to Starbucks. We had planed on eating breakfast at the restaurant but after that lovely rude greeting from the desk worker we opted to go to a cafe for breakfast. We hung out at the shops all morning just to avoid the rudeness that we received in the morning we did return to go have lunch before our spa time. Lunch was great the server that waited on us was amazing she definitely made up for the morning encounter so much so that we were looking forward to our diner reservation that evening. But unfortunately we did not receive the same service at dinner that we did for lunch. When we arrived they did not seem to concerned that we had a reservation and didn't even have a table ready for us like they did for others. Our server seemed like he didn't really even want to wait on us as if we were inconveniencing him. He took our drink order and about 20 min later we received our drinks and he quickly took our order still looking like we inconvenienced him just by being there. I say this because he never brought us water or silverware to eat our meal with it took another server to come over and see we got our diner but nothing to even eat with. The one time we saw our server after our food arrived he asked if everything was ok but didn't even wait long enough for us to swallow our food to inform him that the steak was over cooked. I mean if your going to charge an additional $11 for a steak to be added to a salad at least stay to hear if it is cooked properly. It wasn't until our meal was complete that I believe the manager came over and we were finally able to explain about our meal and the disappointment the manager did remove the steak charge but then our server came back he made the situation uncomfortable again as he was mad that we didn't inform him of our steak. He didn't even care to come check on it after that 1 time when he basically asked in passing. After observing where he was spending most of his time it made sense when we seen him at the drunk girls table more that any other table so I guess we had to be straight blond drunk girls in order to get decent service. I guess the only bright spot of service at the Amara was the lady working the desk Saturday night that was able to get us a kureg to have coffee Sunday morning. What should have been an amazing honeymoon weekend for us did not happen because of the poor service received by the workers at the resort and the fact that they managed to get more money out of us even tho the rooms were already paid for but made us pay double for Saturday. There was definitely one thing decided this weekend and that is we will not stay at the Amara...