Moxy Phoenix Tempe/ASU Area — Hotel in Tempe

I booked this hotel to attend my daughter’s fall graduation from ASU Tempe. Having stayed at several Marriott hotels, I thought at first perhaps my disappointment stemmed from being the wrong demographic for the “groovy vibe” of this Marriott property. And while that may be partially true, this hotel still considerably misses the mark for an upscale property. Rather than an upscale hotel, this is more of a bar with dorm rooms and a pool.

Starting with check in… at the bar. No front desk. no clerk. Just a bartender. I had to wait nearly 10 minutes to check in while the bartender served drinks, answered phone calls, and served food after clearly noticing me standing there. Just to be clear, there was no line to check in, I was simply waiting on him serving the bar patrons. Once I finally checked in, I was given room keys and 2 tickets for complimentary drinks at the bar.

As we walked through the hotel to the elevator, there must have been a business meeting, party, or convention of some sort prior to our arrival because there was dirty glassware, napkins and garbage left all over tables in the hallways in clear view.

Moving on to the room, I booked what was advertised as a “studio” with an additional charge for a balcony overlooking the pool. The room was smaller than expected and not very clean. A king bed with a fold out queen sofa was advertised. The bed was a platform bed with a poor-quality mattress, a few thin sheets, and a blanket. The fold out couch had no linens or pillows at all, we had to request them. The couch mattress was thin, old, and soiled. There was no refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker or even an iron in the room. If you needed to iron something, there was a communal “ironing room” on each floor which also had a microwave and a pod coffee maker but no coffee cups or pods.

There is no furniture with drawers in the room, just a trendy table, chairs and a few odd metal benches. If you want to put your clothes someplace other than in your suitcase, there are wooden pegs lining the entire length of one wall to hang your clothes. No drawers anywhere. The bathroom had a decent-sized shower but again, was not very clean.

The hallways and elevators reeked of cannabis. Some of the hallways has small, dorm style refrigerators sitting outside of rooms as if they were discarded. Need ice? No ice machines. Instead, go see the bartender and they give you some ice from the bar in a Ziplock bag. Elevators were dingy and dirty.

One plus is the hotel being pet friendly. We had our dogs with us, and they were welcome. There is an additional charge for the pets. There is a dog area just outside the pool area with a small patch of fake grass for dogs to do their business and a supply of bags to clean up. The only disappointment there was the cannabis roach someone left on the ground right next to the dog area we had to pickup to prevent it being accidentally eaten by someone’s dog.

The pool was decent, but the tables were littered with empty glasses and chairs covered in used towels pretty much every day.

In conclusion, I give this property 2 stars. One for its proximity to the ASU campus and one for being pet friendly. I have not stayed at another Moxy, however the “trendiness” and cool factor is far outweighed by this property being poorly managed, poorly maintained and not at all up to the standards I have come to expect from a Marriott property. If you like the college dorm feel, this hotel is for you. If I had to do it over again, I’d spend just a little more and stay at the...

Years ago W Hotels decided to cut themselves (and juice their bar business) from the hotel chain pack by hiring djs to spin in their lobbies. They also, in the time honored tradition, brought in some art and got hipper designers to add some sheen to their spaces.

Now we've got Moxy which attempts to do a similar thing in a cost conscious way which is a narrow needle to thread.

Let's talk about the pluses - staff is nice and hardworking. (They have to be, they're doubling up jobs such as desk clerk and bartender.) There are fun elements to the design (vinyl and a turntable, pool table and video games in the lobby, glass windows in the room doors, nice repro desk lamps). There are fun little design elements scattered throughout. (Yes to the room phones, no to the Michael's clearance aphorism posters.)

This location is right in the midst of ASU (so it's a nice fit to catch a game, visit a student etc) and it's reasonably priced. It's still newish so there's less wear and tear than there will be...

Problem is the industrial meets steam punk meets entertainment approach conflicts with itself all over the place, especially done on a budget.

Let's start with the lobby... everything is polished concrete and reflective surfaces. Since it's a big open space with many functions, it's always loud relative to the population. There's some vinyl and a turntable which don't work, since no one could hear themselves if they did. The items function as phony hipness signifiers. There's a bar where the bartender is, in a Deadwood sort of way, the desk clerk. Then there's a game area with a scattering of (free - yay!) pinball machines and video games. Unfortunately since this is a big, loud open room with a lot of activities going on, all the audio and sound effects are off. Since there's no money changing hands there's nobody maintaining the machines. They're all broken to some degree or another.

Pool area's alright, albeit tiny for a hotel of this size.

The rooms - laminate flooring, concrete walls, very little sound separation from the outside. Barn door for the bathroom so little sound separation for when anyone's up to anything in there. Nice tile on the walk-in shower . No closet, just a long series of pegs across the wall. No trash basket for the desk/table. Cheap uncomfortable chairs. (Although there's a giant bean bag chair in the single king bedrooms, replacing the second bed).

There are guitars hung in some rooms but the one I was in had broken strings and wasn't much use. If it WAS playable, I question how it would be received in these very bright, poorly sound designed spaces.

I can't imagine what their 2 tiny elevators are like when the hotel is crowded and there's a bunch of people trying to get up or downstairs.

There's minimal staff so a lot of functions are self-service. The people that are here were uniformly nice, hardworking good folks.

I value different for the sake of being different less than different with a great execution which this is not. If the price is right and the location is what you need, I wouldn't throw myself in front of your Uber to stop you from staying here.

If it's style you want, Phoenix/ Scottsdale/Tempe have way...

BE AWARE and STAY AWAY.

This is my first-ever Yelp review. I always try to be nice at hotels, even if things are not perfect. I understand that people just work there trying to do their jobs, and I respect that. However, my experience at this Moxy was just horrible. You'll have to deal with cockroaches every night, a terrible front desk that threatens you, and a cleaning team that may steal from you.

Other comments about the bugs are true. I had to deal with different giant cockroaches every night. When I told this to the girl at the front desk, she just asked, "You are not from here, are you?" Throughout those days, they were not able to change a room for me. The only thing I got was a $10 food and beverage coupon. Every night, I tried to go to the front desk and explain the situation, but no one was even there.

What's more, I did not get a single room service during all the nights I stayed, even after I asked for it. Before checking out, I accidentally left a $900 Chrome Hearts hoodie and called about it. The people didn't seem to care or bother to check. I even went back to the hotel twice to confront them. The first time, there was only one girl working at the front desk. She said she would check when her colleague was there to cover the front desk, which is understandable. I waited there for almost an hour. Her colleague was there from time to time, and none of them seemed to bother with my situation. The second time I came back, this African American dude with a gold chain helped me. He was being cool about it at first, even leaving the front desk to check. I waited for half an hour, only to find out he was back at the front desk again, minding his own business and not even bothering to tell me what was going on. I confronted him again, and he pretended he couldn't hear me. At this point, my fiancé was unhappy, and she explained everything to him again. He called her "aggressive" and "rude" and said we needed to leave immediately.

I was being really polite with all the problems. I didn't fight for it when they couldn't change or clean my room. I basically accommodated my needs for theirs. But after the hoodie situation, I just couldn't take it anymore. I feel like an imbecile going to the front desk over and over again.

In short, I didn't feel safe from the bugs, and I felt threatened by the African American guy at the front desk. Save your money and stay away. It's not worth it.

p.s. A lot of things in my room were broken. The ac was out of battery, the lamp light by the bed was broken, and the toilet paper holder was...