Vīb Hotel by Best Western Phoenix-Tempe — Hotel in Tempe

The vibe is off. Let’s not forget, this is a Best Western.

Usually $60-80 cheaper than the Westin down the street, but far worse. They claim “boutique”, not so. The staff is kind, the only redeeming quality to make this pig with lipstick anything more than the budget hotel it is.

Lobby The furniture in the lobby is cheap and nearly unusable. Low back, stiff seats, little cushioning. Don’t expect to enjoy for more than 15 minutes or so. The layout is poorly optimized. Few plants, cold and bright lighting. Fake and ugly electric fireplaces. The wall decor is out of touch for the area, mostly low resolution stock photography and generic word “art.” Outside on Farmer Ave, Best Western placed poorly crafted “sculptures” constructed of perforated metal and concrete spheres. Truly, the Vibe feels like it was designed by a computer program.

The “lobster restaurant” is essentially a dressed-up fast food joint and unsurprisingly overpriced. As if paying more might lead one to believe the food is high quality.

As of June 2022 the pool is unfinished, a small rectangle meant only for one group of people to enjoy in peace. No shading. Really no comparison to nearby hotels with trees, more space and accommodations.

Rooms The desk surfaces in the rooms are shallow, mostly unusable for any focused work. To their credit, BW placed quality desk chairs in our room (the only proper seating in the place). The window shades are cheap material and do not black out the room. If you are unlucky, you will end up with a room near the massive “X” LED lights on the building, which stay on all night (neighborhood nuisance?).

BW decided to plaster wall size prints of local spots, like the Tempe Town Lake bridge. Similarly low resolution images, feels like I exist inside a webpage.

The bathrooms are small but have a fair amount of vanity space. Tiling in the shower is new and clean. Water pressure is low, the bathroom will not steam up or stay warm. Poor sound isolation to the rest of the room makes it easy to hear people using the restroom.

The beds are comfortable for sleeping, but the cold tile floor and obstructive bed frame might not make for enjoyable intimacy. Couples, I recommend looking elsewhere.

It’s worth noting the construction is on the (very) cheap side, if you look you will notice many idiosyncrasies.

Laughably, in our room the hanging light fixture was yanked out of the ceiling.

Thankfully the parking situation is easy, but this is the case at any Tempe hotel. We left our expensive vehicle in the lot and had no trouble.

Many boutique hotels leverage some basic knowledge of interior design and space planning . In the case of the Vibe (we call it the Vib, including a vowel ī in the name is a bit too clever for us common folk), expect cold lighting, unfriendly environment and long, fluorescent-lit hallways.

It’s not romantic, it’s not aesthetic, and if you plan on spending any time at the hotel besides to sleep, I recommend looking elsewhere. More photos added later.

To the staff, cheers at doing your best with this poorly thought out and poorly executed hotel. I salute you.

To the Best Western designers, you all need some...

All around disappointment and management did not seem to care. After much research of the area, we booked this hotel for spring break due to location, heated pool, and free parking. Parking was not free, be prepared to spend $10 per night on a parking lot that is not secure. Pool was ICE cold the day we arrived. I reached out to management immediately, day two pool was still freezing. We spoke with multiple other guests around the pool disappointed to find it was not heated as advertised. Multiple messages were sent and emailed regarding this. Finally by day 3 our last day the water seemed to warm up as maintenance "looked into things".|It seems the hotel is just poorly managed and maintained. There were no working ice machines during our stay, floor 2 and 4 were broken, A bartender took us to the roof for ice.|The second elevator was broken our entire stay. Fully booked hotel with only one working (very slow) elevator.|5th floor is VERY noisy due to rooftop bar. You will hear music until it is turned off, every footstep, and anytime someone moves the furniture on the roof. The room was VERY noisy, paper thin walls. For what ever reason the day we wanted a coffee from the coffee shop there was not a person working, and the front desk person did not seem to care that guests were standing around waiting at the coffee counter.|The location seems nice, however its right on train tracks, and you have to get around a large fence to walk towards the entertainment district. Getting into the parking lot is only available from one direction so it was just a constant driving around to get in and out to certain directions.|I would not recommend this hotel for the high price tag. Rooms were TINY, no closet space, hardly anywhere to hang clothing. The rooms have a VERY limited space beverage cooler not even large enough for a to go box.|Our entire stay shower water never seemed to be able to get hot.|This is a dressed up budget hotel charging far too much for...

All around disappointment and management did not seem to care. After much research of the area, we booked this hotel for spring break due to location, heated pool, and free parking. Parking was not free, be prepared to spend $10 per night on a parking lot that is not secure. Pool was ICE cold the day we arrived. I reached out to management immediately, day two pool was still freezing. We spoke with multiple other guests around the pool disappointed to find it was not heated as advertised. Multiple messages were sent and emailed regarding this. Finally by day 3 our last day the water seemed to warm up as maintenance "looked into things". It seems the hotel is just poorly managed and maintained. There were no working ice machines during our stay, floor 2 and 4 were broken, A bartender took us to the roof for ice. The second elevator was broken our entire stay. Fully booked hotel with only one working (very slow) elevator. 5th floor is VERY noisy due to rooftop bar. You will hear music until it is turned off, every footstep, and anytime someone moves the furniture on the roof. The room was VERY noisy, paper thin walls. For what ever reason the day we wanted a coffee from the coffee shop there was not a person working, and the front desk person did not seem to care that guests were standing around waiting at the coffee counter. The location seems nice, however its right on train tracks, and you have to get around a large fence to walk towards the entertainment district. Getting into the parking lot is only available from one direction so it was just a constant driving around to get in and out to certain directions. I would not recommend this hotel for the high price tag. Rooms were TINY, no closet space, hardly anywhere to hang clothing. The rooms have a VERY limited space beverage cooler not even large enough for a to go box.

This is a dressed up budget hotel charging far too much for...