PERKS AT THEpriciest
Posh 60-room Canyon Suites at The Phoenician will charge $1,000 a night during peak season
The priciest hotel in Phoenix just got more posh.
Canyon Suites at The Phoenician, a 60-room hotel on the grounds of the luxury resort, reopened last week after a three-month, $10 million makeover.
The hotel, which is charging $400 a night this Labor Day weekend and asking $1,000 per night for peak-season stays next year, originally planned to redo just the rooms but ended up overhauling the lobby, pool and cabanas too.
“We just decided if we’re going to spend the money let’s just close the entire resort and change everything, which is pretty much what we did,” said Mark Vinciguerra, area managing director for Starwood Hotels & Resorts in Arizona. Starwood manages The Phoenician and Canyon Suites.
The 20 rooms and 40 suites were outfitted with more contemporary furnishings, including woodgrain tile in the entry and must-have technology features including built-in power outlets and USB ports on the nightstands.
The lobby looks more like a living room than a traditional hotel lobby and features a new lounge serving food and drinks. It’s the first time the hotel has offered a dining option beyond room service and a pool bar and grill. Guests were sent to The Phoenician restaurants next door if they wanted something close.
Vinciguerra said Canyon Suites guests, mainly affluent vacationers from the East Coast, Midwest and California, repeatedly told the hotel they wanted a place to grab a drink or a bite to eat. The hotel’s new owner, Host Hotels & Resorts, which bought the property for $400 million last year, agreed.
“They unequivocally said we need a food and beverage venue,” he said.
Canyon Lounge isn’t a traditional restaurant but a dedicated space in the lobby that offers complimentary breakfast and afternoon and eve-
ning drinks and gourmet appetizers for purchase.
The breakfast lineup includes fruit smoothies, fresh fruit, lox, steel-cut oatmeal and baked french toast, the latter two served in individual dishes like those on fancy Las Vegas buffets
But don’t call Canyon Suites’ new breakfast a buffet.
“You’re not going to come down here and find omelet stations,” Vinciguerra said. “That’s not what it’s going to be all about. People that want that experience can order from in-room dining.”
On the afternoon and evening menu: chorizo flatbread ($19), a Spanish charcuterie board ($23), Kobe beef ($45), caviar parfait ($45) and other “shared plates.”
“That’s a really popular style of dining right now,” Vinciguerra said
Outside, the pool was resurfaced and televisions and new furniture were added to the 10 cabanas. The price to rent one for the day is more than the nightly room rate at many resorts: $450.
Canyon Suites hopes the makeover and its service — the hotel ranks No. 1 in guest satisfaction among Starwood’s 36 Luxury Collection and St. Regis hotels in North America and No. 2 among Starwood’s nearly 750 hotels in North America — will solidify its elite status. It’s the only hotel in metro Phoenix to earn five stars from Forbes Travel Guide and five diamonds from AAA, each organization’s highest ranking. The only other hotel in Arizona to share that distinction is the Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain north of Tucson.
Vinciguerra hopes the revamped Canyon Suites makes the hotel more attractive to the 5 to 10 percent of travelers looking for an ultra-luxury stay..
“I think by taking the whole experience to the next level it’s going to open us up to those travelers who historically maybe might not have come to the desert,” he said.