A STYLISH STAY
Hotel an icon of midcentury style
When construction began on the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale, the owners made an unimaginable and historic announcement. ● The hotel would operate year-round. ● At the time, local resorts such as the Arizona Biltmore would close for the summer months. The Hotel Valley Ho, and its competitor the Safari, would be the first hotels to open in Scottsdale in the winter of 1956 and stay open through the Valley’s sweltering summer months. ● This year the Hotel Valley Ho celebrates 65 years of proving the skeptics of that groundbreaking decision wrong.
Hotel Valley Ho breaks new ground
When Hotel Valley Ho opened on Dec. 20, 1956, the property cost roughly $1 million to build and had 100 rooms, according to The Arizona Republic archives.
The midcentury modern resort attracted Hollywood stars such as Bing Crosby, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and Zsa Zsa Gabor to Scottsdale. Celebrities found the location ideal to escape the paparazzi who typically wouldn’t travel past Palm Springs.
In 1957, Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner held their wedding reception at the Valley Ho.
In 1964, the hotel expanded its footprint and added more rooms.
“Those who said a year-round hotel in Scottsdale couldn’t possibly succeed now are trying to think up explanations for adding 80 rooms to the original accommodations,” the Republic wrote about the addition.
Hotel Valley Ho gets new life
Over the years, the resort has changed owners and lost some of its design accents. By early 2000, it had fallen into disrepair.
Jesse Thompson, director of sales and marketing for Mountain Shadows and Hotel Valley Ho, said that before the Valley Ho’s renovation, which was completed in 2005, the property was so downtrodden that rooms were selling for $35-$39 a night.
The Westroc ownership group, led by Chief Executive Officer Scott Lyon and Chief Operating Officer Bill Nassikas, had just opened Sanctuary at Camelback Mountain after renovating it from John Gardiner’s Tennis Ranch when it started searching for a new historic project.
The company set its sights on the
Valley Ho.
“So much had been torn down, especially in the Old Town Scottsdale environment,” Nassikas said about choosing to renovate the property rather than demolish it.
Nassikas recalls going to “kick the tires.”
“I remember walking into the guestrooms on the lower level and I went to open the sliding glass door. And the sliding glass door had rusted shut,” he said.
When Thompson applied to move within the company around 2001 to take the job at the Valley Ho, he also recalls that every room had an issue. There was
broken glass and destroyed curtains.
“I thought to myself, ‘I don’t even know why I’m applying for the job of director of marketing over there,’” he said.
But Westroc saw an opportunity to restore the property to its historic splendor. The rooms were big for 1950s construction, 300 to 400 square feet, with patios.
The company was not the highest bidder for the property. Another bidder offered much more but planned to tear the hotel down.
Nassikas said that the higher bidder faltered, giving Westroc the opportunity to take over and start restoring the property to its midcentury modern style.
After purchasing the property in May 2002, the Hotel Valley Ho finally reopened to debut its updated look on Dec. 20, 2005, the same date it opened 49 years earlier. The entire renovation cost $80 million, including constructing a new tower of rooms which had been mapped out in the building’s original architecture plans but never built.
How the Hotel Valley Ho got — and kept — its name
The condition of the building wasn’t the only challenge of bringing the hotel into the modern age.
When it opened in 1956, the name Valley Ho was a popular pick. The Hotel Westward Ho Junior Company in Phoenix, which operated the Hotel Westward Ho in downtown Phoenix, ran a contest asking the public to name the new resort. More than 400 entries were received.
Four people submitted the name Hotel Valley Ho.
According to an April 1956 article in The Republic, Mrs. Fred E. Van Alstyne of Belding, Michigan, was the first to submit the name and won a three-night stay at the resort when it opened. The other three entrants received a onenight stay.
But the fan-favorite name did not age well.
“I remember meeting planners saying, ‘I’ll never book a program at a hotel called the Valley Ho,’” Thompson said.
“And now it’s probably, I think it’s one of the most popular properties in the Scottsdale area — just the iconic nature of what it is.”
What Hotel Valley Ho means to the community
Sticking with the historic name and midcentury modern design endeared the revamped property to guests and the community.
“One of the things that I hear a lot is how much they appreciate they kept it in the style of the ‘50s,” said Sharon Fortney, a server at ZuZu, the hotel’s restaurant.
Fortney, who has been with the Valley Ho since it reopened in 2005, said she was working at a restaurant in Old Town Scottsdale while the hotel was under construction. She remembers the community was abuzz about what was going on.
“People were very, very curious,” she said.
The resort has continued to feel that support, especially over the past year as the pandemic and travel restrictions have hit the hospitality industry hard.
“We have had such support from the people that live here in the area and have kept the hotel open,” Fortney said.
Even during the pandemic, the Valley Ho stayed true to its original vision to stay open year round. It did not close, making the 65th-anniversary milestone even more special to the staff and owners.
“The good news is it means we’re still around,” Nassikas joked.