Staycation at the Double Tree Paradise Valley Resort-Scottsdale, Arizona
After four years dating, two years of engagement and months of planning the perfect wedding, my beautiful bride Claudia and I are finally married. Because of Claudia’s school aspirations our honey moon to Peru, Argentina, and Uruguay will be delayed until May. Despite that, I still felt that we needed a couple days to ourselves; a mini-moon if you will. After assessing our stash of hotel points, much research and review reading, I chose the Double Tree Resort in Scottsdale.
Our arrival was rocky. As we pulled up to the valet counter in my father in law’s beautifully restored 1960 AMC Rambler Classic we were eager to be greeted by our complimentary valet service. To our annoyance no one was there. After about 5 minutes of waiting in full view of the front desk, I marched into the lobby and informed the front desk we needed valet service. They promptly radioed the valet and after another 5 minutes he appeared. After that, check in was smooth. We were greeted warmly at the front desk and were given two warm chocolate chip cookies and some coupons which I’ll talk more about later. We were offered to have an attendant take our bag, which I declined since we packed light and were only staying two nights. The grounds are large and well manicured but not very well lit at night. With that said the trek to the room wasn’t bad but since it was night it was a bit disorientating. When we did make it to the room we were happily surprised when we got there.
We loved our room it was nice and spacious! We really liked the charming rustic feeling that the wood planked ceiling gave the room.
Here are the coupons we received, they gave us four Hilton Gold/Diamond member breakfast coupons and two free drink coupons for the Loggia Lounge in house bar.
The breakfast buffet was pretty good. They had crepes, waffles, bacon, sausage, potatoes, eggs, yogurts, oatmeal, an assortment of fruits and baked goods. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of it because I was too busy eating.
On day two they had a complimentary bottle of wine delivered to our door! Sadly, neither of us drink wine so we’ll be saving this bottle indefinitely. It was still a pretty cool thought so I made sure to call the front desk to thank them.
Be forewarned, their valet is severely understaffed. We took the complimentary hotel shuttle heading into oldtown Scottsdale and it turns out the guy they have shuttling people is the same guy they have working the valet and he was the only one working that day. No wonder it took a few minutes for the valet to arrive the first night, he was probably the only one working. With that said, all in all we had an excellent stay and I think we’d come back.
The Breakdown
The Rewards Traveler Cost:
60,000 Hilton Points gained through AMEX Hilton Surpass offer: $75 (annual fee)
Total: $75
Retail Cost:
Room/2 nights King Bed with patio and courtyard view: $250/night x 2 = $500
Four Breakfast coupons at the El Fuego in house restaurant: $17.50 x 4 =$70
Two free drinks: $7.50 x 2 =$15
Total: $585
Total savings: $585-$75=$510
If you’d like to learn how you can get incredible savings like this check out my Beginner’s guide to rewards travel.
FREE 7 Step Beginner’s Guide to Rewards Travel
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