BEST PLACE for my husband and me to stay for 13 days of tests and surgery in this mid-city location with renowned St. Joseph’s Hospital 4-blocks away at the special rate of $89/night. Every suite, though somewhat outdated, has a bedroom with its own flat screen TV and phone and a completely separate sitting room with couch, armchair, desk, kitchen counter with another flat screen TV and phone. The kitchen counter’s small refrigerator, microwave, bar sink and coffeemaker with ceramic cups allow you to save money, taking the hotel’s free shuttle to supermarkets. Full bath with closet adjoins both rooms. Gorgeous 11-story atrium (with free iced cucumber/citrus water much appreciated on hot summer days) has plants and water features interspersed with tables that make up the in-house Great American Grill and adjoining lux bar with big sports TVs. Only Phoenix hotel with an indoor pool/hot tub with thick fluffy towels, but the columns through the pool preclude lap swimming. Typical exercise room and 2 laundry areas. Hotel staff was SUPERB, responding immediately to any request, like fixing the broken phone and replacing the feather pillows/duvet with nonallergenic foam and blanket, as well as not bothering us at all for the days we put the “do not disturb” sign on the doorknob. Housekeeping left free bottled water, real cream for coffee and USA Today daily. (Arizona Republic, Wall Street Journal, NY Times,available for purchase at desk.) You can survive without a car (parking costs) with the hotel’s free shuttle taking you up to 2 miles, including many museums and all of downtown. Light Rail ½ block away takes you to all those places and beyond--to the airport, Tempe and Mesa ($1.75 a trip, $10.50 for 3 days, $17.50 a week). Drawbacks: Room’s pod coffee machine made dishwater liquid, and since the hotel’s Atrium Market with cups of coffee closes when hotel isn’t full (most of the time in the summer), we bought a $15.00 Mr. Coffee, made our own, still saved money over buying cups at the 2 nearby delis. The hotel allows pets, and when our allergies acted up badly, we suspected our room had had animal dander in it from a previous visit (you can never vacuum it out.) “Access TV” was annoying, as it took 4 clicks to get from the promotions for $4.99 to $16.99 on-demand movies to actual TV stations—which DID NOT include FoxSports Arizona with Diamondback baseball. Internet and phone calls cost. Since the hotel’s breakfast buffet is a steep $12.00 and lunches and dinners were formulaic (suffering when events were held), we walked to the many other breakfast/lunch restaurants in the area; those nearby open for dinner are the legendary Durants, Wild Thaiger (Thai), Ichi Ban Japanese and a handful of fast food-type places (Lenny’s Burgers, Best of Philly, Honey Bears BBQ), and 3 pizza restaurants (zPizza best). All in all, we couldn’t have done better for a long hospital visit than to stay at Hilton Suites!
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