The suites at the hotel are of a very good standard. Our children loved the lazy river and slides at the hotel. We stayed at the pool until closing time at 7pm. However, I would suggest you put on some insect repellent as we were quite badly bitten in the evening by the pool. We tried the on site restaurant. The food was terrible. My son had the fish and fries and it was seriously overcooked, almost dark brown batter. My older son had steak with broccoli. The steak was overcooked and the broccolli was so undercooked it flew acroos the room like a bullet when he cut into it. The hotel was full of noisy, small, children so I expect if you're not a family this is not the place to be. We didn't mind this as our children soon made friends. Overall the rooms were of a very good standard, but I would say don't bother eating here.

Upon check in there was a line out the door, they only had two people checking everyone in, when it was our turn it was a quick process, we got our keys and headed to our room. There are no inside corridors so that was a pain, but we were able to park right outside our building. The Luggage carts were chained to a fence so we had to call the front desk so they could send someone over to unlock them for us, very tacky as it was 100 + out and we just wanted to get into our room.

We got to our "smoke free" room - finally...and it looked like it was recently remodeled, nice large rooms, and a bonus to have a separate bedroom from the living area. The room however smelled of old cigarette smoke (which I am highly allergic to), my guess is that at one time it was a smoking room. So thank goodness we brought Fabreeze with us and sprayed the entire room down, including the curtains (we had called the front desk and it sounded like that's all housekeeping would be able to do for us as well)

The first morning we were there, we were awakened at 8:30 am by the front desk saying our credit card had been declined (how come we weren't notified upon check in), I knew this to be an error as I had PLENTY of room on my card...I told them I would call my bank and find out what was going on....upon talking with the credit card company the hotel had placed 5 authorizations on my credit card in the following amounts....$1183.00, $1183.00, $800.00, $600.00, and $500.00. They couldn't get my card to go through...NO WONDER, they froze up over $4,500.00 on my credit card, and anyone who knows anything about credit cards ( I worked in the banking industry for almost 10 years), when a company does an "authorization" it puts a hold on those funds for 5 -6 business days!!! until the charges are processed.

So they maxed out my credit card. I called the front desk and they said that was impossible that that could not have happened, I told them, the $$$ amounts that the credit card company had told me they placed. I told them there is no way I would know the $$$ amounts if the money wasn't being held by them.

To make a very very long story short, it took 4 hours that day to get it somewhat sorted out, my CC company told me I needed the Hilton to call them and remove all of the authorizations from my card, the front desk said they were not authorizations that my CC had been rejected those 5 times.

It took 5 DAYS to get the messed cleared up and sorted out (funny how they had called my CC company and had those authorizations removed - but declined that that could happened),

The hotel tried to tell us that our card was rejected at check in....I don't know about you but if it was rejected at the time of check in...
1. Why would you give us keys?
2. Notify us at check in that there was a problem with our card.
3. Ask if we wanted to put our room on another card.

If our credit card was "rejected" the above should never have happened and we should not have spent our whole 5 days dealing with getting their "authorizations" removed from our CC so we could continue our vacation.

We demanded that they compensate us for all the time and frustration they caused us and ruining our vacation and they offered us a free lunch (we paid for breakfast in our package deal but did not get breakfast that first day because of dealing with this so they offered us lunch instead) and $40.00 additional, we told them that wasn't good enough, that we felt at least one nights stay (we stayed 5 nights) was more acceptable, finally after arguing in the lobby they offered us an additional $50.00.

Upon check out, on our final bill that is slipped under the door, there was a $75.00 charge for dinner (which we did not make) and there was only a $40.00 credit. OK can you say EXTREMELY UPSET at the unprofessionalism of this staff. It took another HOURS to get the $75.00 removed that we DID NOT CHARGE for dinner and to get the additional $50.00 that they told us would be credited to us.

WE WILL NEVER EVER STAY HERE AGAIN...we are telling everyone that this was the worst customer service we have ever received. We did a 5 week road trip across the United States and stayed at some of the nicest hotels with the best services and this was our last hotel before heading home, and it was the worst!

We loved the casita. We had 2 bedrooms upstairs, a roof deck, and covered parking. The living room and kitchen with minifridge and microwave were a plus. The hotel itself is run down and the nicest restaurant on site was horrible. The pool area is fun, but I recommend it for kids older than 7. The gym was very small. The front desk staff was iffy. The hotel is in an older part of Phoenix with not much life and the Biltmore plaza is dated and was under construction when we visited. We stayed at the Fairmont in Scottsdale 2 years earlier and loved it.

We stay at the Pointe as a family at least once a year during the summer when they have the $99.00 summer fun rate. We only live a mile from the property but our kids love the water park, and we love the suite sized rooms (400SF) with seperate bedroom and living area.

You cannot beat the location if considering staying in the Phoenix area. This is close to downtown (5mi), Scottsdale Fashion Square (5mi), Biltmore Fashion Plaza (3mi), great hiking (Squaw Peak - 1mi, Camelback mountain - 2mi), and freeway (1mi).

Seems there has been some remodelling in the rooms since our last stay, as rough texture on walls has been smoothed out (popcorn ceilings still present though). Also added shade coverings on the balconies, which really helps with the intense afternoon sun.

We always stay in Pointe South (this is a big property with suites and cabanas, Pointe South is where the main lobby is, there is also Pointe North with a seperate pool) in a non-smoking suite, next to the pool, room 2362. This is a king bedroom, with queen sofa bed. We were really pleased with the room, as normally always get 2 queen beds (rooms are a little bigger). Room on the East side (less intense afternoon sun).

Furnishings look new, and very comfortable. TVs both worked, and bed was very comfortable with nice soft sheets and pillows. My wife is allergic to down/feathers, and was no problem having comforter and pillows changed.

We also checked in at 12pm (4pm normal checkin) and checked out at 1pm 2 days later, with no questions or hassles or extra fees.

We spent a lot of time at the lazy river and water slide. My wife preferred to hang out in the room, and relax. We did not check out the gym, although usage was included in package. There is an 18hole mini-golf which I played with my daughter. Also 4 tennis courts (no idea of pricing).

Internet access is $12.00/day (in-room) but have free wi-fi in the lobby (which seemed to work in the patio area that liked to sit in.

We ate at the "Hole in the Wall", mainly burgers, steaks and chicken. Sat on the patio first night, and was disappointed with number of flies. Food was okay (kids eat free a good deal), service was a bit slow, I seem to remember the same problem the previous year. This was a holiday weekend, but restaurant did not appear overly crowded, and not sure why it took 20 minutes from placing order to getting burger and fries. Made use of the buffet ($6.00/kids under 12) at lunch.

Never ate at the Lantana grill, bit outside our price range. There are a number of good restaurants within 2 miles.
- Golden Dragon - very good Chinese, Northern/12th St (1mi)
- TexAZ grill - excellent BBQ, 16th St/Bethany Home (2mi).
- Sauce - modern Italian eatery - pizza/salad, Glendale/7th St
- PeiWei - Asian food (PF Chang subsidiary), Glendale/7th St
- Moto - Japanese, Glendale 16th St.
- Aunt Chilada's - Mexican, soft chips (opposite hotel)
- Carlos Obrians - popular Mexican food 12th St/Northern
- Paradise Bakery - 12th St/Glendale (good bread, sandwiches)
Fast food:
- MacDonalds - 16th St/Glendale (0.5mi)
- Subway - 16th St/Glendale (0.5mi)
- NY Pizza - 12th St/Northern (0.5mi)
- Stumpey's Pizza - 12th St/Glendale (deliver)
- Papa Johns - 16th St/Glendale (deliver)
- Pizza Hut - 16th St/Bethany Home (deliver)
- Starbucks - 16th St/Bethany Home
Grocery:
- Bashas - 16th St/Glendale
- Safeways - 7th St/Glendale

There were a lot of people at the property but never felt too crowded, and swimming pools were kept very clean. I was a little suprised at how relaxed everyone was with the rules (lazy river and water slide). Maybe it is the end of the season, but in previous years were very strict on height for water slide and making sure used a tube on the lazy river.

Hiking at Squaw Peak, 2mi to parking, 1.25mi 1000ft climb. Very popular hike, good parking. Get there early on weekends.

Can also hike at Dreamy Draw Park which is on the North side of Squaw Peak, lots of trails, and easy 1mi drive from hotel.

Camelback mountain, 3mi to parking. 1.25mi 1200ft climb. Two routes, East and West. Recommend West route, but limited parking at Echo Canyon, more parking 0.6mi away. Get there early on weekends.

North Mountain. More gentle, can even take the paved road to the
top. 7th St/Peoria, near Pointe Tapiteo (2mi).

Cons: I got home and checked my bank account, and see a $360.00 deduction pending from my account from Hilton hotels (Hilton manage the Pointe hotels - there are three Pointe South Mountain, Pointe Tapiteo, and Pointe Squaw Peak). I knew my bill was only $283.00. I call and am politely told they put a hold on the hotel rate plus $50.00/day for incidentals, and should be credited back within 72hours of departure. Okay, how about informing me they plan to do this. Not experienced this before, and am a little upset this was not presented at checkin.