In April and May, Shae, Truffles and I did a double tour of Arizona. We started off in Tucson, went up to Phoenix, then on to Prescott Valley and finally up to Flagstaff. We then had to return to Tucson to get our second COVID shots, then decided to revisit Phoenix and then back up to Flagstaff.
On both of our visits to Flagstaff we decided to stay at the Courtyard (one of Marriott’s brands). Hotel rates were fairly expensive in Flagstaff due to its somewhat proximity to the Grand Canyon, but we got a pretty good rate at this property by booking longer stays each time as they offered long-term discounts for stays of five nights or more.
The Courtyard Flagstaff is a decent enough hotel, although there were many small irritations during our stays. In and of themselves none of them were a particularly big deal, but cumulatively they made for more of a frustrating stay, especially seeing as a lot of them wouldn’t be too hard to solve.
Here’s a full review of our two stays at the Courtyard Flagstaff in Arizona.
Check-In
For both of our stays we were booked into a king studio room as that was the cheapest option. When checking their website a day or two before our first stay I saw that they had a one bedroom suite available. I therefore messaged the hotel through the Marriott app to see if we could get an upgrade to that suite seeing as I have Titanium status.
They replied saying that they didn’t have any one bedroom suites available. This was the next morning, so I figured they might’ve sold out since I sent that message. However, when checking their website the one bedroom suite was still available. I therefore messaged back to say that there was still one showing as being available. Within a couple of hours they’d replied to confirm that we’d been upgraded which we appreciated.
Before our second stay I checked their website, but there weren’t any one bedroom suites available and so it wasn’t worth requesting an upgrade.
As for check-in itself, the front desk agents were friendly both times and the process didn’t take long.
Seeing as we stayed in two different room types, I’ll cover what both of them are like.
1 Bedroom Suite
Our first stay was when we got the upgrade to a one bedroom suite which was room 239. When entering the suite, the living room was straight ahead and the bedroom and bathroom off to the left.
The living room was very spacious; I’m not sure if all one bedroom suites are like that or if it’s because it was an accessible suite. In addition to the sofa, ottoman and armchair at the far end, there was a dining table with four chairs.
Opposite the sofa was a closet, desk, dresser and TV. The TV channel selection wasn’t great in the first place, but it was made worse by the fact that some channels simply didn’t work.
We tried using our Fire TV Stick instead, but we couldn’t get it to work properly because for some reason when it was plugged in there was no way to adjust the volume and it was set way too loud. There weren’t even any volume control buttons on the TV itself that we could find.
The closet contained an iron, ironing board and luggage rack. Due to it being an accessible room, everything in the closet was placed lower down.
Back by the room’s entrance was a wet bar. In addition to the sink there was a coffee maker, microwave and mini fridge.
By mini fridge, I mean mini. It was the smallest mini fridge we’ve ever had in a hotel room which had even less storage space than it should’ve because the door storage sections were all broken off.
Not that it really mattered because the fridge wasn’t really cold enough to store food safely and there was no temperature control in it to make it colder. For a one bedroom suite in what’s meant to be a fairly good hotel brand in a tourist destination, it’s surprising they don’t offer a larger and better quality mini fridge.
Bedroom
Similar to the living room, the bedroom was a good size. The king bed was comfortable and the blackout curtains worked pretty well.
Opposite the bed was a dresser with a TV on top.
Bathroom
The bathroom had a bathtub with shower. In keeping with it being an accessible room, the bath was low and there were plenty of grip bars.
With the one bedroom suite layout the sink is in the bedroom rather than in the bathroom which is a shame because it means using the sink in the dark if someone’s sleeping.
King Studio Room
The studio room we were assigned on our second stay was 105. When entering the room the bedroom/living area was straight ahead, with the bathroom immediately on the left.
This room had a king bed with side tables and lamps on each side.
The living area had the same type of sofa and ottoman as the one in the one bedroom suite, but no armchair and no dining table and chairs.
Shae didn’t mind the sofa, but I hated it. The back of the sofa was so far back that if you wanted to sit with your legs bent, you had to sit forward and not have anything to rest your back against. If you wanted to rest your back against the back of the sofa, your legs had to hang over the edge, neither of which are comfortable seating positions. I don’t know who designed this kind of sofa, but it was awful.
The sofa was also right next to the air conditioning unit. That wasn’t ideal because whenever the cold air came on it was icy sitting next to it.
Opposite the couch was a similar setup as in the one bedroom suite with a desk, TV, dresser drawers and closet.
This closet contained the same items, although they didn’t have to be stored as low due to it not being an accessible room.
The studio rooms don’t have a wet bar like the one bedroom suites do. Instead, just behind the bed was a small space with the tiny mini fridge and coffee maker; there was no microwave.
Bathroom
The bathroom layout in the studio room was a little different to the one bedroom suite too. That’s because the sink and vanity were in the bathroom itself rather than out in the bedroom area – something we much preferred.
It had a bathtub with a shower like the one bedroom suite, but had an additional shelf on which you could put your toiletries. While it was only a small thing, it was a nice feature to have.
One feature we didn’t care for was what greeted us in the toilet when we arrived. Apparently housekeeping hadn’t been completely thorough when cleaning the bathroom after the previous guests.
Breakfast
Breakfast at the Courtyard Flagstaff isn’t complimentary for all guests. I have Marriott Titanium status which means we get free breakfast at most of their brands, but it works a little differently at Courtyard properties.
Rather than getting free breakfast, we received a daily $10 credit per person in our room for food and beverage. That could be used towards breakfast, drinks at the bar in the evenings or snacks and drinks from the pantry area.
Here’s the breakfast menu:
Their breakfast items were way overpriced. Their breakfast sandwiches were OK, but sausage and egg McMuffins from McDonald’s are nicer and cost less than half the $6.50 that the Courtyard was charging. $2.50 for milk was ridiculous too considering it was a kid’s lunchbox sized bottle (maybe 200ml?).
We ended up getting breakfast at the hotel on about half the mornings we were there seeing as we had $20 to spend each day, but if I didn’t have status with Marriott we wouldn’t have bothered with breakfast there at all.
Even getting breakfast ended up being more hassle than it was worth when it came to checking out. We shouldn’t have been charged anything due to the $20 per day credit, but both stays they added all our breakfast charges to the bill. They emailed our folio the night before we checked out both times, so I stopped by the front desk both nights to highlight this issue and was assured the charges would be removed in the morning.
Despite that assurance, the charges were still there when checking out. I therefore highlighted it again to the front desk staff when checking out both times. Both times they assured me that there were no breakfast charges left on our folio, but when checking our emailed bills later on it turned out that they did still charge us for some of our breakfasts. I therefore DMed Marriott on Twitter after both stays to get those charges refunded which they did eventually do, but we shouldn’t have had to highlight to five different staff members across the two stays that the charges were incorrect and still have them charge us incorrectly both times.
Amenities
With this being a Courtyard property, they had a nice, large courtyard with lots of outdoor seating and a fire pit in the middle.
There was some additional outdoor seating looking out over the courtyard.
If it’s too hot or cold to be sitting outside, there’s plenty of seating available in the lobby.
The Courtyard Flagstaff has an indoor swimming pool. It looks like they normally have a whirlpool, but that was closed for maintenance when we visited.
There’s a decent-sized fitness room with several pieces of equipment and weights.
The hotel has a guest laundry room with a washing machine and two dryers. The washing machine cost $2.50 per load, while the dryers cost $2 per load.
The hotel is fairly close to some restaurants and grocery stores, but they have a pantry area with food and drink available for purchase if you don’t want to venture out.
They also have some toiletries and medicines for sale.
Something missing from the hotel is a business center – there’s no computer or printer that guests can use. That’s strange because even the most basic of hotels seems to offer this amenity. I wanted to print off a couple of eChecks during our stay but wasn’t able to due to the lack of a business center. The front desk said I could email them anything I wanted printing off, but I wasn’t going to be emailing them checks or anything other kind of personal stuff.
Pet Policy
The Courtyard Flagstaff is a pet-friendly hotel. They allow one pet per room of up to 75lbs and charge a $75 pet fee per stay regardless of how many nights you stay. That’s not so great if you’re only staying one night, but not so bad if you’re staying a week or more.
The hotel has some grassy areas around the hotel as well as the courtyard to walk your dog. There are also sidewalks next to the hotel to let you safely take your dog for a longer walk if you wish.
Truffles didn’t get anything special the first time we checked in, but when checking in for our second stay she was given a little treat bag.
This contained a couple of Milk Bones and a couple of poop bags.
Flagstaff seems to have a few dog parks. We took Truffles to Thorpe Bark Park a few times and it was a lovely dog park. There were separate sections for small and large dogs and both sides were a good size and had lots of shade which was appreciated on hot days.
Service
Overall, service at the Courtyard Flagstaff was very good. All the front desk staff and housekeeping staff were extremely friendly and helpful (even if the toilet hadn’t been cleaned properly before our second stay 😉 )
My only complaint service-wise relates to all the hassle involved with getting the breakfast charges taken off our bills for both stays which shouldn’t have been there in the first place, especially after being assured both times that we hadn’t been charged, only to find out later on when checking the emailed folio that they had charged us.
Wi-Fi
The Wi-Fi speed at the hotel was good. However, the connection would randomly cut out for a minute at a time during the afternoon and evening. This happened several times when I hit publish on a post on another of my websites which meant I had to go back and rewrite whatever hadn’t autosaved before the connection cut off.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
Check-in at the Courtyard Flagstaff is at 4pm and check-out is at 11am.
Location
The hotel is located just around the corner from Northern Arizona University, so it’d be a convenient place to stay if visiting someone there. It’s within walking distance of a Walmart and several restaurants, including an Olive Garden which is pretty much next door.
It’s about 80 miles from the Grand Canyon which will take about 75-90 minutes to get to depending on traffic.
Parking
The Courtyard Flagstaff has a ton of parking spaces, so we never had a problem finding a space even when the hotel was full.
What’s absolutely absurd is that they charge $6 per night for parking. I can understand hotels in large cities charging for parking due to the limited real estate, but there’s absolutely no reason for the Courtyard to be charging guests $6 other than as a money-grabbing opportunity. The hotel waived the parking fee for us thanks to me having Titanium status, but it still left a bad taste in the mouth that they charge a fee considering none of the other nearby hotels charge guests for having the audacity of driving to their property.
If you drive a Tesla, the hotel has a bunch of Superchargers available for you to use.
Cost
We booked paid stays both times rather than booking with points because that was better value. The Courtyard Flagstaff seems to charge lower prices per night when staying five or more nights, so our first stay we booked a week-long stay and the second time we stayed five nights. Both times it cost $129 per night before tax ($143.13 per night with tax) which ultimately cost us even less because we paid with Marriott gift cards I’d bought at a discount.
I also booked both stays having clicked through from a shopping portal. With the first stay we should earn 3% cashback from TopCashback, so that’ll be $27.09 back. For the second stay we’ll earn 5% from Mr Rebates, so that’ll be $32.25 (n.b. the cashback is calculated on the pre-tax cost).
As mentioned earlier, be sure to check your bill when checking out because with both stays we were charged for breakfast where the charges should’ve been removed.
If we’d paid with points for our first stay it would’ve cost 30,000 points per night. We would’ve gotten the 5th night free as that’s a benefit Marriott offers on award stays, so our total cost for that stay would’ve been 180,000 points or an average of 25,714 points per night. That’s not great value compared to the cash rate we paid which is why we did things that way.
With our second stay we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to pay with points anyway because they didn’t have any standard rooms bookable.
Points Earned
With our first stay we earned a total of 26,840 points, while our second stay earned us 12,695 points. The reason for the fairly large difference in point earnings across the two stays despite the second stay only being two nights shorter is because Marriott was offering double base points during our first stay, but that promotion had ended by the time of our second stay.
Final Thoughts
I have mixed feelings about our two stays at the Courtyard Flagstaff. It’s a nice enough hotel and the staff members there were lovely. However, there were so many annoying little things which weren’t big deals in isolation, but were far more bothersome in the aggregate.
The sofa was uncomfortable to sit on due to its weird design. The mini fridge was ridiculously small and the first one we had didn’t even keep food cold and had broken door storage. The internet would randomly cut off. They haven’t bothered to provide a computer and printer for guests to use. Breakfast is overpriced. They charge for parking which is egregious for a property of this kind. Despite being extremely friendly, we had five different staff members assure us that we wouldn’t be charged for breakfast across our two stays and yet we were both times. The positioning of the sofa next to the air conditioning unit meant that if you wanted the A/C on while sitting on the sofa, you turned into an icicle. They had a poor selection of TV channels on the TV and even some of the channels they supposedly did have didn’t work.
I think what bothers me so much about all these things is that it feels like the hotel has chosen for things to be that way. I’m actually far less bothered about the unclean toilet because that’s simply an accidental oversight by the housekeeping staff. Pretty much everything else listed above required active decisions for them to be that way.
To give the benefit of the doubt to the hotel, it might be that many of these are specific issues relating to the Courtyard brand. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have to use the crappily designed sofa due to it being a brand standard. Perhaps they have to use the awful mini fridges they provide guests with because that’s what Marriott requires of Courtyard properties. The meagre TV channel selection is certainly similar at other Marriott properties, so that points to it being a Marriott issue rather than a Courtyard Flagstaff issue per se.
Whatever the reason is, it makes me far less likely to stay at Courtyard properties in the future because I can’t think of a single feature of our stay that would make me want to stay at this brand again over the dozens of other hotel brands out there.
Truffles Approval Rating
Our dog Truffles would’ve given them 3.5 out of 4 paws if she could, but she’d rather not have half a paw. As a result she’s giving them three paws. That’s mainly because if you have noisy people above you at the hotel, you’ll know about it.
There was a nearby soccer tournament during our second stay and a lot of the families were staying at the Courtyard. The kids ran and stomped about so much above us which was something Truffles didn’t appreciate and was sure to let us know about it as if we couldn’t already hear it!
Our Rating
Room = 3.7 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.1 / 5
Food = 3.7 / 5
Location = 4.3 / 5
Service = 4.5 / 5
Overall Value = 3.9 / 5
Total = 4.03/5
Address
Courtyard by Marriott, 2650 S Beulah Blvd, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
[…] on to the Grand Canyon after brunch and so this meant we wouldn’t have to head back to our hotel to pick her up […]