I stayed at this hotel in December with my teenage daughter (who is not easy to please), and she loved it here. The staff was especially friendly and accomodating, the food at the little restaurant connected to the hotel was excellent and very reasonably priced. It is about a mile to the metro center mall which is a "must" when travelling with a teenager. Even though the hotel was under construction at the time, it had very little impact on our stay. We really enjoyed our stay and we are heading back to Phoenix in July. When I asked my daughter where she wanted to stay in Phoenix, she chose this hotel again.

I've just paid a return visit a couple of weeks ago, a year after my last trip to Phoenix. There are still signs of renovation work ongoing (those massive containers in the back parking lot are still there). I was offered the choice of floors and, like the last reviewer, I had one of the renovated rooms. They are a cut above the average Ramada.

As I've said before, this place is good value for the money I paid ($64 a night). It's conveniently located off I-17 and the MetroCenter and restaurants are a 5-10 minute drive away. Even the drive to Chase Field to watch the D'backs play took only 20 minutes.

My impression of this Ramada has improved since the last time I stayed here a year ago. If I ever have to return to Phoenix, I would stay here again.

I travelled to Phoenix last year to watch spring training baseball. I was there primarily for the Brewers, and this hotel was one of the closer ones to Maryvale park and the freeway. We didn't spend much time at our hotel. It's not fancy, and they seemed to be doing some "renovations". That said, the full breakfast buffet (waffles!), location and outdoor hottub were enough for me to stay there again this upcoming March. Yes, you get what you pay for, and there's not a lot within a 5 minute drive (or walk) but like anywhere else in Phoenix, there's lots within a 10-15 minute drive. Including an awesome Mexican restaurant that I can't remember the name or location for the life of me. I'll find it though!

Lured by an AAA bargain rate that (surprise, surprise) wasn't available, my wife and I stayed here in early March 2006. As others have reported, at that time there were signs up announcing "rennovations" but these seem to be a more or less permanent part of the decor (they'd been up since the previous winter). While the rooms were clean, if spartan, the halls were dingy and the hotel fairly unpleasant and not much of a bargain. It's located in a vast wasteland of shopping centers (the "MetroCenter" turns out to be a shopping center that looks like every other shopping center in the country) and abandoned shopping centers that have turned into mega-churches. It's a fairly long ride to the airport, especially in Phoenix traffic, which is dreadful.

There's a small pool with what I guess was water in it -- but I wouldn't risk swimming there!

The staff was generally clueless -- one spent most of his time hitting a computer keyboard as hard as he could, complaining about the keys not working and had no idea how to get to the Frank Lloyd Wright house (though the advertisement for the hotel lists it as "nearby" -- it turns out it is on the other side of town). The rest of the desk staff seemed unaccustomed to dealing with people and looked confused when we asked them questions.

The hotel seems to book large groups (a university baseball team was checking out the same morning we were leaving) and, in general, the hotel gives the impression that its guests as potential troublemakers (perhaps a sensible guess if it is booking that many large groups!). So the rooms have lots of notices advising you not to steal things -- though I'm not sure what you'd want to steal -- and there is a staff member placed at the breakfast room to make sure you don't come back and eat two breakfasts -- though, again, given the rather dreary assortment of high-fat, high-sugar items available, I'm not sure who would try to sneak back.

There's got to be a better place to stay in Phoenix for the price.