I recently stayed four nights at Mondrian Scottsdale and had an altogether different experience from a lot of the comments left here on Tripadvisor.
Firstly, I spend approximately 20 weeks a year staying on business in Hotels all over the world. Sometimes I am attending a conference (like this stay at Mondrian), sometimes I am a guest speaker and sometimes I even organise an event (through a third party Event Management company) for any number of delegates from 50 to 750. The above takes me to Asia, Europe, Middle East, the Caribbean etc and I stay generally in 5 star Hotels from all the typical branded names – Ritz Carlton, Mandarin Oriental, Intercontinental, Le Meridien and Hyatt, etc.
In the past I have used Tripadvisor just to gauge what sort of stay I could potentially have. Sometimes I thought the comments were accurate, others completely different to my experience and others clearly were left by people that had an axe to grind. I personally have found from experience that if you stick with a few brands you like you will get consistency. For example, you can pretty much ensure that what was a comfortable bed or high pressure shower in the Four Season in Hong Kong will be just as good in one of their Hotels in say London or New York. But what I didn’t realise until I came to stay here at the Mondrian, is that most of these luxurious Hotels blur into one another and lack collectively one thing, personality.
From the moment I arrived the staff I dealt with didn’t seem to have a smile painted on but genuinely seemed pleased to help me. I didn’t get call “Sir” once and each time I interacted with say the Front Desk or Concierge they used my name even first name at times (and no I wasn’t wearing my name badge). Our first night (Tuesday night) we ate as a group in Asia de Cuba which was excellent, great food and a lively fun atmosphere – I think I can now Salsa after being got up (twice) dancing with some of my colleagues by the brilliant Cuban Band that was playing. The next two evenings were spent outside the Hotel in Scottsdale itself., which was easily within walking distance. Our conference went without a hitch, there was always plenty of food and drinks during our breaks and the AV equipment never let the organisers or the Hotel down.
As four of us were heading off to Florida on Saturday afternoon for another conference starting the next day (we had a 0730 tee off), we stayed on at the Mondrian and made a bit of a night of it. We ate in Asia de Cuba again, which again was brilliant. We headed into Scottsdale but returned after a couple hours as nothing quite seemed to compare with the cocktails and vibe in the Red Bar. Sure as other people have mentioned in Tripadvisor there are more tattoo’s and bleached blondes on a Friday night than there were on a week night, but surely this is better than looking at 40 something’s trying to look good in designer (‘ish) business suits - in otherword’s me.
Based on my stay and the thoughts of my colleagues that I spoke with, you can’t go wrong with Mondrian if you are looking for a ‘cool’ hotel in Scottsdale that provides an ‘overall different’ Conference/Event experience from the more run of the mill, yet admittedly more traditionally luxurious big brand hotels.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
Would I recommend this hotel to my best friend?
absolutely!
I recommend this hotel for:
Young singles, An amazing honeymoon, A romantic getaway, Girlfriend getaway, Great pool scene, Families with teenagers, Tourists
I do not recommend this hotel for:
Older travelers, Families with young children
I selected this hotel as a top choice for:
Business meeting / Event