Reading prior reviews of Marriott’s Canyon Villas, I am reminded of the concept of one’s glass being half full, vs half empty. Our recent experience at Marriott’s Canyon Villas, was that our glass was in the way more than half full category.
First, I should say that we’ve vacationed at Marriott’s Canyon Villas countless times, since the resort opened, which is now more than 20 years ago.
Amongst our “draw” to Marriott’s Canyon Villas, is its location, the convenience of flying nonstop to PHX, and Canyon Villas close proximity to the airport, the beautiful, well designed, well maintained, well managed and well-staffed, Marriott’s Canyon Villas “VILLA” resort, and Marriott’s Canyon Villas close proximity (beside) and access to the amenities of the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort.
Our most recent stay at Marriott’s Canyon Villas, and vacation there, was as exceptional as prior ones. I can’t imagine not having a great time, and great vacation at Marriott’s Canyon Villas.
We particularly enjoyed the wonderful design of Marriott’s Canyon Villas, the facilities and amenities, and the wonderful Marriott’s Canyon Villas staff. Our Marriott’s Canyon Villas vacation and “resort experience” was greatly enhanced by Canyon Villas guest access to the spectacular JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort, next door to Marriott’s Canyon Villas (during 5 of 7 days of our vacation at Marriott’s Canyon Villas).
Our two-bedroom, two-bath “villa,” was a comfortable, well designed Vacation Home. This year, it seemed that the villa interiors long ago exceeded their useful life. While our villa was, in general, clean, and well maintained, the villa was exceedingly worn out. It seems that Marriott Vacation Club should have refurbished the villas at Marriott’s Canyon Villas, way more than a year ago. We were told that the villa renovations would commence in November 2024; that, in my opinion, is way overdue. I am concerned that this upcoming renovation is a “soft goods only” renovation; it seems that a significant portion of hard goods in our villa are way overdue for replacement, for example, outdated kitchen cabinets, floor tile, interior louvered closet doors, etc. The soft goods in our villa were way overdue for replacement, as well. As in our previous vacations at Marriott’s Canyon Villas, our villa was largely clean, upon check-in, however, on each of our visits to Marriott’s Canyon Villas, it seems that the Housekeeping Department has significantly missed the mark, in at least one significant area. I work in the domain of “High Reliability Organizations;” I’d refer to the Housekeeping Department at Marriott’s Canyon Villas, as highly UNreliable. It is a shame that Marriott, highly regarded for its “Process Engineering,” has a housekeeping department at Marriott’s Canyon Villas, that is very shy on High Reliability and Process Engineering.
One thing we noted on this visit, was a Coffee Maker that does not have a coffee pot/carafe. Trying to figure out how to use the damn coffee maker required a PhD. I believe it would be wise for the Front Desk to have a PDF annotated User's Manual for the coffee maker, dishwasher, and other appliances, that they can e-mail to guests, who are struggling to use certain appliances in their villa.
The common areas of Marriott’s Canyon Vilas are well maintained and clean; on this visit, we noticed many common area enhancements, from prior years. The pool areas are well designed and maintained, the same is true for the gym/fitness center, although, for the life of me, I cannot imagine why Marriott’s Canyon Villas removed the inflatable balls from the strengthening gym. In my experience, inflatable balls are an integral part of many gym patrons work-out routine.
The staff at Marriott’s Canyon Villas, particularly the Front Desk staff,
are warm, welcoming, professional and efficient.
While we generally vacation at Marriott’s Canyon Villas in the wintertime (Canyon Villas Peak Season), we have for the past few years vacationed at Canyon Villas in the summer time, as well. It’s not hard to notice that Marriott’s Canyon Villas gets a very different client/guest (much lower Socio-Economic Status) in the summertime, than they do in the wintertime.
I would highly recommend Marriott’s Canyon Villas for an exceptional vacation experience.
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