I was so excited when I saw Hilton had finally finished the remodel of this historic property in Downtown Phoenix. The building had been sitting vacant for years right across from Chase Tower (the tallest building in AZ) and it was quite an eye sore. I decided to book the hotel for a special little Christmas season get-away with my partner. I'm so glad I did!
We arrived and the first thing I noticed was how much time and effort they took to preserve the historic nature of the building. The staff was friendly and you could tell they were proud of the hotel's history (scenes from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho were filmed here). Despite it being their second day open, they were very knowledgeable and went out of their way to get us the perfect room. They offered to valet our car but I'm pretty familiar with Downtown Phoenix so I knew that Sunday nights the street parking meters are free. We just parked around the corner on 1st Street and saved $29.
The room was completely modern. One thing that surprised me was how the elevators and everything in the lobby were meticulously remodeled and preserved to appear as original as possible but the rooms appear to be completely modern. They are furnished to appear congruent with the mid-century look of the building but everything is new in the rooms. I have a feeling the hotel had been so severely damaged during its years of vacancy that they weren't able to preserve the original format of the rooms so they went ahead and retrofitting everything using a new format. For this reason, the hotel stands apart from many historic hotels in that the room was nice-sized with a great bathroom and modern amenities. I have to give Hilton props for deciding to go this route on the actual rooms. You get to enjoy the ambiance of the hotel's historic charm without having to endure the discomfort of squeezing into an old fashioned, tiny bathroom.
The hotel is located right in the heart of downtown just steps from the Metro Light Rail (quick trip to Sky Harbor Airport). There are tons of restaurants, bars and shopping. We even strolled down to do some ice skating around the Christmas Tree.
I loved everything about our stay and I encourage anyone to stay at this hotel.