Review of Sanctuary Resort & Spa in Phoenix Arizona 

Sanctuary Resort & Spa is located in Phoenix, Arizona and the property has quite the history. Back in the day, all 109 of the hotel rooms were small cottages.

Some were converted to hotel rooms, others were turned into single family homes and villas. The villas can be rented out through Sanctuary, which would be ideal for families or bigger groups. While Sanctuary doesn’t feel that big, it actually sits on 53 acres of land.

Hotel Details

Clientele: Primarily Adults-Only

Number of Rooms: 109

Wifi: Yes

Location: Central Phoenix

Walkability: N/A – Sanctuary is very secluded

Dog Friendly: Yes, with additional fee

Drone Friendly: Not on property, but the surrounding mountains/scenery are great for droning

Potential Social Media Content: Yes – good resort for “wellness/spa” content

Hotel Vibe: Quiet and Chill

Amenities

• Two pools (one lounge pool, one full size lap pool located behind the gym)

• Spa

• Fitness Center

• Tennis Courts

• Restaurant on-site, Elements

• On-Site Driver

• Golf Cart valet service for property transportation

Check-In & Lobby

Right when you arrive, the check-in counter is located right inside the lobby doors. Check-in was a breeze and we were able to walk around a bit before our room was ready. In the lobby area, you’ll also find Sanctuary’s on-site restaurant, Elements and their Jade bar. The lobby and restaurant overlook the lounge pool outside.

The valet drove us in a golf cart with our bags and luggage and escorted us to our room. Because this property is situated on the mountainside, the golf carts are a nice touch.

With temperatures pushing 100 degrees, even a short walk, back to your room can leave you sweating and praying for some AC & water.

The resort is confusing though. All of the rooms look the same and there wasn’t enough signage to help you along. The rooms are also laid out in rows alongside the mountainside.

Because of this, there is a lot of walking up/downhill to get to and from your room to elsewhere on the property, like to the pool, restaurant and spa. When it’s hot outside, all this walking isn’t that fun. I also didn’t pack the appropriate shoes to do that much walking.

The Mountain Casita King Room

The room was pretty basic in my opinion but hey, what do you expect when you book the “basic” room? The Mountain Casita King that we stayed in had a small “mountain” view but our room primarily looked onto the next row of rooms below ours.

The room had your standard amenities like TV, mini bar area & extra seating. The bathroom was probably the best part with a beautiful soaking tub & great shower.

We were told at check-in because of covid, there would be no housekeeping. I didn’t think that would bother me until Day 2 when the room was a mess and all I wanted to come back too was a clean room and freshly made bed. Times are tough people.. #realworldproblems.

Now that we are getting through the pandemic, it’s possible that the housekeeping has resumed. You may want to call Sanctuary ahead of time if this would matter to you.

The Pool

So this is where it gets interesting. I was really looking forward to the pool. It’s usually one of my favorite things about a hotel. The photos of their infinity pool on their website and Instagram looked amazing. This is their marketing picture of their pool …..

This picture is on the front page of their website and they use this same image on their room keys too. This pool made me want to stay here! Talk about good marketing… or, not.

The infinity pool was a big disappoint for a few reasons.

First, it didn’t live up to the photos they showed online at all. Here is a photo of what the pool area actually looks like.

The trees hide much of the Camelback Mountain view. Also, the mountains in their marketing photo don’t even look like what you see in real life. Also, where is the blue lounge area like pictured above?

Second, the “infinity” pool overlooked a building – so not much of a view at all.

And third, there was no music. Not even chill, relaxing spa music.

After looking at the pool and wondering “Why doesn’t this look like all the pictures?!” I realized that all of their marketing photos were likely taken 10+ years ago.

One tip off for me was the Palm Trees. They are significantly taller in person than in their marketing photo, for example, as you can see above.

You also don’t see the building on the other side of the infinity pool, so that was smart on their part.

One bonus is that on weekends, their lounge pool is exclusively adults-only, 16 years and older.

** I do want to mention, it appears that Sanctuary has updated their website with new marketing photos (maybe they read my blog?) but I still am seeing some of the legacy photos on third party booking websites like Hotels.com, Expedia etc

Food & Drinks

One BIG plus: Jade Bar has Happy Hour Sunday through Thursdays, 5-10pm

One BIG negative: There was no brunch offered on the weekends. Pretty shocking because brunch is kinda a necessity these days, especially at a resort?! You’re telling me I can’t get an Eggs Beney & Bloody Mary on a Sunday morning? Get out….

Aside from that, we enjoyed lunch at Sanctuary both days. Their restaurant is located in the lobby area and has great views for happy hour and sunset. Service was great and all the food we had was very tasty. Craft cocktails were delicious.

Their menu skews a little asian & more on the healthy side with dishes like Salmon Bento Box & Ahi Tuna Burrito.

Highly recommend if you visit Scottsdale… go ahead and have a special date night or ladies night at Elements.

The Spa

According to their website, Sanctuary has received many awards and accolades for their Spa. It didn’t meet my standards however. After checking out our room, we walked to the Spa for a tour. It was pretty underwhelming though.

No spa pool or outdoor spa amenities.

No co’ed spaces to enjoy time with your honey.

The spa just lacked any real big WOW. It all just seemed very basic.

After the tour, we decided not to do any treatments. The resort fee includes the use of Spa facilities like the sauna, steam and quiet room. We decided to check that the Spa Facilities on our last day.

The Spa does have a nice water feature outside in their Spa Courtyard, but you couldn’t really enjoy that. You could only look at it from inside the men’s or women’s lounge room. We both met outside in that courtyard to look around and we found an area of Sanctuary that we didn’t even know existed.. Tennis Courts.. other buildings.. didn’t realize the property was so big!

For a Spa in Arizona to not have a Spa Pool is beyond me. The Spa really had no outdoor amenities beyond their treatment rooms, which I think is a big miss. Arizona (most of the year) has amazing weather; you want to enjoy it!

When we asked about a spa pool, we were told there was only a Lap Pool. We decided to check that out, but it wasn’t ideal.. not from the spa, at least.

You have to leave the Spa, walk across to another building, go through the Gym and outside to get to the Lap Pool. Not exactly convenient and a little awkward when you are wearing your Spa Robe.

I think the best part of the Spa for me was actually the quiet room, which I’m not sure a Spa can really fuck up that badly?

Other Amenities

While I didn’t work out during my stay, the gym did look better than most hotel gyms I have experienced. They had a few different cardio machines, free weights & a separate room for classes.

Another added amenity was Sanctuary’s on site driver. This saved us probably $100-150 in Uber Rides. Their driver will take you anywhere that’s relatively close by the Resort. He drove us to brunch and picked us up from brunch. His knowledge of the area and Scottsdale in general was great too.

In terms of social media content, this property isn’t drone friendly (because of the residential villas) but the resort has a lot of opportunities for fun photo opps.

Was Sanctuary Resort & Spa Boutique or Busted?

Sanctuary Resort & Spa was BUSTED

From what I saw online, I thought Sanctuary was going to be incredible. Their pool looked stunning, their spa had tons of awards… but during my stay, I wasn’t wow’d. The infinity pool was underwhelming, with the lack of views and no music. I felt like I got duped by their marketing photos online. The spa had no “lavish spa amenities” like no spa pool or coed spaces.

This is a prime example of why I created Boutique or Busted. As consumers, sometimes we get fooled by marketing photos, awards that a hotel may have, their “image.” So I’m here to share my experience.

And seriously, no brunch on the weekends?! That literally should be a crime…

It’s possible that over time, some of my grievances will be fixed. But for now, next time I visit the Phoenix or Scottsdale area, I will look into The Scott hotel.

I would love to hear some feedback below… if you’ve visited Phoenix, where did you stay and would you recommend it? I’m excited to explore other options!