Bell Rock Inn in Sedona, AZ

We exchanged our Marriott time share for a week at this location. There was a significant gap in quality between what we traded and what we got. Our unit at Bell Rock was old and furnished with absolutely the cheapest cupboards, formica counters, and tub that had been painted and was peeling. There is no restaurant on site and no good restaurant (meant as sit-down with good wines and healthy food selections) within an easily walkable distance.

Bell Rock has a Trip Advisor Rating of 4.0 stars; however, I am making you aware of an experience that was less than favorable so that you are more aware of these issues for other guests. When we arrived at the resort early we were greeted promptly and hospitably. Our request to accommodate additional vehicles was accommodated, and we were made aware of a text that would indicate the room was ready. The check-in and staff were professional and friendly and we were satisfied with the townhome upon check-in. However, when we arrived back at the end of the day, we found the first floor of the town home to be damp near the fireplace. We were able to avoid it and I called the front desk to make them aware of the issue around 10:30p so they could address it in the morning before the next guest. By morning, the entire carpeted floor in our first- floor suite was soaked. Socks, and baggage were wet and no longer usable. At check-out, the front desk staff was apologetic and after contacting the manager was able to “give” us our $16.95 resort fee back, but was “unable to do anything else.” She noted that we had booked with an outside agency, when in fact, I had booked our reservation through Diamond Resorts online. While I can understand that some natural elements are at play, it had been raining for quite some time prior to our check-in and if the resort had any inkling that the room may be susceptible to rain, it should have been taken off the available list. The experience of staying overnight with wet carpet, which can cause health issues, in addition to a variety of other inconveniences having to do with damp luggage, socks and a general discomfort left much to be desired.

Recently my wife and I stayed in a studio unit near the pool, overall the unit was comfortable and well equipped. Before we booked we had read that cell signal was not good, but my wife and I both had good reception (AT&T and Metro PCS), the one problem that I had was the WIFI signal would come and go, which made it difficult to load pages and download content.

We were already warned that this was a time share hustle (from reading TripAdvisor reviews) and not a regular hotel before we got here. No problem, I can dodge a sales pitch as good as anyone, so I booked the room through the TripAdvisor web site and was instantly routed to another third party booking site called “Cancelon” who did the actual booking. When we arrived at this property’s front desk we were told that we would also be paying an additional $16.00 hotel/resort fee. I explained to the girl that the third party booking site (Cancelon) we had booked through said the fee was only supposed to be $13.00, she basically told me I needed to prove that (as if I were lying about $3.00). I attempted to log into their wi-fi while standing there at their front desk, but their wi-fi would not work. All the while the girl behind the desk stood there grinning at our perplexing dilemma as if she was full aware of their non-existent “wi-fi”. Of course I had no way of proving that while standing there at the front desk, and at that point we simply wanted to get checked in, so we agreed to pay this additional charge. We were then told that even though the room was already paid for (and they already had my credit card number), they were going place an additional $100.00 hold on my card as a “security deposit”. That is something I have never seen any hotel do unless the guest was paying in cash (or unless the hotel was a dive) in my 50+ years of staying in hotels. But once again after traveling all day we just wanted to get to our room and felt that we were at their mercy. After finally being checked in and told to go to the concierge’s desk (where they will attempt to hustle you into buying a time share), we skipped the concierge’s desk and went straight to our room. When we finally arrived at our room we discovered we were given a room that faced their swimming pool and not a room with a view as I had requested. We also discovered there was no elevator and had to lug a considerable amount of luggage up a very narrow set of stairs, across a breezeway, and down a hall to get to our room. As we were walking down the hall we noticed a very strong odor that smelled like bug spray. When we entered the room we immediately noticed one of the drapes had a large rip in it about a foot long, one of the ceramic tiles on the floor had a very large crack in it, and the floor strip between the ceramic tile and carpeting was broken. At that point we were worried the hotel might try and charge us for this damage (since they had put a hold on my credit card as a security deposit) and so we immediately took photos of these items that included a time stamp. The water pressure in the shower was so low that half of the jets in the shower head had no water coming out of them. I attempted to log onto their “wi-fi” until the wee hours of the morning but never could get on it. Extremely pathetic connection speed. Then, as we were finally going to bed we heard a smoke alarm go off from a nearby room. Someone was attempting to cook fish in their room and when they burnt their meal and set off their smoke alarm they opened their door to let the smoke/smell out and of course that smell instantly filled the hallway outside. Because of the way the air conditioning works in the rooms it also instantly drew that pungent smell from the hallway directly into our room and our room was inundated with the burnt fish odor most of the night. The only thing I could smell in our room besides fish that night is when someone decided to have a cigarette out in the hallway and that smell also came directly into our room. To be honest, at that point the cigarette smell came as a relief from the sickening burnt fish smell we had been experiencing so far that night. There are several other issues about this property that I will skip listing here for times sake, but needless to say we were not given any type of compensation or even an apology (by the same girl: Ms. Garcia) at check out. Interesting enough, when I went to check out she reversed the security deposit that was put on my credit card without verifying with housekeeping that we had not damaged the room, which tells me they don’t really care what happens to their rooms but are just following the routine policy set by management. If you plan on staying in Sedona or the Oak Creek Village area, do yourself a favor and shell out just a few more dollars and stay somewhere else. Just about any other place you stay in Sedona will be nicer than this time share hustle gone bad.

Great Resort! Staff and accommodations were great and the views from our condo were awesome! We were a short walk to the Bell Rock Pathway and it was wonderful! Of course it wasn’t crowded due to the coronavirus but that probably made it even better!