ok where to start - avoid unless you don't need peace and quiet
i've stayed in the phoenix at least fifteen times over as many years and it's gone through many different hands. jdv have owned it for a while and it's been a mixed bag of late but this time was unbelievably awful due to the excessive noise from the newly opened chambers bar which adjoins the hotel. now the drinkers of that bar wander through the hotel courtyard by your room, shrieking and tottering around till 10pm on weekdays and till midnight on fridays and saturdays. then we had the added pleasure of a 6 hour crappy burning man music party in the actual courtyard of the hotel from 1pm to 7pm on sunday. this meant that about 200 revelers in thongs and bunny ears crashed around listening to deafening dance music for the whole afternoon. the bed was literally shaking so there was no way you could stay in your room during that period unless you felt like joining in. "you were warned" was the response from the angry hipsters who run the front desk. no, we were not "warned", no-one told us that for about half of sunday our room would be basically out of commission and we wouldn't be able to use the facilities. we also had to run the gauntlet of the security guard who wouldn't believe that several of us were guests because the night entrance lock barely ever works with your room key. sorry jdv but you can't run a nightclub and a hotel in the same venue, especially when the rooms have no soundproofing. this hotel is definitely no longer for families, forget it if you want to go to sleep or relax before 10pm. if the noise doesn't bother you, then you'll love it. the location is great, the rooms are fine and it's a lovely place when you're not getting bombarded by drunken idiots who aren't even guests of the hotel. they also need to do something about the reception staff who for the most part are just unfriendly, with the great exception of the night guy on sunday who handled us with utter professionalism and kindness after one of our party finally lost it with him over the conditions. sorry for the long rant, but you have all now been "warned" properly.