We sat in the back of the golf cart and as we winded down the path toward the lobby, I noticed the illuminated boulder with The Boulders’ logo on it. That was pretty, and I felt a huge pang of disappointment. Here we were on what was supposed to be a relaxing little staycation. Instead of having a nice rest and waking up in the morning to grab an iced coffee and go for a walk around the lovely grounds, we were on a golf cart being taken to the lobby and then eventually to our car so we could get the hell out of there. And just after midnight, I was asleep at home in my own bed and thinking to myself, I’m likely not ever doing another staycation again, and I’m going to really have to think twice about hotel selections in the future. (Not really the thoughts you want to have when you love travel and also have a travel blog.)
But let me back up and explain how we got to the point of leaving what is supposed to be a five star resort. I had some credits through my Hilton Aspire card. The way things have gone this year with my travel schedule, I didn’t think I would have the time to take any additional trips this year other than what’s planned. Phoenix and Scottsdale have tons of amazing properties. Let me restate that, Phoenix and Scottsdale have an abundance of resort properties. These are beautiful properties with wonderful amenities. I’ve been fortunate enough to stay at a number of them. When I was looking at the list of Hiltons in the area, there were a number of options. I narrowed it to two – The Boulders and the Arizona Biltmore. I’ve done the Biltmore and it is a wonderful property, but hadn’t stayed at The Boulders. It’s in Carefree and in a beautiful part of the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. So a few months ago, I booked a night for July. The plan was to hang out at the pool, perhaps go to the spa, have some nice meals and walk around the beautiful grounds. Note The Boulders is part of Hilton’s Curio Collection.
Friday arrived and I was able to check in via the Hilton app. I saw that they upgraded my room from the Casita King to the Casita King Sonoran View (about a $15 upgrade). I was upgraded because I’m a Diamond member. This was fine. I was not expecting much other than a better view and that’s OK. They assigned me to hotel room 206. That’s a North Casita. The main difference between the North and South Casitas is that the North Casitas are supposed to have better views and be closer to the Spa and the South closer to the main lodge area and pool. I don’t mind walking a bit further so was happy to be in an area with the view.
Saturday came around. I had to take our dog Ellie out to my parents’ so she could spend the night there. That was about a 35 minute drive each way, then I came back and picked up Chris and drove the 30 minutes or so to the hotel. Check in time is 4 p.m., but we arrived just after 12 p.m. I wanted to get some pool time even if we couldn’t get into our room. But, when we arrived, the lady at the front desk said our room was ready and told us to go out front and hop on one of the golf carts and someone would take us there.
I want to point out two things:
- All of the staff that we met were very nice.
- There is a mandatory $40 daily resort fee. It includes internet access, fitness center access, fitness classes, gratuities for bell service, concierge, & shuttle drivers, pickleball paddles, club storage, local & toll-free calls, and on property shuttle.
After a short golf cart ride, we arrived at our room. We walked in and it was large – 550 square feet. It was designed in the Southwest architectural style – wood beams, stone floor. It had a fireplace, two big leather chairs, a big bathroom and closet and outdoor patio. I liked its size and its functionality.
Remember I said it was a View Casita? Well, about that view, we were right on the golf course. Sounds dreamy, right? In theory, but there was a big tree that hadn’t been properly trimmed so you couldn’t see much. We did have a resident bunny that hung out by the tree.
I put my bag in the closet and was going to get my swim stuff. I noticed two robes hanging in the closet. There were, however, no slippers. That seems odd for a five star Hilton property. Note I usually bring some inexpensive slippers from Amazon when I travel. I didn’t this time because every high end property I have stayed at (and even low end ones) have slippers. I can’t understand why this one didn’t (I even looked in all the drawers) because it had a stone floor which wasn’t so great to walk on with bare feet.
As I was walking between the bedroom and bathroom I felt like I stepped on something. I looked down and on the side of the floor between the bedroom and closet in the bathroom was a scorpion. It was dead. Yikes. But let me point out something right now, Arizona had scorpions. This property is in a desert environment. We live near a preserve. There are critters but you have to have pest control. Are there one offs? Sure, but as we would later see, this was a maintenance, cleaning, and pest control issue.
The hotel had texted earlier to let me know about my daily dining credit as a Hilton Honors member and asked how things were. I sent the photo and let them know there was a dead scorpion in the room. They said they would send housekeeping to pick it up. I let them know we’d already disposed of it. Honestly, it was dead in our room, why hadn’t housekeeping caught that previously? Maybe it had crawled in between housekeeping came and when we arrived. Maybe … but based on later events, I don’t think so.
So we walked to the pool enjoying the desert landscaping and rocks along the way. We grabbed some chairs at the pool. The pool area was smaller than I expected, but there were enough chairs for all the guests. There was also their boulder waterfall that’s in all the photos.
A waitress stopped by and asked if we wanted to order anything. I asked for a menu. About 15 minutes later, she brought back two menus. We looked at the drink menu. Drinks were prices you would expect for a hotel – $14++. Beers were $9-10. This is expected at higher end properties. I feel like everywhere these days charges $15 for a drink. Chris inquired about the pitcher of sangria ($47). He asked the waitress how many glasses the pitcher has. She said probably about three. Chris was doing the math at $14-$15 a drink is it better to get individual drinks vs. the pitcher. Note that a sangria is $14. I said just do the pitcher. She said they put a whole bottle in there. It came and I can tell you, we got about 3.25 glasses each not 3 glasses total! It tasted good though I think the amount of alcohol in there was very minimal. It also took forever to get the check to sign.
After a few hours of reading in the sun and being at the pool, we decided to head back to the room to get ready for dinner. We were going to try out the Spotted Donkey at the El Pedregal are of the resort. I’d been looking forward to this. I remember years ago hearing about it and also hearing about various event at El Pedregal – outdoor concerts, wine tastings, etc. We texted the number to get a ride to dinner (otherwise it was about a 10-15 minute walk across the property). We were told it would be a 10 minute wait but the helpful staff member showed up in 5 and drove us over there and dropped us off. One thing I should note here is that when we returned to the room after our time at the pool, it smelled a little funky, like a sewer. I had read online that sometimes after rain (we had rain that morning), there is a musty smell in the casitas. This wasn’t musty, this was sewer-y.
We walked into the restaurant and were seated at a hightop in the bar. The bar had a number of people in there. It was happy hour so I opted for a strawberry margarita ($9). Chris got the Canyon Road Cabernet ($6.50). We ordered some dishes off the happy hour menu – a cheese crisp, guacamole, and donkey nachos. All were $7.50 each. The cheese crisp was my favorite. It was very flavorful. The guacamole had a good taste and came with a bunch of chips. It just wasn’t a large portion of guac. The donkey nachos were filled with beans and pork. I think this was a smaller size than if you ordered off the regular menu. It was drenched in sauce and hard to eat. It wasn’t that it was bad, it just was cold.
We also ordered churros from the desert menu ($9) and those were tasty. Our server Megan was excellent and made sure our water was constantly refilled which was appreciated.
After dinner, we decided to walk a back to the room to enjoy the beautiful property. First, we wanted to check out El Pedregal. Do you know the videos on social media of the abandoned malls? This is one of them. There is only the restaurant and one shop there. The rest is shuttered. You can peak in and see spaces filled with half empty Fanta bottles and trash bags. A sign for Brazilian blowouts shows a salon that used to be there, but is now covered with trash bags on the floor. How disappointing and how creepy. I mean at this point leave it vacant but clean up the trash.
So we headed back to the main part of the property. There are lots of nature trails throughout the resort and its really pretty. We decided that we would get up early on Sunday while the weather was still nice and walk the property.
After meandering a bit, we headed back to our room. When we opened the door, the sewer smell was stronger. However, the room was also warmer than it had been so we turned the AC down. That masked the smell. We noticed whenever the AC was really blowing, there wasn’t the smell. When the AC wasn’t at full steam, you could smell whatever it was. I should also point out that this weekend had been cooler temps than the area usually has and the AC still seemed to struggle with keeping the room cool. This seems like a maintenance issue.
We turned on the TV, watched the end of Legally Blonde, and then I decided to get comfortable. I walked across the rug toward the bathroom and felt something stick my foot. What the hell? I look down and its a huge toenail. OK, that’s super gross. I start looking around and there are more toenails on the rug in the room. OK, so this rug hasn’t been cleaned and the room clearly hasn’t been inspected.
A few hours later, we decide to go bed. Chris, pulls the sheets back and there is a medium sized black bug on his size of the bed. OMG I’m thinking, do we have bedbugs? We pull the sheets back and there are no signs of bed bugs, thankfully, but there is now a black bug crawling up my side of the nightstand. Gross. At this point, I’m really wandering if we should stay here. The scorpion, the sewer smell, the toe nails, the bugs. It is really clear this room isn’t being cleaned.
At this point, we hear a loud noise overhead and it is a helicopter. I look it up, and it’s a Maricopa County Sheriff’s helicopter. It’s circling the property. Not sure if they were looking for a suspect on the loose, lost hiker (at 9:30 though?) or what. It seemed to go on for at least 45 minutes. Given that this was happening and we’d have to get someone on a golf cart to take us to our car at night, we decided to stay.
I’m not sure how much time passed as the helicopter was still overhead but at some point, I was started to doze off. Chris says to me, “Heather did you just touch me?” “What? ” I say, “I’m trying to sleep, no I didn’t touch you.” The next thing he does is turn on the light, and I see the largest spider I’ve ever seen crawl across the bed. I start screaming, he’s yelling something, and the spider is now under the sheets. Are you freaking kidding me? We had both jumped up and at this point, he says he’s done. We’ve been in hotel hell. He moves the sheet, and the spider is running across the bed. OMG!! OMG!!!
I have never packed up stuff so quickly. I threw everything into our bags and called the front desk to ask them to send a golf cart immediately as we were leaving. Here’s the thing though, as I went back to the nightstand to grab my phone and jewelry, I noticed a smaller spider on the wall and more black bugs crawling up the nightstand and wall. We got a ride to the lobby and explained to the young man at the front desk, Parker, what happened. He was very apologetic and said he would send an email to Maria, the Operations Manager, on Sunday. As of the writing of this, I have not heard anything back yet.
None of this was a one-off. The room was: a) not clean, b) the room not well-maintained, and c) the room and potentially, property, infested with bugs. Yes, this is in a desert area, but that doesn’t mean there should be bug infestations. And with the way the evening was going, I wouldn’t have been surprised if we went to sleep and an our later a rattlesnake slithered out from under the bed or down the fireplace. I mean who knows.
A look at reviews online people mention the property is dated. I didn’t think the furnishings were that dated. I thought the rooms were large, the Southwestern style spoke to the essence of the property, but looking closer at the rooms, there were signs that things needed fixing. Not just normal wear and tear stuff, but caulking in the bathroom that needed to be fixed to keep things out. And, let’s also say it again that toe nails on rugs are not acceptable ever.
This is a real shame because the location of this property is lovely. I would have loved to made this a yearly summer staycation option. But not knowing what is going to crawl out on the bed or in the room is not a good feeling to have. We were fortunate because we could drive home and get the hell out of there. What about people who are staying multiple nights and from out of town?
We went home, we took everything from our bags and washed it immediately. We checked our bags for bugs. That’s no fun in the middle of the night. And this morning, we spent the hour plus round trip driving to pick up Ellie. And see I think this is the thing that is most irritating about the whole experience. This was supposed to be a relaxing weekend. It’s not just the cost of the hotel ($246). I feel fortunate that I have the ability to do something like a staycation. It’s the time. The time that it takes to pack, the time that it takes to drop off the dog, the time it takes to get there. This was our weekend time, this was the time that we get to decompress from hectic week of work. Instead of a chance to destress and relax from work, we had a hellacious experience. We wasted our time, we wasted our money. And what if we had been a couple who had saved up to stay there, that was spending a milestone birthday, anniversary or honeymoon there? Think of how disappointing that would be. Do better Boulders.
I won’t visit again, and I won’t in good faith recommend this hotel to anyone.
Update: 7/21/2026
My Follow-Up Email to The Boulders
The afternoon of Monday, July 20, 2026, I contacted the resort directly because I had been told someone from management would reach out after we left in the middle of the night. No one ever did on Sunday nor did they on Monday morning.
In my email, I summarized the issues that led us to leave early, including the apparent toenail clippings in our room, the dead scorpion, the large spider, numerous other insects, and the persistent sewer odor. I explained that these conditions were far below what I expected from a five-star resort and that I was disappointed not only by the experience itself but also by the complete lack of follow-up from management.
I also raised several billing concerns. Although I had no issue paying for our food and beverage charges (of $92.08 for pool drinks and dinner), I questioned why the resort refunded a $105 prepayment I had intentionally made using Hilton Honors American Express statement credits that expired shortly afterward. Because the payment was refunded after the credits expired, American Express reversed the credits, leaving me responsible for the restaurant charge out of pocket. I also explained that I had intended to use a paper gift certificate toward my stay, but because we left unexpectedly in the middle of the night, it was never applied despite being assured someone would contact me afterward to resolve the billing. I asked for an explanation of the billing, assistance with the unused gift certificate, and, most importantly, the follow-up conversation I had originally been promised.
The Boulders’ Response
A representative from The Boulders apologized for my disappointing stay, acknowledged that no one had contacted me after my departure, and apologized for the confusion surrounding my final bill.
The resort explained that what I believed was a $105 prepayment was actually a $100 authorization hold and stated that gift cards and gift certificates are normally applied only during the checkout process. They also indicated that they believed two payment cards had been authorized at check-in and suggested one of those may have been my gift certificate. Because I left unexpectedly during the night, they acknowledged that the checkout process was not handled correctly.
As a gesture of goodwill, they said they would remove my dinner charge and advised that any remaining authorization holds would be released from my credit card. The email concluded with another apology and an invitation to reach out with any additional questions.
My Follow-up Response
I thanked the resort for removing the restaurant charge but clarified that several key details in their response were incorrect. I explained that the $105 was not an authorization hold. It consisted of two intentional prepayments—$50 on one credit card and $55 on another that I had made in advance (in early May) specifically to use Hilton Honors American Express statement credits before they expired. I also clarified that the two $194.68 authorizations placed at check-in were both on the same credit card and were unrelated to those earlier prepayments.
I further explained that my gift certificate was not a credit card at all. It was a paper gift certificate purchased from the resort’s golf shop, and I had informed the front desk at check-in that I intended to use it toward my final bill. Because we left unexpectedly, it was never applied.
While I appreciated the apology, I also reiterated that my primary concern had never been the billing. I had hoped someone from management would address the significant issues that caused us to abandon our stay in the middle of the night—including the cleanliness concerns, insects, dead scorpion, and sewer odor. I also asked whether the unused gift certificate could be redeemed or refunded since I no longer felt comfortable returning to the resort.
I never received a response to that email. No charges have been removed from my account and one of the $194.68 charges still shows as pending.
