Hotel Solamar (Phoenix, USA)

The staff here all work to ensure that you get the most from your stay + you could do much worse than starting your day at Starbucks. The warmth of the welcome is matched by the information that is freely available.

All the hotel staff are mega friendly and efficient.There are plenty of restaurants and bars ... plus a shopping mall ...nearby, in this really excellent Phoenix location.

Can you really drag yourself away from the hotel's enviable facilities, including that perfect indoor pool - great, whatever the weather is doing outside? The leisure and dining options here mean that there is no need to venture further afield.

Beds are very hard and don't encourage a good night's sleep. The air con is loud as well so, in addition to the cold, as the result of an inadequate supply of blankets .. any thought of sleep is but a distant dream!

Some 'expert' designed the hotel so that rooms face on to the pool area. You don't need a university degree in Common Sense to realise that the rooms will become - and are - unbearably humid.

It's small wonder that staff can get 'rattled' and irritated when just one person on the front desk has to deal with in-coming guests and queries from those who are already here. It's not the fault of the guest either; they've paid for better service than this.