The Best Western Plus Papago Inn & Resort is a large place on McDowell Road, just west of Scottsdale Road. It's about a mile south of downtown Scottsdale, a mile or so north of downtown Tempe, and a few miles east of central Phoenix.

It's billed as a "resort", but I think that description is overly generous, but as a motel it does just fine. The rooms are nice, all facing a central courtyard with the pool and a aviary with parakeets (a nice touch). They do not offer a complimentary breakfast, but there is a restaurant with a good variety on offer (including an inexpensive continental breakfast).

During the peak season, this place can be expensive, but in the off season it's quite affordable.

Let me first say that this motel was a steal. We paid $50/night on Expedia and the location was great. We ended up hiking at Pagago Park - lovely area. After reading the reviews prior to my trip, my main concern was parking the rental car at the motel; this was not an issue. I used the parking lot on the side (plenty of parking available). The birds were a great touch. The beds are very comfortable. All in all, this hotel was clean, affordable, and relaxing. I would definitely stay here again.

For some reason I had very low expectations of the Best Western motels. Geez was I wrong. This motel exceed my expectations. The location was excellent for us, walking distance to Papago Park (with many restaurants to choose from) and driving distance to Scottsdale Fashion Mall and other local attractions. The check-in and check-out were very quick and the staff I dealt with were friendly. We stayed in room 124, it was on the ground floor close to the swimming pool. The room had 2 x very comfortable queen . TV is an old CRT type, but it worked well and had lots of channels to choose from. The room even had a desk and lounge chair. The bathroom was very small, but there were lots of towels. The only negative I have for this place is the thin walls and noisy pipes, we could hear our neighbours talking, going to the toilet, etc. What I loved about this motel was the grounds. We are travelling with our 1 yr old daughter, she loved the aviary (it was nice waking up to the budgies and finches singing away). Also missing in the room was a microwave, but we survived without it. If I ever return to Scottsdale I will definitely stay here again.

I read some other reviews about this property stating it is in a shady neighborhood. Not sure what that is all about. The neighborhood is a mix, mostly commercial, but within a block there are Lexus, Lotus, Masserati, Ferrari, BMW dealerships -- not really a shady clientele.

The location is very convenient. We did not find any issue with the pillows as one person mentioned. In fact our pillows were very fluffy and lots of them. Nice touches in the rooms. Not overly large or extravagant, but very serviceable. The bathroom area was spacious with lots of little extras (actual mugs for coffee and glass drinkware -- not styrofoam or plastic).

Birds weren't the problem for us that some indicated. (They must be VERY light sleepers!) I found they added a nice touch to the whole courtyard, which is beautiful. Pool was closed for maintenance while we were there, but it wasn't really pool weather during our stay anyway (rained 2 days).

One problem we had -- our room was on the 2nd floor right about the laundry. In the morning, the vibration from the washers carried through the floor and our beds vibrated right along with it!

We found all the staff very nice, polite and helpful. I would definitely recommend this hotel. Not sure I'd call it a resort, but it was a great value, clean, and super location!