The Phoenician Residences, Scottsdale

A deeded fractional interest in one of the club residences. Vistana, which manages the club, describes its ownership products as deeded interests that convert to points in its own network, and Marriott's 2024 licence filing lists The Phoenician Residences as one of only three fractional projects licensed under the Luxury Collection and St Regis names. The club's published interest is a three week Club Interest: two fixed weeks in peak season and one floating week in summer. What transfers on a resale is that deeded interest and the weeks attached to it.

Two of the three weeks are fixed in peak season, so those dates are known before you buy. The third floats in summer and is booked through the club. The club also describes use beyond Scottsdale: more than 6,500 hotels across 29 brands in 127 countries, plus the other properties in the Vistana Residence Network, subject to availability. Check-in is from 4pm and check-out is 11am. Dogs are welcome, with a non-refundable fee of 150 USD per stay. Which weeks a particular interest carries is confirmed for the specific residence before you commit.

The club does not publish its annual assessment. Neither Vistana nor the resort lists a figure, so the charge on any interest, and what it covers, is confirmed for the specific residence before you commit. The club's own page says terms and restrictions apply and sends owners to their ownership documents for the detail, and those documents come from Residence Club Member Services in Orlando. On the transfer itself, Arizona prohibits any new state or local tax or fee on conveying an interest in real property. Recording, escrow and title costs still apply on a resale.

An on-site Residence Club concierge works from the resort, on extension 2572 from inside the residence, and Member Services in Orlando handles the membership side. Owners use what the resort runs: the golf course, the spa, the pool complex, the athletic club, tennis and the restaurants. The list below sets out what that means in practice.

The Phoenician opened in 1988, built by the financier Charles Keating on a 254 acre site at the base of Camelback Mountain. It now has 585 accommodations: 450 guestrooms, 107 casitas, 26 suites and 2 presidential suites. Host Hotels and Resorts bought it in 2015 and rebuilt it over three years from 2016. The golf course reopened in 2018 as one 18 hole layout by Phil Smith, par 71, 4,575 to 6,518 yards, run by Troon. The three storey Phoenician Spa, with 24 treatment rooms and a rooftop pool, opened in March 2018. The club residences are a small group of townhouses backing onto the golf course, set apart from the main resort buildings.

The resort stands on East Camelback Road at the foot of Camelback Mountain, nine miles from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport by the resort's own measure, with Scottsdale's shops and galleries a few minutes away. Season is the thing to understand here. Scottsdale gets more than 330 sunny days a year. December to February highs run 68 to 73F, or 20 to 23C. June to August highs run 103 to 105F, or 39 to 41C. That is the shape of the club calendar: the peak weeks fixed, and the third week floating through the summer.

Two things shape a purchase here for a UK buyer. Arizona prohibits any new state or local tax or fee on conveying an interest in real property, under Article 9, Section 24 of its constitution, but the deed is recorded in Maricopa County with an affidavit of legal value appended under Arizona Revised Statutes 11-1133, which puts the price and the parties on the public record. And when a foreign owner sells, the buyer withholds 15 per cent of the amount realised under the FIRPTA rules, and the seller then settles the actual tax with the US authorities. Take US tax advice first.

Avory works the resale side here. The resort's own page sends buyers to an agent or broker, so we deal with owners, their brokers, and Residence Club Member Services in Orlando, which runs the club calendar and handles transfers. After you enquire we confirm which weeks the interest carries, the current annual assessment, and the transfer steps, and we send you the club documents to read before you commit. Owner stays are arranged subject to availability. Request access.