Jay B.
Yelp
MMI has a reputation of being the most prestigious and luxurious hotel around. Inside a very, VERY small podunk town called Payson. That makes this place very difficult for me to rate, considering the number of anomalies and missteps I encountered. However, it was a surprisingly nice hotel.
In order to give a fair and accurate review, I have to review it within the limitations of its surroundings and competitors. In short, Majestic is about the most a person could possibly expect to get as "top of the line" when visiting a modestly quaint and simple town such as this. That's why I chose this hotel really. Literally every other hotel in the area either didn't meet up to my specific requirements (given I had a family of 4 with me) or didn't rank above 3 stars according to other Yelp reviews.
So you walk into Majestic and it looks somewhat reminiscent of a log cabin type feel. Very woodsy, rustic...almost puts you in the mood for camping (even though I don't do that). That said, we can move onto the rooms.
The double queen size bed with fireplace attached was...a lot smaller than the cleverly angled pictures suggested. Seriously, there wasn't even space for a work desk; which is bizarre because I've been to HUNDREDS of hotels in my life and just about all of them had a work desk inside. Including the single queen sized bed rooms. Majestic is literally only the second hotel I have ever seen to not have a computer desk station in it. Oh well, whatever. I came here to visit a friend, not surf the web, right? About that Internet connection though..
It was slow. Too slow to call it "high speed" really. We're talking like 3MBps. Somehow this was just barely fast enough to stream YouTube and Netflix though, so it wasn't completely terrible. One thing I found impressive was the individual modems dedicated to each room. You connect to their complimentary WiFi by the signal which corresponds with your room number. A very nice touch and honestly the first time I've ever seen that executed so well in a hotel. Oddly enough however, there was ostensibly no free WiFi in the breakfast lounge. Like, is there ANY reason for this??
As far as the room itself, everything was clean, the beds were as comfy as any other hotel I've been in, and once I discovered the surreptitiously hidden instructions on how to operate the fireplace (behind the friggin lamps of all places), it was surprisingly effective at keeping the room comfortably heated. And it was temperature controlled. So it didn't need to be constantly burning throughout the night. This thing was so effective, there was almost no need to run the conventional heat via vent. Came in real handy on those 19 degree nights.
Now, let's talk about this hot breakfast of theirs real quick. Because I almost had to resist bursting out laughing when they advertised it so proudly. Most places that do this serve a rather dubious execution of said breakfast. And this one was...strictly by-the-numbers. I don't really know how else to describe it. But it definitely didn't fit with the rest of the decorum of this place. The fact that I could get a better hot breakfast at the Holiday Inn is quite embarrassing really. The eggs were fake as all hell, the hashbrowns were dry overcooked on the outside, the selection was limited (but what hotel without a breakfast bar isn't?), and the coffee was weak as sh!t. I realize I can be a pompous ass when it comes to hotel breakfast. But c'mon! How hard would it be for them to make REAL eggs? *sigh*
One other really strange anomaly I should mention was the fact that the hotel lobby only gave their guests one key. ONE! Now, usually the standard is a minimum of two. But for reasons I'll never understand, they said they were only allowed to give guests one key because they were "running low". Okay? WTF kind of hotel runs out of magnetic plastic cards for keys? Is there a black market for thieves desperately seeking plastic key cards?? Oh well, whatever.
But as stated, this was the absolute best hotel I could have possibly expected for a town like Payson. And frankly, if I were to revisit Payson, I wouldn't even consider staying anywhere other than the Majestic. My recommendation is: if you have the cash to drive and visit this remote part of Arizona, you might as well pony up the extra mula and spend it at Majestic. I doubt you'll have a better experience anywhere else in the immediate area. In the scheme of things, I'm giving Majestic Mountain Inn 4 cozy fireplace heated bedrooms out of 5.