What it means
A day pass is a ticket to someone else’s resort. You pay, you park, you check in, and the pool, the deck and sometimes the gym or spa are yours until closing, with no room attached. In Scottsdale the phrase has a season. In winter it is a nice idea that sells out; in summer it is how locals live. “We got day passes at the Princess” is a July sentence, said by someone who drove fifteen minutes from home.
The reason is the rate calendar. The resorts price for February, when the high season crowd fills every room. From May to September, with highs over 100, they fill the decks with locals instead, and the day pass is the product. The site’s resort pool guide ranks the pools by kind of trip and explains how a pass works; the summer playbook explains the season. This page is about the phrase and its fine print.
Where you’ll meet it
On ResortPass and similar apps; on the resorts’ own websites under “day pass,” “pool pass” or “daycation”; at the front desk of the Westin Kierland on a Saturday in July; and in the spa guide, where a treatment is the quieter way in.
Where the word came from
The phrase is ordinary English, and nobody coined it for Scottsdale; this site has found no record of which resort first sold one. The older way onto a resort pool deck without a room, a spa appointment that includes the spa’s pool, still works. What made “day pass” an everyday Scottsdale word was the apps.
ResortPass, founded in 2016 and now based in New York, built a marketplace for hotel amenities sold by the day: pools, cabanas, daybeds, spa access, gyms. By June 2025 it said it had agreements with more than 2,000 hotels in over 400 U.S. cities, plus Mexico and the Caribbean. Scottsdale was a natural market, a city full of resort pools within a short drive of a few million people, and the app put the passes side by side with prices. Several resorts also sell passes directly on their own sites.
The listings show the spread. In October 2026, ResortPass showed Scottsdale-area passes starting at $25 at Hotel Valley Ho, the W and the Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch; $35 to $45 at the Omni Montelucia, JW Marriott Camelback Inn, the Scott, Mountain Shadows and Royal Palms; $50 at the Princess, Grand Hyatt and Westin Kierland; and $75 at the Phoenician and Andaz. Those are the floor, not the average.
What it is not
A day pass is not a hotel room and does not carry the nightly resort fee. It is not a cabana, which is the upgrade with shade, service and a minimum spend. And it is not a public pool: Scottsdale’s city aquatic centers are a different, cheaper thing.
The fine print
Starting prices are exactly that. Weekends and holidays cost more, cabanas and daybeds cost much more, and the pass rarely includes food, drinks or parking. The W’s basic pass, for instance, listed “from $25” in October 2026 with a fitness add-on from $35 and a party pass from $50; its WET Deck is 21 and over. Family resorts sell cheaper children’s passes, while some adults-only pools do not sell to children at all.
Supply is the binding rule. Resorts cap passes so paying guests keep their loungers, so a Saturday in March can sell out days ahead, while a weekday in July is the easiest booking of the year. Most bookings can be cancelled for a refund, but terms vary by resort and by experience.
The calendar is predictable. Experience Scottsdale defines summer as May 1 to September 15 and says accommodations are discounted by up to 60 percent then, and pool passes follow the same curve. The cheapest stretch is midsummer; Memorial Day, the Fourth and Labor Day are the exceptions. By early October the rates climb and the passes start to sell out again. For the hours that matter, remember the heat: midday in July is pool weather and nothing else, and an excessive heat warning means shade and water, not a lounger in the sun.