WestWorld is the city’s 380-acre event grounds off the Loop 101 at Pima Road, and twice each winter it hosts something that fills every hotel in North Scottsdale. In January it’s Barrett-Jackson, the collector-car auction that anchors Arizona Car Week: nine days, January 23 to 31, 2027, with the Rock the Block concert on the 21st and the opening gala on the 22nd. In February it’s the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show, February 11 to 21, 2027, eleven days of the world’s best Arabian horses and a shopping expo under the tents.
Here’s the honest part first: no hotel is a walk from WestWorld. The grounds sit on their own at the east edge of the Airpark, and the freeway and the golf courses keep every hotel at a distance. The closest beds are about two miles away by road. So the question isn’t which hotel is next door; it’s which one gets you in and out without a forty-minute queue on Pima Road.
Distances below are by road to the main grounds, with off-peak drive times. On a Barrett-Jackson Saturday, double them, at least.
The closest: Perimeter Center
The office park just northwest of WestWorld, off Pima Road beside the TPC Scottsdale courses, holds the nearest hotels.
- Scottsdale Links Resort. About 1.8 miles and five minutes, the closest of all. A Hilton Vacation Club timeshare of one- to three-bedroom suites with full kitchens and washers. Good for a group of collectors sharing a unit; expect the sales pitch and ask for a ground floor, because there are no elevators.
- Scottsdale Marriott at McDowell Mountains. About 2 miles and six minutes. Two-room suites, a real restaurant, and, per the Arabian Horse Show’s lodging directory, a shuttle within a five-mile radius, which covers WestWorld. Paid parking and a nightly destination fee. Upper-mid-priced, and much more than that in late January.
- Hilton Garden Inn Scottsdale North/Perimeter Center. About 2.4 miles and seven minutes, with free parking, a restaurant and bar, and rates below its neighbors. Pets welcome for a fee. Experience Scottsdale lists it among the hotels closest to the auction, and it’s the one we’d book for horse-show families on a budget.
- Holiday Inn & Suites Scottsdale North–Airpark. About 1.9 miles and six minutes, on the Airpark side of the freeway. The Raintree Cafe serves breakfast and dinner, which matters when every restaurant in the corridor is booked.
The Princess corridor
A little farther west, along Princess Drive and Hayden Road, is the resort corner that also hosts the WM Phoenix Open. Everything here is about 3 miles and seven or eight minutes from WestWorld.
- Fairmont Scottsdale Princess. The 750-room Spanish-colonial resort beside TPC, and the car-week splurge, with Bourbon Steak booked accordingly. About 3 miles and eight minutes. The top of the price range all winter.
- Sheraton Desert Oasis. One- and two-bedroom villas with kitchens and laundry on Hayden Road, about 2.8 miles and seven minutes, and no resort fee. A Marriott Vacation Clubs timeshare; many of your neighbors own their week.
- Holiday Inn Club Vacations Scottsdale and Villa Mirage. Two more villa resorts on Princess Boulevard, about 3 to 3.5 miles and seven or eight minutes away. The Holiday Inn has four pools and a waterslide for the family that brought kids to a car auction.
Experience Scottsdale, the city’s tourism bureau, names the Princess, the Hilton Garden Inn, the Holiday Inn Club Vacations resort, the Sheraton Desert Oasis, the Best Western Thunderbird Suites and the Residence Inn North as the properties closest to Barrett-Jackson. That’s a fair list.
Bell Road and Scottsdale Road
The brand-name cluster on the Airpark’s northwest corner, about 3 to 3.5 miles and seven to nine minutes from the grounds. Cheaper than the Princess corridor and still close.
- Hampton Inn & Suites Phoenix-Scottsdale. The horse show’s lodging directory lists a courtesy shuttle to WestWorld and puts it within 3.4 miles. Free breakfast and parking, a noon checkout, and it takes dogs and cats.
- Sleep Inn North Scottsdale. Next door to the Hampton. Its listing in the show’s directory repeats the Hampton’s WestWorld shuttle line word for word, so call to confirm it applies to the Sleep Inn. The cheapest bed on this page. No pets.
- Residence Inn, Courtyard and SpringHill Suites Scottsdale North. The Marriott trio at the same intersection, about 3 to 3.4 miles away. The Residence Inn has kitchens, which a horse-show family staying ten days will want.
- Best Western Plus Scottsdale Thunderbird Suites. All two-room suites beside Scottsdale Airport, about 3.5 miles and eight minutes. A group of three or four can share a suite comfortably.
Farther out but still reasonable: the Hilton North at Cavasson (about 3.4 miles), the Hyatt House and Hyatt Place up Scottsdale Road (about 4.4 miles), and the Westin Kierland (about 3.8 miles), which also hosts the Bonhams car-week sale on January 29, 2027.
Getting in and out
- Parking. Experience Scottsdale’s Barrett-Jackson guide says signs lead to limited general parking at WestWorld and to overflow lots, some paid and some free, with a free shuttle from the lots to the entrance. The lots fill by mid-morning on the big days.
- Rideshare. There’s a dedicated rideshare drop-off and pickup near the main entry, and for most visitors staying within five miles it beats both the lots and the shuttle. Expect a wait and surge pricing when the big evening sessions let out.
- Which gate. WestWorld has three entrances; the main one is on Pima Road just north of Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard.
- The back way. When Pima Road backs up to the freeway, which on Barrett-Jackson weekends is always, come in from Hayden. Our car week survival guide has the rest, including which days to go.
For the horse show, parking is the bigger line item than the gate fee, the crowds are a fraction of the auction’s, and the barn aisles and practice arenas are open to wander from early morning, so arrive before the traffic does.
What it costs, and when
- Barrett-Jackson week is one of the most expensive weeks of the year in North Scottsdale. Book in the fall; by Christmas, what’s left near WestWorld is what nobody else wanted.
- The second week of February is the hardest booking on the calendar: the Phoenix Open runs February 8 to 14, 2027 at TPC, next door to the Perimeter Center hotels, and the Arabian show opens on the 11th. Horse-show families who need those days should book the moment the show’s dates are set, and expect Phoenix Open rates at every hotel on this page through that weekend.
- The show’s second week, February 15 to 21, is easier and cheaper.
- The rest of the WestWorld calendar is gentler: the Arizona Sun Circuit (February 27 to March 7, 2027) and the Cactus Reining Classic (March 12 to 20, 2027) bring the horse crowd back during spring training, and the Goodguys Southwest Nationals (November 20 to 22, 2026) fill the grounds at shoulder-season rates. The Barrett-Jackson fall auction ran here in 2024 and 2025 but moved to Las Vegas for 2026.
- Summer is the cheap stretch for every hotel here, and the WestWorld calendar is mostly quiet.
By tier: the Sleep Inn is the budget end; the Hampton, Hilton Garden Inn, Holiday Inn, Best Western, Marriott trio and Hyatts are mid-priced; the Marriott at McDowell Mountains, Hilton North and the villa resorts are upper-mid; the Princess is the top. During Barrett-Jackson and Phoenix Open weeks, ignore the tiers. Everything is expensive.
Who each suits
- The bidder, or the consignor with a car on the block: the Princess.
- A crew of four sharing costs: Scottsdale Links or the Sheraton Desert Oasis, for bedrooms and a kitchen.
- The spectator doing one weekday: stay in Old Town, about 13 miles and twenty-five minutes south, and rideshare up. Dinner is better and the room is cheaper.
- A horse-show family staying ten days: the Residence Inn or the Hampton with its shuttle.
- On a budget with a car: the Hilton Garden Inn or the Holiday Inn on the Airpark side.
A last word on January
It’s the coldest month of the year here: mornings in the 40s, afternoons near 70, and the tents cold again by the evening session. Real shoes, layers, sunscreen. And book the steakhouse the day you book the hotel.