The Eldorado Suites Hotel is a three-story, Territorial-style building with eleven guest accommodations. What makes the hotel unique is that each of its units has a living room, a full-sized, fully-stocked kitchen, and the option to have two bedrooms or just one—depending on the occupancy needs of the visitors. Another unique aspect of the hotel are the three extensive verandas on each floor that stretch across the entire length of the building. Each room has access to the verandas and the views it offers of the surrounding area. The property is centrally located in downtown Bisbee, Arizona. Because of this, many guests simply walk anywhere they want to go during their stay there. Some well-known attractions nearby that also share the history of the town include the Queen Mine Tour and the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum. Searra, one of the owners of the Eldorado Suites Hotel, considers herself to be a local host; someone who knows the goings-on of the town and can help visitors have an enjoyable time there. The hotel is open year-round.
The Eldorado Suites Hotel is located in a neighborhood district of Bisbee, Arizona. Bisbee itself can be described as a relatively small, rural, old mining town. Due to its history as a mining town, many of the buildings themselves are built into the hillside, making it look as if they were all stacked on top of each other. The hotel is centrally located in downtown Bisbee and, as such, is also within walking distance of several restaurants nearby as well as one of the area's main attractions, the Queen Mine. The hotel is three stories tall and is constructed in a Territorial style, built primarily from cement and painted a light tan. Windows and doors with bright blue trim cover the structure, giving patrons plenty of views of the surrounding area. But perhaps the most significant features of the building are the extensive verandas that run across the entire length of the building on all three floors. The railing and poles that form the structure of the verandas are painted a dark red to complement the bright blue and light tan coloring of the rest of the building. The inside of the Eldorado Suites Hotel is described by one of the owners, Searra, as being "comfortable-casual." There are eleven guest accommodations available, spread throughout the three floors—four on each floor. All of these suites share access to the communal verandas that overlook the surrounding area, with a set of chairs and a table set up for each unit. Individually controlled central heat and air conditioning are included in each accommodation and a fully equipped private kitchen. Other amenities consist of free Wi-Fi, DirecTV, Brita Water Filters, and spa-quality bath supplies. In addition to the verandas, patrons staying in any of the units are also able to utilize the back patio on the property. This patio has been set up to be an outdoor living area complete with shade, furnishings such as tables and chairs, a gas barbecue, and a fountain. Nine of the eleven guest accommodations have queen-sized beds, and the remaining two have king-sized beds. What makes the suites unique, however, is that they are all two-bedroom suites. In addition to the first bedroom, complete with a king or queen bed, each unit has a second bedroom with an additional queen bed or, in some cases, two twin beds. This second bedroom is, of course, only a feature should visitors want or need to use it. When guests book their stay at the Eldorado Suites Hotel, they have the option to reserve both bedrooms during their stay to have a higher occupancy unit or only reserve one of the bedrooms for a lower nightly rate. Should they choose to go with the two-bedroom option, the suites go from around 600 square feet to 850 square feet. Another unique aspect about the hotel is that all three of the units on the ground floor of the building are pet-friendly so that guests can enjoy the company of their dogs during their stay in Bisbee, Arizona. According to Searra, the suites themselves are designed to feel like a "home away from home"—hence why they provide all the amenities and features available to their patrons, along with the private entrances and the relatively large veranda living space. The rooms in the units are decorated with and furnished with this desired goal in mind as well. Many of the walls are painted bright reds and yellows with matching furniture. This coloring complements the bright blue-themed trim of the windows and doors that permeate the house. Furthermore, guests staying at the hotel have access to several more in-suite amenities such as a washer and dryer machine, a hairdryer, clawfoot bathtubs with a shower, Sealy Posturepedic beds. In contrast to a typical hotel layout, the layout of these suites also tries to replicate a "homey" style feel, having separate areas for the bedrooms, the bathroom, the furnished living room, and the kitchen area. There is no food served at the Eldorado Suites Hotel, but each of the property's eleven suites boasts a fully-equipped private kitchen and attached dining area. Some of the features included in these kitchens include microwave ovens, toasters, a coffee maker complete with in-room coffee, an oven-stovetop combo, a double basin sink, and a refrigerator. Beyond this, they also come equipped with all the necessary dishware, glassware, pots and pans, and cooking and eating utensils needed to make and serve meals. The dining area has a four-person table with chairs. Despite no food being served at the property, the hotel does have chilled champagne and a "Margarita's Makin's" kit available for purchase should guests want a drink during their stay.
According to the owner, Searra, the culture of the Eldorado Suites Hotel is "home away from home." Perhaps a couple of the primary ways she and the staff try to achieve this desired atmosphere is through the amenities offered in each suite and the room layout itself. Searra mentions that any guests are surprised about how large the suites are and how they each have a full kitchen and two bedrooms should people want it. One visitor, speaking about the various amenities and the suite's layout, said, "Our room on the 3rd floor afforded us terrific views and basically our own private balcony. The accommodations are big enough to live in and call home. We had a super comfortable king bed in a bedroom that had two closets. A fully stocked kitchen allows you to make all your meals if you wish. A living room with ample seating and HDTV was great for after dinner. The bathroom was functional and had a touch of nostalgia." Regarding the specific features and amenities, Searra talks about how the Eldorado Suites Hotel is known for having comfortable beds and sheets and furnishings, such as the claw foot bath. She mentions that they want their guests to feel comfortable staying with them and that by providing these amenities, they are better able to help their visitors feel more like they are staying in a "home away from home." Another primary aspect of the hotel that it is well known for—and one that many guests talk about in reviews—is the extensive verandas and the views they offer. One review made by a patron of the hotel reads, "It's a home away from home with a kitchen, living room, and roomy bedrooms. I love the clawfoot, old-school bathtub. My favorite thing is being able to sit out on the balcony taking in the sights and sounds." Searra's favorite thing about her job, as the owner and hostess of the Eldorado Suites Hotel, are her guests. She talks about how she enjoys meeting them and serving them. Another thing Searra loves to help guests do is "show them our little town." She hopes that they can experience Bisbee, have an enjoyable time there, and enjoy the area as much as she and her mother do. The first step in accomplishing this goal is to "become a destination" of their own at the hotel. According to Searra, this consists of striving to provide "good, consistent, quality service." In tandem with providing this service, the second step to helping people enjoy the Bisbee area is to make sure they only send their guests to people and places that they know also have "good, consistent, quality service." Beyond wanting people to enjoy the town and the hotel during their stay, one of Searra's main hopes is that her patrons will want to come back again, both to the city and the hotel. One of the hotel's visitors talked about the town and the property, saying, "This is a laid back hotel in a laid back town steeped in history. The hotel is clean and has lots of amenities. But mostly, they leave you to yourself while providing good directions to explore. I would definitely stay there again. Very quiet and comfortable." The Eldorado Suites Hotel is centrally located in downtown Bisbee, giving the property's patrons easier access to the surrounding attractions and activities. One guest, regarding the location of the hotel, said, "The Eldorado Suites Hotel is in the perfect location for exploring Bisbee and the surrounding area. We walked the entire town and left our vehicle in the hotel's on-site free parking spot." Searra talks about how Bisbee is a small town with many ties to its historical roots. Regarding its history, there are some well-known, local attractions guests can visit. However, due to its small size, an abundance of the events or activities visitors could go to aren't very official, mostly passed along through word of mouth. This is why Searra and her staff try to know the goings-on of the surrounding area and inform guests on the available itinerary of activities and attractions available during their stay in Bisbee. She considers herself a "local host." Bisbee itself is an old copper mining town. Though relatively small now, it was once a bustling hub for work and visitors. Still to this day, however, many people coming to the area go and learn about the town's roots at one of the historical attractions nearby. Chief among these is the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum, a Smithsonian Institution affiliate. Another primary place people go is the Queen Mine Tour, where guests dress in hard hats and reflective clothing and go underground into the old Queen Mine itself to see the various cave shafts, tools, mining processes, and ore that made the town what it is today. Searra tells how beyond these main attractions, there are also several art galleries and music venues they can go to. Other attractions to the area consist of the various hiking places and trails nearby. Bisbee itself is situated on a hill face, with lots of uphill and downhill streets. Searra says that they have a local joke that the sidewalks are actually just stairs. One such event that has to do with hiking and the stairs is the Bisbee 1,000, The Great Stair Climb—an annual race where competitors run all over Bisbee's stairs and sidewalks, supposedly climbing 1,000 steps in the process. Dining options in Bisbee are relatively extensive. Some of Searra's favorites near the Eldorado Suites Hotel are the High Desert Market and Café, an authentic Vietnamese shop called Thuyes, and a diner built in an old vintage airstream called Dot's Diner at the Shady Dell. According to Searra, the demographic of the hotel is quite varied, consisting of families, couples, and single patrons. This variance is partly due to the fact that the Eldorado Suites Hotel offers both the two-bedroom and single-bedroom options for each of their units. However, she also says that the demographic changes depending on the time of year. During the winter, the property's guests primarily consist of older people Searra refers to as snowbirds—retirees traveling to Arizona for the warmer weather. In spring, more couples start coming to the hotel as they travel around. And finally, in summer, they get more families traveling while their kids are on summer break. Spring and fall are their highest occupancy, though, due to the nice weather. Regardless, Searra says that many of these visitors are repeat guests.
Bisbee, Arizona, is known as being an old copper mining town, especially going into the early 1900s. It was once even the largest established city between San Francisco, California, and St. Louis, Missouri. Because of the growth in the area, real estate and housing had become a very sound investment. As such, a businessman by the name of James L. Brooks constructed the building now known as the Eldorado Suites Hotel in 1914. Known as the Brooks Apartments, after Mr. Brooks himself, it was fairly modern for its time as a multi-family residential building. Unlike the various boarding houses typical in the area where all the tenets shared the same space, these apartments each had private entrances and access to the veranda, making it known as "one of the finest buildings of its kind in the country." The building is constructed in the Territorial style—architecture developed from the New Mexico Territory area. As the years passed, the mines eventually closed, and Bisbee's population dwindled from 20,000+ to closer to 5,000. This caused the Brooks Apartments to fall into disuse. Despite this, The property was purchased in 2006 and then remodeled, refurbished, and reimagined to become the Eldorado Suites Hotel. During this phase, the owners made it one of their goals to preserve as much of the original architecture and furnishing as they could. Some of these preservations include the trim around the windows and the doors, the antique clawfoot bathtubs, and the extensive Territorial verandas stretching across all three stories of the building. The current owners of the Eldorado Suites Hotel are Searra and her mother Lisa, who have owned the property for about six years. She talks about how, since she was a little girl, her mother managed a hotel in a little town on the New Jersey shore, right on the beach. However, in the early 2010s, she moved out to Bisbee, Arizona, and got a job at the hotel they now own. A couple of years after she began working there, the previous owners decided to sell the lodging building and get out of the business. Searra tells how she and her mother saw this as an opportunity to officially enter the lodging industry, something they had always been in but never as owners before. So they bought the property from the previous owners in 2015 and have been running the business ever since. Despite having been remodeled and upgraded in 2006, Searra explains that a building that is more than a century old needs constant care in order to be able to serve their patrons with the utmost quality they strive for at the Eldorado Suites Hotel. As such, she and her mother have continued to renovate and maintain where needed. Some of these efforts include completely renovating suites, updating furniture, and even repainting the building—a project they undertook in 2020. They have also replaced much of the flooring, such as old carpet, some of the hardwood floors, and linoleum in the bathrooms. Within the next few years, Searra and her mother plan to put a solar system on their roof and add an electric car charging station. Searra mentions that this upgrade would be very beneficial and energy-efficient due to the year-round sunny weather typical in the Arizona area.
55 Ok Street
Bisbee, Arizona 85603
United States
Bed and Breakfast
Searra & Lisa Head
