The Downtown Clifton, a 22-room boutique hotel in Tucson's Armory Park, abruptly closed early this month, leaving guests with paid reservations scrambling to get their money back and make alternate plans.
The hotel did not notify incoming guests of the closure and several arrived to find a note on the door announcing that "due to renovations the lounge and hotel will be closed until further notice." The sign also said the hotel's water was "unexpectedly turned off," which led to the abrupt closing.
The note advised guests to leave their keys in their room at check out. It's not clear if the hotel had any guests staying at the time and if those guests had been notified in advance that the hotel had closed.
The property's owner, Equilibrium Villas DTC LLC, did not respond to repeated attempts for comment.
Moniqua Lane, who owned the property at 485 S. Stone Ave. until Equilibrium bought it in June 2021, said she turned over operation of the hotel on March 2. She posted a note on Facebook March 12 announcing that she no longer owned the hotel.
"It was not economically feasible to continue to operate the Downtown Clifton," she said in an email to the Star. "We do not own the physical facilities and we are still negotiating the details of the business assets and intellectual property with the new owners."
Guests were not notified and were left stranded after Downtown Clifton, 485 South Stone Avenue, in Tucson's Armory Park, closed suddenly in early March.
Lane said she offered to continue running the hotel until Equilibrium found a new operator, but "they asked us to leave everything as is so that they could step in to operate immediately during the high season."
As of Thursday, the hotel's phone was disconnected, although its website was still operational, including online reservations. There are no openings until mid-May, when standard room rates are listed at $1,000 a night.
Lane, whose name and contact information was included on the note, said she is in conversations with guests about refunds. But several said they have yet to hear anything.
A few days before she was to check into the hotel on Monday, Gina Carani got an auto-email from the hotel saying they were looking forward to seeing her. But when the Alaska resident who works as a traveling cook Googled the hotel for directions, it said it was temporarily closed.
”I was a little surprised. I tried calling the number that was in the email and that was coming up with the Verizon message this number is not available," she said on Thursday. "I emailed and the email bounced back. At that point I was getting kind of worried, did I fall for some sort of scam?"
Carani said she has not had any response about refunding her $150 deposit for a two-night stay; the remaining amount was not charged to her credit card.
A note still on the door of the Downtown Clifton Hotel says it is closed for renovations.
"I haven’t received any communications except an email today saying we hope you enjoyed your stay," she said Thursday.
Phoenix librarian and Tucson native Jennifer Brown said she received a similar "looking forward to your stay" email from the hotel before she was set to check in last Saturday. She was in town for the Tucson Festival of Books and had paid the $140 cost when she booked the room online on Feb. 20.
After spending Saturday on the University of Arizona campus, she got to Downtown Clifton just after 5 p.m. "and there was nobody in the parking lot," she said.
"I thought that was weird," said Brown. "I went to the door and I saw the note. It looked like it had been up for a week or so."
Brown said she had stayed at the hotel a couple of times in recent years.
The Downtown Clifton, a 22-room boutique hotel in Tucson's Armory Park, abruptly closed early this month.
“It’s a good location and … it had a cute little bar and restaurant that I liked and the rooms are interesting and unique," she said. "They have local popcorn and jams. It’s very Tucson and that’s one of the reasons I liked it."
Lane and two partners opened Downtown Clifton in 2015 after buying the property and the adjacent parcel on the corner of Stone and 16th Street for $550,000. The partners renovated the original 10 rooms and added the Red Light Lounge and a dozen more rooms in 2019.
The property was built in 1948 and operated as a hotel for a couple of years. It had been used for transitional housing by Primavera Foundation in the years before it became Downtown Clifton.
Downtown Clifton was the first of two boutique hotels Lane operated. She invested $2.5 million into the renovation of the old Citizen newspaper building downtown to convert it into the 10-room Citizen Hotel at 82 N. Stone Ave. It was open just over a year when she closed it in May 2023.
Rio Nuevo, which invested $333,333 into the project, is suing Lane to recoup its money. That suit is wending its way through the courts, according to Rio Nuevo Chairman Fletcher McCusker.
Last August, Unicorn Zebra, a South African-themed bar, opened in the Citizen building.
