Impersonal “luxury” hotel with a terrible room experience (if you care to read, feel free).
We arrived on time but were delayed about an hour due to a very long line. This wasn’t really an issue, but it did make us a bit late checking in and getting on with our night, and we missed out on having a swim as the pool closes at 5 pm daily! There’s no help checking in or managing bags. It feels like checking in at an airport. You’re just supposed to drag your bags through a giant car park and then up to the room yourself… which is doable, but it just doesn’t feel like a five-star hotel experience. Spend less money on roses and more on bellhops?
We booked a “quiet room” months in advance. The woman checking us in was extremely nice and friendly and did put us in a room that she thought was quiet because it was very far from the lifts. Unfortunately, it overlooked an air-conditioning tower, with noise like being on a plane vibrating the windows with buzzing all day and night.
So commenced a disappointing and frustrating experience due to that noise outside our room from the cooling towers. We specifically booked a quiet room months ago and confirmed it at check-in, but our room was on the east side overlooking a large roof with cooling towers. The noise was like being on an aircraft. Maintenance came up around 9:30 pm to “listen” and advised us to move, but we were told there were absolutely no king rooms available to move to.
Eventually, we were offered another room but with queen beds instead of a king. We wanted to check that the room was quiet, but we had to surrender our keys just to inspect it. Unfortunately, that room smelt extremely strongly of body odour, or like somebody had cooked a curry in it. We checked online and king rooms were appearing as available to book, so I’m not sure why we were told there were none.
We were then offered a king room, but it was on the same side as the original and had the same noise issue. After that, we were offered an accessible king bedroom that was on the opposite side of the building. It had no bath, and the shower was quite a downgrade, but so long as it was quiet. The noise from the Strip didn’t seem too bad, but unfortunately it was next to the ice machine room (with a slamming door), so we anticipated noise would be an issue. When we inspected that room, it also had a bad odour, smelling like old meat. By this time it was past 2 am, and we were exhausted and feeling unwell. We spoke to the front desk again, and they told us to come down in the morning and ask for a room change. Even with earplugs, it was very difficult to sleep in the original room for the first night due to the noise.
We lost the entire first night in an exhausting way. It felt like a joke by the end, being offered all these rooms, which were horrible downgrades. I just wanted a quiet room that didn’t stink. How was that impossible here in a five-star hotel? The next day, we were able to move to a king room on the opposite side of the hallway. There was road noise from the Strip, but it was a lot less than the buzzing, and the rest of the nights were fine. Of course, we lost half a day moving rooms, as I was waiting around until after lunch to move. It was worth tipping the bellhop again to move our bags and just be done with the whole thing.
The room is very lit at night, with all the light switches glowing. The minibar is very loud and can only be switched off by maintenance. It took a couple of hours to get sorted, but it was worth doing. They had to come and switch the fridge drawer off with a remote, as it was even louder than the minibar. There was a lot of confusion calling down to reception and waiting for help with this.
The room fit-out, sheets, towels, etc., are very nice. No complaints there. The amenities have a lovely, masculine scent. Housekeeping and the bellhops are excellent, and the multiple banks of lifts make it easy to avoid waiting. However, they’re a long way from reception and past the casino machines. Ubers can be hailed from beyond the car park (inconveniently far), but I had the Uber Eats people pull right into the drop-off area outside reception. The pool complex looks impressive, but it’s all one shallow depth and closes so early, at 5 pm. The pool bar closed earlier, so anyone attending conferences doesn’t even get a chance to enjoy it. Lifeguards are all around the pool, which goes along with the feeling that everything in this place is very monitored, but not necessarily for your comfort and convenience.
Apart from that long and very specific complaint about the room, I would’ve liked to have given more feedback, but the whole thing exhausted me, and I was so relieved to check out. If we travel again next year, I do not want to book this hotel because of the way they treated us when we had to switch rooms.
