I left a review for a hotel where we stayed Friday at a casino in Las Vegas. Spoilering because it’s long.
Summary
Check-in was quick and friendly, and parking was convenient. The room had a nice view of the city lights. Downstairs, things started going downhill when we went downstairs to look for something to eat. We were told buffets have become scarce in Las Vegas due to COVID, and the buffet had been replaced with a food court.
There are like three restaurants on the casino level. One looked promising, only their electronic menu was only showing pages of breakfast offerings and we wanted dinner. The next place had us at ‘escargots’, but at 5:30 in the afternoon they said we couldn’t get a reservation. We ended up at the Mexican restaurant. My surf & turf was very good, but my wife’s chile relleno was inedible. You’d think our server might notice, and offer to have something more palatable prepared. But after checking back one time after bringing our plates, he pretty much disappeared. So we had a poor dining experience.
After being on the road for four days, we needed to do some laundry. Strangely, a modern hotel only has coin-operated laundry machines. My wife had to go to a cashier to use her ATM card in exchange for a roll of quarters. What a pain. First, she had to get a minimum of $20. They needed her to present her ID. (You’d think her PIN would be sufficient, as it is everywhere else.) There was a $3.25 fee to use her own money to spend in the hotel. I think they might have pulled an Experian personal credit report on her too, but I was too busy watching my wife become angry to notice. I guess the hotel and casino are in bad financial shape if they have to extort fees from their guests.
When we went to the tiny laundry room, we saw three washing machines. Two were broken. There was a vending machine on the wall where you could buy detergent, softener, and bleach. Unfortunately, none of the slots were identified. It was a white box with four places to put money. But hey, it’s in a casino. I guess that’s why they call it ‘gambling’.
Back upstairs, we noticed that there was no coffee maker in the room. The casino where we stayed the other day had one in the room. The two other hotels each had one in the room. Boulder Station is like ‘We have a Starbucks.’ Now, my rule is this: Never get up before coffee. If you HAVE to get up before coffee, have coffee first. Complimentary coffee is the norm, in our experience. Come on. It’s coffee. We found out we could RENT a coffee maker for $5 per day. As I said earlier, the hotel must be in poor financial shape if they have to resort to charging for things that even budget hotels provide free of charge.
There were two of us staying. There was only one towel in the bathroom. For two people. There was no clock in the room. (One was brought up.) Wi-Fi was a pain to join. Apparently the Gideons were unable to leave a bible in the room. Security IS pretty tight.
A final indignity: We had a long drive, so we were both tired. In the bathroom, I decided to do sitting down what I would normally do standing up. The toilet was very low. Not a HUGE problem, but the water was kind of high. When I sat down, well… Anyone for tea? Good thing it was unused water at that point.
Over all, a poor experience.