5 Star building with bush league staff
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 11/11/10
I recently stayed at the Palazzo Resort Hotel for a business conference from Oct 26 thru 30th. The rooms are exactly as they appear on their website. They have three TV’s, a safe, a copier/fax, and a minibar. If you want a coffee maker you will need to stay at another hotel or bring one with you. They will tell you to buy coffee on the casino level. If you have medications that need to be refrigerated you will need to bring your own cooler and good luck finding an ice machine. The views are great from the rooms. If that is all you want for $222/night, then the Palazzo is what you are looking for. You could, however, have similar accommodations with better customer service and coffee in the room at a nearby hotel for about $40/night. You just have to give up the view from the room. If you are attending a conference, the walk to a cab and the conference from a nearby hotel may be much shorter than a walk to the conference from a room in the Palazzo. When you arrive, expect that there will be problems with the reservation. The desk clerk will offer to upgrade your room to the exact same room you were paying for. Don’t ask the desk clerk about the room because they really don’t know. They will answer your questions, but they will probably be wrong. The desk person told me that the rooms did not have irons. My rooms had an iron. It was broken and leaked water all over the place, but there was one in each room. They will provide you with key cards and a crudely drawn map to get to your room. You will have to take your luggage about ½ mile through the casino and past a security guard to get to the elevators to the room. If your key card doesn’t work, the security guard will not call anyone to let you into your room, but will direct you back to the front desk. If you are looking for something to eat, the security guard is not familiar with the restaurant hours or menus. There are two Lux Restaurants, one in the Palazzo that closes around midnight and another in the Venetian about 1 mile away. The food is really good but it will take about 45 minutes for a chicken sandwich for about $14.00. If there are any problems with the room like two of the three TV’s are not working, like with me, they will send someone to fix it. He will probably be rude and put out for having to come to your room, but you really don’t have to talk to him. The TV’s don’t all get the same channels. They may even change channels all on their own, but you can always change it back with your remote. As part of your room package, you will have access to the spa, pool, fitness center, and a daily newspaper. After four nights, I couldn’t find any of these amenities. When checking out, the desk manager told me that there are two binders tucked away by the mini bar that explain about the amenities. There is a safe in the room that I found on my last night, but I couldn’t figure out how to use it. If they need to move you to another room, do not let them move anything that is breakable. They manhandled my laptop and destroyed it. The only recourse you have is to complain and you will be told that your experience “is not typical of others who stay at the Palazzo.” Internet is included with the resort fee, but be prepared for the computer glitch that will require you to accept charges to get online. The front desk will tell you to accept the charges and they will be removed when you check out. Just remember to make sure they remove the charges as they might forget. If you decide to give the hotel manager any written comments before you leave, he will tell you that he will forward the comments to the appropriate departments. He may even give you a business card with his email address. If you write, be prepared for him to ignore it and not respond. The Palazzo website also has a comments email which will get the same treatment.