The decor of this hotel evoked a warm ambiance, natural feel, nice room, comfy bedding and friendly staff for the most part. Even the hallways were artistic. The pool was nice, but contained an over abundance of children running, screaming, too small a space in general for the size of the hotel. I suspect that this will be a particular problem once the hotel has completed it's additions and more people arrive. It is not adequate for the number of people it hosts. Pool side service was good, great food at the pool side grille, friendly staff at the pool area but problematic pool side chairs. Cushioned and looked nice (water proof rattan sort) but unable to adjust or recline chaise lounge.
Upon arrival about 30 minutes past start of scheduled check in, we were informed that there were no rooms available with 2 queen beds or non smoking. We had booked a canyon view, 2 queen beds, non smoking which of course is typically available upon request but not necessarily guranteed as I was reminded two hours later by Majid (registration staff) when our room still was not available despite booking several months prior to the open of the hotel. We were initially advised to return in 5 minutes. We hit the food court for a beverage, returned twice in a 45 minute period and still no room. When questioned about the process and eta, we were told that housekeping had not yet cleaned the room. The staff appeared frustrated and embarassed initially. Hmm. So in short, 5 minutes turned in to us loitering in the lobby for 2 hours before they finally searched for another room after requesting for a second time to speak with a management staff. Although I want to say that Colleen was extremely helpful, empathic, understanding our frustration, the other clerk was very dismissive and simply seemed incapable of resolving the problem until the manager arrived. Ultimately a manager surfaced, killed us with what would appear kindness but quickly reminded us that roms are sometimes oversold despite booking months in advance and arriving as scheduled. When I inquired, I was informed that people are often sent to their parent hotels (other station casino) when this occurs or given whatever is available suhc as a king bed and a rollaway for the second person. We were comped for one night and given a food credit.
Restaurant service was lacking in 2 of the 3 establishments we ate in. The only restaurant that seemd to have a sense of customer service and professionalism was Cabo. The food was good and plentiful.Salt Lick food was average, abundant but service was very slow, and the funniest thing was three of my friends ordered full meals with sides. The server came back with one tiny little bowl of beans. We thought they had mistakenly forgotten the other two sides of beans given that each person had ordered a complete meal and to everyone's surprise, the server informed us that the small (no exaggeration) bowl of beans was to be shared. Each person literally had two tablespoons of beans and then the manager returned with another small bowl aftre giving some thought to the presentation. Service at the other cafe consisted of wrong orders twice....how does one mess up a sandwich? Possibly explained by several versions of a menu, one old one and one amended. My friend and I had the same menu by outward appearance, but contained different items. Lots of confusion, but at no time was the staff unpleasant or rude, just not trained to make adjustments for small things like checking the order.
Other problems consisted of a barking dog at 4 a.m. in the room next door. My friend and I were awakened again at 7 a.m. by same barking dog and ultimately called down to the front desk. At 8:00 a.m the next morining, we were awakened by hammering, drilling, etc. No point in complaining at that point. We just felt spent by the number of hassles.
I liked the hotel itself and feel that while it has potential in the long run, the area in general is underdeveloped which basically confines you to the hotel or a long drive to the strip and I mean a long drive; also the hotel is not operating at a professional capacity equal to other 4 -5 star hotels on the strip. While the staff was typically pleasant and eager, there seemed to be an odd sense of acknowledgement and resignation that the hotel is experiencing some management issues...everyone seemed to know this. I would be curious to see how these problems get resolved in the long run (hopefully soon) or if this chaos is going to continue. I empathized greatly with the staff, but shame on management for putting these people in such a position to defend their errors. This is Las Vegas and hopefully gievn the kind of money spent on the development of such a beautiful place, I would think someone would step up and quickly correct these apparent common problems experienced by guests. Every manager we spoke to except Jessica was playing the blame game; blamed it on housekeeping being understaffed, thus unable to turn the rooms around quickly enough and explained away and almost invalidating by saying "We are still working out the kinks". Although I can respect honesty and understand this to some extent, we were tired of hearing excuses. I would choose another hotel until this one has resolved whatever management, staffing, customer service, training issues it has. The management needs to know that for a hotel this far from the strip (luckily we drove), lacking so poorly in service and providing nothing special to compete with other established casinos, people will have one bad experience and not return. The rooms are pricey and given the issues we experienced, I wonder how they foresee competing with other, more established, better located, customer service oriented hotels.
