This place can be inconsistent. I reviewed this hotel/casino in April and now find that it has gone way downhill.
Over the past decade we have probably spent 15 to 20 nights in this hotel. Our most recent visit was one of our only disappointments with this place.
Valets: Don’t’ care about their jobs or doing them well. Not once were we greeted in a friendly fashion, and upon check in were not offered a bellman, I had to get one myself. What upset me about that is that I told the valet who was going to park our car that we needed one, he advised it’d be around “8 to 10 minutes,” then I observed two empty carts heading from the valet area back into the hotel. It was obvious he said nothing to the bell desk, and if I hadn’t flagged one down myself, I wouldn’t have got one. And we’re not cheap about it, I tip $10 when they get the bags from the trunk and another $10 when delivered to the room. After that first day, I just self-parked. Why waste time or money on people who don’t want to really provide any sort of customer service?
Rooms/Front Desk: When I booked on line I reserved two rooms, one a king non smoking and another with two queens non smoking. On arrival around 2:30 p.m. (check-in is 3,) we were advised that there were no more king non smoking rooms. In a hotel of 1800 plus rooms, in a city where you know they hold rooms for their high rollers, to not give the customer what was reserved is absurd. The next day they moved us, but that whole process was ridiculously inconvenient.
The rooms are becomming run down. Knobs missing from furniture, lights didn’t work, towel bars missing, and backed up, smelly sinks in each of the two rooms we occupied. The queen beds are VERY mushy, king bed was much firmer. It really sucks that they’ve let this place go. The rooms are pretty good sized, but that’s the only really nice thing I can still say.
Cleanliness: Again, it seems their staff has lost the desire to work, or perhaps it is one of those "It's not my job" syndromes. Example: for two days, there was gum, yes, used gum, stuck onto the down button of the elevator on the 15th floor. When we left, it still had residue on that button. You cannot tell me that they didn't have many of their housekeeping & maintenanace staff walk by or use that every day--I saw them, but they ignored the problem. It is that kind of lack of care on a small thing that indicates how they react, or not, to issues that arise.
Fitness Center: Nice, most machines work fine, but wife found the bicycles to be uncomfortable based on a way laid back seat position. I used the stair climber & it worked fine.
Gambling: Everything was very tight. The only place we won was playing the five dollar slots, for two pulls, and the second we won we cashed out.
Food: Buffet: excellent value in the morning only. Lunch and dinner are NOT worth what they charged. The food at breakfast was the only spread that was fresh looking or tasting. Dinner and lunch were awful; we had breakfast four days in a row, dinner and lunch once each.
Fuddrucker’s hamburgers: They serve some unique offerings, such as buffalo, salmon and ostrich. The latter really is good if you’ve not tried it. The only gripe is that the condiment and soft drink area is very small and gets very crowded around dinner time.
Room Service: Very fast, had a delicous club sandwich delivered in around 20 minutes, prepared exactly as ordered.
Pool: Yuck! Cloudy and highly chlorinated. Too much used beer left in the pool. Nasty! We only swam in there once.
Overall: They’ve got some work to do. The place needs better maintenance, and some TLC rather than duct tape and wire. It really is a shame, since the Orleans used to be one of our favorite hotels. I still recommend the place, but, with the above warnings in place.
