I recently spent a couple nights at the Palazzo here in Las Vegas. Being the newest 5 Star hotel here in town, I had some high expectations. I wish I could say that they were met, but from the letter below, you’ll see a few places where the fell short.
I’m hoping that in writing this, I’ll see some good customer service at work. If I were part of the Palazzo customer service department, I would find this letter, with such specific detail, very concerning. This is certainly a tough time for The Strip, one of the first things people cut back on when the economy goes south is probably gambling trips to Las Vegas. But cutting corners on the details is not what Palazzo wants to do when trying to make a first impression with people who have choices like the Wynn, Bellagio and Mandalay Bay. I’ll follow up if/when I hear back from someone at the Palazzo.
Update: You can also see the response from The Palazzo under my email.
———–Letter to Palazzo Below————-
To Whom It May Concern,
I moved to Henderson a few months ago, and enjoy spending the occasional evening on the strip. I most often stayed at Mandalay Bay. A few weeks ago, I was served up an offer through an online ad that was very attractive. I booked a night for November 26th. I was happy to try out the Palazzo, and had high expectations.
When I arrived I was treated very well, and upgraded my room to a suite. My first compliant is that I was under the impression that the total for the room was increased from $120 to $175 for the suite. I guess I misunderstood, because I was charged an additional $175, on top of the $125. I can understand that the lobby is a noisy area, and I possibly misunderstood. I did not complain about this, as I figured this was more my mistake.
When I got to my room (the room number escapes me now), I noticed that a robe was missing from the bathroom. This wasn’t a big deal, but I made sure to call down to the front desk to make sure I was not charged for the item. We made dinner plans for Zine, and we were surprised to see that it was getting late. We rushed down to Zine only to find out that our room clock was an hour ahead. Once again, not a huge deal, I have a watch and could have checked that.
I made another reservation the following week. We arrived at the hotel on the 5th of December. I upgraded my room again, this time making sure to clarify the price upfront. We arrived to room 41912 (I’m 90% sure of the room number), and we were surprised to find some things out of place. First, the bed is supposed to have a curtain on each side, for aesthetics. One was missing. Second, in the seating area, there are a series of art pieces on the wall, and one was clearly missing. There were bare screws in the wall, and it looked very odd.
When we turned on the television in the seating area, a big streak of, what looked like (and I very much hope was) grease, was smeared across the screen. We wiped off the screen ourselves, and called downstairs to report the missing room items.
Upon heading to bed, we noticed that there were holes in our sheets. This was especially surprising, considering the hotel is so new.
It was at this time I started to add things up a bit. None of these items in themselves are horrible, or would significantly detract from my enjoyment. But in aggregate, these little things start to add up to a less than impressive impression of what is supposed to be a brand new 5 star resort. How my experiences at the Wynn or Mandalay Bay have not been flawless, I have never had a negative enough experience to complain, or really even notice. How these small flaws do not make Palazzo a bad hotel, it does make it a hotel that I could not recommend over competitors.
I have attached a
3 photos to this email to show the specific complaints that I have. Thank you for taking the time to read my email. I hope this constructive criticism helps make Palazzo a better destination.
I would like to add two compliments to this. First, Zine was a fantastic experience. We both very much enjoyed dining there, and plan to do so again in the future. Second, upon our arrival on December 5th, there was a very, very helpful and polite young women working the line to the front desk. I don’t recall her name, but I believe it started with an A. She was very helpful and polite. We checked in sometime between 7pm and 8pm, if that helps.
Sincerely,
Ed Shull
————The response———-
Dear Mr. Shull,
Thank you for choosing The Palazzo as your host during your two recent visits to Las Vegas, and I am so glad that you have now made Las Vegas your new home. I was disappointed however to learn that your recent stay was not a complete success, and I sincerely apologize for the service challenges you experienced.
I was truly dismayed to learn that the quality of our services was not reflective of the level of exceptionality that you have come to expect. I apologize wholeheartedly for the multiple difficulties you encountered with your suite condition and amenities. The service, or lack thereof, was unacceptable, and I am deeply disappointed that these shortfalls took place, for we strive to uphold our high standards of unparalleled service and accommodations. Although we do constantly strive to provide each patron with our Unmatched Guest Services, I once again offer my apologies for we failed in extending that to you throughout your entire stay.
Mr. Shull, I would like to thank you for articulating the details of your experience. It is through communication such as yours that we are better able to monitor and improve services for our guests. Additionally, we are able to make certain that our team members are adhering to our Unmatched Guest Service Standards.
We value your patronage and hope that this atypical experience will not deter you from visiting our property again. I would like to invite you back to The Palazzo so that we may properly exceed your expectations with a complimentary upgrade to one of our luxurious Fortuna suites for a future stay as well as my personal assistance with your reservation. Should you choose to give us this opportunity, please kindly send me your most current mailing address, and I will have your certificate generated and sent to you immediately. Then when you have dates in-mind for your next stay, please contact me directly so that I may ensure the perfect start to your most valued return.
With Kind Regards,
Kristal R. Ramos
Coordinator | Guest Relations
That is not at all what I would expect from a 5 star hotel, and in a suite. They should be ashamed.
The Palazzo sucks. My husband’s company recently had thier corpartion meeting there in the conference center that lasted two days. On the last day, first thing in the morning, our personal camera was missing. (Keep in mind this was a locked room, available to only employees of the hotel), My husband immediatley reported it to the security guard. The security guard claimed actually described the camera to my husband… he said that “he new the camera was in the black bag because he unzipped the bad and zipped it back.” This was done right before he locked the room for the night! Number 1 – why was our property being handled by any of the employees? Worse, they refuse to do nothing about it! I hate this hotel, their employees and I will never go back! The customer service is the worst I have ever encountered. I woudl not recommend this hotel to anyone!
I got the certificate in the mail for the free upgrade. There was no letter or anything in it. Just the certificate folded up. Also, the certificate doesn’t mention how many days it’s good for.
Overall I’m pretty unhappy with the follow up. It wasn’t really about the monetary value of the make up gift, but the intent. I feel like this is just a half-assed bribe. If they were going to bribe me to shut up, why not offer something a bit more exciting, like a few free nights. I have no plan on using the upgrade. The Palazzo has lost me. I’ll take my business back to Mandalay Bay or Wynn.
It’s also interesting to note that I am the #1 result in Google for “complaints about The Palazzo”. I get a couple hits per day to this page from search, so this is a great example how bad service can kill a new brand.
Wow, that is bad. My husband and I are heading to vegas after the new year, and I saw an ad for pallazo. I’m glad I saw this post first. It sounds like you have been to a lot of hotels there, what do you recommend?
@Sarah The best hotel depends on what you’re looking for. Here are my choices depending on your situation. Hope this helps.
Best of the best: Wynn (simply the best, and has the price tag to prove it)
Best on a budget: Mandalay Bay (least expensive 5 star on the strip)
Best value: Monte Carlo (not much going on inside, but good location, and great price)
Best low budget: Stratosphere (always cheap, but nice enough)
This is disappointing to hear. We are coming out for new years and thought this would be a nice place to at since it’s new. I can’t believe they already have holes in the sheets! We went with Paris instead. We got a good price there.
Lynn, I have never stayed at the Paris but it looks nice. Thanks for the comment.
My wife and I just stayed at the Palazzo two weeks ago and our experience was nothing but wonderful. I hope your experience truly was out-of-the-ordinary…I can't wait to go back again this summer. I too notified the Palazzo, only of how great our experience was, I hope you and everyone else gives them a shot. We go to Vegas very often and have stayed at a number of spots, this was by far the best!
Luke, thanks for the comment. I'm glad you had a better stay than I. I would be more willing to try the Palazzo again if I didn't have problems with multiple stays, and then didn't get much in the way of an apology for the poor state of the rooms.
I have been a fan of the Venetian for a long time now and decided to give the Palazzo a try. My service was about the same, if not worse than yours… I emailed them only yesterday so I have not had a response yet. To sum it up, i have pictures as well, broken mirrors, clothing from previous guests, sofa bed wasn't cleaned, counters were dirty, holes in the wall (yes there were really holes in the walls), in one of the shops outside of the elevator there was a gnat dying on a piece of cheesecake. I had to call 3 times to the front desk about items that were broken, not cleaned, etc, and I was never offered even a different room. When housekeeping came, there was no apology. I sure hope their response to me is better than what you received. Why would we want to subject ourselves to paying to stay there again??
Hey, I just wrote a very similar letter. Do you have this character's email? This Kristal Ramos person?
I had one bad mishap at the Palazzo on my first stay there, but have been back 4 times in the past year and enjoy it more with every visit. Kristal is great and has made sure every expierence has been better than the last
I wrote them an email because they totally screwed up our reservation and were completely unapologetic about it. We received a response back that was identical to your's from Kristal Ramos. What a load of patronizing crap. They give you lip service but when push comes to shove The Palazzo doesn't give a crap about their guests.
The Palazzo: first rate facilities and third rate service.
I just returned from a trip to the Palazzo and realized I left my Gucci watch ($700) on the dresser. When I called them I was told that nothing had been turned in to lost and found and they didn’t have my watch! There were only 2 people in the room other my husband and myself and that was room service and then the maid who cleaned when I checked out. It’s obviously that one of their employees stole my watch yet the Palazzo has done nothing other than take a report. Absolutely unacceptable! DO NOT STAY HERE!