Jennifer T.
Yelp
Hotboxed with smoke, blasting horrible music inside that you have to shout over, complete gross trash casino, hidden fees and scams. Arriving here at 3pm feels like you're trapped at a seedy nightclub at 3AM having lost your purse and jacket and no way to get home. Everyone is wasted and shouting, including the check in staff who seem angry. Oh and there is no internet, they will charge you for it but the SSL certificate is expired so my computer won't even let me navigate to the page. Now I am stuck here on a business trip.
I have not even gotten to my room yet and I have had to fight off $250 in THREE different hidden fees. Firstly, I shipped myself two boxes because I'm here for a wholesale conference and I have product. They repeatedly claimed that they don't have the boxes and then they demanded to see proof of delivery and now they want a $36 for a handling fee. I had called before and they said I could absolutely ship the boxes here and when I left they'd re-ship them (aka just let me leave them in the office with my own shipping labels for USPS). They will not release my belongings without paying the fee.
Also I initially extended my room for one night by phone, and instead of continuing the $50 base rate (80 with fees of course) I paid, on the extended night like the other two nights, they charged me 150 base rate before taxes. They will not honor the initial rate, so now I'm here for this conference and I have to check out in the middle of it and I don't know where I'm going to stay. If I knew this upfront I would've possibly been OK with $150 but the fact that they snuck this on me and try to stick all these hidden fees FOR THIS HELLHOLE means I am leaving. They also charge $50/night deposit when you check in, (?!?!) and they tried to charge me the fee on all three nights even though I already canceled the third night. I have never even heard of this before!! What a trash hole, I feel like I'm in prison, MORTIFIED.
If you object to them screwing you over they treat you like a complete Karen, make you sit in the smoke-hotboxed security office for 30 minutes, etc.
But it gets "better". All the rooms smell like smoke even the non-smoking ones so my entire business wardrobe will need to be drycleaned. And the "best" part is the noise - I have never stayed somewhere louder. The (ultra trashy) street party on Freemont street is super loud and pounding all through the day and night. I asked for a quieter room and I can still hear every drunken shriek, every drumstick strike on a drum from up here on the 32nd floor.
Did I mention that the hotel lobby is completely hotboxed with nasty smoke, with wasted people stumbling everywhere and shouting with pounding music? Bottle girls dancing up on the tables, copious mobility scooters languish and block the exit near the MacDonalds which is inside the hotel. \
I always try to be super super nice to service people and I can tell they are very tired and very sick of dealing with drunk people, and they have to execute the super crooked sketchy policies of this hotel, and I'm sure fight with people about the hidden fees all the time - but there is no reason to treat me like a criminal before they have even met me. All I can compare it to is showing up sober to a bar just before closing time and everyone is screaming at you. Its like spending the night in a drunk tank completely sober.
Run do not walk away from this hotel unless you love super nasty nightclubs and getting repeatedly scr3wed by people that hate you, with no services, no internet and having your whole wardrobe ruined.
The idea of getting a hand with carrying boxes or having something brought to the room or being treated like a... guest, is like a complete joke. On my last day instead of following up on sales leads I will be walking 4 blocks with 35 pound boxes to the post office, twice, in order to avoid the $35 "handling fee" (scam) that the hotel will charge just to drop off my boxes to be shipped home.