What happens in Vegas, gets posted to CUInsight

Aside from the 7 straight days of temperatures exceeding 105, my family’s vacation to Las Vegas in early June was rather pleasant. But it did not start off too well and I experienced first hand how brand experience can go south very quickly.

After a May business trip and a great experience at the Aria Hotel and Casino, I decided it would be a fun experience for my family. With just a couple of calls and some web searches, I found the best package via Priceline and booked two rooms at the Aria. I had high expectations and bragged to my wife and kids about how great the hotel was.

Upon arrival, the four of us headed to the check-in desk, expecting a quick, uneventful check in experience. Unfortunately, we had no such luck. It took 20 minutes to check in once we began speaking with the check in person. It seemed that they could not find two adjoining rooms, even though they knew I requested two rooms, they knew we were a family and they knew we have two teenagers. After some running around and a lengthy conversation between the check in person and her supervisor, we were given our door cards to rooms on the 24th floor. In addition to taking 20 minutes to check-in, not apologizing for the wait and not acknowledging that I was just there 5 weeks ago, it was an instant disappointment and a let down. Strike one. Surely, things would be better as we entered our opulent, deluxe, adjoining rooms.

The elevator ride was without a hitch. After-all, what could go wrong with an elevator? Once the doors opened on 24th floor, we were hit with a very strong smell that smelled like glue or epoxy. It turns out, part of the 24th floor was being remodeled with new wall coverings being affixed. Onward we went, towards the other end of the hallway thinking the smell would not be too bad. As we continued down the hall, the smell seemed to fade away. Thank goodness, because I really built up the expectation of the Aria with my family.

A few minutes later we arrived at our rooms. They were next to each other, but not adjoining as we had requested. Strike 2. The kids went to theirs and we entered ours. I went right to the view (which was excellent) and my wife went right to the bathroom. That’s when things got rather ugly. On the bathroom floor lay a used, dirty towel. Another was on the shower floor with the shower completely wet. Above the toilet was an open compartment for access to the plumbing. Strike 3! What the heck is going on? Within a moment my wife went over to the kids room and noted a dirty, wet towel in their shower and a partially removed tile by the toilet. It was at this time that my wife darted to the phone and called guest services to let them know that our rooms were unexpectable. While on the phone, she noticed popcorn under our bed. Strike 4. My recommendation of the Aria was starting to backfire quickly.

Housekeeping came up to the rooms rather quickly. They too seemed surprised by the condition of the rooms and stated “these rooms should never have been released.” They even photographed “the scene” to report it back to management. It felt more like a scene from CSI Las Vegas, than a nice start to a vacation in a luxury hotel. Ernesto, the housekeeping supervisor assured me that the Aria would “make this right” and likely put us up in some Sky Suites.

After some back and forth on the phone, it was decided a personal visit to guest services was the way to go. So down 24 floors we went. Guest services informed us that they would have new rooms available the next day and that they would call us as soon as they were ready. In the meantime, they would thoroughly clean our rooms on floor 24, which they did promptly. We were also given a $50 credit per room. So no unpacking for the night, but we were ok with this, thinking they would take care of us the next day after we enjoyed spending our $100 on the buffet breakfast.

By mid-afternoon the next day, we grew tired of waiting for a call regarding the status of our new rooms. If you’re counting, that’s strike 5. Off to guest services we went, yet again. Only one of the two rooms were available, but we could move into it and await for room number two. Strike 6. We were not happy that it was up to us to follow-up with guest services after that promised to notify us of our room availability. We vented and it was agreed that we’d get 2 nights resort fees credited to each room. There was no suggestion that a valet could assist us with the move, so off to the 30th floor we went, with our luggage in tow; to get the 30th floor, we had to go back down to the casino level first, then up another elevator to the 30th floor. As for Ernesto’s suggestion we’d end up in Sky Suites, no such luck, although he led us to believe we would. Strike 7.

So what’s my point? Don’t stay at the Aria? No, it’s a great place to stay. For whatever reason, there were several breakdowns in communication and maybe some behind the scene blaming. Nobody on the hotel staff owned our experience, and that was a disappointment.

Do you own your member’s experience at your credit union?