This was a surprise birthday gift from my honey. 48 hours in Vegas! What could be better? Well, for starters, the accommodations. Full disclosure: I have 8 years of hospitality background on my resume, and am perfectly aware of hotel business practices. Have you ever been someplace where you feel like everyone is an absolute and total slug, unless you grease their palm? With only a few exceptions, this is how I felt about Bally's. Considering they're a little older, and a little bit of an afterthought on the competitive Strip, you would think they would make a little more effort to differentiate themselves. Alas, I suppose that Yelp will be the great equalizer that will eventually separate the wheat from the chaff, and Bally's may just be a victim. But much like Bally's being stuck in yesteryear with their room decor, they are also locked into that 1980's mentality where the Internet doesn't exist yet, and they will continue to get away with it. Yeah, good luck with that. We got this as part of a package deal (2 nights M through Th, included seats for two at the Jubilee! show and $30 dining credit). Our inbound flight was cancelled, so we had to take a later flight and didn't actually arrive at the desk until after midnight. We got to the room, and did not get the king we had asked for. Looking at the paperwork, and as is the case with most hotels, they don't assign rooms until the day of, so I guess that was OK. But the room was filthy. Dingy carpet, trash from previous guests in the corners, and a used soap bar in the shower. I called down to the desk, and got nothing but sass from the guest staff - they were unfailingly rude, uncooperative, and just didn't seem to give a d*mn. I asked to speak to the night supervisor, whose name was Darryl, and he was even worse. I asked if there was another room we could move to because ours was filthy, and he said no, but he would send up housekeeping. I asked if the hotel was full, and he said yes. I then asked if all the rooms were checked in, and he just said "the hotel is full." Well, you didn't answer my question, buddy. I know, from experience, that guests who check in late usually get the dregs of the available rooms; I also know that package deal customers are usually treated worse than full-paying guests, and I said as much. And no, I don't want housekeeping sent up; it's 12:30 AM, I'm tired, and I wanted a clean room (I also wanted a king, but according to their policies, which I was reminded of several times, they don't guarantee that). It was obvious that no one wanted to do anything. It was frustrating to get tickets for our show, it was frustrating to get breakfast (1 hr in line at Nosh - the waitress could only do a single task at any given time while the food prep staff stood idle). We were able to change our room the next day, and when I called down, they told me to get the keys from the front desk and to move our stuff. No offers to help, to move our stuff for us, etc. We had borrowed a refrigerator from housekeeping (my wife is nursing) and so we brought everything down by ourselves, and stood stupidly in the lobby waiting to get new room keys. My wife was then hassled by security for having the refrigerator - they were convinced we were going to steal it. After about 10 minutes of explaining over and over that we were moving rooms, they let us go (but still, there was no one helping move our stuff). We checked into room 608, and guess what? Trash in the corners, and a used bar of soap in the shower. I guess they just don't sweat the small stuff there. And that includes minding details and cleaning. Oh, well, we had a king bed. I will just need to block out of my mind how filthy that must have been, if they miss cleaning the soap and garbage. Why is it that a 20 oz bottle of Aquafina costs $4.00 at Nosh, but $6.00 at the coffee stand by the check-in desk? On the plus side, Jubilee was a blast. Our seats were absolute crap, so after the show started, we snuck up to some better seats nearer the stage and enjoyed the show immensely (sorry, Bally's, but you forced my hand). I don't know why they would not let us pay an upgrade charge for better seats at the box office, but they insisted it was against policy and they could not. It was not clear at checkout that we could "opt out" of the resort fee - or could we? I don't know. All I know, is I didn't use the Internet, and I got charged $21 per day for something. Speaking of, I should check my credit card balance and make sure I didn't get charged above and beyond. Well, no one at the desk swiped my card in or out, so I could always dispute it. I'm done complaining, I ultimately had a great time, and that's all that matters. Still, what a giant bummer. Bally's, you have a lot of work to do! Start with upgrading your staff...
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negative