| Recently attended the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009 held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV. Since the conference was there, we booked the Mandalay Bay as our hotel for the stay. This was a mistake I will not repeat as the experience was not something I will soon forget.
Our room cost us $149/night for 7 nights stay. Here in KC, or any place I've stayed over the past 2-3 years (that would be many different places in the country, btw), that would get you a deluxe suite with lots of amenities including breakfast, coffee, wi-fi, clean linens daily, gym, pool, and staff that at least made you feel like you matter – at least until you pay your bill.
At the Mandalay Bay this got a small-ish room with a bed, shower, bath, TV and a toilet. Yes, it all looked nice, but wait…
- Breakfast meant going to one of the many restaurants in/around the casino. This ran an average of $18/person.
- Coffee was gotten either the same place as breakfast or at one of the Starbucks in the casino. Regular coffee ran $5-7.00 at either place, but Starbucks was 'per cup' while the restaurants usually would get you a refill if you waited long enough and asked for it often enough.
- Wi-fi – they had it. But it was $14.99/24 hours/ laptop. Yes, Trudy and I both had laptops. We were told that conference attendees were to receive a discounted rate of $5.99/24 hours/laptop and this would be adjusted at checkout. Well, they front desk knew of the discount but refused it to us because we didn't book our hotel room using the higher "conference rate".
- Clean linens – yes, we got them – once every 3 days. Unless you asked nicely of the maids, which we did, and then we did get them more often. Of course that didn't mean they were comfortable. I've had thicker, softer towels used as grease rags for auto repair work. At least they could use fine-grit sandpaper to scrape your skin after a shower instead of these towels.
- Gym – we had fully planned to continue our daily workouts since there was a gym on premises. That plan changed when we found out that gym access was $30/person/day. This did include basic spa access, but no "special services".
- Pool – yes, there is a fine looking pool area – includes a wave pool, lazy river, beach, and plenty of sun. However, one must wear shoes on the sand – not for the heat, but so you don't walk on all the cigarette and cigar butts in the sand. Don't even think about having any space around your lounge chair – they are practically butted up against each other and leave no room for any sort of normal "beach fun". The Lazy river requires an inflatable ring which will run you $23 to rent it for a day – don't lose it or have $95 added to your bill. It's just a kid's inflatable ring.
- The Staff – well, let's just say prison guards would make you feel more welcome and be more apt to do things for you than the people working at the Mandalay Bay. Everyone expected extra money for doing their job and giving basic customer service. I am perfectly willing to tip, but tend to want GOOD service, not just mediocre to crappy. Most were quite aloof and blatantly uncaring. We were just another source of green bills.
- Let's talk about other things –
- Meals were super expensive. The best deal we got was at the House of Blues. At least they included hash browns and toast with breakfasts. And didn't charge for refills on soda. But, they did lose our room charge card, which caused a painful experience with the front desk. Average meal cost was $25-45 per person. The low end included when we just got coffee and muffins for breakfast. The high end was when we ate "cheap" for dinner one night.
- There were snacks in the room when we arrived. Chips, chocolate, nuts. In any other hotel where we paid so much, these would be complementary. Not at the Mandalay Bay. I had read a review that warned us that these were not complimentary. I learned that the little single-serving Pringles cans would have cost us $5 if we had even moved them from their tray. And the mini bar where the cokes and water were stored (yes there was alcohol as well) would have run us $6/coke and $5/water. You don't even want to know the cost of the alcohol. We saw a price for a bottle of Bacardi that told us we would never drink there - $325/bottle – for regular Bacardi rum and only a 750ml bottle.
- We could have bought many tickets to the things we wanted to see and do at the Mandalay Bay concierge desk. But, that experience wasn't like other concierge's I've dealt with before. Places in KC, New York, New Orleans, etc. have concierges that have connections, get you deals, advise you how to best spend your time/money, and hope for a generous gratuity in return for treating you like you are "somebody". The concierges we dealt with at Mandalay Bay not only didn't seem to care about service, but actually charged more to acquire tickets/services for you through the hotel than it would run to do it yourself. And if you managed to pick up the coupon books stacked around other hotels, then you'd save even more.
Overall, when we stayed at the hotel, our Las Vegas experience was unsatisfactory. When we left the hotel, we had a pretty good time.
Now, add to this the fact that I contracted the H1N1 influenza strain while at the conference and you can imagine that our memories of this experience lean toward not wanting to return – at least not to the Mandalay Bay.
If we had been prepared for the lack of amenities at the hotel, which to me mean things included in the price of the hotel room, and the hotel staff had treated us as I have come to expect from other hotels around the country, then I think we would have had pleasant memories and might even recommend this hotel to others.
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