Eradicate Perplexity

I realize it’s been a long, long time since I’ve posted anything to this blog – but in light of my pathetic view of the Wynn Las Vegas, I decided to reignite the ol’ blog fire and write about it.

I’d like to start by stating that though I travel quite a bit, and the hospitality industry has set many expectations…I’m not very picky.  I simply expect the kind of accommodations and service associated with appropriate level of cost.  Put simply, if I’m paying $50/night, I expect very little.  If I’m paying $500/night, I would hope that the room, service, and overall experience would prove it is worth far more than the $50 establishment.

Last week, I stayed at the Wynn Las Vegas while at the PubCon Internet Marketing conference.  Since Wynn brags that they are the only 5-star and 5-diamond rated casino hotel in the world, I fully expected the service and accommodations to be second-to-none. 

At best, I would give the Wynn 3 stars, diamonds, rubies…or whatever shiny little symbol you want to associate with the establishment and their service.  Bottom line – NOT worth the money.  How much money you ask?  We had a special rate for some nights, but Friday night alone was $700.

So why my dismal view of the Wynn?  Let’s start with the room.  It was a beautiful, elegant room with plenty of space – and the coolest bathroom I’ve ever seen.  That said, the couch and ottoman looked like they were just found in a back alley and placed in the room last minute.  They were filthy, at least on the surface.  Who knows, maybe they were just stained over time, but for $700 a night I think they could spend $50 bucks to clean them.

There were a couple of other things associated with the room, like missing robes, even though they were listed as items that should be in every room.  And outdated menus – both for room service as well as the mini-bar.  I only figured this out when I realized I was getting charged $1-$2 more for everything I ordered.  When I called the desk to ask about it, they said the menus in the room must be old since they changed the prices months earlier…months?

Okay, lets move on to service.  First, I will state that the in-room dining people were exceptional.  They were courteous, friendly, and prompt in every way possible.  Other services, however, dropped the overall score significantly.

I had to ask 4 times over 4 consecutive days before my mini bar was finally refilled.  That seems odd to me.  Don’t they want to make money on their drastically overcharged mini bar items?

All I wanted was more Diet Coke in my mini bar, but it seemed like a major chore to get it done.  Now don’t get me wrong, in any other hotel I would simply go down to vending machine and buy a bottle of soda.  It would be cheaper anyway.  But at the Wynn, apparently vending machines would bring down the glow of the hotel, so they were nowhere on the premises.  The only way to satisfy my thirst was to put my clothes back on, head down 22 floors and find a 24 hour café to buy my Coke.  A 15 minute trip.  No big deal, except when its 3am and you just want a freakin’ Coke to cap your night.

While I’m on the subject of the mini bar, I should also mention the $8 luxury box of gourmet chocolates…or wait…are those bite size Twix and Snickers in there?  That’s right, listed as ‘Gourmet Snacks’ on the menu, packaged in a fancy Wynn snack box, and priced at a whopping $8… I laughed out loud when I poured, onto the table, a handful of mini Twix, Snickers, and Milky Way bars.  My wife just stared in disbelief chanting, “no way…no way!”  By the way, these weren’t even your Halloween sized snack candies.  They were the tiniest bite-size bars I’d ever seen. 

Did I forget to mention they were stale?  I don’t know how long a Twix bar has to sit around to become stale, but I’m pretty sure the shelf life on those things outlasts the life of a Vegas casino…Do the math.  How long must those have sat there before I became the sucker that bought them?

Okay, so a few more things about the service.  Night time turndown service was great, actual gourmet chocolates on the night stand, drapes drawn…all very wonderful.  But what’s with the dirty dishes and glasses left on the table?  Hey, if I were at home, I’d clean up after myself – but you’re supposed to leave that stuff there.  It’s not like there’s a kitchen sink to put them in.

Another odd thing…during the turn down service, they would fill our ice bucket.  Very thoughtful I felt…but they didn’t replace the used glasses next to the ice bucket.  Huh?  Am I on hidden camera?  Good intentions…no follow through.

I’m getting near the end, but believe it or not, there’s more.  But before I go on, I will point out that I did in fact complain to the front desk.  I wasn’t an ass (maybe that was the problem), I just wanted to let them know what I was experiencing as a guest in their fine hotel.

Okay, back to the service.  I was starting to fear that my couple of calls to the front desk may spur some resentment on the part of the staff.  But, I thought, nah…cause I was tipping everyone way more than customary because they were truly good to us.

Then something changed.  You know those rinsing glasses they leave by the sinks in the bathroom?  My wife and I both used those every night.  Their use was evident by their rite-side-up placement on the counter every morning, and their proper upside down placement each evening.  Then, on the fourth night, after housekeeping came in, we found our rinse glasses right side up, filled with our electric toothbrushes and travel size tubes of toothpaste.

Now who in their right mind would put those dirty items inside a glass that you plan to rinse your mouth with?  Its then I said to my wife, “you don’t suppose?…I mean, we don’t tip housekeeping…”  She just stared, mouth agape.

Okay – ‘let it pass’, I thought.  Rinse direct from the faucet – you don’t use a glass at home anyway.  But we purposely stacked the glasses, now dirty with residue from items, in the middle of the counter to be replaced the next day.

The next evening, as I entered the bathroom to prepare for bed, I noticed the rinse glasses back in their normal upside down position.  ‘Good,’ I thought, we’ve moved on and can forget about the strange happenings of yesterday.  But oh no…that would be if I stayed at a Hilton.  But here at the Wynn, the saga continues…

I picked up my glass to use for rinsing and immediately noticed the familiar ring (inside the glass) that is caused by the bottom of my electric toothbrush. It’s the same ring I have to clean from my counter and charger at home every day – but this time it was in the bottom of my rinse glass.  Apparently the same glass that was left from the previous incident, taken from the dirty stack and simply turned back upside down and perched by the sink as if fresh for renewed use.

Then I noticed one more fun little trick.  My $100 electric toothbrush, which travels with me on every trip, was flashing a warning message.  The battery was about to die.  Odd, since it had over ¾ power the day before, and can be run for two weeks before displaying a battery warning.  So how was this possible?  Can anyone say toilet cleaning?

Now, I can’t say what happened, because I didn’t see it - and I didn’t think I needed to place a hidden camera in the bathroom.  But the only possibly way for that toothbrush to wear out that way, would be for it to have been run for a good 10 – 20 minutes beyond the use it had endured by me up to that point.  Needless to say, the toothbrush went back in my bag, and I proceeded to brush my teeth with some toothpaste on my finger tip - an odd site while standing in a luxury bathroom.

To wrap up this entire experience, I will say that by my last day, I did talk to the front desk on at least 6 different occasions.  Each time, I was given the standard apology and promised that service would improve immediately.  It didn’t, and each apology, along with each bogus star and diamond, was empty and stale.

Well, that concludes my never-to-repeat stay at the Wynn Las Vegas. With no consolation of any kind from the Wynn, and no apparent desire to make one couple’s experience a positive one, we will not return.  Please link to this as often as you see fit and share it with your friends and family before mistaking the Wynn for a great hotel.

In my opinion, your money would be better spent in a wish well than at the Wynn Las Vegas.  Stay at the Hilton, stay at the Motel 6…just don’t waste your money on Wynn.