Starling Travel

You may remember my unpleasant stay at Buffalo Bill’s Hotel and Casino back in November of last year. If not, you can read about it here:

• Starling Travel » Don’t Stay At Buffalo Bill’s Hotel and Casino

A few months after posting that entry, I received a call. I didn’t recognize the number, but I answered the call anyway.

“Hello?”

“Hello, is this Laura Moncur?” He mispronounced my name, but then again, everyone does.

“Yes?”

“I’m calling from Buffalo Bill’s Casino and I notice that you stayed here last November. We were wondering how your stay was.”

“You can find out about my stay on Starling Travel.”

“Ah… yes… I have that review here. We were wondering if there is any chance you’d be willing to stay with us again.”

The first response that came to my mind wasn’t very polite, so I asked Mike. “Is there any chance that we’d be willing to stay at Buffalo Bill’s again?”

Mike said, “Yeah, I guess…”

I replied to the man on the other end of the phone, “Yeah, I guess…”

“Well, we’d like to give you a couple nights’ stay to try us again.”

I gave him my address and he made promises of free meals and hotel suites before he hung up. Mike and I discussed the offer and decided that we would take them up on it, but at the same time, bring Stacey and Dan and see how they treat normal customers. We’d test them again.

We talked to Stacey and Dan about it. “Isn’t that the hotel on the California/Nevada border?”

“Yes.”

“That’s like a half hour away from Vegas. Didn’t you say that their Internet was slow?”

“Like molasses.”

“Um… no… As inviting as that sounds… no.”

“Fine. We’ll test ‘em on our own.”

Over a month later, the letter finally arrived.

Dear Ms. Moncur,

Thank you for contacting us during your recent visit. One of most important tasks is to learn directly from our guests how they enjoyed their Primm Valley Casino Resorts experience.

Please accept my sincere apologies for the disappointments and inconveniences you experienced during your stay at Buffalo Bill’s. I regret that your stay with us did not meet all of your expectations.

As a gesture of goodwill, I would like to offer you a complimentary room for one night at Whiskey Pete’s, Primm Valley or Buffalo Bill’s. Please contact my assistant, XXXXX, directly at (XXX)XXX-XXXX extension XXXX, and she will make the necessary arrangements. She may be reached Monday through Friday between the hours of 9am-5pm. This offer is based on availability, valid through February 2009 and excludes holidays, special events and major conventions.

You are truly a valued guest of ours and we look forward to welcoming you back to Primm Valley Resorts in the near future.

It took a month for the form letter to come and when it finally did, they offered us ONE night’s stay with restrictions and based on availability. They didn’t address any of the deferred maintenance problems or the Internet connectivity issues. One night’s stay at their hotels ranges from $31-$50. After all the issues that Mike and I had that night, all they offered was a one-night stay. It teetered on the edge of insulting.

They say that customer complaints are the perfect opportunity to create a loyal customer for life. Unfortunately, Primm Valley didn’t achieve that. As “gracious” as their offer seems, I won’t be taking them up on it.

We made reservations to stay at the Luxor Hotel, but when we arrived, I was heartbroken. They were tearing out everything I loved in the hotel and it was all blocked off by big walls. It was 1996.

They had already removed the Nile River Ride on the lower level and were constructing a huge registration desk right at the front of the pyramid (where it should have been in the first place). I had been looking forward to riding the Nile River Ride again, but it wasn’t going to be. If I had known, I would have taken a bunch of pictures the previous time.

Large portions of the attractions level were quartered off. The Manhattan Buffet was gone and a transformation was overtaking the big city skyline. I’m so glad I took this photo with my beloved 110 camera. It was the last time I was going to see that little King Kong on the top of the Empire State Building in the Luxor. Sure, the “building” is still there, but it is painted to look like a building from Egypt instead of New York.

The Millennium Cafe was intact. Little did I know that it was going to become a La Salsa. I like the foot long margaritas and the Mexican food, but I still miss the “Cafe Eighties” feel of the Millennium Cafe.

They didn’t ruin everything. The view from my hotel room on the twentieth floor was still spectacular. The pool looked inviting as ever. It is the one facet of the Luxor Hotel that has changed little over the years.

You can see more photos from my 1996 stay at the Luxor Hotel here:

• Flickr: Luxor Hotel Remodel 1996

The Luxor Hotel has gone through yet ANOTHER renovation this year and I talk about it here:

• Starling Travel » Open Letter to The Luxor Hotel and Casino

What used to be my favorite hotel in Las Vegas has dwindled down to just another casino. It makes me sad and I wish for its glory days of the Nineties.

Dear Luxor Hotel,

I used to really love you, but the Luxor has really gone downhill. Despite all the renovations, I really don’t want to step into a casino with Carrot Top with top billing and EVERY casino has a strip show. Advertising yours (Fantasy) just makes you look pathetic.

You keep sending me these “offers,” but they aren’t appealing in the least. If you don’t have a good show to draw me in (in all honesty, your shows are scaring me away), and you don’t have anything else to draw me in, then the price of the room needs to draw me in and I can beat your price at the Las Vegas Hilton or Imperial Palace every time. Barry Manilow and “Dealer-tainers” are just as scary as 3 Redneck Tenors, but I pay MUCH MUCH less for the room.

Seriously, the Luxor hotel used to be my FAVORITE hotel. I’ve written about it online many times:

• Starling Travel » Small Pleasures Week: The Luxor Atrium
• Starling Travel » The King Tut Exhibit
• Starling Travel » Luxor Hotel SWAG
• Starling Fitness » The Perfect Run
• Pick Me! » You’re Going Out of Town Again?!
• Pick Me! » Confession of a Security Guard
• Pick Me! » What Has Happened To My Luxor Hotel?

I didn’t realize how many times I had written about the Luxor until I looked it up. I even went so far as to call it my “beloved Luxor Hotel.”

I’ve visited since the “new pulse” was installed. Stripping the hotel of the theme was kind of silly, but I understand that you’re trying to make it upscale. A lot of casinos are trying to play down their kid-friendly aspects right now. Of course, that doesn’t explain Ronn Lucas and his puppets. I understand what you’re trying to do, but there is NO WAY that you’ll be able to be upscale if you don’t draw in some better entertainment. And by the way, paying stars to come dance at your nightclub doesn’t count as entertainment.

And don’t even get me started about the billboards plastered on the side of the pyramid. Anubis himself might have come to take down that Absolut bottle if the wind storm hadn’t gotten to it first. Adidas? Since when are you a sports bar? Aren’t you embarrassed that Google Maps shows you with half a sign advertising Motorola from InterOp plastered on your beautiful, black pyramid? You should be.

When your advertising isn’t merely unappealing, it’s downright insulting. For example, take the Valentines Day offer you sent in February 2008. Here was the offer:

• Complimentary admission for two to Cathouse: This is your restaurant where women in lingerie serve you food right? I noticed you didn’t offer me a dinner there, just admission so I don’t have to pay the cover charge. Do you really think women in lingerie feeding my husband food is romantic? What kind of Valentines Day do YOU celebrate?

• 2 for 1 Admission to Fantasy: THE STRIP SHOW? What kind of couple goes to a strip show on Valentines Day? Not only that, you expect my husband to pay for himself and I get in FREE? Wow… thanks for the offer… I’m so underwhelmed.

• Chocolate Covered Strawberries (from in-room dining): That sounds nice, I guess…

• Complimentary admission for 2 to Nuture The Spa: I don’t care what you call it. Nuture The Spa is just a hotel gym with a massage therapist or two. I’ve been there. I know. I love to exercise there, but your admission doesn’t include the cost of a massage, so really all you’re offering me are a few treadmills and a hot soak in a tub. Admission to your spa should ALWAYS be free.

• Complimentary Deluxe Tower Room Upgrade (based on availability): Have you not figured out yet that the coolest part of staying at the Luxor Hotel is the room in the pyramid with the fun, slanty walls? I don’t WANT to stay in the tower, but if I did, I would be pretty underwhelmed with the lack of promise that “based on availability” gives me.

Really? Is this really the best Valentines Day offer you could make me? Mike and I were in Vegas right before Valentines Day. A really good offer might have made us stay a couple of days longer at YOUR hotel. Instead, you insulted everything about the holiday.

Every time we drive past the Luxor now, my heart aches for what you used to be. How much longer until you dismantle whatever is left of cool that you had? Please, please, please fire the advertising company that you have hired. If you are doing this in-house, STOP IT and hire a good advertising agency. I would hate for the Luxor to suffer the fate of The Sands, Stardust and so many other great casinos that couldn’t compete in this market. You deserve so much more than a burst of fireworks and a carefully timed implosion.

Best,
Laura Moncur

After our horrible stay at Buffalo Bill’s the Las Vegas Hilton felt like a blissful home. We have stayed here many times before and have loved the Internet access (despite the $12 a day charge) and the Star Trek Experience. We ate at Quark’s every night.

Here is the room key:

Here is the swag setup with lotion, shampoo, facial soap and shower soap.

You can drink this water, but it will cost you four bucks.

We had a great stay at the Las Vegas Hilton and I didn’t want to leave it.

I’m never staying at Buffalo Bill’s again, but I wanted to show you the hotel swag from it.

It took three sets of these card keys to get a room where we could sleep. It wasn’t worth the effort.

Here is the soap for the shower. If you notice, there is water on the floor. We thought that the shower might have leaked, but it turned out that the toilet had overflowed. It was so clogged we couldn’t get it unplugged with the “precious” plunger that they deigned to loan us.

It was really hard not to be offended by this little sign telling me of what they will charge my card when I steal from them. Who would want their sandpaper towels? Thanks for trusting me…

Here is a closeup of the lotion, shampoo and soap. The second day, they gave us conditioner as well, but it wasn’t included the first day.

Swag, plastic cups, ice bucket and the sign assuming I’ll steal.

Here is the coffee setup.

The swag at Buffalo Bill’s was typical, but the hotel rooms were miserable. We left as soon as we could.

I don’t like to do bad reviews, but I would be remiss if I didn’t warn you about Buffalo Bill’s Hotel and Casino in Primm, Nevada.

It is about a 45 minute drive from Las Vegas, so I thought it would be a good place for us to stay. We have sorely missed Nevada Landing since it closed earlier this year and we were trying to find a replacement for our favorite hotel.

Buffalo Bill’s is NOT it.

We decided to take Buffalo Bill’s Hotel for a test run on 11-22-07 and 11-23-07. It was a nightmare.

The staff at the checkout counter was understaffed, but friendly. We had to wait 30 minutes in line to get our room. The staff was very helpful when we finally got to see them, but there just weren’t enough of them to handle the line of people checking in.

Unfortunately, the room we were given was unpleasant. The toilet was clogged before we were able to use it. I called down to the desk to have someone bring me a plunger. The maintenance man who showed up, wouldn’t let me keep the plunger (is there only ONE for the entire hotel?!). He insisted that he wait while I get the toilet unplugged. Unfortunately, he had brought a sink plunger, which would turn inside out every time I applied pressure. I was disgusted as the thing flipped sewer water on me every time I turned it right side out. Despite all I did, I was unable to get it unclogged. The maintenance guy said he would get someone with a snake to unplug it. I told him that we were going to get a different room.

I waited in the room while Mike went down to get another one. He waited another 30 minutes in that long line. They gave him keys for a different room on the same floor.

We took all our suitcases, left the previous room and headed to our new one. The key cards didn’t work. Now, we were stuck in the hallway with all of our suitcases and no room. I waited in the hallway with all of our belongings while he went down AGAIN to have them fix the problem.

He barged to the front of the 30 minute line and they gave him cards for a third room. It was one floor above ours. When we arrived in the room, the smoke detector was beeping, the window was stuck open (cold wind blowing the curtains) and there was only one chair instead of two. Frustrated with the line at the checkout desk, we called housekeeping and maintenance.

A woman arrived at the door about thirty minutes later. She didn’t have a chair, so we assumed she must be maintenance. Sadly, she didn’t speak enough English to communicate to us that she had been sent to our room from housekeeping and no one had told her that she should bring a chair. We told her the smoke alarm was beeping (you would think it was obvious) and that we couldn’t get the window closed. She suggested that we put bath towels along the crack to block the air.

That was the point where I lost it.

Maintenance showed up and replaced the battery. Mike and I finally forced the window shut (most of my rage was used up on the window). It was almost 2 am by that time, so it was too late to get a room somewhere else.

Once we finally had a non-beeping, non-freezing room, we had even MORE issues. The next morning, we were greeted by the noisy ruckus that was housekeeping gathering right outside our door. Apparently, they gave us the room right by the housekeeping area. After all the trouble we had, they gave us that room. I understand that it’s just a job and it’s fun to talk and laugh with your coworkers, but we had been up for HOURS last night just trying to get settled into a room. We arrived a little late the previous night, but that was aggravated by changing rooms so many times. We just wanted to sleep.

Even worse, the wireless Internet was slow. Okay that’s a lie. It was almost non-workingly slow. Mike took the readings and it was slower on upload than a telephone modem. I had to upload two pictures about seven times just to get it to work. You shouldn’t brag about having wireless Internet if it’s unusable.

After all the trouble, we just wanted out of Buffalo Bill’s as soon as possible. I made a reservation for the Las Vegas Hilton as soon as they had rooms available (11-24-07) and we checked out of Buffalo Bill’s three days too early.

We were so angry, we didn’t gamble at all. We saved our gambling money for the Hilton.

The staff were all very nice, but the hotel has some SERIOUS deferred maintenance. We were going to book a week’s stay there during CES and go the extra drive every day to Vegas, but now we are looking at hotels in the city. Terrible Herbst might be a great car wash, but they are running a miserable hotel.

Read this entry to hear about Primm Valley Casino Resorts’ “apology”:

• Starling Travel » Buffalo Bill’s Hotel and Casino “Apologizes”

While we were being misled by timeshare people at the Excalibur Hotel, the rest of my family stayed at Hooters Hotel and Casino just down Tropicana Blvd. Here is what their SWAG looked like on 08-09-07:

Looks amazing compared the the Excalibur SWAG, right? Yeah… it does. In the collection, was a grooming kit. Here is what the grooming kit looks like when you open it up:

My family really enjoyed staying at Hooters Hotel and Casino. Considering how scantily clad most of the cocktail waitresses are in Las Vegas, Hooters is actually pretty tame. I liked the laid-back island atmosphere. Since we were so angry at Excalibur, we ended up spending all our time at Hooters instead.

If you have taken pictures of Hotel SWAG, please share them with us on Flickr:

• Flickr: Hotel SWAG

Or you can contact me and I can post them here and give you credit for it:

• Contact Laura Moncur

Last month, we took a quick trip to Las Vegas. We stayed at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino. Here is how the SWAG was presented on 08-09-07:

We were less impressed with Excalibur this time than the previous times we’ve stayed there.

When we arrived, we were exhausted. Loaded down with suitcases, we headed to the registration counter. A friendly lady approached us and asked if we were checking in. We told her yes and she told us to follow her.

She led us down the hall over some stairs (lugging our suitcases up the stairs) and to a timeshare desk!

The registration desk was in the complete opposite direction. When we realized we were at the wrong place, I asked, “Are you just trying to sell us timeshares?!” The lady at the counter said, “No, I’m trying to give you free tickets to a show.” I can’t believe she lead us the wrong direction and watched us lug our heavy suitcases up those stairs. I was so angry, I wanted to leave the hotel, but we had already paid for our room, so we checked in.

When are the Las Vegas hotels going to learn that the timeshare people are just pissing off their customers? We’re skipping the Excalibur next time we go to Vegas.

If you have taken pictures of Hotel SWAG, please share them with us on Flickr:

• Flickr: Hotel SWAG

Or you can contact me and I can post them here and give you credit for it:

• Contact Laura Moncur

I never stayed at the Stardust hotel. I never even went inside it. I had a friend who used to swear by it, but now it is gone. You can see a film of the implosion here:

They have never blown up a hotel that I have stayed in. I live in fear for the day that they implode my beloved Luxor Hotel. I can’t bear to think about the beautiful black pyramid sinking into a heap of rubble and iron and broken glass. The way things are going, I can foresee it happening and I don’t want to think about it.

Apparently, all the Las Vegas hotels are filling up fast for July 7th, 2007. I am usually a numbers obsessive, but this date slipped right past my notice this year. 777 is a lucky number for some, so the date of 07/07/07 is filling the Vegas hotels. Or… is this article from World Hum just bogus?

• World Hum | Travel | July 7, 2007: The Magic Date

I checked the hotel reservation calendar for The Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. This is the current listing for July. I highlighted the 7th, and the hotel room costs about as much as it usually does in July. In fact, it’s a few bucks cheaper than the following weekend.

If hotels were really filling up and booking fast for 07/07/07, then the hotel rate would reflect that. The rates for the Luxor during CES were well over $200. It sounds like World Hum’s article is more about selling hotel rooms than about what’s really going on.

Sure, there might be a run on the hotel rooms when it gets closer to July, but it’s not happening right now. I like to think that we humans are less superstitious than you make us out to be…