I stayed at the Venetian recently while attending a convention. This was my 4th visit stay at the Ventian, and it will be my last. Each trip has been worse and worse, this hotel is definitely in decline as a trend.

A few of the problems I and my co-workers experienced:

* Smoke detector went off at 3AM for no known reason, and continued to beep for hours. Hotel staff was completely unhelpful. They didn't help to fix, and they were sloooow to move co-worker to a new room. (Not good for our business to have co-worker all bleary-eyed the next day from lack of sleep due to the smoke detector fiasco.) The big problem was the service problem... HOW the staff handled this was *even worse* than the broken smoke detector itself.

* Nice deep soaking tub in the bathroom. Too bad the stopper was broken and wouldn't hold water in the tub. A hotel like this should have a quality inspection before the guest arrives. Details like this matter.

* Generally pompous and arrogant attitudes by most of the hotel staff I met. My co-workers all agreed, they felt treated more like cattle being herded, than like guests at a supposed elite hotel.

* As others have noted, you have to walk about a mile to get to your hotel room, criss-crossing through the hotel. Bring your walking shoes and a lot of patience, it ain't easy getting around this hotel.

* I spoke with hotel manager on phone from the convention center, and explained the numerous service issues we had experienced (too many others to write about here) and he told me they would mail me a certificate for one free night upon a return trip. I waited a month and never received said certificate. Called hotel and they said they would research and call me back. A week later, no return call from them. I called again, and same thing happened, with no call back from them. Called again, spoke with another manager, who this time says they have no record of anyone making that promise, so they won't send anything. This manager implies that I must be making it up. GRRRRR. On the contrary, the original hotel manager I spoke with HAD promised to send a coupon for 1 free night as a make good for the many problems we experienced. For the hotel break that promise later is unacceptable.

I simply will not do business with any company who make promises and then breaks those promises, with the implication that I must be making up a story.

To the management at the Ventian you should read this and memorize it:

"A customer can fire everyone from the chairman on down just by spending his money somewhere else." - Sam Walton

I will no longer stay at the Venetian.

I am urging our corporate meeting planner, who in the past has booked the Venetian for all employees in my company for several conventions each year, to take our company's business to a different hotel in Las Vegas.

I urge you to do the same, stay elsewhere, there are too many other great hotels in Las Vegas that DO care about their guests.

It always amazes me that service industry management is so short sighted! Can they actualy believe that you are trying to scam them out of one free night? (All they have to do is look at your records to see who you and your group are - the fact that they donlt bother shows their complete incompetence.)

I had a smiliar - but much more minor - situation with a local restaurant. They delivered a dinner to us that had tiny pieces of broken glass on the top of the container - and obviously might have been inside as well. Who could tell? They refused to replace the meal - and in fact accused me of trying to cheat them - of an $18 dinner! We ended up throwing the whole thing out and have cheese muffins for dinner. That weekend I walked over to the restaurant - that we use once every two weeks or so - to discuss with management and they were equally offensive (how do we know you didn;t put the glass in the food yourself ? and did you save the food to show us?) Obviously we will never use this place again - and are telling our friends the same - and they will never understand why!

Forgive me, I have small tolerance for the increasingly arrogant attitude such places are showing, but -- I have to ask -- why would you want a free night's stay there?

Cassandra wrote what I was thinking, and reminded me of an experience I had at an abominable Days Inn motel in North Carolina -- leaky sink, bugs, panhandlers, and more.

When I complained to Day Inn headquarters, they responded by offerng me a DISCOUNT to stay at the same motel. I literally laughed out loud.

If you have a bad experience somewhere, and especially when you say that the staff attitudes are poor, that ain't gonna change! Why would you want to go back? There are literally dozens of hotels from which to choose in Las Vegas. The loudest statement a consumer can make is to spend your money elsewhere.

This reminds me of an incident I had long ago with a cleaners who lost a sash that belonged to my daughter's dress. When I asked where the sash was, the cleaners (all the way up to management) accused me of STEALING my own sash and blaming them for it. Not only haven't I used these idiots since, but I also told everybody I knew how they treated me.

We stay at The Ventian twice a year and have for the past six years. We find it to be excellent in every respect and it has to be one of the top ten hotel in the world.

Jim,

Top ten in the world? You don't get out much, do you?

"This was my 4th visit...each trip has been worse..."

How many bad times do you have to "experience" before you figure out that a change might be in order?

Your one-sided whine and feeble attempt to divert business from this hotel could easily be matched by just as many people who had positive experiences.

Some hotels know how to handle problems, others don't. When we got into our room at Resorts in Atlantic City recently, the reading lamp over the bed didn't work. When I tried to call housekeeping to have the bulb replaced, the phone didn't work either.
I walked down to the front desk to discuss the problem; the desk clerk immediately assigned us a different -- and better -- room; called a bellman to move our belongings, and presented me with a certificate for breakfast on them. Needless to say, we're going back and recommend the property to our friends.

We had a major problem with the Flamingo over a "lost" pre-payment, and I too was appalled at the lousy attitude of everyone with whom I talked. There was absolutely no sense of good customer service; the only reasonably polite contact was a high-level manager. I guess the folks in Las Vegas figure they have a captive audience and just don't care whether the customers are happy.

Hearing about the discounts offerred reminded me of our trip to the Marine center in Seward, Alaska. It was quite expensive and when we got in, half the exhibit tanks were closed, almost none of the displays had signs explaining the contents, and after signing up for some kids activities and waiting 2 hours (especially hard when there was little to see and occupy the wait) they cancelled the activity at the last minute.

I wrote the manager a letter about this, naming names and times, and saying how disappointing this was, especially since we are from Hawaii and would likely never get back to alaska, etc.

He sent me 10% discount coupons for a return visit, expiring in 6 months!!

Those problems happen at any large hotel that houses more than 2,000 rooms. Try staying at another large hotel even in another city like New York. If you run into any problems at a large hotel you are SOL. But for crappy service you are also getting a centrally located hotel with lots of attractions, the choice is yours. But again, this is not a Venetian problem, but a large hotel problem.

I've had some issues at Caesars but the responses have always been great and I've been compensated without asking for the inconvenience. I wouldn't lump all large hotels together. Talking to friends who get RFB at Venetian, they agree that it has been slipping.

I respectfully disagree, many problems with large hotels are taken away by simply staying at a smaller place. Long walks to rooms (the poster obviously knew this since he stayed there 3 times before), long waits for elevators, less than stellar maid service. Bad customer service. All are common when you stay at a large hotel. You did know Venetian has 4,000 rooms, right? That means up to 8,000 guests or more at times. It is not surprising that when assisting all those people some will fall through the cracks.

The stopper not working in the tub? Come on, that could happen at any hotel.

If you want more attentive service stay at a smaller place which is hard to find in Las Vegas. I don't think sevice is slipping, it's always been that way and some notice and/or affected by it and some are not. Again, the trade off is the great surroundings, good ammenities, and the like. But you will always be cattle at mega hotels.

I disagree about service necessarily being worse at large hotels. It is necessarily less personal - since they have somany guests they wonlt remember youfrom visit to visit - but the basics should all work. And I have stayed at asome very large - but quality hotels - at which they do. Unfortunately hotels in Vegas are generally very poor - as are restaurants - as they have a captive - and often very unsopisticated audience.
As for the Venetian being one of the 10 best in the world - I doubt if its even one of the 10 best on the west coast.

I've had great service at big hotels (Harrah's, of all places, was top-notch when I stayed there), and lousy service at small ones (a nameless second-tier Miami Beach hotel, to name one). I've had more personal service at the smaller ones, but overall I've been lucky with the big ones. I think it's a personnel issue more often than a product of "snooty corporate culture", although the latter does occur.

Now nytraveler, the Venetian is held in great regard by Condé Nast and the Travel Channel, and usually rates highly on their meaningless lists of "best hotels in xxx". But I'm with you: the Venetian is NOT one of the top ten hotels on the West Coast, if only because it's over 200 miles inland, LOL.

Whether it's a big hotel or not....whether buddy really wants to go back to the Venetian if they gave a free room or not.....any service establishment should at least make the gesture of trying to make good on their blunders.

One company I know (not in travel) does a make-good on bad service by givng the person a dinner for two at any restaurant of their choice in town. More often than not, the person will not take advantage of the company and try to break their bank with an outrageous dinner bill--they stay within reason. And then, they don't end up telling 10 other people (or more) about their lousy experience with the company. Well worth it, I say.

I think big hotels know how to rectify problems: case in point was our trip to the Hyatt in Kauai: we had a garden room with huge convention parties taking place literally on our porch/balcony the first two nights: management moved us to a deluxe suite with access to the concierge floor and fitness center with no extra charge. In doing so, they gained a loyal customer forever.

buddybuddy~ ALWAYS document the name of anyone in an authority position as a reference if the "promise" isn't kept. I have found this critical in obtaining results in the airline industry, as well as hotels. You still can recify this matter by writing to the customer service rep for the hotel, politely(key) detailing the events of your stay.
Maybe if you are comped for a future visit, luck will be with you- no business related trip to cause a possible snafu. Good luck.