I hate giving negative hotel reviews, especially of World of Hyatt hotels. But, sometimes one bad apple can ruin the barrel, and that’s where I begin.
This is not the entire hotel review – I have lots of pretty pictures both of the casino, the hotel property and even the room – so I’ll post those tomorrow or the day after.
the Casino
This post is all about what NOT to do if your profession is hospitality and loyalty.
Let’s begin here. The Ocean Resort Casino, formally the Revel, had it’s grand opening last week (as did the Hard Rock Casino). We know that there are always glitches in the beginning. The Ocean Resort is now part of Hyatt’s Unbound Collection, as a category 3 hotel (I’m sure that it will be changed to a category 4 or 5 hotel soon enough).
Dave (my SO) and I stayed at the hotel from Saturday to Monday. I used a points and cash rate.
When we arrived late Saturday afternoon, the check-in lines were really, really long.
People waiting over an hour to check in to the hotel
There was also a less known VIP line, which wasn’t much better (It may be that this latter line was intended for the players rather than the Hyatt elite guests, but I’m not sure).
VIP check-in line
I will say that, for the most part, the first level personnel were caring. The front desk workers (Briana and Esther at the front desk and Felinda on the phone) as well as the concierge team (especially Courtney and Angela) were warm and did their best to be helpful. Management, however, was another story. They were smug, rude and condescending.
At check-in, I mentioned that I was a Globalist and inquired about an upgrade. I was informed that the computer does not show a guest’s Hyatt status, and was told, in no uncertain terms that it was Opening Weekend and nothing was available. I mentioned that often when that happens at other Hyatt hotels, management extends some sort of amenity, such as a drink or a bottle of wine, to the guest. I was told I should be happy I was there at all.
Our room was a standard King room on a high floor. It was very clean and nicely decorated. It had a fantastic view of the Ocean.
View from our room on the 42nd Floor
There were issues however. Among other things, our door was wide open when we arrived and there were hooks and brackets on the wall, but no pictures hanging on it (we joked that this was the minimalist look).
something is missing?
There was no amenity. No welcome note. No nothing. All the things that one expects from a Hyatt hotel – not because I think I’m so special or entitled – but because that’s the standard Hyatt expects from it’s own hotel teams.
We were given two small 10 ounce bottles of water, and told that we get 2 of these daily – and nothing more. The next morning, when we asked for our water, no one knew what we were talking about.
I was told that breakfast for Globalists was served from 7 am to 2 pm at Harper’s Restaurant. However, when I went to have breakfast at Harper’s at 11 am, I was told they were fully booked.
At this point, I went back on the VIP line and asked for a manager. The front office manager, whom I shall call Dick, was so condescending that you’d think he was an actor playing a condescending manager! I asked about the water. Dick said that technically guests were only entitled to 8 ounces of water, so I had already gotten 2 ounces more than I was entitled to. Excuse me? I mentioned the brackets on the wall and he sneered and asked in an accusing way why I hadn’t mentioned this before.
I asked Dick about our breakfast, telling him that Harper’s was fully booked. He said to go to another hotel restaurant, Cafe 500, and that I would not be charged for it (of course, it was on my bill at checkout and had to explain to a number of people why the charge should be removed).
I also explained to Dick that I am a travel blogger and that many of my readers are World of Hyatt loyalists who are eager to read about the hotel and see the accommodations. I asked if anyone was available to possibly give me a tour of the hotel and casino. Dick said his people were too busy for this.
I also asked Dick if there was an upgrade available since it was now Sunday morning and many of the Opening Weekend guests had presumably checked out. He agreed to this, and said he’d leave me a message in my room.
As for the upgrade, Dave and I were taking bets – Dave was certain no one would call, and that Dick’s statement was an empty gesture just to get rid of me. I, being the eternal optimist that I am, believed Dick meant what he said and that we would in fact be upgraded.
Dave was right, Dick didn’t call. No one called.
But wait – – the phone rang at 8:30 pm Sunday night and front desk asked if we’d like to be upgraded. Huh? Really? At 8:30 pm?
The next morning, I saw Dick and told him about the 8:30 pm suite offer on my last evening at the hotel. I said that this did not seem like a real offer to me. Dick said he did his part – he told the front desk at noon to call me with an offer to upgrade to a suite. He said that it wasn’t his fault that his employees failed to call me earlier in the day. (Any other Hyatt manager would follow up to understand how this snafu occurred, but not Dick. No, he did his part . . .)
My friends all said “what do you expect – – this is Atlantic City?” But I do expect a basic level of politeness. I don’t expect insulting, nasty behavior, especially from someone at management level.
I could go on, but I don’t want to. This Dick pretty much destroyed our weekend. I’m guessing that his experience is not with World of Hyatt, but with Atlantic City casinos, and that he is trained to treat hotel guests with distrust and as a bother.
Tomorrow I’ll post a photo review of the hotel and the casino. It is visually stunning. But remember this: a hotel could have every wonderful feature imaginable, but management’s lack of etiquette toward hotel guests can ruin the entire experience. Unfortunately, that is what happened here.
Please note, I am not telling people not to go to the hotel. As I said previously, it is stunning. I am just sharing my experience (which is the same experience being reported by many other recent hotel guests). Once the hotel gets properly staffed and trained, and management is additionally taught how to be courteous to guests, the hotel has great potential.
A New York frequent flyer who elegantly combines her passions for worldwide travel, running a gazillion marathons all over the globe and staying fit ... without sacrificing her fancy for good wine and food.
Glad you posted this review. I was considering booking this hotel today but not anymore!
The Hotel help was horrible no one seemed interested in helping.Restaurants were good but service was horrible!Poor housekeeping they were so short handed and in turn our rooms for the 3 day stay was cleaned at 6:30pm.I loved the Revel but this was a terrible experience!
What a horrible article!
All she want is free upgrade this and that and even complain about 2oz water!
You know you could cost someone’s job?
This ppls is doing there job on a busy schedule and here u are trying to get perks.
I’m sure u were get paid to write bad about companies hoping to get free stuff if not money.
You deserve to be in jail not hotel.
Jail – A bit drastic don’t you think!! LOL!
I think what Kathy was trying to explain is that this hotel was not following the protocol for the Globalist experience. She was not demanding an upgrade, she was asking if one was available and then pointing out the inefficiencies that she experienced at the hotel.
As a Globalist, the experience should be consistent across all Hyatt brands . Given that the Hyatt loyalty program has taken a beating recently with a loss of members due to the increased requirements to achieve Globalist, I would think hotels would be aware of the need to ensure the Globalist experience is what Globalists have come to expect.
And Dicks sounds like he lived up to his name … !
Thanks for recapping my points so eloquently!!
Hellnooo,
As a Hyatt Globalist, I expect a certain level of service. Given that to qualify, we need to spend more than 1 night EVERY week in a Hyatt property to maintain that status, we also have a great deal of experience in Hyatt properties
My stay on Saturday had many of the same issues. Given the way I was treated as a Hyatt elite, I’d be OK with the management getting serious attention from Hyatt.
What do you mean “small” 10 oz bottle of water? Is there a “large” 10 oz bottle of water?
Recently, at the Hyatt Capitol Hill in DC we were given a bottle of water each every day (and there were 4 of us in our party). It was a 1L bottle! LOL! And they even said we could take more than one each as it was so hot outside and they didn’t want us to become dehydrated. Now THAT is customer service!
I find this review absurd, entitled and insanely whiny.
First, your stay occurred during the single-most insane weekend in Atlantic City in the past 20 years. This was the hotel’s grand opening weekend. In what universe do you think it’s okay to turn around and bash the hotel and, consequently, discourage your readers from going there? Their hotel staff was no doubt overburdened with hundreds of requests every 15 minutes.
Second, why did you think it was okay to switch to “other managers give us something if they can’t upgrade us” mode when they told you no upgrades were available. It was opening day weekend! The place was sold out. WoH says Discoverist members (of which I am one) get upgrades when available. There were no rooms available. The fact that you’d essentially demand that they give you something for free because you didn’t get the upgrade you wanted is not cool.
Finally, you played the travel blogger card to get a tour of the hotel when it was obvious that the staff was stressed out, most likely overbooked and tackling a plethora of issues that were more important than your request.
It was a low-class move on your part. They aren’t required to upgrade you if no upgrades are available. They aren’t required to give you a tour just because you’re a travel blogger. They aren’t required to upgrade you to a suite because you’re a Discoverist member.
I wish you would’ve exercised some humility because, whole yo may come off as a martyr to your readership, you probably came off as entitled and bratty to management.
You have a responsibility to put your experience in context and I think you did a poor job of it here.
Thanks for your opinions. You are making many wrong assumptions. And, to clarify, the conversations with Dick took place on Sunday and Monday after the Opening Weekend crowd thinned out.
Say what? Bad is bad. If you’ve stayed somewhere and been treated that way you’d know.
This writer sounds that so many SELF ABSORBED “entitled” narcissists that torture those in hospitality.
Sorry, but I’m with JR and Noah on this one. You really came off as entitled and over dramatic in this post. Not a fan of poor hospitality from management, but not a fan of your actions either.
It’s the first weekend. Don’t listen to this review…do yourselves a favor and check out one of the most magnificent resorts in the Northeast. Give them a month to figure things out, jeesh.
So I’ve been at this resort over 24 hours now and the issues are indeed significant. The fact that the property is beautiful and it is now a Hyatt make the service issues all the more frustrating. Hyatt is my chain of choice in large part because service is consistently excellent and the status benefits are well outlined.
First off checkin at 8:30pm took an hour and a half. I am traveling solo with 2 small children so it was extra stressful. When we finally get to the room it’s beautiful and has a great view. But we’re exhausted and never had dinner because of the long line. All we want is to relax order some food to the room. But the remote and room service menu are missing. It takes 6 minutes for the front desk to even pick up. They say someone will be right up. No one ever comes. The next morning I call again and they finally bring a replacement. Housekeeping never never cleaned the room all day. The pool area was super crowded,understandably since it’s a hot day. But there were plastic cups piling up everywhere and blowing into the pool. Lots of kids using the the lounge chairs as makeshift water slides. There seemed to be no one in charge of a pool area filled with hundreds of people. Again it’s a beautiful property but it’s not going to stay that way for long unless they maintain it.
As for the author expecting free stuff. Hyatt Globalist requires 60 nights. It’s a significant commitment of time and money. But globalist comes with well outlined and valuable benefits. If Oceans wants to receive the benefits of having people book with them because they are a Hyatt they should learn to live up to that standard.
I agree that the attitude from the manager isn’t acceptable even if they were extremely stressed out during this timeframe.
However, I also agree that this post came off the wrong way. We’re talking about a ~1,400 room resort that just opened up a few days ago that are staffed with new employees. Do people really think it’s going to be a smooth experience from check-in to check-out? With the employees, they’re probably being trained from managers/supervisors who might have worked elsewhere and were only trained for a few weeks beforehand. Any semi experienced traveler should know this about new hotels..
People have to get realistic about their expectations going to a hotel that opened up recently. This is why you NEVER go to a new hotel/resort until a year later when they work everything out.
I left a previous comment that was critical of the post. While I think those criticisms are warranted, I also think I can see this from the author’s perspective, too.
Think about it. You’re a loyalty member of the highest tier and you’d think that, on a Hyatt hotel opening weekend, there would be an emphasis on making the high rollers and the high-tier customers happy and then working your way down from there. Not saying it’s fair, but it’s life.
From that perspective, I can see why this trip was frustrating. You’re expecting to get treatment on this weekend of all weekends…the weekend that the hotel is supposed to present its very best in amenities, customer service and the overall Hyatt experience.
*excellent treatment
Note to Hyatt Management
Rule 1 You know who pays the bills? Hyatt members. Have hotel managers them the way you’d want to be treated.
Rule 2 If you ever manage to forget, read rule 1
At the Ocean in Atlantic City. Get back to our room at almost 1am to sleep and 2 of the pillows on the bed are disgusting. Also it sounds like our neighbors are having a party in their room. I called guest services who said they’d swap out the pillows but laughed and said she’d lose her job if she called the room and told them to quiet down. She didn’t even apologize. We paid 12k Hyatt points since the rate was $409. Been 35mins now and still no pillows. Called again and they claim they’re sending pillows and this time apologized. 1:30am and all we want is to get some sleep since we have an early drive back to DC in the morning. Very disappointed.
that sucks. May I suggest a white noise app on your smartphone?