Hotel Review: The Venetian & Palazzo Hotels, Las Vegas.

 

Ok, I’ve been putting off this review for a few weeks now, as it isn’t a great one. And be prepared as this is a long post with a lot of writing.
So as many of you know we did a huge road trip around the West Coast of the USA, finishing in Las Vegas. When choosing the hotel, it was a tough choice, and after weeks of researching and discussing, the choice was whittled down to two; The Venetian, and The Wynn. We all wanted The Wynn, but my brother was adamant we HAD to stay in The Venetian, so we went with it.
Biggest. Mistake. Ever.
We arrived in the afternoon to find a check-in queue the size of the economy class check-in queue at the airport. You do not expect to have to wait in a line to check-in to a five star hotel. Clearly they need more service desks, or they need to give customers allocated check-in time slots.
We finally got through the queue and received the keys to our suites. So off we went, battling through the crowds of gamblers with our suitcases, feeling like idiots walking through the casino floor with all our luggage. We get to our suites, and everything is fine….apart from one thing. We asked for suites with views of the strip…we had views of the multi-storey car park. As well as this my parents suite was right next to the air conditioning unit that services the entire hotel and resort. So as you can imagine…it was pretty loud. We asked to change room, and they kindly agreed. We got moved and all appeared fine, until I walked towards the blinds in mine and my brother’s suite…and noticed a strange splattering of stains across the blinds. Blood stains.
 

 

 

To put it bluntly, it looked like a CSI Crime Scene that hadn’t (or couldn’t) be cleaned properly. My mum suggested maybe they were food stains, but as you can see from the photos above, food doesn’t create that strange sort of stain. And even if it was food, it’s still absolutely disgusting and incredibly unhygienic! I don’t want to bore you with photos of stains, but what you see above was all over the blinds. And as well as the stains, the top of the blinds were covered in mould and dust. I’m allergic to mould (no joke, I’ve been tested – it make me sneeze like crazy and my chest tighten up to the point I need to use my Asthma inhaler).
Now, if the hotel had moved us immediately and apologised, everything would have been ok. But they didn’t. They argued with us and said there were no rooms left blah blah blah, and no one seemed to think there was anything wrong with stains and mould covering the blinds in a child’s room (my brother is 16). Finally after a lot of arguing they agreed to move us, but as they didn’t have any rooms left in The Venetian, they moved us to their sister hotel, The Palazzo, which is much newer having been built only three years ago. In the meantime they sent a cleaner up to clean the stains off…we were there while he did this. Did he do it? No. He just dusted the blind. I’m pretty sure they just needed to burn that blind and put a brand new one in. Anyway, two employees then came and escorted us across to The Palazzo, and stayed to make sure our rooms were ok. On first glance they were fine. Then once they had gone, I stepped into my bathroom bare foot, and this happened…

 

I have no idea how it got onto the top of my foot, but I looked down, to see glass all over the floor near the dressing table, little pieces, and a huge chunk with foundation on it. As well as the glass, foundation was covering the floor, so the people in there before us had clearly smashed a foundation bottle, and the cleaners hadn’t cleaned it. We had already spent two hours trying to get an acceptable suite, we were tired, and if we hung around any longer we were going to miss the show that night, so my brother and I took photos, then tidied it up, cleaned my blooded foot, and didn’t tell our parents. If we had told them they would have made a fuss, and we would have missed the show and been even more stressed out and unhappy.
A couple of days later, I also noticed this…
a hole in my duvet cover.
Seriously!? You do NOT expect all of these things with a five-star hotel. I’ve stayed in five-star hotels all over the world, and I have never had an experience as awful as this! As well as all of the issues already listed, the bath was also filthy and full of someone else’s hair, so we didn’t use it at all, we stuck to the shower.We really regretted not staying in The Wynn, and were generally just really disappointed with The Venetian and Palazzo.
Apart from all of the issues, the suites were great – they’re the largest rooms in Vegas, and the bed was the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. The swimming pools were fantastic, and the restaurants incredible! I highly recommend a trip to The Grand Lux Cafe (yes, we went here just because it has our surname in it), as they do amazing pizzas! The wifi throughout the hotel however was terrible and never worked, and they didn’t seem to have a business centre. I also really didn’t like how busy the hotel was, it stressed me out, and I really wish we had stayed in a quieter hotel with less people. The Wynn and Ceasars Palace were both much more ‘me’, they were much quieter and less hectic, so if I went back I think I would stay in one of those.
 
Some photos of the suite and hotel…
The living area of the Palazzo suite with Trump tower outside the window.
The super cute cushions! 
The comfiest bed you will ever sleep on.
Apologies for the messiness… :/
It was really hard to photograph the bathroom. It looks small but it was pretty big, you can’ see the shower as I’m standing next to it. The toilet is through the door you can see.
We finally got our view of the strip!
From our suite we could see The Mirage, Treasure Island, Trump Tower, the Wynn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Catherine Lux
Catherine Lux

Catherine Lux is a veteran travel blogger by night and the Head of SEO at Havas Media Group by day. Originally from Surrey, she spent four years living in Australia (2007-2009, and 2016-2018), and now lives in London. An ex-party girl sometimes prone to relapses, she loves nothing more than sharing her fine dining and luxury travel experiences with her loyal readers.

Find me on: Web | Instagram

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4 Comments

  1. Helen
    August 17, 2012 / 2:09 pm

    Oh my god – when Dave stayed at The Bellagio there wasn't a stitch out of place. That is disgusting! How the hell have they managed to get five stars? There are cleaner B&Bs with better service in Blackpool! Its such a shame it was so stressful. I hope you had better experiences in America after that!

    Helen xxx

    • Catherine Lux
      August 17, 2012 / 7:45 pm

      Yup, absolutely disgraceful! How they think it's acceptable I don't know!

      Thankfully we had great experiences at all the other hotels, and the rest of our holiday was fantastic!

      Cx

  2. Catherine
    August 17, 2012 / 7:25 pm

    Awful! I can't get over the minging curtains. Still, looks like you had fun inspite of it all

    • Catherine Lux
      August 17, 2012 / 7:45 pm

      Disgusting isn't it! But yes, we did have a fun time aside from the hotel 🙂

      Cx

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