Plaza observations, good and bad

Recently, we stayed at the Plaza for a few nights over the weekend. While the hotel has dramatically improved some areas since our previous visit a few years ago, they are still severely lacking in other areas.

Good:
1. Rooms- The renovations (North tower at least), are noticeably better. The beds are nicer, the chairs, the bathrooms, etc. Great job on updating the rooms!
2. Elevators- Unlike our previous trip, we never had a problem calling the room elevators. They were all functioning properly, and quickly.
3. Food court options. Zabas mexican is great! McDonalds is also nice to have 24 hours, and then Pop up pizza (although somewhat pricey) was also tasty with quick service too!
4. Free WiFi- worked great! No charge!

Bad:
1. Housekeeping. I tried to order extra blankets, but was informed that housekeeping was closed?? Whomever I spoke with said they would pass along a note to send more blankets. That was never received. Furthermore, after one of the nights, the bed was never re-made for the following night.

2. Wake-up calls. After sitting on hold for over 10 minutes trying to get a wake up call (called from room), I visited the front desk. This was fairly late at night. The front desk clerk was nowhere to be found, but security was able to track the person down. The front desk informed that he could not get us a wake up call, and that the only option was to hit the wake-up call button from my phone. This tells me that the Plaza is outsourcing the service that provides wake-up calls, and likely housekeeping as well.

3. Fire alarm. We had a rude awakening by the fire alarm around 5-6am on our very last day. The noise sounded like a loud police siren. We had no idea what was going on, and in half-asleep state were expecting the police swat team to crash through the doors at any moment. There was no indication that it was a fire alarm. While getting dressed, I called the front desk, and sat on hold for at least 10 minutes. When the front desk finally picked up, they informed that a company was working on the fire alarm and had accidentally set it off. Thankfully, this was our final night stay, as we would've probably checked out and moved if it were the first night.

The service issues were a recurring issue throughout our short stay at the Plaza. While I can't really blame the workers, I can absolutely blame the management. Its easy to tell they are trying to keep the place afloat with a skeleton crew. Whenever the front desk was open, it was only one clerk. Whenever the cashier was open, it was always just one person. The food courts were a different story, always fully staffed and providing excellent service.

Being the first couple days in town, we didn't give the Plaza much play in the casino, as we usually are running around town too much on the first couple of days. I never did make it over to meet the host Curt, but then again, our play wouldn't have been a blip on the radar. I did stop by to play later in the week, and had some luck on their penny machines.

Sadly though, I don't think we'll be staying at the Plaza in the near future. There are still too many kinks that need to be worked out.

 

You and I stayed there the same weekend. From my trip report:

We were awaken at 6:30 a.m. to an annoying fire alarm. Colleen and I looked out the door and saw people pushing walkers, folks grabbing purses, etc., heading for the elevators. I called the front desk to find out what was going on. I was told that someone accidentally tried going out an emergency door and security would be informing us soon of the situation. Forty-five minutes later, security comes over the loud speaker letting us know everything was under control.

My group hadn't stayed at the Plaza since the renovations. I agree that the rooms are very tastefully done. We didn't have any service issues. We did use the pool one morning ( briefly as the weather wasn't cooperative). The pool area had garbage laying around...that obviously had been there for awhile.

My one complaint was the check in line. We arrived 10 p.m. on Friday evening (August 1) to one of the longest lines I have seen in a long time with only two clerks working the desk. It took us one hour to check in.

We did introduce ourselves to Curt....very personable man.

I probably won't get any further offers. The first night of playing machines, I didn't have a players card...and the players club was long closed.

Being an avid downtown lover, I hope they do well.

 

At check-in, we first decided to grab a bite to eat, and luckily the line had died down briefly. But by the time, we got to the desk, the line was 15 people deep again!

Also, I had the same issue with the players club being closed, but it was my own fault for losing the players card that I had obtained earlier in the week.

 

I just noticed you encountered the fire alarm issue on Monday, August 4th.

Actually, we heard the fire alarm on Tuesday, August 12th! So this is becoming an ongoing issue, and perhaps the front desk may have lied to you.

My suggestion to the Plaza is to test the fire alarms mid-afternoon, not at the crack of dawn.

 

I'm surprised they couldn't get you extra blankets... mid-summer in Las Vegas, I doubt many other folks were making the request.

 

One thing I thought was odd at the Plaza is that there was no alarm clock in our room. We had adjoining rooms and no alarm clock in room #2 either.

 

Are you sure? Last time I was there (March 2014), the "alarm clock" was part of the MP3/iPod-dock music thingy they had in the room... (unless I'm confusing them with another hotel).

 

None of us noticed any type of MP3/iPod-Dock music thingy.....however, don't quote me on that. I just know we thought it was odd that we didn't see a clock.

 

We had an alarm clock in our room. Plus, I updated the original post about the free wi-fi which worked great at the Plaza. I'm guessing the wi-fi is part of the "resort fee" which we were not charged due to this being a comp room.

 

My Fire Drill wake up call was about 4:10 AM, Sat. 8/16. Luckily I had just been up about 5 minutes earlier to use the bathroom. so I calmly got up, got dressed, picked up phone, computer, cleaned cash out of safe (only thing I forgot was wedding ring, didn't tell wife) and headed down the emergency stairs (10th floor). After sometime waiting out back decided to go around to front. Passing through the parking garage I could see into the casino, noticed staff working on slots, so I went in. Asked security and was told false alarm. Took elevator back to room but never really fell back to sleep. Ended getting up around 6AM, not my idea of wake up time in Vegas. When I mentioned it while playing at MSS, the dealer said Oh yeah, hear they have been having that happen. Well into the evening the alarm lights kept blinking in the hallway and the "fire" doors leading to the elevator still were closed.

I had no problems with housekeeping. The first morning I left a note requesting an extra pillow with the tip. When I came back later in day, place was clean and I had my pillow. I had an alarm clock, but I never use, nor do I ever request a wake up call. I use my phone for those. As far as playing, I love to play BJ and with this trip played more VP than ever. However, at the Plaza I only played BJ one night (either Fri or Sat) because I didn't care for the options. I'm not going to play a six deck shoe by myself, DD, yes. Sadly, they don't have DD. The VP was fine on the full pay machines, but you don't get points. The only coupon I used from the "fun book" was for the two slices of cheese pizza and a soda. Like the other poster, good pizza, but not cheap (at least the coupon helped). One night the elevators didn't work for several hours. Never made it to the fitness center or the pool. I could see the pool from my room, looked like the only shade would be early or late in the day. It wasn't perfect, but I had a great time. We stayed there several years ago and the place was a dump. Knowing the revamp and getting the offer, I didn't hesitate to book.

I stayed for five days, three comped. I don't expect to receive another offer based on how little I played there, but I'm ok with that. Since Vegas is so close for me and the rooms are cheap, I'm going to play where I have the best chance, not because I get very expensive "free" room. I would not have a problem staying again. Oh yeah, no problem at all with the wi-fi and I was in the south tower.

 

I recently took advantage of the 3 day free room offer during the first week of August (4-7th), got a room on the north tower 10th floor overlooking Main street & road construction and what little of Fremont you can see past the Slotzilla/stage/FSE childish punishment of the Plaza. I experienced no fire alarm or elevator problems although I did encounter the checking in/out lines due to only one desk employee most of the time.

I found the rooms great and very comfortable and the only critique I would give is the bath towels being under the sink, outside of the toilet/bathtub room and having to slosh soaking wet more than once from shower to sink to dry off because I forgot to grab one before entering the shower, not the hotels fault but an annoyance none the less.

Did go to the pool one afternoon and found it nice because of the young blonde in the pink bikini sunning herself and sitting with her feet dangling in the water, got a bit of a sunburn because she insisted in sticking around more than I planned to stay there (oh...and the pool is nice also). Only downside was the unsupervised kids roughhousing and the large one throwing the smaller one in the pool then putting him in a headlock until the kid started screaming that he couldn't breathe. One word of warning however, although I've lived in the Southwest and know better I went barefoot to the pool and after the blonde left I took the long walk (or panicked run) to the tower door and experienced the Nevada sun exposed concrete shuffle, no lasting effect but painful at the time.

Ended up ahead gambling due to 4 3's (sadly no Ace kicker) at VP and a fifteen minute run rolling the dice at the craps table, good for me but probably bad for getting another room comp anytime soon.

All in all I think the Plaza is trying hard to attract players and I really like the place, plus I have a soft spot in my heart for it since I got my one and only (so far) VP Royal Flush there. Also, I'm a cigar smoker and really enjoyed the outside Bier Garten when I was there in March, however the outside was closed this last trip (probably because of the heat) bumming out myself and my buddy hoping to enjoy a outside smoke and a fine beer, hopefully as the vines grow over the pergola it will be open year-round.

 

I did that once with the towel. That bath/toilet is also very cramped, but that's just from being an older building. I liked the instant hot water, didn't have to wait for it to warm up in the shower.

 

Hi, thank you all for the comments. yes we did have an issue with the alarms that particular weekend. all is fixed now. We are making progress.

 

from the posts, it was clearly not a singular event with the fire alarm last weekend. we were there too, friday and saturday nights, and the fire alarm was really only one of the issues with the plaza.

having the second of the desk clerks, at our check in on friday, not even look up at the slow moving line as he turned slowly and lumbered back to the break room, leaving the other very unhurried checkin person on her own, showed me a lot of the work ethic of the plaza staff.

room was clean, the remodelers can only do so much with the space limitations of those bathroom spaces, so the raised sink, with the towels down on the shelf about 8 inches off the floor, on the other side of a door from the bath and shower was the best they could do, i guess.

we had to hang a sign on our door at 4 pm on saturday to get the room made up and to get some fresh towels.

one of the bedside lamps had a burnt out bulb, and the in room safe was locked.

we played in the casino from 3:15 until 6 pm on friday afternoon, saw a cocktail waitress once.

i put a little over a thousand points on my card that afternoon, so about the same amount of dollars through the machines, we also had reservations at oscars, and put the charge on the room, paying the tip with cash. one of the intents of the stay there, before we moved to the strip, was to explore the possibilities of a longer stay there.

while dinner at oscars was very good, and super service, i

 

this site lets me get so far with a reply, and then keeps scrolling back up and keeps me from continuing?....

i recommend oscars, but over dinner and comparing notes with my wife, we decided that we would continue our search for our downtown hotel home.

one more room item. at harrahs later in the week, our curtains and the air conditioning fan noise kept out the light and noise from the strip and the mirage volcano across the street. at plaza, the curtains were not even able to block well the lights from main street station, and the street noise was heard.

during the fire alarm, we got dressed and hit the stairs, down from the 4th floor, entered the first floor out of the stairwell, found ourselves by a receiving room, wandered a little but found no visible way out. wound up back on the 3rd where a security guard told us it was ok, back into the stairwell, when we hit the 4th floor the security guard was there, too, having used the elevator. at that point we knew even more that the fire alarm problem must not be a one off.

so, the PLAZA HAS FIRE ALARM problems, the service is not up to much of a standard, the remodeling is lipstick on a pig.

 

Any comment from feadolphus on the housekeeping? Do you have to request maid service to get the room cleaned? I've never, ever stayed at a hotel where they "missed" the clean.

 

i had never seen two cards hanging from the inside of the doorknob...one said do not disturb, and the other sign said housekeeping requested. so, our assumption is that we had to ask? we did, and they did, so i guess it worked, but we were surprised by the system?

 

Haven't you seen Swingers?? There are no clocks anywhere in that town.

 

We had a fire alarm issue during a stay a few years ago at the IP. Probably around the same time- about 6 am. Probably the same issue, why do they work on them at that time?

 

I had only one card, one side said "donut disturb" the other was privacy requested. I didn't have one requesting housekeeping, just didn't leave a sign when I wanted it. I think one time I came back and the room hadn't been clean yet (over a five day stay). I was in and out, by the time I was back it had been cleaned. Overall, I was pleased with my stay, it wasn't perfect, but I wasn't paying Wynn rates either.