The Mirage - Worst Vegas Experience of My Life

Never thought it could happen - but wife and I's vacation to Vegas this weekend has been one of the worst experiences I have ever had.....all thanks to the Mirage.

I am a $25 blackjack / $10-15 come odds craps player. Wife plays pai gow and some VP. We have stayed at the Mirage 5-6 times in the last 5 years - it was our go to place and got 90% of our gamble. I get a promo email a few weeks back for $44 deluxe king room so I booked us 3 nights this weekend for my wife's b-day.

Three days after I book I call the casino VIP / players club and ask if they can move me from a regular king to a tower king. Guy I talk to on the phone says he will check - goes on hold - gets back on and says no problem. All taken care of - they have me moved into a tower king. Perfect!

My wife and I drive out yesterday afternoon for 6 hours from southern california. We get to the Mirage and I proceed to try and check in where I am told that I do not have a tower king - instead I am in a low floor, end of the hall regular king. I explained my situation and let them know we were disappointed because we expected the tower king. Front desk was understanding and offered a $50 fb comp which was fair enough. They told me all other rooms, suites were sold out (on a thurs?) and she had checked with the players club and they refused to upgrade me. I offered to pay any extra fee to upgrade to the Tower King - I was told none were available. I was pretty disappointed and upset but ..whatever .....they offered a comp...wife and I will be ok in a regular room although disappointed.

Wife and I trek off to the room which is literally the last one on the hall. Hell of a walk. We get there and......the bed is unmade (like someone had just gotten out of bed), there is trash everywhere and McDonalds bags, drinks and sandwich boxes everywhere in the room. My wife is now really upset and I am pissed. We schlep our bags all the way back down the hall, wait on the elevator and drag our stuff back through the casino to the front desk.

I wait in line and let them know that the room is disgusting. The front desk person goes to the back and comes out with the front desk manager. The front desk manager says she called Casino VIP services and they said I was there on a promo, they would not upgrade me or do anything for me during the stay. The front desk manager than said If we would like to wait 15 - 20 minutes they would try and find me a regular clean room. I asked to speak to someone from Casino VIP and she said they did not want to talk to me because I was not assigned a host. I asked if this is how they treat their customers in general and she was just like "whatever". I was basically "schooed" out of the casino. They acted like they were doing me the greatest favor by looking for a clean room. I told them to cancel my reservation and my wife and I carried our bags back out to our vehicle. My wife is crying her eyes out. Thanks Mirage!

We get in our vehicle and I call Mirage casino players club line (on the back of mlife card) and speak with a supervisor who tells me the same thing - pound sand. If you want to wait we should be able to find you a clean regular room. No further comps and it was implied I should not have been offered the $50 in the first place. No upgrades. Their attitude was very clearly "get lost" "we don't give a shit about you". Folks - I gamble when I stay here too - I mean 4-6 hours per day of craps / blackjack at the levels stated previously.....that is not huge play....but WOW.....this is how they treat players????

Anyways....wife and I drive across the street and book a room at the Palazzo. I told them our story and they welcomed us and gave us an upgraded strip view suite and a reasonable rate. This place is gorgeous. Needless to say - I will never set foot in the Mirage ever again. Bummer. I am cancelling my family's reservations there in Sept. also.

I hope other people can benefit from my horrible experience. If you are deciding between the Mirage and some other mid tier casino to give your play to...do yourself a favor.... DO NOT GO TO THE MIRAGE....go somewhere that actually appreciates you.

If I were you, I would write a letter, not an email, to the general manager. Also, I would send copies to any high ranking management types you can get addresses for. You can copy your text here and add a bit to it.
Then see if you get a response. If you don't, then I would say your done with the Mirage. If they do, then you can start a dialog with them about making it right. If nothing else, you can get something out of them before you write them off.

I would also, take the same letter and change it a bit and send it to the Palazzo. Highlight who helped you and your experience there. I have done this may times over the years in Las Vegas and other cities I have stayed in. Sometimes I don't hear a thing and I make note of those places and never give them my business because they don't care. The ones that respond, at least they give the illusion that they want to make things right.

You may also want to post a review on Trip Adviser, Yelp, etc as I have found that many companies are motoring these sites.

In my experience, I get some type response 70% of the time and some kind of compensation about 50% of the time.

I am very sorry you had to go through this type of experience, I have been there. I had the worlds worst hotel room at the Flamingo about 7 years ago. I called and tried to fix it while we were there, but no one cared at the time. I took a bunch of pictures and chronicled our experience. At one point, I though we were being punked when the toilet exploded at 3 am! The letter and photos found a manager who wanted to make things right. They took good are of us on our next visit.

Good luck!

This is not the only bad experience that has been posted about the Mirage. Not sure what is going on in upper management there, but it seems customer service is no longer important.

I'm so sorry you had a bad experience at Mirage. I wonder if the lack of rooms or lack of upgrades has to do with all the people booking MyVegas comps. I agree with sending a letter to whomever is in charge at Mirage and copying other MGM corporate people. I hope you and your wife find a way to put this behind you and enjoy celebrating her birthday at Palazzo.

Thanks for all the great advice folks. I appreciate it. I will write the letter as suggested.

That is horrible. So glad you were treated well at Palazzo, a nicer place anyway.

Write the letter, not too long or detailed (they won't read all that).

Here's what I suggest:

"After receiving an invitation to visit Mirage, including assurance of a Tower King room in celebration of my wife's birthday, upon arrival the reception and treatment by your staff on (insert date) were shameful. Front desk personnel were rude, refused to honor the promised Tower King room, and gave us keys to a shabby room that had not even been cleaned from the previous occupant (bed was unmade, trash everywhere). Even after this debacle, your receptionist, manager, and VIP/Player's Club representative were unsympathetic and condescending, culminating in the most humilating hotel experience imaginable. We left Mirage and contacted Palazzo, who were most welcoming, gave us an upgraded Strip view suite and a reasonable rate. Customer service was certainly in evidence at Palazzo, but absent at Mirage. I hope this information prompts you to look at how your employees address your customers.

I would appreciate the courtesy of a reply.

Sincerely,

Wow, I would be upset too. When you get to Vegas after the flight, shuttle to the hotel, etc. and then down the endless hall to a dirty room?! And then their "we could care less about you attitudes"! Glad you moved across the street and had a better experience at the Palazzo.

So sorry this happened to you. You certainly deserved better treatment.

I'm glad you were able to secure other accommodations and that the trip went on as planned. Happy Birthday to your wife

Customer service has gone down the drain. I am glad you moved and got great treatment. We had a same thing happen to us at Fremont once with same attitude and have not stepped into the place since. We have only stayed the Mirage once and were not impressed. No room per reservation when we arrived. Ended up taking something else. They did up grade us to strip view which ended up being bad due to the fact they had a band/dj set up on the street for a special event and our windows shook till 2 am. the first night in.

I hope your wife ended up having a great birthday and the rest of your trip was wonderful.

As the previous poster said shameful customer service . Let us know what happens.

O2bnVegas can I hire you to write letters for me? You summed it up concisely and on point. I always know what I want to say but can never get it across quite right.