That airline that charges you for checking bags, then floated the idea of charging you for not checking bags has found yet another way to screw its customers, as a planeload of them discovered last weekend in Las Vegas. Yes, it’s Allegiant, the carrier where the passenger is just a dollar sign.
Business has been booming at the Golden Nugget this week. During a brief visit, I saw heavy (in number, regardless of dollar amount) table game play, as the Nugget was awash in a sea of customers. Back when Landry’s Restaurants was a publicly traded company, Tilman Ferititta drew a disproportionate amount of his revenue from the Vegas and Laughlin Nuggets. Now that he’s in Atlantic City and Biloxi that can only be more so. His marketing secrets would be the envy of some of the long-suffering casinos on the Strip. The pool area, however, was a real scuzzbucket, one of the skankiest in town, Indeed, I have never seen so many tattoos in one place as at the Nugget. (Is it a prerequisite for admission?) And the sluggish, indifferent, downright wretched ‘customer service’ gets an “F” from me. Does Tilman treat his employees badly, prompting this passive-aggressive backlash? There’s no point in arguing with them, however, given the XXXL-sized security staff Fertitta employs. I doubt I’d stay there a second time.
The real story of the Nugget isn’t tattoos (at least on the customers, this seems to be a millennial generation thing; if I went to a high school reunion I’d find more friends with ink than without) but that they have had so many vermin-related restaurant closures the past few years. Employee cafeteria, Carson Street Cafe, Lillie’s Noodles, the Buffet upstairs. It doesn’t speak well of an administrator founded on restaurant chains.
I have to agree with you David. We stayed there one time and it is the last time we will stay there. Customer service is nonexistent, no one seems happy. Just a sorry place to stay.
The AC Nugget is fantastic and customer service is impeccable. It always was at that property even under the suffrage of Donald. Anyway, I am surprised by this post. Very interesting.
What you’re reporting about the Golden Nugget is something that has been going around in various Vegas circles in recent months. One of my friends spend a few nights there during Memorial Day Weekend and he said that the Hideaway Pool was a mess (trash everywhere, the pool was dirty) and managers were nowhere to be seen. Now, the previous weekend some of us were out there with this same friend for his wedding and the bachelor party included a private poker tournament at the Golden Nugget. Whoever was in charge of scheduling cocktail waitresses screwed up, as there was only one server assigned to the poker room, which was pretty crowded not to mention it was a Friday night (our crew took over three tables ourselves) and getting drinks was nearly impossible. Some of us sent guys in our crew that had busted out of the tournament to fetch drinks.
The Golden Nugget is beginning to tarnish as their “Downtown Destination Fee” is merely a resort fee under a different name. They’re pricing themselves way too high for Fremont Street as well. Many weekends, you can get a Premium Corner King at The D (even with the new resort fee) for less than what the Golden Nugget wants for a room in the Carson Tower. There’s been the very public shutdown of restaurants on the property for health and safety reasons, the sort of stuff that would have never happened under previous owners. It should be interesting to see if the Downtown Grand siphons customers away from the Golden Nugget.