5 Days at the Rio in Las Vegas

“Hello?”

“Hello?” I responded, incredulous. “Isn’t this housekeeping?”

“No.”

“I called housekeeping.”

“You dialed the wrong number” came the reply.

“I didn’t DIAL at all, I pushed the ‘Housekeeping’ button.”

“You DIALED the wrong number, I’m a GUEST of the hotel“.

UGH.

Wake someone up at 1AM because the phone doesn’t work. Housekeeping’s response (when I finally managed to contact them) to the problem? Switch the bedside phone for the desk phone.

Few of us were thrilled to hear that Affiliate Summit West ‘09 was being held at the Rio, primarily because it’s located off the Las Vegas Strip, but I discovered many MORE reasons not to book the Rio in future.

The biggest problem was attending an Internet marketing conference and not having an Internet connection faster than 2Kbps for 5 days. I moved to another room where I was told I could pick up wireless, but couldn’t get the service and Lodgenet’s ethernet connection was no faster. In effect, I paid $35 ($12.95 twice, $9.95 once) and never had service.

I got a telephone message from the front desk that my new room was ready more than 12 hours AFTER I’d moved into the new room.

My friend Colin was locked out of his room when the battery died on the lockset. He was kept waiting half an hour for a repairman and then the guy made small talk for a few minutes before starting to work on the problem.

No power outlet within 6 feet of the desk (and the useless Internet cable) for the laptop in the first room. The second room had a power outlet in the lamp.

The TV would only turn on in AUX mode, so it needed to be reprogrammed by the housekeeping staff before I could watch it.

A guest services book printed only in Spanish.

All the GFI plugs had to be reset before bathroom appliances could be used.

Lousy service at the Shutter’s bar. We waited for 15 minutes, had our presence acknowledged, watched as a woman seated 2 seats down from us got served and then waited for another 5 minutes before someone finally came to take our order. When the bartender came, he said “<i>the other bartender would like to know what you want to drink</i>”. Huh? Weird.

Elevator buttons that would stick, causing the elevator to stop at that floor without being called. I fixed those that I came across.

Garbage and spent food trays linger in hallways for days.

Bathroom supplies are scant. Just soap, shampoo and body lotion. No shoe cloth, no shower cap and no conditioner.

NO bottle opener.

Rio claims to be an environmentally friendly hotel, yet towels that are hung to dry and intended for re-use are replaced daily.

No in-room coffee maker, kettle and therefore no complimentary coffee or tea. Apparently, that’s only available to Diamond Club members (or those paying MORE than $159 a night. By the way, a conference rate of $159.00 seems like a rip-off when suites at the Rio are available for $100.00 per night from Sunday to Thursday in January.

The Rio wasn’t all bad, however.

For the most part, staff is friendly and competent. The food at Gaylord’s, the onsite Indian restaurant was so good, we ate there twice. Food portions at American Grill are large, if not particularly tasty. Best of all was the security guard who helped me locate my missing jacket and the bartender at the Voodoo who bought my drinks.

Dirtiest Hotel in America

The list that no hotel wants to be on is the Dirtiest Hotel in America.
Five out of the ten hotels are located in Florida. The worst being the Tropicana Resort Hotel, Virginia Beach, Vir.

TripAdvisors Travelers Choice Awards for 2006 were presented to Hotels that excelled in various categories. These include Best Luxury, Best Service, Best Inns, Best for Romance, Best Pool, Best for Families, Best Bargains and Best Hidden Gems.

Unlike other awards that get comments from selected travelers these are based on the comments left by millions of travelers at Tripadvisor.com

Ros and I like to use Expedia when choosing hotels. We like to read the comments left by our fellow travelers. If a hotel is constantly getting good reviews it’s a pretty safe bet.

See all top deals and best selling offers at Expedia US / Expedia Canada

Hotels Tracking Your Internet Browsing Activities

Browsing the Internet from your hotel room? Well, it turns out that hotels using Superclick as their Internet service provider are tracking your browser activities in order to deliver targeted advertising messages. Here’s a bit from their press release.

Sandro Natale, CEO of Superclick, commented that “We believe that our MDS application is going to change the way advertising, marketing and other targeted messages can be delivered over private networks. MDS enables hoteliers and conference center managers to more effectively brand and market their own services and amenities and importantly, it creates an unprecedented and powerful advertising solution and revenue center.”

Superclick’s MDS allows hoteliers and conference center managers to leverage the investment they have made in their IP infrastructure to create advertising revenue, deliver targeted marketing and brand messages to guests and users on their network. “Perhaps the most powerful aspect of MDS is that it can be integrated onto any third-party managed network, not just our own proprietary SIMS network,” Natale added, “In addition, we have developed MDS Analytics which provides marketers with real-time network performance and usage analysis, thereby enabling them to evaluate the ROI of their marketing efforts.”

Superclick’s clients include MTU residences and Candlewood Suites®, Crowne Plaza®, Four Points by Sheraton®, InterContinental Hotels Group PLC®, Hilton®, Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn Express®, Hampton Inn®, Marriott®, Novotel®, Radisson®, Sheraton®, Westin® and Wyndham® hotels in Canada, the Caribbean and the United States.

Read the full press release.

I suspect that someone in the hotel industry read my book on affiliate marketing and decided to embrace that monetization channel.