Zia Park Casino Hotel & Racetrack — Attraction in Hobbs

We booked our stay at Zia to celebrate my birthday. We had not been there before and it was a comfortable driving distance from Amarillo. The facility is about 2 miles from chain restaurants and shopping. ||Going to the website, I took them up on joining the Players Club online, and booked our stay directly through the hotel. It appeared to save serious $ over rack rate. So, we were excited and looking forward to the visit, then... I started reading some negative reviews. Well, I didn't want to chance this weekend ending up complaining and griping, so I hoped for the best and packed to counteract some of the reviews I read. I threw a variety of pillows in the car (usually do that anyway), threw in extra towels, some air freshener, Lysol, and our coveted coffee pot and coffee. ||This is important--If walking is difficult for you, try to book nearer the front desk (smaller numbers closer to the desk). Try to unload at check in, they have the baggage carts. Do NOT expect to get near the hotel parking. Maybe a handicapped near the hotel, maybe. All parking was taken near the hotel and even after the casino closed. so just be prepared and make up your mind you won't let it rain on your parade. It happens other places, too. If near to hotel parking was empty, you probably should drive on anyway:-) You can get it figured out.||Well, we didn't need any of the extra stuff--which we usually take anyway...just because we don't know how things will turn out. I guess we are just lucky...:-) because:|#1: All employees were friendly and helpful in the casino and hotel.|#2: We didn't smell anything obnoxious. (Casino smoke--yes, but hey--you know ahead of time its a smoking casino.)|#3: Most of the pillows were plump, but I could have grabbed something from our car if it was too bothersome.|#4: Hotel cleanliness--I didn't go over it with a fine tooth comb, but it appeared clean.||Their Continental Breakfast seems to be plush for a Continental--lots of variety for pastry, breakfast breads, yogurt, cereals, fruits, boiled eggs, juices, great coffee. If you need freshly cooked eggs, sausage, bacon, gravy--just go somewhere else.||We were on the 1st floor. It was quiet. No upstairs or next door neighbor sounds. ||They have a small pouch type coffee maker in the room. If you drink a lot of coffee and having it in your room is important to you, bring your own larger coffee pot and coffee. We did. We just didn't take it out of the car.||The Casino... I liked it. I guess some folks are used to a lot bigger and more bells and whistles, It wasn't the tightest or the loosest I have been to. It is Gambling. There were times that had we left could have ended up with more than we allowed for the trip.(read between the lines, LOL). It was smokey, but we expected that. No smokers sat down beside me--and non smokers finding each other to play by was a good thing.||Oh--I found the answer about some complaints in other reviews. This casino is not on a reservation, the state enforces different rules on them (from what I was told). This is why no alcohol on the gaming floor, and why they close at 3AM.||Knowing what I know now--I would visit Zia Park again. We would definitely try to book nearer the hotel desk (smaller numbers).||Now for suggestions--maybe considering that some of your player population might be older, or have some challenges with walking--had an employee position and one of those little carts to shuttle those that get stuck with parking far away. OR, even have a Shuttle that picks up folks in town to cut down on the cars in the parking lot.||But, for us, Zia Park is acceptable now if you know...

I had the worst experience with the Casino. It is my strong recommendation that no one book their wedding with the banquets part of the Casino. Allison is the banquet/event coordinator, she was very friendly in the beginning when booking our wedding. We spoke about all the perks of the many packages that were available from 1000-2500. We were talked into buying the 2500 dollar package which consisted of some nicer things than the other packages. Decorations were promised to be fabulous, mash potato bar..etc. We paid $8,750 to have our wedding at the Casino. $22/pp for food. 1380 of that went to gratuity for service. On our wedding day we walked into the the annex building (our wedding venue at the casino), our guests were already sitting down with plates of food. My husband and I were able to cut in front of the line so that we may serve ourselves. We got the last 2 pieces of chicken fried steak out of the bin. There was no mash potato bar as promised and our food was COLD. The decorations were something we could have done ourselves (and perhaps should have), they put no effort into it. We had no head table for us nor our wedding party, my wedding planner had to put 2 tables together so that we had a place to sit. As soon as we paid off our bill for the Casino, our phone calls were hardly returned and customer service basically sucked after they had our money. I was very disappointed for having paid a huge bill for something we could have paid half for doing it ourselves. As for the service, we had to serve ourselves, get our own refills, and most of us had to discard our own plates to get them out of our way because they were left on our tables about an hour after everyone was done eating. So if anything the almost 1400 dollars we paid to the Casino for "service"..that should have been given to our guests for having to put up their own stuff. Most of our guests were cut off of the bar if they needed to be that was understood but most of our guest were not inebriated to the point of needing to be strictly cut off (this was early in the night). I called because we had left our cake blocks at the casino and asked if we could have them returned because we needed to get them back to the bakery. Allison's response was that she had already asked everyone if they have seen them and no one knows where they are (I called her yesterday and today she had magically spoken to EVERYONE who had worked our wedding night) The baker also tried talking to Allison but her response was the same, she said that the cleaning crew must have thrown the blocks away. The baker advised her that there was a not under the blocks stating they not be thrown away and returned. Allison's response was "well we don't have them and we're not responsible" and had the audacity to tell my baker she would not refer her to anyone. If you are getting married, DO NOT have your reception at the Casino. They want your money, then treat you like garbage after your...

DON'T STAY HERE! We are a current guest of this hotel. If it wasn't late we would leave. This is our stopover for the evening, and we will NEVER BE BACK. The cigarette smoke is so overwhelming as soon as you walk into the casino. The ventilation system leaves a lot to be desired. You can taste the smoke in the air.

BAR: I find it bizarre that the bar staff were bothered by people wanting to order food or drinks. Hospitality is not something that is practiced here. If you try to get the attention of the bar staff, they will make eye contact with you multiple times, and then just continue their own conversation. You have to wait until they are done gossiping or texting on their phones before you can order a drink or food. Bar staff did not practice good hygiene. One female bar tender continually played with her hair in between making drinks. Then another bar tender started playing with that girls hair too. Neither of them would wash their hands after playing with hair, before making drinks. Cleaning is not something that happens enough, the entire bartop was very sticky (imagine syrup being spread on a countertop). We ordered pizza and a sandwich. Neither of us finished our food order because the food was terrible. The meat on the sandwich tasted sour.

HOTEL ROOM: We noticed a musky smell when we walked in after getting to our room after checking in. We just assumed it was just the smell of the hotel room, and figured it would do for a quick overnight. It wasn't until we came back to the room after eating, and took off our shoes, that we discovered the GROSS issue. Half of our room has soaking wet carpet. It's not just damp, it's actually wet. This is going to cause a mold issue and make people sick! Our floor is soaking wet (and soft in some spots), and we're on the 4th floor. I imagine this would cause issues for the room directly below ours. It seems that the culprit of the wet floor could be from the AC unit, we are worried if we turn the AC to a different temperature that it could make the room smell worse than it already does.

BATHROOM IN THE HOTEL ROOM: The shower has dispensers on the wall for shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. All of those are empty. If you would like any of those products you need to go down to the front desk and ask for some to take back to the room with you. Walking on the bathroom floor with my shoes caused my shoes to stick to the floor. Regular cleaning is not done here.

Don't stay here... Continue on driving if you can! Don't waste your money to be in a...