Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Desert Club Resort, an IHG Hotel — Hotel in Paradise

Worst service I've ever had. Took over 4 hours to settle into a room. The ihg phone line said I could use points for my room when i got there, but while there they said I had to do it previously online or the phone. I paid $1800 for the whole 9 days and an extra $250 booking fee, then some diamond elite status lady cuts into my transaction and asks to speak to the manager about the pool, and the lady starts helping her even though she was helping me 1st. Once finished, she tells me to go into another line where they will activate my room keys she just gave me. I go in the new line that's called "vacation station" and the lady proceeds to sell me on a time share presentation when I said 3 times "im good i just wanna get to my room". It took me 1.5 hrs to get to my 1st room which had no elevators and was on the 3rd floor, and with 4 heavy bags/no car, I needed to move. Called the front desk about moving me, they said they couldn't see if there were any rooms over the phone so I'd have to come to the front desk. They said they would pick me up so i waited outside for 10 minutes and no one showed. I walked from the back of the lot to the front desk, 5 min walk in 100 degree heat. There were 2 people working the front and 20 plus people in line. Took another hour to get through the line. The employees seemed to want to talk to the people more so than getting them through the line quick. Once done they switched me to the 1st floor and activated my room keys from the front desk which meant I didnt have to go to that crappy "vacation station" earlier for them to try and sell me. Once in the new room we found it smelled like cigarettes, it had been over 3 hours we'd been at the resort and all we wanted was to lay down. I called the front desk and was told they would send someone over to get our bags and drive us to a new room with a new room key. My girl is hungry and tired and we cant lay down because we'll be charged a cleaning fee if we mess anything up. After 40 minutes of waiting for someone to pick me up I walked to the front desk again, talked to the girl up front about whats happening, and my girl calls me and starts yelling. Apparently the hotel double booked us. LISTEN TO THIS: Someone walked in on my girl while she was on the couch and it was supposed to be their room. Now what if she was getting undressed??? This is crazy how does this happen??? The lady at the front then said "wait weren't you in that room for over an hour? Because anything over an hour we have to charge a cleaning fee." Now the building we moved to with the cigarette smell they literally made us wait over 1 hour in the room when we were told to wait for a ride. Seriously? Trying to charge a cleaning fee and we've just been waiting on the couch to get this sorted out. She said she would have to talk to a manager to find out if she can waive the fee. Then she said "you're good don't worry about the cleaning fee" after going to the back and not bringing the manager out to apologize for all of this. All this and we finally get to the 3rd room of the day, and its fine no cigarettes smell, but it literally took 4 hours after we arrived at the front desk. And get this, i called to complain and they only gave us $70 as compensation for all that. What an insult, they were gonna give us $300 for listening them try and sell us on a timeshare. I guess service isn't as valuable as them making money. Also 3 days after we got here our ac broke and had to call someone out. It sounded like it was leaking, they came out and fixed it quick but still.....and 2 times on the trip I have seen pizza pamphlets INSIDE the door, not outside or hanging on the door handle but chest height like they had to open the door, stick it inside and close it. I talked to the front desk and they said the flyers aren't associated with the hotel at all. But how are they getting it inside the door is what I wanna know if they are a 3rd party? Never returning to this location and would suggest you find another hotel to avoid the stress. 10 years with only ihg properties, this...

Gross: Ants infested our leftover donuts (that were closed, on the counter) overnight. The floor in the bathroom had gunk that was easily wipeable - obviously it hadn't been mopped or scrubbed in a long while; the walls of the shower were covered in soap scum, with particularly bad build up in the nook for shower supplies; the baseboards and caulking throughout were dirty and/or falling apart; the shower drain was emitting an unpleasant smell our whole stay and was never addressed by the people who came to "clean".

Cheap/Broken: parts of the bar height chairs are literally hot glued in place with exposed staples and glue showing underneath as parts started peeling away, the tables are chipped and/or wobbly, the pool and hot tub we were next to was out of service for the season and we were not informed in advance. Some outlets covered in paint, some loose, pulling out from the wall. The screen door to the patio was off track.

Service: Nobody spoke disrespectfully, but also nobody apologized for the inconvenience and time it took us to try addressing these issues. I had to call back 4 times to get in touch with a supervisor that could help us. They had offered to have a supervisor call us and we waited for 30 min with no call before I started trying back. They offered to move us. The other room had the same issues: chipped furniture, no working pool or hot tub nearby, shower so gross I would not want to step in it. housekeeping came and they literally sprayed a few times and wiped the shower without scrubbing. Two others came after to wipe some of the built up hard water from the shower head and wiped up the obvious gunk from the floor, but did not touch the soap scum build up after I had asked specifically for someone to come with a scrub brush and scrub it or give me the supplies to do it myself. After they left I literally used toilet paper and water and was able to get it more clean than they had. So it was not "stained" or "hardened", it was just gross and not cleaned properly.

Day to day: easy location. The tub in the master was well cleaned, large. The faucets everywhere are crusty but they had hot and cold water. There is no onboarding when you arrive and the washer and dryer is outside on the patio through a door. Not a place most people would look. We couldn't access it at first because the screen door wouldn't open, but the third time we tried to move it, it came right off the track, so there's that. The tv has no applications, cannot be cast to, and cannot be set up to a chrome cast or Roku.

When I come to a resort I don't expect that I'll need to buy cleaning supplies and spend an hour scrubbing the shower just so it can feel clean enough to use. I think it's safe to say Holiday Inn has more cash to spend on renovations and upkeep than I do for my house, so this is beyond disappointing - it's fairly insulting to have them advertise the property the way they do and leave it in such blatant disrepair.

We were told near the end that we were put in units that hadn't been renovated yet. (No big surprise there!) But that was an understatement: they were left gross, falling apart, and obviously cast off and ignored by management and cleaning because they'll get renovated..: someday? That's fine, just don't put people in those units in the meantime if you're not going to go through basic resort upkeep like cleaning and pest control.

When people inevitably complain or ask for help solving these issues, take a second from a costumer service standpoint to acknowledge that the people staying at your resort have just spent hours of their time, lots of money, and time off work to come on vacation. The last thing they want is to come to a unit with ants and soap scum after a long day of travel.

TLDR: Would never recommend or return with this management style, even if the units do get renovated. Wasted lots of our vacation time getting grossed out and waiting on maintenance and grounds people to help fix it since we didn't have cleaning supplies, and we weren't apologized to for the...

Janessa was very helpful during my stay, she made sure to check in to see if I needed something via text which was very convenient. The rest of the staff was exceptional as well. The rooms were a little dated but they were still very comfortable. The room I stayed in (building 14) had a balcony with a view of the sphere and it came with a washer and dryer, they even gave travel size washing detergent which was very helpful. The kitchen was fully stocked with everything you need. There were some areas that I thought could have been better but overall it was very great for the price. The price of 4 days was the same as 2 days at one of the more notable hotels on the strip. Like I said before the sphere is within walking distance, also the strip is a quick uber ride. The uber rides were sort of frustrating because for some reason the app automatically pins your location at the front entrance, I’m guessing its due to the gate security which is confusing because security never stopped anyone he just let everyone drive through. I’m not sure if this is something the hotel could fix or not but definitely make sure to write your driver prior to them arriving to let them know what building you are in, some will use common sense and follow your ping but I had a situation where the driver literally sat in the front entrance even though I told him I was in building 14 he wouldn’t budge. The next driver came to my exact building and told me he always follows the customers location and he could see exactly where I was. So if you’re not renting a car or have your own definitely keep that in mind. There are a ton of places to eat around the resort. I tried their restaurant at the resort and it was okay but overpriced in my opinion, the service was also a little slower than I would have thought it would be. We got the breakfast and it was very lacking in flavor imo I didn’t bother to try the lunch or dinner menu if they had it during my stay. Housekeeping doesn’t come everyday, I think it was said they come every few days but don’t quote me on that, however u can request things you need like towels etc through the front desk. I felt safe during my stay and it was very quiet no loud music or people loitering. I would definitely say this resort is family friendly. They also have an activity room where I met some nice workers who were very enthusiastic about their job I loved that, they gave me a brochure and told me about how they have activity’s throughout the week for everyone all ages. I wish I could remember their names but they were at work Thursday afternoon (7/24) they had a snow cone machine and told me about the activity’s that day. The staff when I arrived were nice enough to carry my bags to my room since I was on the 3rd floor and there were no elevators. All in all, I would definitely stay here again and recommend it to others. I was a little nervous based off the timeshare reviews but honestly I didn’t experience that at all. It was mentioned to me when getting my key but after I told them I would call if interested they didn’t pressure me or hound me the rest of my stay. Last but not least I want to mention the other review about the air. I was also told not to turn it below 70. At first I was irritated because I was hot but then I noticed it does in fact cool off in the evening especially if you keep the blinds closed. I am very hot natured and I still was comfortable for the most part. The only time I was hot was after I took a shower the room would get very humid and hot from the water, or if I was in a rush to get somewhere moving around too fast. I will say however it should be mentioned before booking because even though I tolerated it I don’t even keep my AC on 70 in the summer at home in Georgia it’s always 68 and under and when I am at hotels I like it to be super cold because to me it...