The Casso, Raleigh, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel — Hotel in Raleigh

The hotel was cute and in a nice location but there were a lot of lacking services that were not clearly communicated to us before booking or arriving.

No valet service (not a huge deal, but not being from the city it was hard to figure out parking) No room service, you have to go down and pick up the food from the hotel restaurant yourself (and when we did go down to get our food after they called and said it was ready, we had to stand around for 10 minutes before it was actually ready) No proper/hot breakfast service; pre-packaged pastries and fruit and coffee are available but again, you have to go downstairs to restaurant to pick it up No toiletries provided other than shampoo, conditioner, body wash, 2 rolls of toilet paper and hair dryer (no toothpaste, toothbrush, floss, shower cap, hand soap); shampoo and body wash bottles were nearly empty upon arrival; no soap provided to wash hands, had to call down to ask for this no housekeeping provided; I had to call down to ask for fresh towels, basic cleanup etc but dirty towels were not removed, trash was not emptied (the tiny bins provided were overflowing), dirty wine glasses and plate from requested amenity not removed no dresser or closet to put away clothes, only a few hangers on wall hooks by the door. Had to live out of our suitcase. This was not apparent when booking. When booking I asked that some wine on ice and fruit be provided in room by check in time as a surprise to my spouse, but at check in the host mentioned in front of both of us “your amenity was prepared per your special request and is waiting in your room for you” which unfortunately spoiled the surprise. I had asked for the wine on ice, but instead it was in the fridge so the surprise factor would have been ruined anyway as I had wanted it to be sitting on the table upon arrival. Very underwhelming as I have never made special requests when booking a hotel before, I was really excited about it but it really fell flat. The fruit at least was very nice and fresh.

Overall it didn’t feel like a real hotel experience. It would have been cheaper to stay at an Airbnb and would have had the same level of service that way, what with not having room service or housekeeping. For the level of services currently being offered it is not worth the price.

Even with strict Covid protocols the staff could have at least brought our food at our door (can be left there for no contact), gotten my surprise request correct, and provided adequate toiletries before we checked in. I wish their curtailed services had been plainly stated on their website. I would likely have been able to give 4 or even 5 stars if the above services had been...

Beyond disappointed with this hotel, which is a shame, as it was beautiful. Modern, well-appointed rooms. Clean. A bit loud overnight, but given the hotel’s location, that was expected.

Our problem started at check-in. We arrived at 3 pm. Being a Wyndham Rewards Platinum member, I am used to the privilege of early check-in. I am aware that it’s not guaranteed, but whether we stay at a TRYP or a Travelodge, we’ve always been accommodated. I tried to check-in with Lydia. She looked up, looked around, and in a rather flustered tone, announced she can help whoever is next. I also looked around, and being the only person standing there, walked up feeling a bit confused. Lydia told me our room wasn’t ready yet, and invited us to hang out at the bar. Okay. Not a problem. However, she decided to follow up, in a very condescending tone: “check-in is at 4 pm.” Okay, that’s not necessary. Is this not a Wyndham property? Are you not aware of the benefits of your loyalty program? Feeling rather irritated, I opted to just walk away and return promptly at 4. Returned at that point to a nice gentleman (whose name I unfortunately did not get). He informed us that our room was still not ready, but was going to assign us a different room, and apologized for the wait. Was Lydia, the “director of front office” not able to accommodate us like this? We chatted a bit during the check-in process, and I definitely felt my opinion of this hotel improve immensely.

Jump a few days later, and our free night (we redeemed our points) turned into a $148 night. Did not get a invoice emailed to me (despite the note in the room detailing the check-out process). I referred back to my reservation email, which stated 15,000 points, and NO taxes or fees. Checked the app, and saw otherwise. Still no invoice to break down the expenses, but here I am, irritated that our free night turned into this.

Overall, beautiful property in an amazing location, but probably the worst service I’ve ever expected. Absolutely disappointed, as we were looking forward to returning for our next trip to Raleigh.

Post-review update: Called the hotel and was apologized to, as someone had “rerouted something” and caused our free night to not be free. This was apparently already caught before I called, and I can see the pending reversal. So, still not unbelievably unimpressed, and we are willing to give this place...

The hotel is new and trendy and beautifully decorated. The location is great and parking is very accessible. The images online match the views you receive when you get to the hotel, so there was no surprise there. The bed was inviting and comfy (which makes me sad for the negative part of this review). The decor of the room was really nice. The bathrooms were very modern. We wanted a little overnight staycation to celebrate our recent anniversary and thought this hotel seemed like a fantastic local place to celebrate. I do think that maybe we were put in a queen room when I booked a king as the bed seemed much smaller than our standard king at home…but maybe this could have been from tossing/turning/lack of sleep as well.

Our issue lies in the noise that you hear within the hotel and from outside. Walls were a bit thin between rooms which is typically expected at hotels. However, the outdoor noise at ALL hours of the night was not anticipated. We have stayed at MANY downtown hotels in several different cities and have never had this much issue with outdoor noise. It sounded like Fast & Furious was being filmed outside of our room for most of the night and began again in the early morning. You could hear all traffic, honking, noise, car’s idling, etc.

We did stay on July 4 and anticipated fireworks and some crowd noise until around midnight-ish. We did not anticipate all of the other noise we heard all throughout the night. At one point around 2am, we considered just leaving to get sleep somewhere else. When we finally got to sleep, the noise seemed to start again around 6-6:30am. When we checked out, I mentioned this to the Front Desk agent who said that she doesn’t typically work at nights so wasn’t aware of the noise.

TIP: If you are a light sleeper, bring ear plugs or maybe asked to be switched to a room on a less busy street if that’s even possible. Also, read the reviews and take them seriously. I had read a review about the noise but thought “Oh maybe they aren’t used to the city” but no this is much more noise than that.

We wanted to love it and it seemed like someplace we could enjoy more staycations, but we’ll go to enjoy the restaurant...