Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa — Hotel in Rancho Mirage

We just spent 8 days at the Omni Las Palmas resort in Rancho Mirage. Very impressive service (almost) across the board, however, the rooms and facilities could be improved.||First, the negatives: ||1) Design. The resort is sprawling, built partly around a lovely pond and another around a "Lazy River" kids pool. Rather than being connected (so you can walk indoors in air conditioning), the resort has a very 'apartment complex' design where you check in at the main building at the front, and then you need to drive (if you have a car), ask for a bellman to take you in a golf cart, or walk all the way back to your room which are in separate two-story buildings. This spread-out open air design may be OK in the winter months, but we were there in June and the temps were over 100 F every single day. It's hit and miss whether you can get a bellman with a golf cart when you want one. Be warned - or ask for (and pay extra for) a room in one of the buildings closest to the main building. ||2) The buildings with the rooms are cheaply built, wood frame, two story buildings motel style, and you can hear your neighbors through the (thin) walls and (if you're on the ground floor as we were) your neighbors walking around upstairs. Also, we were in a suite (which is just two rooms open to each other) and the furniture was dated and chipped. The glass shower door didn't open properly and got stuck as the hinge is pulling out of the wall. That wasn't new while we stayed there, the housekeeper had to see it every day and didn't get it taken care of. The shower itself could also use a good re-grouting||3) Our room was at the very far back of the complex so we just had a view of the housing development next door, but all the rooms facing the 'lazy river' area had to deal with noise from music they play all day. For some that may be a bonus but for us would be a real negative if we had been given a room in that area. ||4. The bar has no windows and no outside space - this is a resort in the sunny California Desert?||5. The gym (while very well equipped) isn't a really nice place to be. There's only two windows, relatively low ceilings, and fluorescent lighting. The equipment is a jumble, as if they've acquired things over the years and just stuck them in there. I appreciated that there were decent free weights but for a hotel that tries to be high-end they need to reboot. ||6) small thing - they have two EV chargers for the Valets to use, which we didn't try to use. Plus there are two Level 2 chargers n one of the parking lot areas we did use when they weren't occupied. The charger is free (!!!) but was constantly in use, including by people who plugged in and then left their car for a couple days. I suggest they charge to use it and charge an idle fee once your car finishes charging to encourage people to unplug and move their car to free it up for others. This is common and any EV driver is used to that. This is a great amenity for the hotel to provide but I suggest they add one or two more sets of chargers around the complex - this one was all the way on the far opposite side of the resort from our room but it was near the gym/restaurant so we learned to see if it was free when we drove up - as noted above it usually was not free. ||Now, the Positives:||1) THE STAFF! Almost every interaction we had with staff was warm, professional and helpful. Shout out to Abel (a waiter) and Nixon (a bus person) in the restaurant who served us almost every day, and if we weren't in their section they'd stop by to ask about our day. Just really professional and warm. Also Chris (?), an older white gentleman at the front as a Bellman/Doorman. He greeted us when we first arrived, and we interacted with him several other times through our stay. We were attending a conference and once day I drove up with four cases of wine in the back of my car and he hopped to it - he got them in a cart almost before I could come around the car. Front desk people, catering staff for our event, all uniformly great. The only people we interacted with who perhaps weren't quite on their game were the servers in the Coffee Shop off the patio by the 'adult' pool, but they were pretty much swamped all the time so they get a pass. ||2) Maintenance. The main building which has the ballrooms/meeting rooms was in great shape and immaculate. The building also has the bar (noted above), the one restaurant, the Spa (didn't use any services) the gym and the coffee shop. There are two large outdoor patios that we used at one point during our conference and the spaces were well done and maintained. As noted we thought our room was dated and had issues but cleanliness/maintenance was not a problem (other than the shower door). The large lake with a fountain in the center of the front rooms and the green lawn around it, along with all the landscaping, were very well taken care of. ||3) Location - Rancho Mirage is one of the more 'upscale' parts of the larger Coachella valley that starts in Palm Springs and stretches down to Indio and Coachella itself. There are lots of "nice" chain restaurants within a 5-10 minute drive if you don't want to go all the way up to Palm Springs. Also shopping, multiple golf courses, tennis, etc. ||Overall, very nice for families with children if you are willing to be by the Lazy River area, good staff and service, but it could use an upgrade/overhaul in the rooms...

RACIST!! IF YOU’RE NOT WHITE DON’T BOOK THIS RESORT. We had several unfortunate inexcusable experiences on this property which resulted in tears more than once for me ( in 5 days). The staff at the Omni’s tennis and golf areas have no desire to accommodate resort guests and are exclusively focused on catering to the locals who are “members”, and making getting on the courts or green impossible otherwise. BARBIE N. at the tennis shop in particular did not want me on the courts and was directly discriminatory and rude, lost her temper telling me to “ just get”, and misrepresented the schedule on three separate occasions to make it seem as though any option for me to get on the courts was impossible. A truly bizarre experience!!! I arrived on Monday the 19th and each day that I visited the tennis area I was NEVER offered help booking a space or guidance on how to get the required equipment. At the golf shop after a white male worker ( bald head , beard) kept trying to “save us money” on an existing appointment booking and got aggravated when we asked why that was his focus when we already had our appointment details laid out. He had been pleasant with the older white couple in front of us in line however his entire demeanor changed when my mother and I (black women) came to check in. He insisted we were so amateur that the ONLY thing that would be appropriate for us would be essentially to play mini golf in a tiny area right in-front of the shop. Which I believe he suggested as that area was in his direct sight line from where he was at the shop desk.

He even made a strange comment about us “ getting hurt” if we kept our original booking “ cause balls are flying around at 100 mph plus and could hit us in the head”.

He was getting red in the face talking to us , leaning forward to speak closer to my face etc and I finally told him I was frightened by his demeanor with us and to cancel the appointment which of course he was delighted to do. No apologies , no recourse , just bullying us into stepping outside the shop and NOT using any of the services.

My mom and I were in shock as we sat outside, we were finally offered a complimentary mini session by the manager of the tennis and golf shop. Although it was an attempt at customer service it came after a lot of yelling and mistreatment from his staff.

THEN strangely as we are enjoying the golf course someone in the residences that border the course let out two DOBERMANS which circled our golf cart. I almost died from being so scared. In isolation that incident could have been an accident, but considering how objectively racist and poorly we were treated I do not think it was.

STRANGE. RACIST atmosphere. And the attempt to save the appointment came far too late. no corrections happened in front of staff, I had to stand there and get spoken to like that even though there were two other men right at the desk as he obviously was not trying to accommodate us. On Thursday February 22nd we awakened by a loud police style knock on the door by what turned out to be hotel security. Finally he said he was responding to a noise complaint from a neighboring room. Our room was completely silent when he had knocked and so the noise complaint element was additionally bizarre and incorrect. I have NEVER had that happen at any resort, either a call from the front desk or even a call from a neighboring room would have been appropriate but NEVER someone at the resort door. It was intimidating and SCARY. And confusing that a luxury place charging $700+ night can’t figure out how to treat customers with the level of service that matches the omni brand and the PRICE.

If you want to feel like you’re living in a history book in the WORST WAY possible, where you’ll be surrounded by unhelpful rude and obviously RACIST people omni Los Ranchos Palmas is the right choice.

If you want an experience worth your money where you don’t have to speak to managers all day because the staff are discriminatory , then probably book literally...

This is two part review, overall 2/5 stars, DO NOT book here.

Let's get straight to the point: DO NOT BOOK THIS HOTEL UNDER THE LUXURY HOTEL COLLECTION. I booked my and my family's rooms (4 total) and they absolutely 100% without a doubt have screwed up the entire check out invoices for all. It's a disaster. Person who pre-booked the rooms explained poorly and incorrectly that the $100 per night per room security deposits that would be refunded after check out were actually used as room credits. This already made everything horrendous from the get go, zero communication between the front desk employees. NONE.

Check in: no one gets any welcome packets explaining how LHC works that they claim we should have received. Half of the $50 dining credits per room per day were not applied, the final breakfast we did have got coded to "dinner at Blue Ember" to avoid processing the dining credit. My brother has an incorrect dining charge on his room he never ordered.

Now onto the hotel itself- it's run down and needs updating stat. The price we all paid for the rooms does not reflect luxury in the slightest. There was baseboard water damage in our room (2500 block) and the rooms have paper thin walls. I could hear the family screaming next door, and having a normal conversation. Zero privacy. Glass coffee table needed cleaning also underneath to remove smudges, as well as glass patio doors. Shower pressure was actually painful- the shower heads need a CLR soaking ASAP the spray, not exaggerating, hurt.

Parking was ample near each block which was easy, in and out keys worked just fine.

Family pool water/lazy river is murky. Pool chairs DO in fact get taken pretty fast, especially on a Saturday. As I was leaving I asked for an extra towel- towel guy goes to hand me one, other one stops saying towels can't be taken outside the pool. Pool guy says it's fine, other one says no. Guys. Communicate. No one is on the same page at this hotel. It's like there were two orientations and half the people working do not like it there which made for a very miserable experience.

Lifeguard at kid pool (6/16/23) failed to tell my sister waiting at the bottom of the left water slide to catch her son that they switched his slide at the last minute to the right. He came out the other slide and another guest had to grab him, the life guard gave a disinterested shrug when my sister finally figured out what happened, she was FURIOUS. Do not trust the lifeguards at this hotel even as secondary back up to your kid's safety.

The only plus I give this establishment is the adult pool is actually quiet and that water is clean. The LHC did guarantee an early check in, which we got at 9:30am, lovely. No late check out even though it's one of the listed amenities. Breakfast bartender at Blue Ember, you're also the nicest employee at the hotel, you deserve better.

For every pleasant employee you ran into, you'd find one who hated working there right after. Inconsistency at it's finest. Lack of communication from the front desk, placing blame on us rather than accepting the fact they never instructed how the package we booked worked, and skiving out of allowing us the breakfast credits is the last straw. It was hectic upon check in and check out, they were understaffed and frantic and I get it, but that should not be the guests fault for your lack of communication with us. All our grievances could not be relayed at check out because there was not enough time and the line was VERY long. This is NOT a luxury hotel, go to the Ritz for that. It's almost too kid friendly if that's what you're looking for. Couples find an...