Encore Boston Harbor — Restaurant in Everett

I went to Encore for the first time with my boyfriend for our anniversary. We have experience with luxury hospitality and was hopeful that Encore would live up to the 5-star name. I work in luxury hospitality and am understanding that things happen, however, we were extremely disappointed. At check in, we were asked if we were there for anything special and we told the agent that it was our anniversary. She noted it on our folio. I typically don't get to enjoy a weekend off so we were thrilled to have an elevated experience for our celebration. We chose to upgrade our room for an additional fee while we were checking in since it was supposed to be a special night for us. We had dinner at the Italian restaurant in the casino. We saw almost every other table get a desert with a happy birthday or a happy anniversary etc. However our waiter never asked us about anything and seemed to barley check on us. We went back to the hotel room to put our left overs away and were hopeful for an amenity or even a simple welcome card, but there was nothing. We went to the casino and came back to our room around 11 PM. We had not received turndown service. I called and "guest services" told me that turn down service is only given on the second night stay, however when I spoke to the front desk she said we should have received the service. Poor communication and disappointed that we did not get the service as we were only staying one night. We went to eat our left overs from dinner and had no utensils in the room. It was 11PM so I called to ask if someone could bring us a fork, and the reply I received was "in room dinning closed at 10:00PM but you can come down to the drug store to get one" I was astounded that there was nobody that could bring me a fork. When I went down to find the "drug store" there were a multitude of people just standing in the hallway and the front desk area. You're telling me nobody could have helped out? The guest services agent also told me that because we booked on a third party site we are not a priority guest. You should never say that to a guest...so I am not as good as the rest of your guests because I found a deal for your hotel that you allow to be on a third party site? Not priority in room selection, sure, understandable. But to have her say that to me was rude and hurtful. Again, I work in hotel management and understand how certain things work, but you should never make a guest feel less than another. Unacceptable and not Forbes Standards. Poor customer service. I went to the front desk and Claudia was very kind, she tried to find me some and gave me a cup of plastic utensils...not ideal but she was attentive and helpful. She noted that this is a common request/complaint because "once IRD goes home the closet is locked." So why not fix the problem? Why does the MOD not have a key to get a fork for a guest? Or why can't you hold some extra utensils at the front office? Seems like an easy fix if you know it happens frequently. And you truthfully couldn't go into one of the many restaurants to get utensils, specially when we dinned with you? I find it hard to believe. So, we ate our leftovers in a non-turned down room with a plastic fork on our anniversary that we had to go and get ourselves. The manager "Karma" came out to speak with us. She barley made eye contact and it felt like we were bothering her. We were being as kind as we could and simply sharing our disappointment. She offered to remove the additional fee that we paid at check-in to upgrade the room ($45) and typed away at the computer as if she was taking that action. However, when we returned the next day to check out and get our folio, it had not been removed!! My boyfriend spoke with the MOD that morning and had to re-explain what happened and they were then able to remove it. Extremely disappointed and would not recommend. Most likely would not return. Pros: room was clean and modern-style. Claudia's helpfulness at the front desk is what made this a 2-star review vs a 1-star, her efforts were...

I've played at over 30 different properties in 23 years across 9 different states and 2 countries. I realize reviews are often filled with exaggerations and hyperbole. But I cannot stress enough how accurate I believe this statement to be:

If your measure of a well-run gaming establishment is the quality of entertainment, customer service and fairness in policies and game rules to the players, this is quite literally THE WORST run property I've ever been to from beginning to end.

When arriving I tried to use one of the EV chargers, 4 out of 15 plugs are functional. Here are handles smashed to pieces with wiring exposed and the power indicator lit. There are cables missing. There's a pillar leaning almost to the wall. And when you do finally get to one that is available and seems to work, it ends up having a charging fault. Absolutely zero pride taken in this area.

You can no longer enter the poker room from the garage for....reasons. Instead they make you walk through the casino floor past all the loud and obnoxious (and EMPTY) slot machines. Guards at the metal detector don't even make eye contact, let alone greet you. They're too busy joking with each other.

You get to the poker room and the rake is the highest in the country (maybe the world, but I'm not well-traveled enough to make that claim). And what do you get for that sky-high rake? Sat next to the same obnoxious (and empty) slot machines you passed downstairs, with ¼ the number of tables offered when the opened (despite the fact poker is just as popular).

You can only purchase chips from the cage in the poker room because again, they want to tempt you to hit the craps tables with your rack of chips before you get a chance to leave a winner. The downstairs cage is the ONLY place in the casino you can cash out so on a busy night you'll be waiting in a line 30+ deep. Oh and if you need to rebuy/add-on at the poker table? Go ahead and get up and go wait in line at the cage because they got rid of the chip runners and refuse to sell you chips from the rack. Who cares if you're missing blinds and hands, the rake still gets dropped.

The dealers and cage cashiers aren't even well-trained or managed as there are frequent mistakes, roll the deck, have poor card control, get distracted by conversations with players and staff, and I've never seen a manager correct the dealer/cashier by teaching them why they were wrong. They just make a ruling and move on.

Ok, so I'm clearly focused on poker. God forbid you play something where your own talent and skill decides how often and how much you win, right?

Well, for you blackjack lovers, there's nice high minimums even on weekdays and they only pay 6-5 unless you're willing to play in the nosebleeds.

What's crazy is if you play here and then play at Encore in Vegas, it is an ENTIRELY different experience. Care is taken at every step, staff seem genuinely happy to be working there, and they don't have to squeeze you dry to earn a buck. But for whatever reason, the ones managing this property are from an entirely different school of thought and it shows. If they had ANY real competition in the area, they'd have to treat the customers better. And no, MGM and Twin Rivers (2 hours away) and NH rooms are never going to draw most players away from Boston, especially with the restrictions NH has on the gaming rooms.

If you look at other reviews, especially of the poker room, this has been an issue ever since COVID-19. Encore saw an opening to completely change their product mix from what was approved by the gaming commission and voters and now this place is just a money-suck that takes away from the community rather than adding to it.

I'm so glad I've moved to PA where there are numerous gaming options and can even drive an hour to pay in Atlantic City. I'm never coming back to this dump again. And you...

We stayed here for 3 nights after I fell in love with Wynn on a Vegas bday trip and it was amazing!

We booked via Amex FHR this time around so we did receive some great benefits. We were able to utilize the FHR early check in which was great as we always start our vacations early. We flew into Providence because it’s way cheaper than flying into Boston (only about an hour drive, which is about the same as our daily commute anyway) and rented an electric vehicle due to Encore’s MANY complimentary charging stations in their complimentary garage. So many basic hotels charge absurd amounts for trash parking, it’s great to see this brand offer complimentary, and the chargers saved us a ton on gas.

They also have a boat shuttle to North End which we utilized as well to avoid the parking charges/ difficulty finding a space! It takes the same amount of time or less than driving there and finding parking.

Unfortunately they didn’t have our FHR upgrade available due to a convention, but the normal rooms are MASSIVE (we booked a harbor view king) and so nice just like in Vegas, so it wasn’t a big deal. The toiletries included in the room are generous (and I never pack shampoo/ conditioner/ body wash because the ones here smell so good. The room was also spotless and no sign of pests which is my number one criteria for any travel. Housekeeping did a turndown service for us as well where they left chocolates and water bottles. The water bottles were really great because it’s nice to know you will have one when you need it. These rooms can be pricy depending on day of the week/ season but you absolutely get what you pay for. The hotel experience is a big part of a vacation for me. I’m not a “just need somewhere to sleep for a few hours” kind of person.

Our FHR booking gave us $80 for 2 people ($40/pp) for breakfast every day either in room service or at Giardino. We chose to eat in Giardino and were able to get a fully comped (aside from tax and tips, which are not covered in the breakfast credit) sit down breakfast every day with coffee for each of us, juice for me, and big portions of great food. Even the day my husband ordered the steak and eggs, because I just eat more basic stuff like pancakes, we stayed under the $80 credit. Love that the breakfast is reasonably priced so you can actually keep it covered with your credit because with some places you will always have an overage.

We also had a $100 food credit which we used for dinner at On Deck which was really good, some pizza at Frank and Nick’s, and multiple trips to Shake Shack. Next time we will try Fratelli’s and Red8 but by the end of the day walking around Boston and Salem and trying the must-haves I just wasn’t hungry enough to eat a sit-down meal. And we will plan a visit to the spa as well.

Last, the casino is nice and well-kept. We didn’t go just for that but we still played some and won enough back to cover most of our tour and food expenses for the trip, so that was a nice bonus for us! I had my luckiest hit every where I got about 230 free spins on top of a nice jackpot spin before they started so we sat for about half and hour just watching it go up.

We did have a few hiccups with the credits not applying correctly (I believe this is because Giardino is a new restaurant and the system is still working it out) but this was fixed at checkout. The man who checked us out was super gracious taking all the steps necessary to fix it!

Overall a great trip and can’t...