Dear Mr Meadows,
My name is Scotty Ernst and I am the organizer of the International Indoor Championships Remote Control Car race that we held at the hotel last week. I feel compelled to write to you to let you know of my experience our group had with the hotel.
This is my 4th year of holding this event that attracts participants from around the world. In my 4 years of holding this event at other hotels, this years has been the most pleasurable and enjoyable for both me as an organizer and our guests as participants. This experience began during my first meeting with Alan. He was very interested in making sure our group was a fit for the hotel and that everything on his end ran smooth.
About 6 weeks or so ago, I flew out to there to meet with Rick Brooks to do a walk through and to explain everything in detail to him regarding our event. This meeting went well and we passed to him all the small details we would need for our event. To my surprise a few weeks before our event I found out that Rick is no longer working there and that Lucinda would be taking over our event. This at first caused me pause and a bit of worry came to my mind, wondering if all the details both large and small were passed down as Rick left. Well my worries were short lived after I met with Lucinda. What a extraordinary job she did. Her attention to detail and concern for our group is something that has surpassed any other venue we have been at. She ensured that we were all set and took the time both before our event and numerous times during our event to ask questions and to see if there was anything else we would need. She even came in on Sunday during our first day to check on us. I cannot tell you what a pleasure it was as an organizer to know that if I had a question or needed something, she would be able to look into it and that it was not a burden to her. She made both me and my staff feel very relaxed and assured that the event would be a true success.
We had a buffet served on Tuesday and I am embarrassed that the gentleman in charge of this event name has escaped me. But tremendously professional! This was the first time I have ever hosted a buffet event as such and I had lots of simple questions on how things would work and no matter how simple my questions were, he did not mind. He took his time and explained everything to me and worked with us to make this dinner event special. Even the wait staff was all extremely friendly and patient as our final guest stayed around to have a little extra dessert and the wait staff did not rush to tear down the serving line. Even though this is a small little detail, it made our guests feel relaxed and comfortable. And all these little details added up to again make our experience wonderful.
Next was John Cordoza. Please excuse me if I spelled his name wrong. John was the final touch to complete the most enjoyable experience I could have hoped for. John always seemed to be there to check on things and to ensure it was all done correct. If I had a question, he took care of it right away. He checked on us numerous times during our build time to see if there was anything he could help with and to ensure we had everything we needed. During the running of our event, he checked in numerous times to make sure all was going according to plan. He even called me a couple of times during his off time from work to keep me up to speed on things and to check on our event. What more could an organizer ask for from a staff. As you can see from my feelings I really felt the team effort that was give to us from all stages of the hotel.
Unfortunately we did have something major happen to us on Friday that caused us some major problems. Our trailer that we haul all our equipment with from Wisconsin was stolen out of the parking lot behind the convention center. We did file a report with the security department there at the hotel and with the Las Vegas Police department on Friday night August 29th. The trailer is a dual axle trailer that cost about $10,000
So this is obviously huge financial hit for us and then we had to go an buy a new trailer on Saturday morning so we had a way to transport out equipment back home. I understand this has nothing to do with you or the quality of the service we have received, but I wanted to let you know of this unfortunate thing.
One other thing that we had a bit of a problem with was something that could not have been foreseen when we booked our convention many months ago but was an issue with our guests. We all know the economy has taken a turn for the worst and Las Vegas has felt this also. When we reserved our rate for our block many months ago, we were given at the time a tremendous rate of $85 and $99. Well as the economy changed so did the rates that visitors could get at many hotels in Las Vegas. Unfortunately I took quite a beating from our guests on the high price of our room rates and some of our guest decided to change hotels and stay at other properties where the rate was better. In fact, I learned a couple of weeks before our event that the hotel had special rates going on during our stay of $40 a night during the week, plus show tickets, free meals and play vouchers. I understand conditions change and in no way am I complaining about the situation, I am just wanting to share with you the emotions our guest expressed to me and their concerns.
So as you can read our event went off as a tremendous success and much of this due to your wonderful and hard working staff. I had talked to Alan before our event to book our next year’s event and am looking forward to his call so we can announce our return to the Riviera. This first years experience has me excited to call the Riviera our new home for our event and look forward to a very long relationship.
Thank you for your time
Sincerely,
Scotty Ernst
