Grand Sierra Resort

I wouldn't stay again... I am a local who decided to book a little staycation with my family for a Sunday and Monday. 2 nights, easy-peasy. At check-in it was apparent it was going to be a bit of an uphill battle. Check-in was challenging for a Sunday afternoon. The line was VERY long and we could not get the kiosks to work for us, so we waited. Not crazy, but a good 40 mins. The fact they are short staffed seemed pretty apparent. We worked with Gee and she was GREAT. We even upgraded our room, even though it meant one bed and she offered a rollaway for our teen for no charge. Got to the room and it was good. Recently upgraded and clean. Down side, the rollaway was terrible. We ended up using the couch bed which was fine. Can we talk about the elevators? What an odd system and one woman in line said she had to walk 20 flights of stairs because every elevator was full. The waits for the elevators were long every time. Went to bowl and it was great. The amenities on site were great for a family. Decided to buy tickets to the magic show which was very cute, but there were huge inconsistencies with the cocktails and some people were allowed to bring in glass, others had to transfer our glasses into plastic cups, even though I bought the drink at the bar inside the theatre. Very strange. Grabbed dinner at Johnny Rockets and noticed half the restaurant is blocked off and one server was running around like a crazy person. Again, you could see they are short staffed. Popped by the pool to see what the next day would hold (my WHOLE reason for booking here was to spend a fun day in the sun the next day!) I spoke to the host at the pool about cabanas/daybeds. They told us they had some available and got a hosts name I could text to reserve. I text her and let her know it was me, my husband and two kids. She took care of it. After dinner we went to the driving range which is always fun. All-in-all, a great day, although waits were a little long and consistency of food/beverage was hit or miss. Day 2 we woke up and went to the cafe for breakfast. It is Monday at this point and we are told it is a 30 minute wait. Again, less than half the restaurant is full which tells me, again, probably a staffing issue. We finally get seated, again, no worries about the wait, but it takes a VERY long time to get a server. She was so nice, attentive and obviously hustling. Sadly, when the food came it was cold and my husband's gravy had a skin on it, it had sat so long. Again, pretty clear there is a staffing issue. We ran up to the room to change and got down to the pool right before 11am. No line to get into the pool, but a VERY long wait to get checked in for cabanas. One hostess running back and forth getting people checked in and running them to cabanas plus getting them water and towels. My husband had to run back to our room twice for things and both times when he got back we were still in line. I would say we waited over 30 mins to get in. When we finally went to go out to our daybed, they realized we had kids (which we said when we booked) and they had accidentally reserved our daybed on the adults only section, so had to move us. No big deal, just another little detail that was not attended to. When we finally got seated, the girl looked super overwhelmed, so I told her not to worry about getting us water or towels, I would run to the counter to get it myself. Again, no big deal, but obviously ANOTHER staffing issue. We were told a server would be over shortly to take a drink order. We waited about 15 minutes before she popped over so I would say it was about 11:15am. She took our order and we got settled. Then the issues really hit. By 12:15 I was annoyed as we STILL did not have our drinks. Around 12:20 one of the other girls finally dropped off our drinks. We had been at the pool for almost 1.5 hours and couldn't get a drink. One of the reason we booked the daybed was for the dedicated server. No worries, I asked if I could have my credit card back and we could just run to the bar to get our own drinks and we were told NO. That if we didn't order from the server directly we would not meet our food and beverage minimum. Mind you, the server gets an automatic 22% gratuity no matter how slow they move. So I guess maybe that is why? I asked to just talk to someone about being able to run our own food and drink and they sent a manager over. I explained and he said no worries, he would send a server right over to get a food order from us. They had more servers just come on staff and we would be in good hands. We waited 40 mins and STILL no server. So...I went back to the front and explained AGAIN and just asked for my credit card back so I could go to the bar myself. I explained I had hungry kids and this was crazy. They finally gave my card back and I went to the bar myself. Got two drinks, BUT the poor bartender had no bar back, so he had to keep running back and forth to get what he needed. I went back to my daybed to relax and the sweet hostess came back to make sure we were ok. I said we were, but at this stage I didn't feel good about paying for the daybed. It was now almost 2pm and I still had not been able to sit down and relax. So the manager came BACK and basically told me that he could give me a discount, but wouldn't let us cancel the reservation. I just didn't see what the point of the day bed was when there were PLENTY of chairs (6 right next to us.) I was happy to still meet the food and beverage minimum and tip out our servers (if we ever saw them again) At that point I was upset and he told me fine we could cancel "and vacate" the daybed. I basically went straight back up to our room and packed up. We went to the front desk and got a refund for the night and headed home. Such a disappointing day. I did have a final chat with the pool manager that ended well, and he apologized and said that we could come back another time, but it left such a terrible taste in my mouth that I won't be back. The servers were nice, but there didn't seem to be much of a sense of urgency and I could see how understaffed they were (something that manager also mentioned again) but it just felt bad. I would say in the end, it felt like a budget experience from start to finish. Just every corner cut and so few staff members that it felt like the customer suffered that the whole way. Really a bummer....

Such an incredible spa experience! I had Donna do a facial it was great!

Worst hostel stay I’ve ever had. Rave pool party that kept the entire hotel full of Travel baseball players and cheerleaders awake all night.. why would you schedule them both at the same time? Waited until midnight and finally called to find out they have no control of the entertainment. When we checked in they mentioned a pool party for Friday night that would last until midnight. No warning about Saturday evening. The music is not the wort it’s the base vibrations.