Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa

“Don't Even Think About It”

Today is Friday, 2/15/08: My partner and I are in a queen balcony room; perhaps other rooms match the website photos better. The room is cramped and the bathroom tiny. We checked in on 2/12/08. The check-in was friendly but brief. The hotel was nearly empty, so the pool was freezing cold and unusable for relaxing. You could swim laps only if training for intense cold-water endurance. The hot tub is warm but not hot enough, and the jets work. After 8pm, no one is at the front desk—you're completely on your own. I didn't realize there were no bath towels or washcloths until 6am the next morning. We had to wait until the clerk arrived at 7:05am. He said, 'I just got here, you'll have to come down and get your own towels. I'll open the laundry room.' When we returned on the evening of the 13th, the bed was made but the bathroom wasn't cleaned or restocked. The extended continental breakfast is just lukewarm coffee, a few tea bags, watery orange juice, three cheap cold cereals, even cheaper bagels, and maybe some cream cheese and jelly packets if anything is out. The young front desk clerk said more guests would arrive soon. One did. Maybe more will come. At least they turned on the pool heater. Honestly, our trip is to help my brother and his partner with our aging parents, so a busy gay hotel isn't a priority. But if it were, Las Palmas would have been a big letdown. There's some old-world charm in the uneven cracked tiles, overall untidiness, and casual cleanliness, but don't trust the website. Also, the room's carpet is grimy and needs steam cleaning. The air conditioner/heater is noisy and doesn't work well—the room is either freezing or suffocating. The hotel is actually in the north part of Palm Springs right on a busy street, so there's traffic noise. I wouldn't consider returning.

A visitor · Over a year ago