Bobostonepony

By Bobostonepony

I’ve worked in a customer service or technical support capacity for most of my professional life. Throughout my career, I’ve easily been through a total of 20 weeks of training just centered on providing world-class customer service and support. I know what great customer service is. I know what it means to provide great customer service when I’m working, and I know what it feels like to receive great customer service when I’m not working. The reason I bring up my background is so that you may consider me a credible and reliable source. When it comes to customer service, I feel that I am an EXPERT and I hope that you will take that into consideration when reading my review of the L’Auberge du Lac Hotel and Casino.

The following quotation is taken directly from the L’Auberge du Lac’s website:

“THE PERFECT CASINO RESORT.”

“How do you describe L’Auberge du Lac? Take a hotel and casino that holds its own against Las Vegas’s best. Infuse it with the spirit and relaxed elegance of the Texas Hill Country. Then set it in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Now you’re starting to get the picture.”

Being a Vegas veteran, I think I’m a little spoiled. The following is a typical Vegas trip for me:

I’ll spend $250 to $300 and I get to fly to Vegas and stay in an excellent hotel/casino for a few days. When I’m there, I’ll eat great food, I’ll gamble, I’ll be entertained in numerous different and exciting ways. I’ll also be treated with respect, I’ll be catered to and all of my needs will be met. It’s an excellent value. Of course that $250 - $300 for airfare and hotel doesn’t cover the gambling and the entertainment, but I know this before I get there and I am prepared to lose a pre-determined amount of money.

I go to Vegas to get away from my everyday routine and to escape the stress and anxiety of work. I want to be catered to. I pay for it, I expect it, and I deserve it. In Vegas, it is the norm. You can pretty much bet on that.

It was NOT the norm however in Lake Charles, Louisiana this weekend.

A friend of the bobostonepony.com site is getting married soon, so we planned a quick trip to Lake Charles for the bachelor party. Bobostonepony.com’s very own Spadebeats took the reigns and made transportation and hotel arrangements. We chose Lake Charles because we heard of the brand new L’Auberge du Lac Hotel and Casino. We all like to gamble and Lake Charles is the closest town to Austin that has a casino/resort. We chose the L’Auberge du Lac over Harrah’s and the Isle of Capri because it was brand new and the TV commercials and website looked very impressive. After all, their website states “a hotel and casino that holds its own against Las Vegas’s best.”

To our disappointment, we found out the day before we were to arrive that the L’Auburge du Lac does not have a poker room. Imagine that! A brand new casino that does not have a poker room! We didn’t let that bother us too much because we knew that Harrah’s and The Isle of Capri (both just a few minutes away) had poker rooms.

Day 1.

Upon arriving at the LdL (L’Auberge dul Lac ) we noticed that the golf course and the pool were not open yet and are in fact still under construction. Ok, there are 2 more activities we can mark off the list. Apparently the pool will be ready in July and the golf course will be ready in September.

We first realized that things are a little bit different in Lake Charles as compared to Vegas when we attempted to call the front desk for some info. Since there wasn’t a poker room in this brand new casino, we decided to give Harrah’s a try since they were having a WSOP satellite tournament. Spadebeats tried to give the concierge a call for info on how to get to Harrah’s or how far it was (something of that nature). No answer. He tried again. No answer. He then called the front desk for the info. The conversation went something like this:

LDL – “L’Auberge dul Lac”

Spadebeats – “Hi, I was wondering if you could tell me how long it takes to get over to Harrah’s from here?”

LDL – “This isn’t Harrah’s.”

Spadebeats – “Ya, I know, I’m in room 837. I’m a guest here and you don’t have a poker room. We’d like to go over to Harrah’s and play some poker. Can you tell us about how long it takes to get there and some directions?”

LDL – “There’s a phone book in your room. Call them yourself.”

Spadebeats and I have been to hotel/casinos in the past. We’ve both been to Vegas a lot actually. If L’Auberge wants to compare themselves to Vegas, then there’s a lot that still needs to be learned. Although we understand that they might be hesitant to have guests go over to other casinos, they have to realize that this is going to happen. Especially if they don’t have a poker room, and the other two casinos in town do. In Vegas, not only would the concierge happily answer our question, they would tell you how to get to ANY casino/hotel in town, and they actually have shuttles that will take you there!

I would like to point out that Spadebeats attempted to contact the concierge a total of 8 times during our 3 day stay. Out of 8 phone calls, that phone was answered approximately 0 times.

After this, we decided against going over to Harrah’s for the tourney because people were a little anxious to get into the casino to do some non-poker gaming. We headed down to the casino, which is very nice, but a little small. To our dismay, we found that the slots were tighter than our friend Dan’s sphincter! Seriously, the slots are REAL tight. I am not exaggerating when I say that I put a $20 bill into a 25 cent slot machine and did not get a single win on that 20 bucks. None. Not even 2 credits, not even a cherry. NADA! I quickly went through $100 just in slots. This is understandable because it’s a brand new casino and it has to get paid for. I would think they’d want them on the looser side as to get more people in the doors. We weren’t too concerned about this because none of us really went there to play slots. We moved on to black jack.

The blackjack was fun. I ended up losing another $100 but 2 of the other guys in our group won a little bit. During the day and early afternoon, they have $5 tables which is refreshing and real hard to find in Vegas (unless you’re at the Orleans). The only complaint we had during blackjack was that in the middle of Spadebeat’s session, they decided to up the table minimum from $5 to $15. Nothing unusual here as it was getting into the early evening and ALL casinos raise the table minimums later at night. However, when you’re in Vegas, if you are playing at a $5 minimum table and they decide to change the limit, you are “grand fathered” into that $5 minimum. Everyone else that sits down must play the new minimum, but you can continue to play the minimum at which you started. This was NOT the case at the LdL. Spadebeats was asked to raise his minimum bet, even after explaining that he had been playing for $5 for several hours. Didn’t matter. Spadebeats immediately cashed out and they lost his business for the night.

At around 8pm we decided to have dinner to celebrate our friend’s bachelor party. There at the LdL is a Jack Daniel’s bar and grill. It was great. The food was great, the atmosphere was excellent and they have probably the most attractive wait staff on the planet. There was more talent in that place than I’ve seen in a long time. Hooter’s girls have NOTHING on this place. Not only were the waitresses gorgeous, but apparently this place is a Lake Charles hot spot. Therefore, there were a lot of local women in the bar too. Very nice. We did have to wait an hour for our table, but we had a party of 9… and apparently Friday night is their busiest night. The next night, we went a bit earlier and we were seated immediately. I would definitely recommend this place.

DAY 2

Saturday morning I woke up to a hot room. I checked the A/C and saw that it was at its maximum but no cold air was blowing out. We sat there for awhile….. sweating. Dan called down to the front desk and found out that a transformer blew. He was told that there were couple floors without electricity and the elevators don’t work. We were pretty hungry at that point and wanted to have some breakfast. Spadebeats and I had been comped the night before while playing blackjack so we wanted to take advantage of our free breakfast buffet.

Because of the transformer problem, we had to take the stairs. It wasn’t that much of a big deal since we were on the way down, not up. So, we start making our way down 8 flights of stairs. Unfortunately, we were behind a group of elderly people and therefore weren’t able to fly down the stairs. We were stopped on the 6th floor by a hotel employee who advised us that we would have to be escorted down the stairs. We found out later that this was because not all of the floors were finished and they didn’t want us walking through construction without an escort. Because we had to be escorted we had to stop and wait at each flight of stairs for the elderly group to catch up. One of them mentioned that they had a heart problem and therefore it took them a great deal of time to walk down each flight. We weren’t annoyed that we had to wait for the elderly group, we were annoyed that we had to be escorted. They were worried about us getting hurt and suing them…. But what if one of the hundreds of elderly people that were staying at that hotel fell down the stairs and broke a bone, or had a heart attack?

Anyway, at one of the floors our escort asks us to follow him through to the other side. We walk through a floor that is nowhere near being finished. There are no doors, no paint, no carpets, exposed cables, exposed wires, and tools hanging out everywhere. Basically it’s just a cement hallway at this point. It actually looks like it would take them months, not just weeks, to finish. I’m not sure how many floors are actually completed, but they aren’t even finished building the thing yet and they’re already open?

We get to the bottom floor and there is a 400 pound hotel employee sitting at the bottom of the steps blocking our way. You gotta be kidding me! You are escorting hotel guests down 8 flights of stairs and through a construction zone and when we finally get to the bottom you have this 400 pound guy blocking our way? He didn’t move either. We had to squeeze by him and walk through the kitchen to get into the lobby.

Everyone is a little annoyed at this point. It took us 15 to 20 minutes to walk down 8 flights of stairs. Our room has no A/C and we have no idea how long it’ll be before the elevators are working again. We surely don’t want to walk back up 8 flights of stairs.

What happens next is my whole motivation for writing this review.

After waking up with no A/C in a hotel room in the middle of the Louisiana swamp (it’s hot folks), and having to walk down 8 flights of stairs (stopping for 3 minutes at each floor), walking through construction and the hotel’s kitchen, we finally get to the lobby. We are met by a manager who tells us that the quickest way to get to the buffet is to cut through the casino. We walk to the casino and the groom-to-be and myself are randomly stopped by the security guard. He says:

“I need to see your id” (pointing at me) “and your id.” (pointing at the groom to be)

Now, I understand that they have to randomly check people to make sure everyone is of age, and that they don’t have some escaped convicts or something wandering around the casino. But… in the service industry it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. Keep in mind, we’re pretty pissed at this point. He didn’t say:

“Excuse me gentleman, I need to check your id’s. It will just take a second.”

Basically, he just looked at the 2 scruffiest looking guys in our group and told us to show him ID. I was pissed. I tell him:

“I’m the guy who is staying in room 837. The room where the A/C doesn’t work. We just walked down 8 flights of stairs because the elevators also don’t work.. AND, your concierge hasn’t answered the phone in 2 days.”

At this point, someone who is familiar with customer service would console me and apologize for all of the inconvenience. He doesn’t. He smirks at me and instead of handing our ID’s back to us and treating us as if we have just paid $139 a night to stay there, he pulls our ID’s back and hands them to another security guard who begins entering our info into a computer.

Me - “Thanks.”
LdL security guy - “For what?”
Me - “For being a dick.”

He says nothing after that but gives me a look as if I am just a no good out-of-towner and I am inconveniencing him by making him work. This was the feel of many of the employees I encountered. I probably over-reacted by saying that. But, after I just told him that I was a guest in the hotel and had numerous problems, he had absolutely nothing to say. Not a “sorry” or a “we’re new and will get the kinks worked out”, NOTHING. Just a smirk.

LdL, you’ve got a lot of work to do. Customer service MUST be the most important factor when considering your business. Your business will thrive or fall based around how you treat the people who choose to stay there. Many people will drive for hours to get to your hotel/casino. They deserve respect. They deserve a little compassion and understanding. If they have a problem, your employees should make it a first priority to fix those problems.

It takes a certain type of individual to thrive in the customer service business. The LdL obviously did not do a whole lot of reference checking when hiring certain individuals. To quote from another review of the LDL on About.com entitled Rough Start at L’Auberge du Lac?:

“Do not expect an upscale atmosphere. If you want gambling, it will do the trick. Looking for the ’spa’ type atmosphere? Go elsewhere. The Staff doesn’t know how to handle casino resort guests. Wal-Mart does a better job at customer satisfaction.”

Words cannot describe how right on the money this person is. Wal-Mart does a better job at customer service than some of the employees at the L’Auberge du Lac. Wal-Mart.

In all fairness to the L’Auberge du Lac, there were some good things. Because I am so familiar with customer service I believe you must always praise someone when they do a great job at it. So here goes…

Our bellhop was fantastic. He took our bags and escorted us to our rooms and was very friendly. He noticed my shirt (it had a name of a high school football team on it) and quickly made conversation with us. He told us he was a football player at a local university and was working there for the summer. That was a great way to make conversation, which undoubtedly helps tips. He also advised us of EVERYTHING we needed to know about the restaurants in the hotel and all of the shops. He personalized his schpeal by noticing that we were young and that we were there for a bachelor party. So, he told us that there’d be a lot of women at the Jack Daniel’s bar that night starting around 9pm. Kudos. He did a great job.

The staff in the gift/drugstore onsite was also fantastic. There was a woman working there with dark rimmed glasses and blonde hair who happened to be super cute… but that’s besides the point… Back to the customer service. I bought a deck of souvenir playing cards there the night before. While buying some antacids, I mentioned to them that the cards were torn because the holes they punched into them caught an edge of the card box. They asked no questions and simply gave me a new box for free. They were extremely friendly and they too deserve kudos.

Our waitress at the buffet breakfast on Saturday provided excellent customer service. She was friendly, our drinks were always filled and she didn’t rush us out of there. Great job. If I owned a buffet style restaurant, I’d want her working for me.

The rooms are excellent. I don’t think the place is worth $139 a night when comparing it to Vegas… but the rooms are nice. Keep in mind, I’ve paid $49 a night at the Monte Carlo, $17 a night at the Orleans, $50 a night at Excalibur. So…although they aren’t up to par with Vegas pricing, the room at L’Auberge du Lac rivals all of them.

The casino is very nice. It is relatively small, but it probably doesn’t need to be as big as the casino in the Excalibur because the hotel isn’t as huge. I liked the fact that there were still $5 blackjack tables at 6pm. Like I said before, that’s hard to find.

The breakfast in the diner was outstanding. We had a bit of a wait, but it was outstanding. I highly recommend the chicken fried steak and eggs or the ham steak and eggs.

Summary

Do I recommend the L’Auberge du Lac? No. There is a lot of work to be done. They need to send their managers, pit bosses, security, and some lower level employees to Vegas. Let them see what it means to provide world-class service. If you currently have any customer service training… re-design it. ALL of your employees must be on the same page. Not just some of them. A vital fundamental idea of providing great service is to fix your mistakes. A free buffet doesn’t sooth someone who hasn’t had A/C for 2 full days. Comping a night or two is probably a more accurate restitution.
That allows you to make it better. Earn our business.

As I said before, I would not recommend L’Auberge du Lac at this time. Maybe in 4 months when they’ve ironed some kinks out. So, I will review the hotel again at that time and see if they’ve made the necessary changes in staff and their philosophy on customer service. If at that time they have the same problems, I will see no need to drive to Lake Charles again in the future. It would make more sense just to fly to Vegas.

At this time, I would however recommend the poker room in the Isle of Capri. I did not get a chance to go to Harrah’s but I will do that on my next trip as well.

To be completely fair…. If the Director of Hotel Operations of L’Auberge du Lac would like to respond to any of my comments, please feel free to email me at bobostonepony@gmail.com. I would be happy post your comments un-edited.