Margaritaville Palm Springs Resort
The worst property I’ve ever been to.
6/100 | AVOID
Yes, 6/100. This “resort” is a health hazard.
See my detailed evaluation here. Learn more about my methodology.
I won’t be writing a traditional review for this property because I don’t really have anything good to say about it. I will, however, detail some of my terrible experiences while staying here. Think about this as more of a public service announcement to avoid the Margaritaville Palm Springs at all costs.
I stayed at the Margaritaville Palm Springs Resort for 2 nights right after my great Encore Las Vegas stay.
The Margaritaville Palm Springs opened in the buildings formerly occupied by Riviera Palm Springs, a historic hotel where icons such as Elvis Presley once frequented. You can read more about that here. Nowadays, though, the 60+ year old buildings are laughably mediocre for the rates the hotel is charging. For our 3 night stay, we were charged more than we were at the Encore by approximately $400. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t stay here if I was paid.
Honestly, maybe I’m being a bit dramatic. My first impressions were bad, but nothing offensive. In fact, nothing was that annoying until it was time to go to the room. The hotel is located in several buildings surrounding a pool. These buildings, while multi-level, do not have elevators. The hotel also doesn’t provide bell service to help with bags. This means were were lugging around a hundred pounds worth of bags around a fairly large property and up staircases until we got to our room. There are also no signs around the property to guide you around, so good luck finding your building because no one is going to help you either.
The room itself was terrible. The quality of the furnishings, for a freshly renovated hotel, was already showing wear and tear. The bathtub had orange streaks all over the inside with the drain rusted beyond belief. I would think if I took a bath that day I’d be patient zero for COVID-21. It was gross.
Honestly, these are all just normal complaints I have about hotels here and there. I recognize I have extremely high standards. However, one thing that I imagine is unacceptable to any potential guest is health. Upon waking up the next morning, I felt a little bit dizzy with a slight headache. My brother, who was sharing a room with me, also complained about a similar thing. I never wake up with this feeling so I was a little weirded out. I peeked outside the hallway to find that the hallway smelled completely different compared to our room. After spending 10 minutes acclimating to the environment of the hallway, our room definitely smelled of some sort of gas or other toxic substance. I promptly called the front desk to inform them of this.
At literally any other hotel, I expect the front desk to respond by offering another room or maybe sending someone to check. The front desk at the Margaritaville opted for the second, less desirable option. The only thing was after 30 minutes, no one came. I called again, and they assured me someone would come. Another 30 minutes and no one came. At this point, I was hungry and wanted to have breakfast. I physically went to the front desk and refused to leave until someone accompanied me back to my room to check. When the housekeeper came, she smelled the fumes and was visibly repulsed as well. This is where I was truly astonished at the hotel. The housekeeper left the room without a single word and I was confused as to what I should do. I felt like I’d been complaining since the minute I woke up that morning and was just tired. My brother and I decided to just hang out in the hallway until our parents were ready for breakfast. 10 minutes later, the same housekeeper came back with a febreeze and entered the room without my permission and just began spraying everywhere. I didn’t really know what to do at this point. She said this was all she could do. The room now smelt not only toxic, but nauseating from the excessive amounts of febreze. This was the equivalent of shoving a pile of trash under your bed and saying it doesn’t exist.
Needless to say I was angry at this point. I didn’t even bother calling the front desk, I visited them in person to complain. I expected an apology. What I received was an insult, basically implying I wanted another room just because. They said why didn’t you say anything last night? Maybe because I fell asleep before the fumes came out and only noticed in the morning because I had a headache and was dizzy. What would I even gain from getting a new room? I figured maybe they just didn’t want to have to clean an extra room for the night. I threatened to just leave right there and call my credit card company to dispute the transaction if they didn’t give us a new room and they obliged after that.
The rest of the stay was uneventful. While I usually love staying in the hotel room/around the property grounds when on vacation, I instead found myself trying to be off-property as much as possible. The staff hate being there and the mood is contagious to all its guests. The rooms are depressing and the pool area of the hotel (the main draw) is very similar to that of a motel. How this property gets away with charging in excess of $300 a night is beyond me. We left this property ecstatic to go home instead of sad to leave.
Avoid this disgusting property as much as possible. The employees here do not care about you, even if your health is at risk.
Final Rating
Service: 0/30
Standards: 0/20
Arrival
Greeted at entrance
Doors opened
Bags taken
Refreshments offered
Introduced to hotel facilities and room/suite
Intimacy
After interaction with staff, do they remember your preferences?
After interaction with staff, do they remember and address you by name?
Housekeeping
Turndown service
Aware of whether or not you’re in the room
Concierge
Attitude: 0/10: Hotel staff here are rude and simply don’t care at all.
Rooms: -7/25
Quality 1/5
Views 1/5
Cleanliness 1/5
Standards 0/10
Entry room larger than 500 square feet
Electronic controls for room functionality
Separate bathtub: There was a separate bathtub, but it was literally rusting on the inside. Disgusting and unusable.
Rainfall shower head
Reputable brand of amenities
Pillow menu
Nespresso or equivalent coffee machine
Balcony
Welcome amenity
Multiple welcome amenities
Unbelievably, fumes were coming from somewhere in the room that smelled toxic. We all got headaches which promptly disappeared after leaving the room for a while. When this was brought to the attention of the housekeepers, they assured us someone would come and inspect the problem. No one came after half an hour, so we called again. Again, no one came. Finally, I went to the front desk and refused to leave until someone came with me to the room. The lady who came with me shrugged and did not know what to do. She came back with febreze and sprayed it all over the room. Now, the room not only smelled disgusting, it was also nauseating from the febreze. We demanded a room change at this point and had to argue, because “we already stayed a night.” I don’t understand what kind of logic this is. I am taking away -10 points because this whole fiasco was not only detrimental to our health, we spent hours trying to find a solution. This is supposed to be a resort where people come to relax, not a place where people go to argue with hotel staff.
Facilities 5/20
Public space design
Lobby 2/5
Pool 1/5
Other Areas 1/5
Quality and Cleanliness 1/5
Food 6/15
Standards 0/5
Multiple restaurants
One prestigious chef owned restaurant
Breakfast buffet
a la carte option with breakfast
Asian, Local, Juice, Pastry, and Western sections in buffet
Quality 6/10: I had lunch here twice and the food was easily the best part about this hotel. Still mediocre though.
Location 2/10
Standards for Urban Resorts 0/3
Walking distance to a major mall (less than 10 minutes)
Walking distance to at least 4 restaurants (less than 5 minutes)
Beachfront
Safety 1/3
Walkability of surrounding area 1/4