Seems to be getting worse by the year. My wife and I come here every September for over 12 years now. We love celebrating our anniversary (35th this year) in the Valley. We used to be able to depend on without even asking some sort of acknowledgment and occasionally even an upgrade each year to celebrate our stay. Well the past several years we've pretty much have had to ask for any kind of congratulations of any sort. We know rooms are only available as they come up so we're alway grateful for any kind of room with pool view and balcony, usually with a little sitting area, when we can get it, but to expect a simple plate of chocolate covered strawberries and maybe a mini-split of bubbly, is that too much to ask for? I guess so! This year, even after calling before hand to try and make it special for my wife, and then asking again at check in if they got my request for whatever can be done. guess what we got??? Yea!!! A room with a pool view and 2 queen beds with a little step out balcony, ok we get it, busy weekend, but sheesh we're still in love not roommates. Couldn't find one accommodating king bedroom? As for any type of refreshment or anniversary treats...my wife actually had to make several inquiries because we were told "oh yes we are bringing you something" that was first on Saturday early evening, but come Sunday, still nothing. She followed up on Sunday and basically my wife was begging and arguing at this point and was wondering if maybe she was misinformed. Finally the person she spoke to just flat out asked what do you want? Ok so maybe you all don't care about recognizing guests celebrating events there anymore, then just say so instead of having some wonderful lady getting into it with some staff member for some treats. Guess what, amazingly less than 30 minute later, but minutes before we're walking out to DINNER, a knock at the door and lo and behold a charcuterie board, some chocolates and a bottle of house champagne, again mind you it's time for us to head out for dinner on the last night of our stay, not the best timing and almost felt like it was thrown together so here now shut up already, which was kind of confirmed because...Upon returning from dinner we have a voicemail saying we want to bring you something to celebrate your stay, but because you said you were going out for dinner, we'll bring it to your room when you return. HAH! it was already brought to our room, now people are falling over themselves trying to do the right thing and can't even get their stories straight what a bunch of amateurs. This was probably the worse service we had since a few years back when the hotel was being remodeled and was totally a disaster and really hasn't come back since, but we are loyal to the Esmeralda, too bad it's feeling less reciprocated each new year. Now not everything was as bad as the front of house, who need to be retrained, or sent to lower end Marriott's but should not be working here. Walked out of Biscotti's as no one ever came out to help us, maybe it's self serve? Ordered Chips & Salsa, we got this so-so quantity of chips, and a little to go container of salsa, like I mean something maybe for one to go taco, and when we asked for more it was like the server didn't know what to do. Next day we said lets try Chicken Nacho's what can go wrong there, order comes and I thought I was at a kids little league game, really? Melted cheese sauce, similar to a liquid goo? C'mon already. As for the positive... The pool staff and bar staff as always is top notch especially our guy Elvade, don't know if I spelled his name right but you have to know who I'm talking about. He's always top notch. Frank at the bar thank you for the cheesecake, totally did that on his own, that's how you do it. Needs to fill some big shoes now that Tony is gone, but he's well on his way. And the Spa and staff was an all around great experience. To close... we are so on the fence about ever coming back. We're Hyatt Club members, and there is this really nice Hyatt property just next door, but we always felt so loyal to the Esmeralda based on all the memories there over the years. Sad to say this may have been the last hurrah …
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.