The Ritz-Carlton Dallas, Las Colinas

“Missed the mark. . .”

I had such high hopes upon making the reservation. I had stayed at the Ritz property in downtown Dallas a few years ago and was blown away. It was such a solid, classy property. They hit all of the right notes for a high end experience from the staff to the room to the restaurant to the bar. Everyt… more

I had such high hopes upon making the reservation. I had stayed at the Ritz property in downtown Dallas a few years ago and was blown away. It was such a solid, classy property. They hit all of the right notes for a high end experience from the staff to the room to the restaurant to the bar. Everything was a top notch experience. I am really disappointed to say that Las Colinas misses this mark. . .not just by a little bit but by a lot. It is a former property of a competitor that was purchased and rebranded as a Ritz Carlton. The check in went well. Well trained and professional desk staff. The first disappointment of the two days was walking into the room. Absolutely nothing special about the room. It could have been a Holiday Inn. Small for Dallas standards. As a Bonvoy member, I am used to checking into the room with my name on the television screen as a welcome. The tv said, 'Welcome, Tommie. . ' I am not Tommie. For the price that I paid, I was pretty disappointed with the room size so I thought, 'Oh, maybe they made a mistake and put me in the wrong room.' I called down and told them about the tv message. . . No, I was not in the wrong room. No apology for the wrong name. . .more like a 'oh, my bad!' The one good thing about the room was the bed. A very comfortable king bed. The lighting system in the room was a pretty old 'high tech for its time' system. Multiple lights did not work. However, there seemed to be a short somewhere in the system as one of the lights kept coming on in the middle of the night while sleeping. . bright enough to wake me up both nights at around 3am. We went down to the bar to have a pre-dinner drink and watch some college football that was on a large tv near us. As one game was finishing, we asked the server if they could change it to the next big game coming up on another channel. Instead of changing the channel, he just brought us the remote control and sort of dropped it on the table and kept on walking. We both looked at each other and said 'is this the Ritz?' Service was lacking. . .in a big way. We decided to stay in and eat at the Italian restaurant. It is high end as you'd expect at such a property. The service was very good however the food was average at best. Not a good dinner experience for $162. That was with two glasses of wine. And no meat dishes between the two of us. One other little problem with the room. . .They give you a Nespresso coffee maker which is nice. However, the one in our room was broken. The temperature control in the room is limited to 68 degrees on a/c. Definitely not cool enough for sleeping. An old a/c system that didn't seem to really cool the room down enough. Do not plan on sleeping in. There are no blackout curtains. Just plantation shutters that do not block out the light. I can't imagine staying there on June 22. You'd be woken up by light at 0530. All in all, it is just a fine property if you are paying normal Marriott, Hyatt or Hilton prices. But this is the Ritz Carlton. You pay Ritz Carlton prices for a Ritz Carlton experience and this property does not live up to those high expectations. They missed the mark on too many things.

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