Atlantic City Tropicana gets low marks for cleanliness

ATLANTIC CITY -- The conventioneers were environmental health specialists, but they say the conditions they found when they checked into the Tropicana Casino and Resort this summer were anything but healthy.

The Denver-based National Environmental Health Association was so dissatisfied with its stay at the Tropicana this June that it does not plan to pay $22,000 of its $97,000 bill, according to testimony Thursday before the state Casino Control Commission.

The commission is deciding whether to renew the Tropicana's license in light of massive layoffs that critics say have left the sprawling casino-hotel dirty and understaffed.

Nelson Fabian, the health association's executive director, wrote in a Sept. 24 letter to the Tropicana that was made public Thursday by the casino commission that he usually tries to find something good to say when writing a letter of complaint.

"In this case, however, just finding a good side to our conference experience at your hotel, let alone writing about it, is virtually impossible," he wrote.

"On the whole, we had a dreadful experience at the Tropicana," he added. "In 25 years of conference planning and management, this hotel experience was by far the worst that I have ever gone through."

The 15-page letter from the association was entered into evidence Thursday morning, but lawyers for the Tropicana immediately asked that it be sealed to prevent the details of the complaints from being published in the media. The commission rejected the request.

The complaints included the presence of cockroaches and bedbugs in rooms, poor food quality, nonworking Internet service, a long wait for the front desk to answer a phone call, and an incident in which a maid allegedly was found eating a guest's room service food inside the guest's room.

"After the first couple of days, I quickly began to understand how room service worked and how hungry your staff was," Fabian wrote. "I was stunned to say the least when I returned to my room to see that the maid service was sitting down at the table in my room and eating what remained of my room service order."

The presence of cockroaches in meeting and sleeping rooms was bad enough, Fabian wrote.

"As disgusting as that was, however, it doesn't compare to the woman who ended up in a room with bedbugs. You will see from the attached picture the extent of her bites."

When he walked into the hotel, Fabian said, "I almost lost my shoes -- the floor was so sticky."

"I can't talk about the indifference and rudeness of your staff enough," he added. "People were put through extended waits for check-in, bell service, valet service, room service and room cleaning. When someone did complain they were more often than not scolded or scorned."

Tropicana president Mark Giannantonio said the complaints are still being investigated, but said he has a hard time believing many of them.