Not everything at The Palms is terrible... merely ...

Not everything at The Palms is terrible... merely marred by general laziness, poor attention to detail and startling incompetence.

The Good
First impressions count, and The Palms does not disappoint. Upon first entering the hotel feels high quality. The grounds and beach are wonderful, as is the general decor of the rooms.

What went wrong?
The Palms quickly drops from a 5 star rating once you experience the general laziness of staff (with exception to a few receptionists). We only ate at the hotel twice but in both instances food came with lengthy delays (an hour to cook a steak and 15 minutes for some ketchup is not what you expect with these prices). The 18% compulsory service charge only serves to highlight the lack of service.

The little things
This may sound picky, but I believe if you are paying top dollar for an experience you should receive something exceptional. Little things like our wardrobe door not being attached properly (room 326 if you're reading this Palms), elevators being unavailable because staff are using them to move TV's at peak hours, and misspellings on internal advertisements add up to create an a lack of care and attention.

So why only two stars?
The general experience would have scored 3.5 on my card, but I have deducted further points due to a potentially dangerous situation with our room. We had been in our room for 4 nights before our Son came from under his bed holding a Atenolol tablet/pill. This was either left by a member of their staff, or more likely, the rooms previous tenant, highlighting a lack of commitment in cleaning rooms. Thankfully our son (who at the time was 2 years old) did not consume the pill but staff appeared shockingly unfazed by the complaint.

Anything else?
I am sure this will be a temporary issue (though looking at other reviews it has been occurring for some time), but the building work taking place around the hotel also mars the experience and should be considered by those looking to book a room with the palms.