Ameristar Casino Resort Spa Black Hawk

We enjoyed the buffet, but it was disappointing that it wasn’t open during the week. We stayed five nights for our anniversary, and the only place open was Fireside Kitchen. We both had buffet offers from our play and couldn’t use them. Hopefully they’ll still be there if we decide to come back, though right now that’s a maybe. The staff were great and the room was nice. The floors were so slick, though, that my husband and I nearly fell several times. I’m not sure what they use to clean them.

Security woke us at 4 a.m. by pounding on our door and demanding the roulette chips they said we’d taken from the table. We were new to gambling and didn’t know we couldn’t leave with them. They said they’d seen a woman take them on camera. With a timestamp and whatever other evidence they had, this could surely have been sorted out at a reasonable hour with guests paying for multiple nights. Being treated like grand theft suspects in the middle of the night over $300 was awful. If that amount is a crisis for a casino, it raises questions about the organization’s finances. We were made to feel unwelcome from the start. Every staff interaction was negative, and we were treated like a nuisance. We arrived with a box of Coronas, and security took it on the way to check-in. There’s a hotel rule against bringing alcohol into your room, but I couldn’t find it posted online or anywhere public. They told us we could get drinks while gambling. In five hours, only three cocktail servers came by, so we had to buy drinks at the bar for five people. I understand that roulette chips can have different values at different times, but there was no reason this couldn’t have waited until morning. The whole operation felt like a disaster. We spent a lot at the casino, restaurants, and hotel, and I regret it. I would never come back, and especially won’t return to Ameristar or Blackhawk.

We’d booked and paid for two rooms for one night, hoping to have dinner and pool time with our young kids. My husband got stuck because of the weather, but the kids and I drove up anyway. At check-in, they wouldn’t let me in because he wasn’t physically there. We share a last name, and I offered to show our marriage certificate, but that didn’t help. I’d also read a review from two weeks earlier describing a similar problem, followed by the hotel saying it would raise the concern with the team. It doesn’t seem like anything has changed. The front desk staff were rude and unhelpful, with a robotic attitude and no ability to resolve the problem. They kept going to the back to speak with managers, so eventually I asked whether a manager could come out. A woman appeared with no introduction, showed no concern that I was standing there with a digital room key that didn’t work, and was extremely dismissive. I felt I wasn’t treated with common sense or dignity.

The mountain setting was beautiful, gambling was fun, and the valet guys were wonderful. The rooftop pool and hot tub were nice too, but after 7 p.m. they were supposed to be closed to minors. There were some 18-year-olds in there drinking and taping, and nobody from the casino seemed to be watching. For $300 a night, I expected the room to be spotless. It wasn’t. The bathroom fan was filthy and didn’t work.