Stay Report: IP Casino Resort, Hotel, and Spa (Biloxi, MS - July 2015)

Stay Report: IP Casino Resort, Hotel, and Spa
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We were having a meeting at the IP Casino Resort so I got to experience the meeting rooms plus the hotel.  There are many casino + hotels in the Gulfport/Biloxi area and they range in price and quality.  Overall, the meeting rooms were nice and the hotel room was decent but both were overpowered by the strong smoking smell that is everywhere.  The meeting rooms are located on the 3rd floor - above the gambling hall.  There are a lot of meeting rooms so there is plenty of space and they provide really good food (better than other hotels) but to access the meeting rooms you have to go through the casino and the smoking smell is EXTREMELY strong in the meeting room area.  

photo courtesy of Boyd Gaming

There is a parking garage connected to the casino and from the garage you walk through the casino to the hotel tower.  The check-in desks are along one side of the wall, with one side for regular guests and the other side for premium members.  The side with the regular guests always seemed to have a line and the service could've been faster.  After check-in, I took the elevator to the room.  There are two sets of elevators depending on which floor you go to; apparently more people requested staying on the lower floors and thus those elevators were a bit slower while the elevators for the higher floors were pretty quick.  

Even though the hotel rooms are not above the casino (they are in the tower next to it), you could still smell smoke in the rooms.  My room was on the 20th floor and the smoke smell was there but was not overpowering; some of my colleagues had rooms on lower floors and they said the smell in their rooms was overpowering.  The rooms themselves were nice and large, with a good amount of space.  As you entered the room, on left was the bathroom while on the right was a closet and storage area.  The bathroom was a decent size and contained a shower, a toilet, a sink, as well as toiletries (the toiletries needed to be updated).  The closet contained a safe, storage facility, as well as an iron and ironing board.  Further into the room, on right was a luggage rack followed by a chest with drawers on the bottom and a TV on top.  Next to the chest was a desk with phone and note pad plus pen.  On the other side was a chair + foot lounge and the bed with two side tables.  The bed was a good size, was decently comfortable, and provided for an average night's sleep (it wasn't the best bed, but definitely not the worst bed either).  There was also a large window in the room which let in nice natural light, and in front of the room was a sitting table with two chairs (this to me was not needed in the room).  Overall, it was a nice and spacious room with good facilities.    

photo courtesy of Boyd Gaming

The casino built up a lot of amenities besides gambling for the guest including complimentary wifi, a pool, a fitness center, and a spa.  The wifi is complimentary and the speed is pretty good (you can watch youtube videos).  The pool, fitness center, and spa were all located on the top floor of the hotel.  I wanted to try the fitness center, but it was only open until 8pm and I was in meetings (including dinner meetings) until 9p; I am not sure why the fitness center was not open 24hrs like other hotels as that would've been more convenient.  Another amenity the hotel provides is complimentary bottles of water.  These are provided in the room and can also be requested from housekeeping, and this additional complimentary item adds a nice touch.

Overall, the IP Casino Hotel provided a nice room that was spacious and comfortable and had good amenities
for the guests.  The Casino also provided good food for the meeting, in terms of variety and flavor; there were a variety of healthy and other options available so most diets were covered.  The only negative thing, and its a strong negative, was the smell which was very strong and overpowering.  The smell radiated throughout the hotel and permeated the meeting hall, the chairs, and eventually into your clothes.