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Reviews of Las
Vegas Hotels
 Stratosphere
Pros: Best value on the Strip, best view
of the Strip (from the tower), awesome thrill
rides
Cons: Lousy customer service
The Stratosphere is the best value on the Strip hands
down. Rooms are often as cheap as $37/night, and they
often send out offers for free rooms to people who have
signed up for a player's card -- especially if those
customers have actually done any gambling with the card.
They also give out the 2-for-1 coupons for the stage shows
Bite and American Superstars like candy. (Ask when you check
in or when you sign up for a player's card.) The Strat used
to be an even better value -- they used to throw in a free
afternoon show for all guests, Viva Las Vegas, which was
actually pretty good. Alas, they killed that show at the end
of 2006, ending what they claimed was the longest-running
afternoon show in Vegas.
The Strat competes so heavily on value because they're at
the very edge of the Strip, and they have to do something to
lure people from the big megaresorts in the center.
And now the bad news: The customer service at the
Stratosphere is unbelievably bad.
- Bullshit fee. They charge you a $7 "resort
fee", which they claim gets you 2-for-1 show tickets,
access to the pool, exercise room, laundry, facilities,
etc. In truth the fee is unrelated to those things
because everyone gets charged that fee, whether
they want the amenities or not. If they were honest
they'd just include that fee in the price of the room,
but they charge you separately because then they can
advertise rooms at "$29.95" (or whatever), instead of the
true price, $7 higher.
- Refusal to pay winnings. The Strat was the
first (and so far, only) casino to make the Wizard's of
Odds' Hall
of Shame (for refusing to pay a winning sports
ticket).
- Aggravating Website. Their website is
extremely user-hostile, and got listed as an example of
how not to do a website at ProblemWebsites.com.
- Thrill ride fiascos. In two separate incidents
when riders were left danging a sixth of a mile above the
Strip for an hour and a half when the thrill rides
unexpectedly shut down, rather than the Strat making
profuse apologies, they did the opposite: They said they
did nothing wrong and took no responsibility. And what
consolation did they offer the two young girls who were
stuck on one of the rides in 50mph winds for an hour and
a half? A year's free pass for the ride! It's hard
to think of a stupider response.
reviewed January
2008
Sahara Hotel
The Sahara ties with the Stratosphere on being the
cheapest hotel on the Strip, but the value isn't nearly as
good, since the property is older and a bit more rundown vs.
the more modern Strat. The furnishings at the Sahara are
a lot more worn and dated, and not especially clean. The
mini-fridge in my suite had so much dust on the top that it
clearly wasn't cleaned in the last year.
Like the Stratosphere, the Sahara imposes what I call a
"bullshit fee" of $6, which is a gratuitous fee they charge
everyone for no reason other than to make more money. But
unlike the Stratosphere, they don't disclose it well. At the
Strat the fee is mentioned on posters at the check-in desk,
and the clerk specifically points the fee out to you. At the
Sahara they made no mention of it when I checked in. When I
checked out I asked when the "Daily Activity Fee" was, and
the clerk (the same one who checked me in) immediately
pulled out my check-in form and said, "It's a fee we charge
everybody, and you agreed to that when you signed the form
right here!" (Yes, I signed the form, and no, I didn't
notice the fee listed. Who reads the fine print on
everything they sign?) The B.S. fee is bad enough, but staff
are apparently trained to blame the customer when the
customer inquires about it. For this reason alone, I'll
never stay at the Sahara again.
On the plus side, all the local calls I made were free --
a rarity in Vegas. Hotels here usually nickel-and-dime you
for everything, so this was a nice bonus.
I got a room here because I wanted to test the tip that
you can often get a free room upgrade at Vegas hotels by
giving the clerk a $20 tip, sandwiched between your ID and
credit card. (Innocently ask if there happen to be any
complimentary room upgrades available.) Your chances of
success are greater if you try this mid-week, Sunday through
Thursday, when there are lots of vacant suites. Anyway, my
clerk said there weren't but she could upgrade me to a suite
for $50. Between the $50 and the $20 tip, that's a $70
upgrade. The upgrade would normally cost $120 (I checked
online rather than take the clerk's word for it), so my tip
got me a $50 discount on the suite, even after the cost of
the tip. If you want a suite at a Vegas hotel, the $20 tip
is definitely worth a shot.
I had a harder time getting
comps here than any other casino I've ever been in. At
the level I bet I've never had trouble getting a coffeeshop
or buffet ticket anywhere else, but here it was like pulling
teeth. When I colored up my chips I asked the pit boss if
I'd played long enough to get a coffeeshop ticket. He said
they'd evaluate me when I was done playing. I said I was
done, in fact he'd just okay'd the color-out. He said it
would take a while to get everything into the computer. I
asked how long that would take. He said they'd evaluate me
when I was done playing. We went round and round on this for
quite a while until I finally gave up. At the coffeeshop
they checked my card and told me my cash value balance.
(Apparently you get actual cash value on the Sahara's card
even if you play just tables and not machines.) I got the
veggie wrap and it was smothered in grease. I ate only half
of it. In my entire adult life this is the only occasion I
can think of where I intentionally didn't finish what I
ordered because it was so bad.
The Sahara has an excellent roller coaster called
Speed. It does
a loop, right in front of the hotel, clearly visible from
the Strip, and when it hits the end, riders do the whole
thing again backwards -- including backwards through the
loop.
reviewed May
2008
Wynn Las Vegas
The impression I get from this property is that it's
just full of itself. The first clue is from their
website, which is done in Flash and super-slow, because
they're more interested in presenting the site the way
they want to present it rather than helping you get
what you're looking for quickly. I bought a banana in the
gift shop for $2, making it the most expensive banana I've
ever purchased in my life. Heck, even at the airport they're
only a dollar. The buffet was unimpressive. I don't normally
expect great quality in hotel food, but when a hotel is as
full of itself as this one, bragging up and down the street
about their excessive quality (and charging you
accordingly), then I expect organic produce and brown rice
to be available. But it's not. You get the same
pesticide-laden, tasteless tomatoes and de-nutrified white
rice that you'd get at a place that charged half as much.
The service I got from casino staff wasn't very good, and I
can get the same poor service from a cheaper hotel. The
rooms are enormous (640 square feet), as large as a suite at
some other casinos, but then again they cost more than
suites at other places. A room at the Wynn goes for as much
as $439 during the week, and is even pricier on
weekends. All in all, I can't imagine any reason to stay
here unless you want to be able to brag about how much money
you spent.
reviewed July
2006
Treasure Island
TI is right smack dab in the center of the strip, in
the heart of the action. It's not the best value,
though, as you can usually get similar quality for a lower
price at places like the Mirage (right next door), New York
New York, and Excalibur. But it's a fine hotel and there's
nothing wrong with it.
I've stayed here twice. The first time I got a
room with lots of mirrors which were great, and the second
time I didn't, so if you like mirrors then be sure to ask
about that when you check in.
TI is home to my favorite Vegas show, Mystere, which is
the most impressive of all the Cirque de Soleil shows I've
seen. (I've seen all of them except "O".) There's a massive
cast, doing acrobatics that aren't just interesting, but
also sometimes seemingly impossible -- stuff you wouldn't
believe people could do unless you saw it with your own
eyes.
Comps are super-easy to get. I played maybe two hours of
blackjack at $100-$500 a hand, and while that's probably
more than you'd bet, that's equivalent to a weekend of
gambling at much lower stakes. And remember, I played for
only two hours. And what did I get? I got a mailer offering
me three free nights and an entry into a slot tournament,
where everyone got $125 in slot play, minimum. The
tournament itself was pretty well done, with a bumblebee
theme, and they even had an emcee bouncing around in a
bumblebee outfit.
There's no bicycle rack in the parking garage but you can
lock your bike to the cable fence right across from the
security guard.
reviewed May
2008
Why are there only four hotel reviews on this
page?
I'm building this page slowly, one property at a time, so
I've got only four reviews for you now. But there are
reviews of the other places all over the net, so if it's not
here, you're not out of luck.
Related articles:
Related websites:
Last updated: May 2008
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