Hotel Review Thread

Just book the Resort Tower Strip View King or something, and you should be guaranteed to get a room with the 'new' funiture. And by new I mean the old funiture from MGM Grand. Still, it looks like a really good upgrade from how those rooms previously were presenting themselves.

If I go to Vegas in a busy time period with few good offers, I would for sure consider Excalibur now that the one tower has gotten a facelift. Only drawback is the noisy ACs.

As a point of reference, if I'm not logged in to my MGM account and I look at a 1 night res for the evening of 12/1, the rates are the following (inclusive of resort fee):

Bellagio - $554
Aria - $354
Cosmo - $375
Vdara - $404
MGMG - $169
Mandalay - $379
Park - $164
NoMad - $204
NYNY $100
Luxor - $94
Excalibur - $66

Not sure which properties you're referring to as being like $200 for 12/1, but if you were referring to the center strip ones, you can see you are getting a significant discount vs. rack rate, even if it is still above your budget.

Also FWIW, an average of $59/night, assuming no additional resort credit, even without a $50 F&B credit, is like Motel 6 prices. The Dirty Castle is not my cup of tea, but for all the hemming and hawing these days about how expensive Vegas is becoming, I think it's a steal to be able to stay at a decent property on the strip for the price of a Motel 6.

those are the prices I'm seeing when logged in. maybe like 5 or 10 less but yeah as much as I'd like to stay at Mandalay Bay I'm not paying $379 plus taxes.

my biggest issue with Excal is the smell throughout the whole casino, like moldy smokey garbage dumpster

Yikes. In your shoes, I'd be pretty tempted to pay the premium to stay at Park MGM or opt for NYNY for a slight upgrade for Excalibur. In any case, have fun!

Or stay at a Caesars property instead

Or TI, or even Orleans.

I have TI fully comp for the 3 weekend days, but Mon-Tue is an Amazon convention so rates jump over $200 for those days

AWS ReInvent runs Dec 1-5 which draws a significant crowd. 40k+ Looks like they've expanded their footprint this year and will also be using Mandalay's convention hall as well. Wow.

might have to be Exc then
but plenty of time to rebook if something good comes up before then. and if not I'm not spending much time there anyway

Cheaper than a few days later I bet. The NFR redeo starts 12/4.

I really don’t care for the Caesar’s portfolio, but it is a fair bit easier for low rollers to get comps there than at MGM or at higher tier properties, so it might be a decent option for folks that do limited -ev gambling.

I see this as a complaint/negative a lot in trip reports or reviews. To me it's a positive, as long as you can set the fan on the AC to always ON. It's white noise that blocks out traffic noise if you have a room that has a view of the Strip or may be too close to the pool party.

Agree if if that's not an option. The cycling of on and off in auto fan mode wakes me up too. Have a white noise app on my phone that I put on the night stand to combat that when necessary.

At home I sleep with a box fan on in my bedroom for the white noise. So I guess I'm conditioned to it.

I am also a white noise person and have a fan on every night for that reason. The problem with the old ACs isn’t that they make a noise it’s that they rattle and make different noises which disturb rather than relax

Don't disagree . Any tick or rattle not in rhythm is a deal breaker.

Hello all,

Does anyone have any recent experience at the OYO Hotel and/or (in a less likely scenario), the Serene Vegas Boutique Hotel please?

(I did search this thread but it only brought up 2 brief mentions of OYO).

Thanks

Haven't stayed there since it was Hooter's, but that said, it used to be Hooter's. :-| I wouldn't expect too much. Would love to see an actual review of current OYO situation.

Since posting my question I've come across some horrific reviews and also a video from this guy's YouTube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v7fQn4A...

It doesn't look great but still happy to hear any comments.

I've got a great deal on flights so am going to be in Vegas from Oct 21 to Nov 5, hence the reason for seeking a good deal on 15 nights accommodation!!

what I've heard is OYO takes the spot as worst hotel in Vegas, even below Circus Circus and Excalibur. I've seen a lot of reviews and nothing other than garbage is the consensus.
if you plan to spend 15 nights there than God bless your soul

I would require a high four figure payment to stay there for 2 weeks

I got some free nights at OYO after a flight cancellation a few years ago (2022). Although I survived without finding any bed bugs or roaches in the room, everything looked banged up and dirty.

And as you saw in the video ('Show Me Vegas' have great room reviews FWIW), many of the elevators have been out of service for months now and they need to have an employee physically present to actually operate it and take you to your floor.

Unless you are saving a massive amount on booking OYO, I would rather go for Excalibur if I wanted to save some money for a long stay. Miles better in room quality and cleanliness, and a slightly better location as well.

Although one doesn't go to Vegas to spend a lot of time in the room, everything with OYO looks so shitty that it just wouldn't be a very fun experience IMO.

the thing about OYO the last 2 years is that its EASILY 30-50% cheaper than excel or luxor who used to be the "cheap" hotels.

legit could get 8 nights at OYO middle of summer for 35-50$ a night which is insane after covid with price hikes. they are about 15-20$ cheaper a night compared to excal usually i believe

Hi guys, what's the general opinion here about staying / eating / playing poker at South Point? good option for a more budget week?

Don't. And I'm the biggest Oyo fanboy here probably, I used to hold their top status and stay in comped suites there back when you could get that for 4 nights just with $1.5k coin in on a Monday.

They're clearly just waiting to see what happens with the Tropicana before putting any more money into it. The elevators have been ****ed for months. Hooters is gone. The rooms need maintenance badly. Its a nightmare to walk to the Strip because of the sidewalk closures at Tropicana. As it happens I'm heading out end of September and a friend is staying there - I'll see how it actually is and report back.

I also note you're staying for 15 nights. You won't be able to book a hotel online in one go as pretty much all non extended stay Vegas hotels max out at 14 nights per booking. If you're just going to grind poker, I'd book a 1 night then a 14 night stay at whichever MGM hotel you prefer, then play 12hrs per day in MGM rooms. You'll be Gold once you hit 150 hours and that gets rid of all those resort fees on the 14 day trip (as you'll have Gold by the end as I understand it) saving you $700+, or if you're a VP/slot player, do 1 night then 14 at your CET hotel of choice, get Diamond in a Day and bang, there goes the resort fees over there.

If you're just going for a holiday/gambling, then I'd just book 8 nights then 7 at your hotel of choice, and at the end of each booking, ask them what they'll take off when looking at your play.

TL;DR - Don't book Oyo. Look into ways to get Resort Fees off. If you can't, stay at Excal (Royal Tower, not Resort, they got the old MGM furniture), Luxor (Tower, not Pyramid) or Horseshoe/PH. Avoid Flamingo/Harrahs/Linq. Also look at offers for the likes of TI/Sahara.