Hotels Reviewed and Compared

[dewey089]

16 days in Vegas in April.
Here are my thoughts on where I stayed.

TR Snippet- Hotels and Locations Review

I planned my trip to be closer to the strip and hopefully play poker with tourists rather than local regulars. I also wanted to avoid the buses because with all the new routes I did not really know how the buses were going to run.


ORLEANS
Always a delightful room, especially for free. They dug back about four years to offer me this room as I have not been there since they eliminated the 10/7 double bonus.
I intended to try the pool, but I never made it.
I did got down to Seattle Coffee and use the free wifi. That was just great. I did not even buy coffee. It was listed as an amenity on my $5 resort fee.
Two free nights and $10 in free food offset the resort fee. I have to check my records too as I may not have been charged the fee.

GOLD COAST

April is such a pleasant month and I wanted exercise, so I decided to walk from the Orleans to the Gold Coast. It took me a half hour and was very easy in every way except the sound of racing engines so close.
I did notice that the laundromat on Arville is closer to the Gold Coast than the Orleans and I would roll a suitcase up there and do my laundry in pleasant weather when staying at the Gold Coast.
This was one of my favorite spots: Afternoon jazz band, great location for getting to other casinos, fine buffet with redeye gravy for breakfast, and a small, uncrowded pool with warm water. I also used the Fitness Center and liked that it looked out over the pool. Fine machines. Everything was uncrowded. Of all the hotels this one was the cleanest. My sleep apnea machine needs to be plugged in so I see behind the unmoved furniture and the bed bug inspection has me looking behind the headboard. Everything here was clean.
They have a $3 resort fee, but it was no on my bill. I did ask about it and the girl said that it probably had been booked wrong, but I booked on line using my B Connected card. Others report the fee dropped on comped rooms.

SUPER 8 KOVAL

I was very hesitant about booking this place. No matter what the logic that bed bugs can inhabit anywhere and cleanliness is not the issue, I had read that they had some incidents (ironically while hosting an exterminators convention) and I worried. So I brought up the issue with the desk clerk, explaining that I took medication that lowered my immune system and I feared that bed bug bites might be big trouble for me. He was absolutely the most accomodating fellow of my entire trip. He game me room 3045 which he said was used the family of the manager when they came to town and which had a brand new bed. He also told me that whenever this happens they throw away everything.
I knew these rooms were small with just one queen bed, but I found this place delightful. No maze of hallways and the amenities were really incredible and without a resort fee. I did not try the little pool, but they have one. I did use the wifi and the great television. Three HBO channels and Turner Classic Movies, which satisfies me, as well as many other stations. The best television in Vegas.
So I had my sleeping issues at 3 AM. I packed up my dirty clothes and went to the laundromat right there in the hotel and did my laundry. I brought my computer and was on line all the while my two loads washed and dried. It was such a treat and it set me up half way through the trip to have plenty of socks and underwear and choices of shirts.
It was quiet.
I had a coffee maker so I could make my morning tea and use my ceramic cup. What a treat that is!
In the lobby was a machine that dispenses coffee, hot chocolate, something vanilla, and other hot drinks. I took one with me every time I left the building. Also int he lobby was a large screen television and during one rainy morning I just hung out and waited for the rain to end while I watched someone cook food.
I did not need the free transportation to and from the airport or a place to keep my dog with me, but all that is available at the Koval 8 too. They said that they would negotiate a rate of about $40 a night if I stayed for a week next time and I may very well do that. I forgot to ask about cancellation policy, however. I would need to be able to cancel without penalty.
With Ellis Island right next door for food and the strip a short walk this is a great location.
I could build my Flamingo/ LV Boulevard part of my trip around the Super 8 and the Gold Coast and be very content.


FLAMINGO
My treat to myself was five nights at the Flamingo where Harrah's had comped me two nights on my poker play. I looked forward to being right on the strip, to having a wonderful pool, and to being able to easily find a poker game.
I then filled in my 16 nights with two free at the Orleans, three fairly cheap at the Gold Coast, a weekend at the Super 8 and another at Vegas Club, and my final two nights at El Cortez where I always end my trip on an ACG coupon so that thirty dollars gets me two nights and a free ride to the airport.
As it turned out my least favorite stay was the Flamingo.
It started badly when my inspection for any sign of bedbugs showed a clear blood trail under the couch cushions. There was a live bug there also. Perhaps this was not a bed bug and the activity was old, but most places throw out the beds and furniture after an infestation. I moved and they let me.
However, I was a bit shaken and then I saw another blood trail in the second room I called again. They moved me again, but they weren't nice this time. They had given me early check in and now the desk clerk told me that if the third room was not satisfactory I would have to wait until check in, which she quotes as 4 PM. She was testy.
I just said, "I understand," but what I thought was that if the third room showed the same blood trails, I was out of there, comps or not and off to perhaps Eastside Cannery or back to the Super 8.
The only pool open was like ice and the weather turned cold as well, so I swam two days, once in a crowd of folks filling the chairs and eating the grilled hamburgers and once almost by myself when I just could not tolerate the icy water nor tolerate the cold air even for reading by the pool. When the lifeguards are all dressed in sweatshirts and wrapped in blankets it is not a day to swim.
The hot tub was delightful, however, and I stayed in that a long while the second day.
The grill looked wonderful, but it did not help me as I struggle not to eat too much to smell all that fine cooking meat. So what would clearly be a perk for most visitors was a difficulty for me.
The room itself was basic. I understand that were I to pay for a GO room, I'd have done better, but I am always frugal, so actually it was no different than my other hotels except it lacked a coffee maker. I missed that as I brought my own tea and a fine ceramic cup for early morning.
Part of the issue around my careful bed bug inspection is that it is made more difficult if out of the way places are never cleaned. Behind one table in one of the rooms I left was an old sock and a couple months of dust and dirt gathered around it. I don't really get what is so hard about vacuuming behind the furniture once a week.
My sleep issues were compounded by the fact that I could not keep a Do Not Disturb sign. Apparently the kids staying on my floor were collecting them for their college dorms and mine disappeared every day and had to be replenished. The maid was great and took care of me, but it was just one more hassle I did not need.

VEGAS CLUB

Here was another worry on the bug issues. I know this place is in decline and has had some incidents. I was concerned.
I booked for $29 on a weekend using this search engine which sent me to Priceline.
Online Hotel Booking Advisor - Compare Hotel Prices and Deals

I love this site as it gives me the top three picks for my dates.

When I called to confirm, they asked me if I would like to upgrade to the North Tower for $5 a night and I jumped on that. I am still unsure when they charged me the $5 and they may not have included it anywhere. I expected to pay it to the hotel on checkout, but I did not.
Turtleman has said often that the North tower is a value secret in Downtown and he was right. My room was fine. The couch had one spot of wear, the rug had a coupld spots and they had taken something off that was wall mounted and left four small screw holes, but everything else was clean and comfortable. The television sucks. Plaza had TCM last time. Not here.

EL CORTEZ

Pavillion.
I generally love the El Cortez, but it did not come up to good standards this time and did not compare well to the others of the trip. The shower door made noise. The hot water was tough to regulate. I missed having a table. The doors require slamming to close and that can be heard in the rooms.
I did like the new elevator with key entry to the fifth floor. That feels more secure. They look great too with all the wood inside.
I probably could have been moved, but I spend most of my time there at the poker table anyway.
The price is right. Two nights for $30 with a free ride to the airport.

While there I walked down to Krispy Kreme for the free wifi and bought coffee (which was wonderful) and a doughnut (quite a treat) Sitting outside in the morning along quiet Freemont was just perfect. The wifi was fast and easy with no hassle connecting.

[melman]

Re: Hotels Reviewed and Compared

If you regularly make 16-day trips, it seems to me that you should be somewhat of a "regular" at a handful of properties and you shouldn't be having such bad experiences with your rooms. Why take chances on iffy places like the Vegas Club?

I am very tolerant (probably too tolerant) of hotel issues, and I have never had the "bug" issues that you ran into. Or maybe I'm not paying attention.

For what it's worth, I seem to have become a fan of the Boyd properties and, except for the tiny tiny rooms at the Fremont, have never had any problems at all.

[dewey089]

Re: Hotels Reviewed and Compared

I just recently started reading about bed bugs this winter.
Your post seems to suggest that staying out of places like Vegas Club reduces a visitor's risk of bedbugs. I too have a hard time abandoning that mindset, but the counter-intuitive truth is that bedbug infestations have nothing to do with the quality of the room or the status of the hotel. They can and do emerge anywhere. Your own experience (or mine) with a particular hotel is also irrelevant.
What determines a bedbug infestation is who the guests were who used the room before you. And the bugs don't jump from luggage into a room because it is a downscale Vegas Club room, but simply to find a dark place to hide so in the darkness they can follow the breath of humans and get a blood snack.
I have read reports of them at Bellagio. And my own findings this trip were of at least past activity at Flamingo, a hotel which I had picked this trip as my move upscale.
The determining factor is who used the room recently and what those visitors brought with them.

One of the reasons I can manage to go for 16 days, is I have always gone on the very frugal. I don't do slots and I have cut back on my video poker, so I don't get comped rooms from gambling. It is very difficult anyway to gamble enough to be comped for 16 nights.

The hotels I am familiar with in all the years of all my Vegas trips are all downscale. I averaged $32 a night this trip and that included two weekends. This is about double what I usually average.
My goal used to be an average of $20. Now it is $40 or less because I want to be closer to poker on the strip so I have to pay for locations near or on the strip.
What brings me closer to the strip as I plan my trips now is not the strip itself but the hope that there I can find poker games not dominated by locals who play everyday and all know each other.
That local dominate condition is true for live poker in Laughlin, downtown, and most of the off strip places like the Orleans. In such games I am at a great disadvantage. In a game with more than half tourists and perhaps a couple who play more poorly than I do, I can more easily win.
In a sense, the argument we always make for the better gambling off strip and downtown in video poker, is turned on its head for live poker.
This is especially true now that Harrah's has started to follow and reward with comps and cheaper rates our live poker play. This is an amazing change of comp focus.
In spite of being close to the tourist dominated strip this trip, I did not actually find too many of the sort of games I seek, and I also did not do well. So perhaps the real issue for me is if I want to go to Vegas to play poker, and if I don't, then what do I want to do there? I'll know better about that when I revisit Foxwoods and Turning Stone and see just what was going on.

My hotel choices will be driven by frugality and location. There is no way to have them driven by bedbug infestation.

Most people, most of the time will not encounter bedbugs. But after folks have them and bring them home, it is too late to do anything about them except very costly extermination. The idea that somehow your own past luck or mine to escape this growing pest in certain favorite hotels insures your escape in the future is false security.

I know plenty of people who tell me that all the time they have been playing video poker, they have not caught a royal flush. But they have the same odds in each hand. Play enough and eventually they will hit one. Travel enough and eventually you will encounter these buggers.

I suspect that when you enter a hotel room you don't bring a flashlight and check behind the headboards and under the couch cushions. That is where in Flamingo I found the tell tale blood lines and some live bug. I did not want to pay an etymologist to find out if in fact this live bug in the cushions of the Flamingo couch was a bedbug or just looked like one. It matched the photos I had seen.
Perhaps I would not have been bitten or picked up a hitchhiker. Perhaps the infestation was in the past and the Flamingo had not thrown away the couches as is recommended.
There were no bugs in the beds.
So perhaps because I was looking, I found the evidence. Not in the bed but in the couch.

In my research I have learned that there even have been infestations in movie theaters.

Any dark place where the bugs can hide and the come out for a taste of human blood will support the life of a bedbug.

I would not suggest people avoid the Flamingo on the basis of my small sample of rooms or on reports of past activity. Nor would I suggest that not experiencing these pests or hearing reports of them at the Orleans or the Gold Coast means you won't see them on your next visit.
I suggest people understand that this is a growing problem in Vegas hotel rooms, that it has nothing to do with cleanliness but with the last guests who used the room, and that some simple inspection and some safe guards is very helpful. Also, if folks encounter the bugs, they need to do something before their luggage goes home with them. Some traveling businessmen undress before they come in their homes and put all their luggage and clothes and shoes in specially designed machines that kill bed bugs. Others use special dissolving plastic bags that contain the clothes and the bugs and go right in the laundry where the bags dissolve.

It may be helpful to note that bedbug infestations will not be something the casinos advertise when they have to deal with an infestation. Nor are they very helpful to guests who go home with bites and infestations and complain. They want the issue to go away quietly. When Flamingo moved me, I told them I had one of the live bugs trapped under a glass. No one cared or inspected. They just moved me. If you read the reports of folks who have had encounters with bedbugs you will find that in general there is not much publicized about it.

Similarly, you won't hear about this from your neighbors and friends. Folks who have infestations are not likely to announce it to you. They are more likely to try to take care of it quietly.

I like Boyd properties and I think my odds are better there because generally the rising source of infestations is from folks from other countries, and I suspect Orleans and Gold Coast get fewer international travelers than the strip casino hotels. But that too is just a guess. If I encountered and picked up bedbugs in the first few days of my 16 day stay (say at that room in the Flamingo) and then went to the Orleans with infected luggage, I'd spread them to that room. If you were the next hotel guest, it would not matter how comfortable you had become over the years with that property or how well you thought it was maintained, you would encounter that infestation.

What worked the best for me was to tell them at check in that I take an immunity suppressing medication and am worried about what might happen were I to be bitten by bedbugs, and then ask if they would please put me in a room where no bedbug infestation had ever been reported. I ask this quietly so as not to alarm other guests. I expected denial, but I did not get it at the hotels where I asked that question. They took care of me. I think that improved my odds.

This worked the best at Super 8 on Koval where the fellow knew of just such a room, one with a new bed and one that had no history of a problem,one that one of the managers used for his family when they visited. And based on his personal attention to the matter, I am more likely to book at the Super 8 again. But I will still inspect the room before my luggage rolls in, put my luggage in the tub for my first couple of overnights, and inspect again in the middle of the night when I wake up to go to the bathroom. I'll also pay attention to any bites. So many of the reports I read said that at first they just thought these welts were mosquito bites.

I don't post other links here on this forum out of respect for the board moderators, but you can easily search out information on bedbugs on the internet. There are quite a few sights recording reports and suggesting ways to deal with them. There is even a business now (in Vegas as well) where a fellow has trained dogs to sniff them out like those drug sniffing dogs and some places use the dogs for inspection of suspected infestations.

There is not an easy way to get rid of them. Some exterminators won't take on the job anymore because there are so many callbacks. The best defense is to not bring them home, or if you do, to know you are bringing them and be prepared at home not to let them in the house. The poorest defense is to assume that because you have not encountered them in the comfortable hotels or your experience, you have precluded the danger of infestation.

[melman]

Re: Hotels Reviewed and Compared

Thanks for posting the additional info.