Hotel

This thread is to be used to discuss hotel accommodations at Plaza.

It is difficult to see how this hotel can stay open. There are 522 hotels in this country with 500 rooms or more. Plaza has over a 1000 rooms and it is probably the cheapest large hotel in the country.

With rooms as cheap as $11 a night midweek, and sometimes giving away free rooms for anyone who gambles a mere $500/day on slots.

Rooms are alright for guys, but if you are a lone woman, then I would pay a little more and go somewhere else. It shares a building with the bus stop and there is minimal security.

You get a large room that is semi-clean and a tiny TV. What do you expect?

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT play table games at the Plaza or Vegas Club.
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The new owners of the property fired all the long-term dealers and hired break-in dealers. Incidentally, all of the break-in dealers are East Asians with very little command of English. They gave me the wrong amount of chips on my buy-in. There are far, far better (and more cheerful) places to play.
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In fact, I would recommend not playing slots there either. Just a horribly managed property and hopefully they will change hands soon.

Chaim "Poju" Zabludowicz is one of the 20 wealthiest people in the United Kingdom. He and his wife are considered to be powerhouses in the art world partly because of their ownership of Project 176 in London. He bought all of this property in Downtown Vegas including Plaza, Las Vegas Club, and The Western and acres of land and a bunch of old buildings.

He made a fortune on Times Square in NYC in the 1990's when that place was cleaned up, and he bought up Las Vegas in late 2002 because he bought into the rhetoric of the rejuvenation of downtown. Basically he is not a vested casino owner, and the properties are all managed by local companies. I think the basic rule for operations is try and break even.

BTW the city purchased the 61 acres of land behind the Plaza in 1995. It was formerly called Union Park, bu was renamed Symphony Park last year. Progress has been very slow.

One of the funnier things I saw was the he wanted to open an art gallery on Fremont Street. Mayor Goodman politely said that downtown was more appropriate for a mob museum instead of a possibly controversial art museum.

Poju has been sued in the United Kingdom by conservative groups who were deeply offended by one piece of art that was in his museum. The Zabludowicz's took the offensive art off the exhibit, but activists want it destroyed. Mayor Goodman was afraid of this kind of activism in Las Vegas (mafia kingpins are considered colorful in comparison). Offensive art work image


To quote Mayor Oscar Goodman on July 1 2005 If I had my druthers, I would like to have somebody in place to discuss imploding the Plaza. Of course that 7 months before Lady Luck Casino closed down for renovations and is still closed almost four years later. The mayor has to look at that property right outside his window every day.

The Plaza just announced that they are closing one of their hotel towers in a move they describe as temporary. Of course Lady Luck has been temporarily closed for four years now.

Just read the Wizard's review of the place...yikes. I had heard bad things about this place, but didn't realize it was THAT bad. Doesn't even look that awful in the pictures, either...but then, you can say the same about quite a few of the roach motels I've had the misfortune of staying at.

My vote is to level it and build a mega-transportation hub in its place. They've already got the Greyhound terminal there, and Amtrak provided service to a station in the casino until 1997...with talk of rail service returning to Vegas, it would be the perfect place for the new main station. Move the Downtown Transit Center a few blocks over and you've got a super-convenient place to connect all of Vegas together.

I've stayed at the Plaza recently, and honestly it wasn't that bad. I'm not saying it was great, but there are far worse places to stay downtown. Las Vegas Club and Four Queens for example.

Quote: ChampagneFireball

I've stayed at the Plaza recently, and honestly it wasn't that bad. I'm not saying it was great, but there are far worse places to stay downtown. Las Vegas Club and Four Queens for example.

Four Queens is worse than the Plaza, really? I hadn't heard that, though I've stayed in neither. I'd heard 4Qs was average, but decent, while the Plaza was bad.

I'd take the Four Queens over the Plaza any day. Maybe we should do a poll on the worst major downtown property.

Four Queens is usually considered reliable. I have never heard anyone complain. I actually think that the Tower Rooms in El Cortez are desirable. They have wonderful views. It is almost impossible to have a view for $40. The furniture is very dated but the rugs are in good shape.

The Boyd properties (Main Street, California, Fremont) are all decent but pretty spartan. They rent 2 out of 3 rooms to people on their Hawaiian package tours according to their reports.

The one thing lacking in all the properties is a decent swimming pool. Fortunately, the Golden Nugget will rent rooms on the bottom floors of their southern tower (Carson Tower) for as low as $39 midweek. No view, but a serviceable room, and you get access to their pool with the sharks.

Quote: ruascott

Four Queens is worse than the Plaza, really? I hadn't heard that, though I've stayed in neither. I'd heard 4Qs was average, but decent, while the Plaza was bad.

When I stayed at Four Queens there was a noticeable odor that stayed with me and my clothes. Weeks later I opened something from my trip, and the odor was still there. The odor is noticeable in the Four Queens casino as well if you can smell past the smoke (experience with the odor helps).

Plaza had some hallway odor, but I didn't smell any in the room. The casino just smells like smoke.

In both cases the odor was a mixture of old odors and the stuff to clean or mask that. More of the latter. And neither odor compares to the Las Vegas Club where I had the misfortune of staying once. I could not sleep in that room.

Any Word on how the place looks after all the renovations? I will be staying there for the next couple of nights, I have high expectations....

I booked a room for Vegas Club but was moved to The Plaza due to the current remodeling of the Vegas Club Hotel. Huge difference from the last time I was at the Plaza. The casino smelled great. At check-in I did the "10 dollar trick" for a complimentary upgrade. I was given a non-smoking room on the 14th floor of the south tower. The room had a distant view of the Vegas strip lights. The room was beautiful with new paint, carpet, fixtures, furniture, flat screen tv and safe. I took some pictures but they pretty much look like the pictures in advertisements.

The only con was the door connecting the neighboring room was not sealed correctly. The area under the door (about an inch) was not sealed so smoke from the neighboring room came into ours.

Thats why god invented bath towels. Use one to block the opening.

After a couple nights at the EL
Moved over to the Plaza.
Worst expereience checking into a room in my entire life.
Get to the hotel around 1pm to see if I can get in early. No way, told checkin 4 pm.
So I go over to main st, have lunch, watch the game and play video poker.
Get to the Plaza 4pm, real long line stretching to the casino.
yikes, I go gamble for a couple hours. Come back, line has not shortened at all.
I grit my teeth and stand in line for an hour. Get to the front, only 2 people checking people in and line now longer and into the casino.
Well get my room in the South Tower.
I am quite impressed.
A really nice big toom. Nicest room I have ever stayed in downtown.
No fridge but I can crack the window, I hate being sealed in.
Got a coupon booklet with some nice match play 5 buck deals and free entry into the cheap afternoon poker tour.
Noticed one coupon torn out. Hmm, hotel changing mind on a coupon or unscrupulous employee.