I ll be staying on the South Strip, Jay. I have a few things I want to do Downtown, but I can take t

Today s review comes from Brian Tucker, a regular reader of and review contributor (see his great review on the El Cortez ) to The Vegas Solo . I read this one and my first thought was: I need to cancel my reservation dollar rental cars canada for Labor Day Weekend! The second thing I thought was: I don t want to just stick this on my hotel review page and hope people see it. This needs to be a blog post. Why? Read on for Brian s thoughts about the Plaza as a hotel for solo travelers.
I was quite eager to stay at the Plaza, after hearing for months and months about the well-deserved gutting the owners did after decades of the property languishing at the west end of the Fremont Street Experience. The fitting dollar rental cars canada of the renovated rooms with furniture acquired from the mothballed Fontainebleau hotel is something the hotel has advertised on its marquee, dollar rental cars canada as it was a huge score on their part. I would be remiss if I did not start the review with my overall perception of the new Plaza:
No amount of fresh paint, new furniture, nice restaurants, or purple spotlights shining on the building at night can make up for a total lack of housekeeping, lack of basic amenities dollar rental cars canada in the room, or spotty guest services. When comparing the prices of downtown Las Vegas hotels, it s wise to remember that you get what you pay for, which I found out firsthand during my stay at the Plaza.
For starters, parking dollar rental cars canada at the Plaza is $5; one can have this reimbursed at check-in if you make the mistake dollar rental cars canada of self-parking before you check-in (as most self-parkers tend to do). This is uncharacteristic of Vegas, but I kept in mind that I was staying downtown, and most downtown hotels in other cities charge for parking. Once you arrive at the front desk, be prepared for a queue to check-in there never seems to be more than two desk clerks working at any given time. (This was even true at check-out, when the line was longer than check-in.)
The basic Plaza room, while fitted with the previously mentioned, swanky Fontainebleau furniture, is otherwise quite bare bones. For instance, there was no pen or notepad to be found in the room, or facial tissue, for that matter. And the soap the hotel provides is the size of a poker chip (no kidding!). dollar rental cars canada There were also plentiful crumbs on the floor, in the bed, and in the tub of the room I stayed in. By comparison, I ve stayed in a vintage 1941 room at the El Cortez dollar rental cars canada for the same price which was spotless.
I might add that the bathroom in the standard room is very, very small perfect for the solo traveler, but totally inadequate for a party of four in a double room. Speaking of the bathroom, the water was shut off from 1AM-6AM the night I stayed. No warning was given of this at check-in, though I wasn t really surprised after reading TripAdvisor reviews noting this same snafu. I had to find this out the hard way when I decided to take a late-night jaunt down Fremont Street, and then at 6AM when the air blowing up from the bottom of the building through the empty pipes woke me up out of a sound sleep. Also, the day after I checked in, the rooftop pool on the 7th floor was going to be closed for renovations. It desperately needs to be overhauled, so I doubt anyone complained about the inconvenience.
My main concern for the solo traveler, however, is that of security. dollar rental cars canada Even though there was a station at the elevator for room keys to be checked, this station was unmanned throughout my entire stay. The hotel room entry door has a small deadbolt on it no chain, which I found to be odd since all the doors in the room are vintage 70s.
The main security concern I had was with the adjoining room door in the room I stayed dollar rental cars canada in: The knob to lock the adjoining door was literally no larger than the average knob on a bathroom drawer. I wondered: dollar rental cars canada With such a small knob, how hefty could the lock really be? It s also worth mentioning that the Las Vegas Greyhound bus station is located dollar rental cars canada off the lobby; why on earth would security be so lax in this hotel?
All in all, this property could be a much better place to stay, especially for solo travelers. In conclusion, dollar rental cars canada just remember that you get what you pay for. The Plaza will provide a decent room with nice furniture, but little dollar rental cars canada to no housekeeping or guest services, including security. The one plus in the room is an ample supply of DirecTV channels; in the hotel as a whole, Hash House a Go Go and Oscar s Steakhouse are both amazing restaurants. dollar rental cars canada In other words, feel free to dine here and gamble here, but don t stay here if you can help it. There are plenty of other safer, cleaner, more guest-friendly options downtown.
Brian Tucker is a former English major who has worked dollar rental cars canada in hospitality for 13 years. He prefers traveling solo because he can see so much more and set his own schedule. You can read Brian s philosophical musings on life at his blog, Southern Aristocracy .
I had a room at the Plaza on my last trip. (I double-booked at the Plaza and Golden Nugget for free play purposes.) My experiences mirrored Brian s in just about all respects. The furniture in the room was nice, but I also found housekeeping to be lacking, and the bathroom was incredibly small.
Dave, I m slightly relieved to know I m not the only one who experienced this. It s baffling to me how poorly run the Plaza is in spite of all the money they sunk into the head-to-toe overhaul. It s a disservice to the property, if nothing else.
Likewise, Brian and thank you. I did cancel my ressie at the Plaza, by the way. I m actually relieved to know I ll be staying all 6 nights at the same hotel, actually. The whole check in, unpack, dollar rental cars canada then repack, check out, check into the next place, unpack again thing has gotten real old.
I ll be staying on the South Strip, Jay. I have a few things I want to do Downtown, but I can take the Strip Express bus to get there. Wow, you are going during the HOTTEST part of the year! Good luck. Let me know how you like TI. I ve stayed there twice and liked it a lot.
Earlier this year I did a solo trip and stayed at the Plaza for a night on a free offer .It wasn t even worth free. Sheets as thin as paper made for a cold night. The poker chip soap was a joke. The lack of ice makers was probably a good thing, because I m sure they wouldn t clean them. Good thing the rest of that trip was spent staying at the Cosmo
This review seems to echo what I ve read on other sites since the re-opening. At the end of the day, these are still the same owners who spent the last decade running this property into the ground. They already gave up on the Western and the Las Vegas Club is practically a ghost town in a revitalized downtown.
I regularly receive offers for free nights/free play at the Plaza and since I happened to be downtown, I pushed dollar rental cars canada my wheelchair to the Plaza to check out if the renovations had improved wheelchair accessibility and give the new rooms a look.
I showed the free room offer to the apathetic dollar rental cars canada front desk girls (who never gave any type of welcome greeting) and asked one of them to show me a handicapped room. They rudely replied they could not show me a room.
I wrote a long letter to the General Manager and Director of Hotel operations with my home address, telephone, email and Players #, but never received a reply of any kind. I visit several dollar rental cars canada times a year with friends, but we will stay Golden Nugget dollar rental cars canada or Four Queens as it is obvious the Plaza has no comprehension of basic customer dollar rental cars canada service and tolerates rude and lazy behavior from the employees their customers are likely to encounter first.
But when I past customer takes the time and effort to compose a long and detailed dollar rental cars canada letter identifying lapses in customer services and accommodating persons with disabilities to the hotel management and not a single person from the hotel replies, that tells me the problems start at the top and the attitude trickles down throughout the organization.
Disabled Traveller, that s terrible! I can honestly say when I worked at the front desk at the Opryland Hotel, we d let potential guests view suites (even presidential suites) as long as we could hold a credit card to assure they didn t damage or use the suite during their unguided tour. We never had any trouble, and people were always grateful to get to see the rooms.
If it s any consolation, I asked to see a suite at Bally s and they pulled out a beat-up binder with room pictures in it for me to glance over. Maybe that s the Vegas way, I don t know. I can vouch for you that the Plaza front desk staff seems very apathetic, though.
[...] my darndest to give a trip report once I get back in town from that. In the meantime, here s my review of the Plaza in downtown Las Vegas. Kudos again to Gray at VegasSolo.com for publishing my [...]
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