Monday, March 21, 2005

The Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas -- AN Overview of Where I Stayed.

As you know, I was recently informed that I was going to go to Las Vegas for a work convention. I was informed about 8 days before I had to be there. It became my job to find an inexpensive enough hotel for the trip. I say inexpensive enough as I was finding rooms that were $800 a night and I know that my company was not going to pay that for four nights.

After searching for 2 hours, I finally picked up the phone and called Travelocity. They looked for 30 minutes. I would check the hotels they would come up with to see if the hotels were anywhere near where I was to be for the convention. Sometimes, they tried to get me into 800 dollar rooms or into hotels that were 40 miles out of town. The internet search WITH THEM prevented me from being booked into one of these hotels.

Eventually, the Travelocity guy gave up and I clicked on the reservations link of one of the hotels I looked u p. THe place had a room and for a total of $300 ish for all four days. I was just happy to be within three miles of the Bellagio.

I stayed "Downtown" at the Plaza Hotel and Casino. The hotel was right around the corner from the Golden Nugget. It was rated three stars by Travelocity users so it couldn't have been that bad... right?

Let me tell you how bad it was...with two stories...

1. When I got into my room, I wanted to turn the television on... but I couldn't find the remote control. I called the front desk asking where it was. THey informed me that the rooms in that tower didn't have remote controls. I said... they have all been stolen? He replied with... no..those televisions were before remote controls. Umm... hrm...

2. They had a billboard in front of the hotel... itwasn't neon... it had lettering that was those big black letters that you slide in. To simply illustrate my point... let me share the text "Magnum P.I.'s Larry Manetti Presents Celebrity Lunch...Weekly Celebrity Guests" Ok... do you remember him? There were four main characters... Magnum, Robin, the black friend... and Larry Manetti's character.. the white weaselly friend... He promises celebrities at Brunch... yeah... ok..

Aside from these... the room itself wasn't bad.. perhaps it was mostly the really old or really white trash clientelle that threw me off. I mean hey.. I watched a blackjack table my first night there... there was a full set of teeth...when you added all four people together!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Now I am more convinced than ever that expedia's and travelocity's rating system is a regional program. In other words, the Plaza may in fact be a 3-star hotel when you compare it to the rest of the hotels in old vegas. But put the Plaza up against the hotels on the strip and its 3-stars shrink to about 1 (by your accounts).