Mikes Las Vegas

Sahara hotel review: 2-15-2011 through 2-18-2011
Review written: 2-18-2011
 
Having been to Las Vegas many times and having seen every hotel at opening or shortly thereafter I still have a warm place in my heart for the old hotels who’s prime years have passed. Sahara is a Moroccan themed hotel sitting as close as you can get to the end of the strip without leaving it. Walking around this old hotel there are many reminders of her better days. The reminders are cheaply hung on walls which have been begging for paint since 1998, Oh wait that’s when they were last painted. One wonders what would have become of this property if we weren’t currently in a recession. Would it be a blank piece of land, or would there be a new mega resort in the works. Much of the casino seems as though it was an afterthought, in a poor attempt to catch up to casinos whose owners could afford to build a poker room, and a high roller pit rather than just put up a temporary fence. Continuing through the casino I notice that the new casino smell is long gone and old stale air hangs heavy as though I was walking through a thick fog. They say that scent is a strong memory trigger and the only thing the scent triggered in my mind is all the other run down casinos on the strip. Having arrived shortly after 8:30am I knew that check in time wouldn’t be until 3pm I thought I would attempt to secure an upgraded room and check in at that time. The man at the front desk hand no idea what I was trying to do. I asked to upgrade to a superior room, to which he said something like we can’t check until 3pm. After some struggle the man allowed us to get the room I wanted and I checked in at that time. I’m not sure what the $20 a night upgrade got me in this “superior” room. The beds were new and there was a modern TV. The bathroom had not been upgraded as the tile was gray and black and the shower head had a thick layer of mineral deposits. Something that was unusual about the room is there was, like a casino no clock. On the second day of my stay I left the room at 9am and returned at 4pm to a half clean room. One bed was made but had the other beds sheets were sitting on it. We also received our clock which was not plugged in. At checkout I attempted to use the automated checkout on the TV but was unsuccessful, which is weird because I checked out of every other hotel in Vegas this way. Having checked out at 11am on the last day we needed to store our bags at the bell desk which seems like a normal thing to most other hotels, but not at Sahara. The man at the bell desk told me to hurry up and bring my bags over because he wouldn’t be there for long. Right after he said that to me another man asked what we needed to which I said again we need to check some bags, it was difficult and took them a few minutes to get the bags from us and put them in there secure room. Due to the recession I don’t think this hotel will be imploded anytime soon. Because of this I will not recommend it to anyone I know. I will also send this review to the company that owns this property with this included offer. I have a degree in Business management and have many years’ experience in a customer facing position, and would be happy to join your company as a resort manager to turn this property around.
 

I found this interview on youtube.com the other day and thought I would share it here. As some of you may know Steve Wynn’s daughter was kidnapped several years ago. These videos discuss that in detail as well as his success with resorts.

Fast Tube by Casper

Fast Tube by Casper

Fast Tube by Casper

December 23 1973, the MGM Grand opens on the Las Vegas strip, at the time it had been said that there were too many hotel rooms and the market was saturated with casinos. The town could do with out any more rooms, casinos, and bars. Little did they know at the time that MGM would be the end of the second building boom. 1989 Steve Wynn purchases land from Howard Hughes and builds the Mirage, then the most expensive hotel in the world, it was said that they would never re coup the cost. “And so it begins” the third building boom which brought us, Luxor, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Excalibur, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, And Wynn just to name a few. This brings us to today a few days after the December 15th opening of the cosmopolitan and the 21st year of the third building boom. A few years back you would have seen no end in sight but as the economy slowed so did construction, projects on the strip stand rusty, and sun burnt with no activity. For those of us who look forward to new and exciting places to explore, we are left with the thought that there may be many years between openings, and of course some may never open.

One of the places that I find to be the best place to sit and just enjoy the atmosphere has to be Wynn and Encore. It’s always fun to sit in one of their bars and watch people or talk with the people who work there. A question I always as is do you ever see Steve? And I always get the same response; it starts with a look to the left and right as if he is watching their every move. It’s then followed by “I’ve seen him but try and stay away”, or “when I do I walk the other way”.  On my recent trip to Wynn I talked with young women who work in the “Wynn” logo store. She told me that Wynn is blind and can’t see, she has even been told that people have been fired because they have tried to help Wynn get back on his feet after a fall! I’m not sure if her allegations are true or not nor to I really care what Wynn does with his employees but it is always interesting to ask employees if they ever see Steve walk through the property.

May be you have hear, seen, or read a review of Aria at City Center. With many of them being negative or not as good as we would have thought you have to wonder what MGM and Murren are doing to fix the problem. Lets start with my review, the casino was too dark, and there really wasn’t anything to do there. Because of all the bad reviews similar to mine MGM has started reading what there customers are saying and trying to adapt there resort to fit as many lifestyles and expectations as possible. So what is there solution you ask? A call center, where you can call and complain as much as you want and hope for some change. In my opinion this is the down side of the peak of MGM. Most of there really good properties were made by other people, Wynn, or Mandalay resorts. City Center has had many problems and with Revenue down I don’t know how they will recover from this. I believe that Las Vegas being owned by one or two companies is a thing of the past, look for liquidation of resorts in the coming years. I would like to see Wynn take back Bellagio or Mirage and take them back to the days when they first opened.

My origional review can be found here

Las Vegas Sun artical can be found here

MGM Resorts International page can be found here

Steve Wynn gets mad at a reporter, do you think he is in the right here???