Reviews
Flamingo Hotel Review:
Despite this being one of my favorite places to stay this hotel still has its fair share of problems, Gary Loveman pay attention because the Flamingo is today’s hotel review.
The flamingo is at the center of the Las Vegas strip. Built in 1946 when the mob ruled Vegas the Flamingo Was the brain child of Billy Wilkerson, but most people would know it as the hotel that Bugsy build.
This hotel has gone through many remodels and expansions the last being in 1976. While we didn’t stay in the oldest part of the building, I will say it felt old! Casino and lobby were very nice and well kept. Check in wait time was about 35 minutes as at 3pm there was only 3 people checking people in. Not sure why this was because there was a very long line and it seem to take 15 plus minuets per customer to check in. wait times don’t seem to be this long even when a hotel first opens. It seem that a hotel owned by such a business smart company would have come up with an equation for the best check in process possible. If you don’t know what I’m talking about look up Gary Loveman a very smart casino executive who is the CEO of Harrah’s resorts which owns the Flamingo hotel among many other casino resorts around the country.
After check in we had the usual walk through the casino to the hotel elevator. I’m not going to review thing that they have no real control over but things they do should be noted here. The elevators were dirty as if they haven’t been cleaned since 1976 when this tower was built. Brass was tarnished and needed some care, the elevator it’s self even did not work properly. On one trip down from our room it took almost 10 minutes as the doors had to open and close 3 times before it would continue on it journey. Once the OCD elevator got to the bottom we were attacked by the Hilton Grand Vacation reps asking if we wanted to see a free show. You can only say NO so many times until you have to not speak to these people and just walk away.
At check in we made the mistake of not taking advantage of the $50 dollar upgrade to the “GO” room. Our room was a typical Vegas room beds, TV, only this one also included dirty window, black tile grout. I’m thinking it use to be white but do to a lack of care it’s since turned black. The paint was pealing on the bathroom walls and there was evidence of painted over rusted screws on the ceiling. The shower was clean as long as you did not look at the shower head that was green and rusty. Picture seeing that while taking a shower and then looking to the left of the shower head at the steam vent covered in dust again as though never cleaned. In all fairness there appeared to be a slight attempt to clean it, or maybe it was as the maid was wiping the cleaner off the shower walls.
The bed was nice firm and seemed to be clean. Sheets were soft and likely relatively new. The night stands next to the bed were very clean as well and appeared to be new as well. The room was very quiet we only heard the normal Vegas night noise people coming and going nothing that would upset a sleeping guest.
Over all it’s a great place to stay, the rooms needs a little TLC to get it back to the 1946 opening when it was the start of the Strip. It would be nice to see a gaming company take some of their revenue and put it back into their rooms. As I don’t see this property being imploded any time soon they really need to do some updating. I will give this property 3 dice out of 5 dice possible.
