Plaza Hotel & Casino

Information

Plaza Hotel & Casino
Location: Downtown Las Vegas
1 Main Street
Las Vegas, NV 89101
Contact: 800-634-6575
website
Number of Rooms: 1,000 Rooms
Rates: $40 and up double
Average: $50-$100 per night
Resort Fee: $25 per night plus tax
Vegas4Visitors Rating: 73

At a Glance

Highs

Makeover has made it the nicest hotel in Downtown Vegas

Lows

It’s still in Downtown Vegas

Location: 6

Right at the head of Fremont Street

Price: 8

A bargain!

Value: 7

Great value for what you are paying

Rooms: 8

Beautiful, stylish – the nicest in Downtown

Casino: 7

Bright, airy, and fresh

Amenities: 6

Rooms are very well stocked

Facilities: 8

Lots of great new restaurants and entertainment

Service: 8

Very friendly

Fun: 6

Great to see the old girl back in action

Bonus: 9

Bonus points for rescuing a classic

Total: 73

Full Review

Most people had forgotten about The Plaza in Downtown Las Vegas – and for good reason. It opened in 1971 at the head of Fremont Street and became a landmark in the neighborhood with it soaring towers and iconic dome restaurant at the front.

But years of neglect from a series of owners who didn’t know what to do with the property pushed it into second and even third tier status – a tattered, worn, dingy place that you stayed at if you couldn’t afford something better or if everything other hotel was full.

Then The Plaza got a rebirth that helped if not return it to icon status, at least made it a player in the crowded Downtown Vegas field. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent on a top to bottom transformation of the property and the result is nothing short of a miracle that has turned the property into one of the really good option for your next Vegas vacation, especially if you want to save money.

The entire property benefited from the mothballing of the never-completed Fontainebleau hotel on The Strip. The Plaza picked up everything from furnishings to carpeting to marble floors to wallpaper and more, then stripped the bulk of the hotel to the foundation and put in all new stuff. All of that sexy, modern furnishing you see in the sparkly hotel lobby? That was supposed to be at the Fontainebleau? The beds and desks and pretty much everything else in the 1,000 rooms? Ditto.

The reason this is important is because the Fontainebleau was supposed to be a multi billion dollar luxury resort that would have, in better economic times, cost hundreds of dollars per night for a room. At The Plaza you can stay in a pretty good facsimile of what the Fontainebleau would have been for as low as $29 a night.

But probably the coolest thing they have done with the hotel is maintain a sense of history, both for the hotel and the neighborhood. Although they have put in a lot of new stuff, there is still a lot of refurbished “classic” stuff including some gorgeous chandeliers in the lobby. And check out the amazing black and white photography of old Vegas in the rooms and scattered around the hotel – it’ll have you shouting “Vegas Baby!” for sure.

The rooms are sleek and stylish, with two flavors – the newer “Luxe” rooms, which darker black and grey tones, 49″ TVs, Amazon Echo Dots, and a bunch of other niceties.  The “Deluxe” rooms are done in warm earth tones that include modern furnishings, 32″ flat-screen televisions, built in desks, and fine fixtures in the bathrooms.  Rooms are generously sized although the bathrooms are pretty small so you’ll have to set up a schedule if you are sharing it with someone.

Amenities are pretty standard and include wireless Internet, an in-room safe, clock radio, irons and boards, hair dryers, and the like

Mind you, these digs will never compete with the $300 per night rooms on The Strip but they also won’t cost you $300 per night, so take the “nicer than they were before” thing and run with it.

The 80,000 square-foot casino has contemporary carpeting and wall treatments, lighting, gaming tables, and slot machines. It may not be the Cosmopolitan in terms of cutting edge modernity but it is stylish, comfortable, and airy in ways that most Downtown casinos aren’t.

They also have a bingo room (the only one in Downtown Vegas) and a race and sports book operated by Cantor gaming.

There are plenty of dining options including a branch of the fantastic Hash House a Go GoOscar’s, a restaurant from former Mayor Oscar Goodman located in the iconic dome at the front of the hotel; McDonald’s; Subway; and more.

There are two theaters, a very nice pool deck, and a host of other amenities.

It’s important to note that although this is a major, almost epic, improvement over the old hotel there are still shadows of the old property here and there, most notably in some of the elevators, the parking garage, and valet area, the latter of which shares space with the Greyhound bus terminal. It’s not a major turnoff especially if you can keep remembering how low the rates are.

As mentioned above, rooms can go as low as $29 per night during the week with weekend rates as low as $59, although as with any Vegas hotel rates vary wildly from week to week. Their reservations calendar is showing some non-holiday weekends as high as $149, but paying anything more than $100 is probably going to be rare. Remember the $25 per night resort fee when looking at prices, which is usually quoted without that included (it’s buried in the terms and conditions).

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