Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino — Hotel in Las Vegas

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: My first impressions were not great. The first thing that happened was that I drove around the block not knowing where the main parking was so I pulled into a vacant valet lane to ask the valet, but he came out screaming at us and furious so we left and then finally figured out where the parking garage was.

So then the next thing that added to the negative impression was the painfully slow check-in, but I’ll say more about that below.

THE CHECK-IN:

— Long and inefficient. 3 parties in front of me. Took forever to check them in. One was just chatting and flirting with a lady that was checking in while the line forming behind me watched in disbelief.

—Appears to take them 10 to 15 mins to check in each guest.

—Two emails promoting to do online checkin, but with no link. Looked directly on the website, but didn’t see how to do it. Said you could use the kiosks if you did the online check in, but when you get there, the kiosks don’t work. I emailed them to say that there is no way to access the online/kiosk check-in. The reply was “That’s okay. Just check in at the desk.”

—There were many positive qualities about this hotel, but the front desk is completely unorganized and inefficient.

—When we were checking out, the there was a long line so we just left our key cards on the counter and left figuring we could dispute any funny business with the credit card company (but to their credit, there wasn’t any — they charged us as expected).

THE RESORT FEE: This hotel plays the amenities fee game to appear cheaper on search engines and to advertise they have free parking. I recommend using a service that will calculate the total price, including amenities fees like Orbitz or Expedia.

When we were there, the pool was closed (which the kids were disappointed about) and the fitness center was closed so we wondered what the resort fee covered. I asked in an email and the response was: “Complimentary self parking, WIFI throughout the property, local and long distance phone calls, coupon book.”

I don’t know anything about a coupon book, but they do have a $13 credit per room for food and dining on the premises. If there’s just one person, that’s nice, but it’s per room, not per person so with more than one person it doesn’t buy much.

The wifi is something any budget hotel offers for free so this is not impressive. Also, everyone has a cell phone so the calling isn’t of value either.

So with a resort fee of $39 per night, if you subtract the $13 credit for food, that leaves the parking costing $26 a night.

THE ROOMS:

Comparing it with the Sahara (which also holds itself up to be cheap, but with high resort fees)…

THE GOOD -- Clean, beds comfy, A/C works well. Much nicer than the Sahara.

THE BAD — THE NOISE: You can hear people in other rooms and could even hear the springs of a bed above us. People in the room next to us talking at a normal voice we could hear their entire conversation. (There’s a door between the rooms so that you can go between the rooms — thankfully they weren’t talking about anything awkward!)

SUMMARY: Overall, I think we would stay here again if we don’t need to count on a swimming pool or fitness center. The location is much better than the Sahara. Perhaps they can study how other hotels manage the front desk to improve the process and offer training to the staff. Maybe Mr. Flirty would do well as a bartender and the valet would do better...

The stay started out alright. Amongst checking in, we came an hour and a half earlier than check in and the staff was very nice about it. The first day we told them we would like a connecting room and something away from the street so we can have a nice view and a quieter area. We were told that notes were going to be put in so we can be accommodated that and that the rooms were going to be set aside for us once we come back to check in. When we come back, we go to our rooms to our surprise no connecting rooms and right on the street right under a bar. My room was next to the air conditioning unit which turned on every five minutes and was very loud. I went down to the front desk to let them know. I spoke with the manager of the hotel, she stated that she personally will put a note and they will switch our rooms the next morning. I go down in the morning to make sure my rooms are going to be set aside, they said yes they’re going to be set aside. We go about our day and have a wonderful day. We come in to get the keys to our new rooms and make sure that it was switched, to our surprise that did not happen. We spoke to one of the staff members behind the desk, Miss Florence. We tried to get answers to why our rooms weren’t changed. She continued to give us roundabout answers. She was going around the question. She said that there were notes in there stating that we would like a room change she said we had to come down in the morning to make sure we can reserve our rooms for change. I told her that is what I did. She stated that there was no notes to have the rooms changed in the morning. We were told in the morning that at 3 PM our rooms would’ve been reassigned. That didn’t happen. The conversation went nowhere so we asked for some sort of comp due to lack of communication on the staff end as well as a supervisor’s end because we did speak to the supervisor. As we left, I went back to the front desk to ask one more question while walking back to the front desk I can overhear Miss Florence’s conversation with her colleague about my family and in quotes, I heard her say people like that. As I walk up to the front desk, I ask her what did you say? She disregarded my question and asked me how she can help me. As I was talking to her, she looked very frustrated, which I understand as I am in the service industry, and I understand how things can get frustrating. But the look on her face and how she was talking about me and my family was very unsettling. There was no I’m sorry about all of the confusion or anything. Was just very rude. On the day of check-out we went to do the express check-out, and the kiosk said could not find reservation. Went to the front desk to check-out. The staff was very cold. Quick with their responses. While the people in front of us the staff was very nice and smiled. Was charged a resort fee when we never got our rooms cleaned. The bathroom showers were HORRIBLE. The design was the upmost dumbest thing. Water gets EVERYWHERE on the floor the towel we put down was soaked no matter what you did to avoid it. This hotel did not meet the standards it says it would. As well and the staff. Will never be coming here...

Rating: ⭐⭐ (2 out of 5)

I recently stayed at Downtown Grand Las Vegas for a full week, and while there were a couple of positives, overall my experience was frustrating, disappointing, and not what I expected from a hotel in downtown Vegas.

To start with the good — check-in was smooth and easy. The front desk staff was polite, and I appreciated that I was given options on which room I wanted. That part of the process was stress-free, and it gave me hope that the rest of my stay would go just as smoothly. Unfortunately, things quickly went downhill after that.

The biggest issue I faced was housekeeping. At no point during check-in was I informed that I had to call in for cleaning service or fresh towels. Naturally, I assumed, as with most hotels, that cleaning would happen at least every couple of days. After two days without any service, I finally called down to request towels and cleaning. The response I got was, “They’re coming right up.” Nobody ever showed. I called again the following day and received the same reply — again, no one came. Meanwhile, I had no towels, no clean sheets, and trash piling up outside my room.

I eventually resorted to going down by the gym myself just to grab towels, since waiting for them to be delivered was clearly a lost cause. Over the course of my entire 7-night stay, I received exactly one cleaning — and the only reason I even got that was because I involved the manager directly and had them come to my room to see the issue for themselves.

When I finally did get that one cleaning, it was only a partial improvement. Yes, the bed was made and towels were restocked, but the floor was still dirty. Even worse, I discovered ROACHES in my room. That was the breaking point for me. I had to throw out all the snacks I had brought because at that point I could no longer trust the cleanliness or safety of the space.

Beyond housekeeping, there were other issues that really brought down the experience: • The hotel requires a large deposit up front, which feels more like overcharging than a standard hold. • Calls from the room often go unanswered, whether to the front desk or room service. • The gym is poorly maintained — several machines are broken, and the ceiling is so low (around 5 feet) that if you raise your arms, you’ll literally hit it. • The pool area is extremely overpriced, and it’s nearly impossible to get the attention of a server if you want to order anything.

To be fair, the location is decent if you want to be downtown, and the check-in process was handled well. However, the negatives far outweighed the positives. When you pay for a hotel stay in Las Vegas, the bare minimum you should be able to expect is a clean, well-maintained room with reliable service. Unfortunately, I didn’t receive that here.

I’m giving two stars because the check-in was smooth and I did eventually receive help after pushing the issue with management, but otherwise, this was one of the most disappointing hotel experiences I’ve had. I cannot recommend Downtown Grand to anyone until they make serious improvements to housekeeping, cleanliness, and...