Golden Gate Hotel & Casino — Hotel in Las Vegas

I've stayed at many notoriously bad hotels in Vegas (Jockey Club, Hooters, Excalibur, Circus Circus) and the Golden Gate is FOR SURE THE WORST HOTEL I'VE STAYED AT IN VEGAS. Jockey Club had multiple huge burns and holes in the carpet but still felt less dingy than Golden Gate. The old Hooters hotel had countless issues but still felt like an upgrade over this place. Excalibur is super dated and rarely clean, but also felt better than the Golden Gate and at least has food on site. Circus Circus has some west tower rooms that are like a 5-star resort compared to Golden Gate's property.||Upon checkin, I discovered that my room (#407) was located on the interior part of a stairwell. Unfortunately, the stairwell appears to cut into the size of the room by about 4ft making it even smaller than the adjacent rooms. I'm fairly confident this room was a storage closet at one time that was later converted into a guest room for extra profit. ||The room I was assigned measured a tiny 9ft by 13ft (approximately), meaning that there was only about 3ft of clearance between the bottom of the bed and the wall that the TV was mounted on. The carpet was so dirty that after about 10 min of walking barefoot, the soles of my feet were black and sticky with residue. The lighting in the room was terrible and uncomfortable, much like a horror movie with the walls painted red and tan. To add to the terrible lighting, if you opened the blinds you were welcomed with the huge exterior hotel lights sitting right outside your window and pointing right at the ceiling. ||The room I stayed in clearly hasn't been updated much (if any) since the hotel was built (they market this as "historic"). The windows are definitely the original steel-framed casement style that opened out to the street. The window handles required a weird pattern of turning to lock each side of the window independently. There was a lot of rust and old paint on the window frames and the glass was filthy inside and outside (despite being warned by the front desk that they were cleaning the windows that weekend). ||IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN, DO NOT STAY ON THE 4TH FLOOR. The windows open to a narrow ledge that would be VERY tempting for a kid to climb onto (and easily fall to the street below). There is nothing to stop a child from climbing out the window and falling to the street 4 floors below. There was plenty of trash & discarded items on the ledge that made it apparent that adult had been hanging out on the ledge often.||The bathroom was severely outdated and frankly quite disgusting. The floor is tiled and much of the grout was black (it should be white). The shower tub had big spots and many chunks out of it, and was in desperate in need of replacement. The faucet knobs were also very old and were almost impossible to adjust to the right temperature (hot knob turns one way and cold turns the opposite way). Water pressure wasn't terrible and that might be the best feature of the entire stay at this property. ||On night 2 of 4 of my stay, the over-bed AC unit in my room stopped working completely. I ventured down to the front desk and the clerk attempted to brush it off as weather related. "We only offer cool air in the HVAC system when it is warm outside so they might have turned it off." My immediate response was "but its over 80 degrees outside...is that not hot enough?" The front desk clerk offered to send an engineer to my room and I thanked him. ||Upon arrival to my room, the engineer explained that the hallway was about 68 degrees which felt perfectly cool. He checked my AC unit with an infrared thermometer and it read 76 degrees where the cool air should be coming out. He then tried to convince me that "76 degrees isn't too bad" and that he wasn't sure how to fix the AC and make it start blowing again. Perhaps it was the sweat dripping down my face that inspired him to offer me a fan, which I gladly accepted as the only way to cool down my room. ||Also notable is that this property only has 1 single elevator. While it was generally acceptably fast, there were times when I waited many minutes for it to arrive. This hotel also has literally NO FOOD OPTIONS on-site, meaning you will have to walk down Freemont street or order delivery if you get hungry. ||Parking is a street level lot across the street from the hotel where many homeless people seem to hang out during the day and sleep at night. While nothing appears to have happened to my car while parked there, it felt quite exposed being parked there for my 4 night stay. ||The only part of this hotel that seems to be properly maintained is the casino floor, as it was a completely different world than the hotel rooms above it. This property simply has no redeeming qualities that could ever convince me to go back and stay again. You might have a better experience at a hostel than you have at Golden Gate. I mean this sincerely...avoid this hotel...

I drove here from Denver for a 3 night stay Birthday trip. The front desk agent was very welcoming to me and my ESA. When we walked into the room I froze in surprise, as the room looked different from their pictures online. It was run down, the room was very small and the bathroom was gross (stained & dirty tile grout). The noise from Fremont was crystal clear (we had an inward facing room on the west side 308). The concert and other outside noise seemed to stop between 2am-3am. The walls in the room are paper thin, we could hear everything going on in the hall and surrounding rooms. No food or drink besides the vending machine. No one mentioned or offered any amenity for my birthday. The shower was impossible to get to a comfortable temperate. It was either cold or burning hot.

On Saturday I left the hotel for a couple of hours. I received a voicemail from someone at the hotel stating they received a complaint that my ESA was barking, and they wanted me to return to make her quiet. I went to the front desk when I returned and spoke to a younger guy at the desk. He was immediately very short with me stating, "We received a complaint that your dog was barking. Security has been notified, and if we receive another complaint, we will evict you from your room." I said to him."There are concerts going on outside until 3am. There's a guy 3 doors down from me that is blaring music, but my tiny 5 pound ESA is a problem at 3pm on a Saturday?" The agent told me that they are not a dog friendly hotel, and that the dog should not be left alone in the room. Out of the 3 other employees I spoke to about my ESA, he was the only one that told me she could not be left alone. Whenever I left, I would wait by the door to see if she would bark, I banged on my door to see if she would bark - no noise ever. I have traveled with her and stayed in many many hotels over the years, and have never had any complaints or issues.

The agent continued to argue with me and lecture me on the differences between service animals and ESA's, like I don't know the difference. He said "service animals are trained to not bark." COOL I don't have a service animal I have an ESA. He was treating me like I was a liar. I called the hotel before I booked the room to ask if it would be a problem for my ESA to stay there with me - no issues! At check-in - no issues! I presented all of her paperwork and legal documentation. I spoke to a third person after we arrived - no issues! This young guy at the desk - completely rude and disrespectful. This guy stressed me out so bad, and made me worry so much about being evicted from my hotel room on my birthday trip, that it made my illness flare up. Which means I got sick on my birthday trip from stress from your agent. It made me miss out on some things that I had planned.

I've been in the hospitality industry for a decade - I've never ever heard of a front desk agent treating a guest like this, let alone a guest who has an ESA due to medical reasons. If your team members are going to treat people who have to travel with an ESA like this - then don't welcome them in the hotel! I would have gladly booked elsewhere.

At least the rest of the staff was very friendly and the casino itself was nice to...

I booked this property with the understanding (and even anticipation) of being in a place that was different from the norm and historic in origin. It fit that bill, but even coming in with different expectations did not cover the very poor experience. I will mention off the bat that the staff is very nice and the location cannot be beat. This is where the positives end.||To start, the room is small; this was expected and honestly not an issue for me as I have taken many cruises over the years and the square footage was roughly comparable to a cabin onboard. What was not acceptable was the following:|-TV non functional|-USB ports on bedside clock non functional, meaning no USB charging in the room|-Dark room that is very poorly lit|-Complete inability to regulate water temperature; turn on hot=scalding hot. Turn hot down=scalding hot. Turn cold on with hot=scalding hot. Turn off hot and leave on cold=scalding hot.|-Paper thin, single pane windows that are warped and do not close, which led to the biggest issue:||NOISE||Constant, incessant sound; trains, aircraft, traffic, people in the hallway… most of all, pounding music until 2AM. On the second night when I was unable to close the window, I did not sleep until roughly 4AM, this with a flight the next day. I called the front desk who did send a maintenance person despite the late hour (which was appreciated) in hopes they might have a quick fix for what I can only assume is a common occurrence. Nothing could be done. Imagine for a moment having a hotel window open a few hundred yards from a rock band playing, because that is literally what you will get if you stay at the Golden Gate. Even if you can block out the actual music with some magical device, the bass vibrates the floor and walls and consequently, the bed. The two worst nights I have ever had in a hotel have been spent at this property, and I stay away from home approximately 30-40 nights annually. I spend a lot of time in similarly inexpensive roadside/airport hotels and am not a complainer, feel free to check the rest of my reviews to verify.||You. Will. Not. Sleep. Here.||I understand the property is old, but modern windows can be fitted to historic structures, its done all the time in big cities that convert office buildings to hotels or condos. This location isn’t even all that great of a deal; Four Queens or the El Cortez are similar in price & condition and have more amenities. Even some strip resorts (the castle, pyramid or Harrah’s) will give you a similar rate in a vastly better environment (and yes, I know there are economies of scale in play but that should put an even greater emphasis on creating a better guest experience).||I love history, I love Vegas and I was excited to stay at such a place that combined both, but even that couldn’t compensate for a property that in any other city would have been knocked down long ago considering such a refusal to update. You're a Michigan man Mr. Stevens; you...