I have never had an experience with a hotel as bad as the one I had this past weekend at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. This week is my 36th birthday; so to celebrate, I decided, on the spur of the moment, to make a trip to Vegas to go to one of my favorite clubs last weekend. I mean, why not? This past year, I received a kidney transplant. No more dialysis, so now I could travel freely. I had the money. No reason not to, right? I originally wanted to just go and book whatever hotel room I could find while I was in Vegas itself, but at the urging of a close friend, I chose to go online and see if I could find a deal. I used a third party website, and found a room at the Statosphere for $67 per night. Since I was traveling late, and would not get there until after midnight, I booked it for Saturday, figuring I would stay overnight and come back to LA on Sunday. No problem, right? Apparently, in Las Vegas, days do not begin at midnight like they do everywhere else in the U.S. They begin at 3pm, which was naturally not indicated on my confirmation. So when I got to the Statosphere, and tried to check in at midnight itself, I was told that I would have to buy two days, because this was still considered Friday. No attempt to make good, just to charge me more money, a pattern I would later learn was typical for the Stratosphere. Across the street was a sleazy motel, so I figured I could just crash there for the night, and check into my room the next day. Since I did not have the much vaunted Statosphere for internet access, I searched for a wireless connection. As luck would have it, the city provides $5 wireless per day through Las Vegas.net. I bought two days, figured I would check in to the Statosphere the next day and all would be well. When I got to there, I learned why my room had been such a "bargain": it came with a glorious view of some storage area where apparently the hotel keeps scrap metal. Two windows worth, no less. But that wasn't as bad as learning that the Stratosphere BLOCKS wireless providers so you have to buy theirs... at $11 a day. Flabbergasted that a ritzy (cough!) hotel would be this cheap, I realized that I would have to use the phone to make my plans for the night. Not a big deal, I have a phone card, and their phone's display said local calls were free, except that, well, they're not. When I just got a rapid dialtone whenever I dialed nine, I tried calling the front desk for a solution. They put me on hold FOREVER. I tried other numbers - the concierge, the operator, SOMETHING - to find out what was wrong with my phone so I didn;t have to sit on hold, but to no avail. The Statosphere wanted me to hold on for five minutes, no matter what. So I did, only to learn that local calls are A DOLLAR each. What's on the phone, I guess, was put there by the manufacturer, because no one in their right mind would believe a luxury hotel would charge a buck each for LOCAL calls. But the Statosphere is not like other hotels. It's far worse. So I used the cell, got to where I needed to go, and got the Hell out of there, discovering my favorite thing about the Statosphere - check out is easy and fast. I'm sure they had to do that because they get so many. Bottom line, unless you're part of the 1%, stay at Circus Circus if you're going to Las Vegas on a budget. And stay as far from the Statosphere as you can. The tower, I now believe, was put in to distract you from how horrible this place is. Never again.
What is the sentiment of this review?
negative