Stratosphere Hotel & Casino

A nice hotel, we upgraded our room to a large refurbished one which was very nice, had great views of the strip but had curious lighting levels. The coffee maker was in an alcove and out of reach of all the lighting. We had to make coffee using the light from the iPhone torch in order to see! As with all hotels in Vegas the bar and food prices are ridiculously expensive. $18 for 2 large cokes, $39 for the breakfast buffet (per couple) and for Starbucks you’ll need to remortgage the house or sell a kidney! The main reason for giving this hotel just 3 stars though are the pool areas. The large family pool has almost zero shade unless you pay upwards of $130 a day for a cabana or are lucky enough to secure one of the 7 umbrellas that are shared among the 2300+ rooms! The pool has all the appeal of a car park. In fact it is very like sunbathing on the roof of a parking lot. Staff are all under 20 and very rude and dismissive. The adults only ‘Elation’ pool has absolutely nothing to get elated about save from the view from the 24th floor. Again there is zero shade, not good when it’s 109 degrees outside. The music is played at an ear splitting volume and it’s impossible to relax and read a book or listen to your own music. There is also a minimum 2 drinks per person rule so your ‘free use’ of the pool is likely to set you back $30 per day. This is on top of the ‘resort fees’ you are charged at check on which amounted to over $550 for our stay. (Use of the pools was part of this fee!) Again the staff at the pool are young, rude and lacking in the most basic customer service skills. The hotel fail to realise that a majority of their guests aren’t on Bachelor Parties and Spring Break. A good majority were 45+ and looking for an area to chill and relax away from the bustle for a couple of hours. We spoke to several people of various nationalities that felt the same. At the family pool there were guests clamouring for shade by parking sunbeds against walls and trying to escape the speakers playing at full volume. The rebranding of the hotel is good, the ‘Strat’ branding looks cool and the Tower has its own unique selling points but if you want to hit the strip, use the casinos then unwind and relax, other hotels offer a much more complete offering.

We have been staying at the Stratosphere since we first started coming to Vegas 10 years ago. Check in was fast and we paid extra to have our rooms upgraded since I needed a room with a safe and we were told the one we had booked didn’t have one. When we arrived in our room the safe was locked, so we had to call down to have maintenance sent up. While we were waiting we realized none of the USB ports were functioning as they had all been damaged, and the tv was also not working since the HDMI cord had been damaged. When we went to get ice while waiting for maintenance we realized the ice machine was also not working. I was a little frustrated that the cleaning staff hadn’t noticed any of these issues while checking the room after the last checkout. We called down to the front to ask for a change of room and was told a bell hop was coming straight up with new keys to take us to our new room. 45 minutes later, as we are now late to meet friends for dinner, I called down again to say we would come down to get the new keys as we couldn’t wait any longer. Was told the bell hop was on his way up already and had just been delayed. Finally 30 minutes later the Bell hop arrived and moved us to a new room. Everything in the new room worked but there was a horrible smell coming from the sink drain. At this point we weren’t going to ask for a new room again as we were now 2 hours late for dinner. We just put the plug in the sink and tried to avoid using it as much as possible. Aside from those issues the bed was comfortable and the air conditioning worked well. Had it not been for the initial issues and the drain smell I would have had no problems with the room. It is obvious the “STRAT” is trying hard to update its image. Some of the changes are good, although I was very disappointed to see that Roxie’s diner is gone and replaced with a horrible, confused restaurant that doesn’t seem to have a cohesive theme. The BLVD and Main taphouse was really nice, and as always we enjoyed the buffet and the staff there. End of the day, the price reflects what you get. Our stay wasn’t horrible but I do think it will be the last time we stay here as I would rather pay a little more for a hotel more central with a higher rating.

We stayed here and it was loud , banging after 2am. Thet treat guests horrible. We signed up for a rewards card and was told if use 600 points between now and december 2 buffets. We went to do that had 1100 points and oh has to be with in 24 hrs explained was never told that instead of giving us the comps only gave one. This was not great customer service. Also as a guest should not have to pay for tower now it is 9 dollars we will never stay there again. Staff not very nice took over 1 hr to get checked in at 1 am. Poor service