I have been checking out hotel reviews online....... there are a lot of holiday reviews saying that the hotel rooms were jobbed, money and cards stolen - even in seemingly decent hotels?
any thoughts??
are hotel room safes, safe?
anyone had bad experiences of certain hotels in vegas - so I can avoid???
would appreciate advice - im a vegas virgin!
Would never take any stock in online reviews from most sites. People will score Wynn 2/10 because they didn't have HP sauce on request...
For room safes, well technically, no they are not safe. Anyone from maintenance can get into one in a second ~ and they get plenty of genuine practice every time someone checks out of a room and leaves the safe locked. But I don't know of anyone that has had any trouble at all... and it has to be a better option than tucking it inside a sock at the bottom of your suitcase.... If you practice even a basic level of security (like making sure you don't leave the room door open when you go out...) then anyone accessing your room does so on an electronic key which is all very auditable. There wouldn't be many cases of room safe theft reported before they could draw a line towards the likely culprit and dismiss them.
If you are going to be taking massive amounts of $$ for WSOP etc, then you could wire it, or use a safety deposit box at reception/main cage, depending on hotel. If you are taking a couple of grand gambling roll and a couple of grand expenses, don't sweat it and use the in room safe.
I had a bad experience in Bellagio once, I tripped arse over tit and nearly took two blackjack tables with me, so definitely avoid that one!
Without repeating 100 pages of advice, for Vegas virgins:
1) Do a little bit of spadework online. Somewhere like Vegas.com has a strip map of hotels and a downtown map of hotels... familiarise yourself with what is there.
2) For each hotel, find the hotel website and take a look around, often there are 360 degree tours of the rooms and main areas, get an idea of what you like and what you don't.
3) For your first trip, recommend somewhere fairly central on strip from which you can explore.
4) 5* you can't really go wrong. 4* there are very nice hotels (PH, Mirage) and very bad hotels (Excalibur) so a lot of variance. 3* are usually hotels that are 20 years past their sell-by date. No idea of your budget, but as many top hotels can be snapped up for Travelodge prices, try and treat yourself at least on your first visit to as nice a place as you can afford. After your first trip, you will either be one of the "just need a shower and a bed" brigade that don't mind staying anywhere for $20/night or you will be one of the "rare opportunity to have a room like this for £50/night" brigade.
5) Try and fly direct, plenty of sale fares in advance, but 11 hours direct >>>>20 hours indirect for most.
6) Now you have an idea of hotels, dates and budget, post ITT and there are losts of offers etc that several on here keep an eye out for. Pricing is very variable, so without that info, no one can give you (good) advice.
Ultimately, Vegas is an easy holiday destination. The airport is about $20 away from the strip in a cab, everyone speaks English and if you ever get lost, just look to the skyline for a reference point. Difficult to get into trouble (unless you have a chronic gambling problem) in Vegas, more so than most alternative holiday destinations.
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