Monday, February 28, 2011

Las Vegas: Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino

What do you do when you have a bunch of airline points (from 3 different airlines) that are about to expire?  Most would book a trip to wherever and however far those points would take them.  Well, what if they weren't quite enough for 2 round-trip tickets?  Two words: travel rewards. 

I, personally, have never accumulated enough points to score a ticket anywhere, because until my mid-20's or so, my parents always made me book my tickets on their rewards credit card, and then I would pay them back.  Even now, I do fly about once or twice a year, but don't accumulate enough points for anything.  My husband, on the other hand, somehow accumulated points, so we quickly got to work on how we could get the most out of them.

We used to airlines reward website to see where we could stay for the most number of nights.  San Francisco and Portland would only give us about 1 night, We could barely get one night at Napa, but Las Vegas gave us 4 nights at Planet Hollywood!  Woohoo!

I had been to Vegas once before in the summer.  I was there for a very joyous and memorable occasion but August is a dreadful time to be there.  Lines for restaurants were out the door, dehydrated drunk people everywhere, and the dry desert heat just zapped me of any energy.

February, on the other hand, is cool, breezy, not as many crazy drunk people, and manageable lines for restaurants (or no line at all!).

I didn't take may pictures of the hotel room because as many reviewers have noted, it is very dark in there.  You have to turn on about 4 lamps for it to be bright enough for a picture.

Anyway, here are my likes and dislikes of the hotel:

Likes:
Location - In the middle of the strip, easily walkable to other hotels and casinos.  Walgreens and a CVS nearby for water, snacks, etc.
Large bathroom - Big soaker tub with separate shower.  A great way to soak your tired feet after walking up and down the strip all day.
Complimentary luggage storage - This was great because our flight home wasn't until about 6PM.


Dislikes:
No coffeemaker - Seriously?!  I believe they are considered a 4-star hotel but it really doesn't look like it.  Not just because of the coffee maker but just the whole look of the place.
No fridge - The husband and I were planning on taking some cereal and almond milk for breakfast, not only to save money, but also to avoid eating bacon, fried eggs and those kinds of things every morning. 
No shuttle - Again, you'd think a so-called 4-star hotel would provide this, at least one way.
Pool - While we didn't use it, we did walk around the pool area.  They have an adults-only pool which would be nice in the summer.

While it was great to have 4 free nights, I don't think I would opt to stay at PH again, especially if I were paying.  I guess there was a reason why we were able to get 4 nights on points, unlike the other strip hotels where we got 1 night, maybe 2.

No comments:

Post a Comment