On the last full day in America on my trip following the Pittsburgh Penguins on their 2019/20 West Coast away matches, my trip lead me to Las Vegas, where I saw the only hockey match without my Pens. The Vegas Golden Knights hosted the Los Angeles Kings at the T-Mobile Arena. The OYO Hotel & Casino is just a reasonable walk away from the venue, which was a key reason to book it, apart from very reasonable pricing.

At the time of booking, by the way, the hotel was still the Hooters Hotel & Casino (with similar pricing, but just more interesting labeling), by the way.

 

OYO Hotel & Casino – Location

OYO Hotel & Casino is not exactly at the Strip, but a short walk away. Crossing the road to be at the MGM Grand side is a bit of bothering, but after that you are close to all Southern Strip locations. The hotel is also close to the airport (though the trip to rental car return may take you longer than you expect…) and the Southern Premium Fashion outlet.

You will typically move around by car in Vegas anyway – or simply walk, as the hotel is well located. The across the road MGM Grand also offers a Las Vegas Monorail station.

 

OYO Hotel & Casino – Rooms

Pricing at the OYO is a bit of weird. If I told you that I got a single room with quite sufficient space right across MGM for 25 USD room rate, you might drive mad – but after tax and especially a massive resort fee, the price of my one night Sunday to Monday stay was 70 USD – still a nice deal, but on the other hand triple the advertised one feels a bit of weird to me as a German traveler – glad that these ways of pricing are not allowed in Europe.

Elevators on the rear of the casino area bring you to the rooms. My one was on the third floor. Stepping out to the corridor gave me an undeniable smell of weed, which you likely just have to accept in an L.V. budget stay. The room was spacious, but very basic. I liked the bedding, though.I also wanted to spent some time in the room working on the website – which was a bit of a challenge as there were just limited power plugs in odd positions – and no workdesk. But it somehow worked out. There were two small water bottles which I highly appreciated.

Somehow too late at my stay, I saw that my balcony door was not closing properly. Very annoying – but I just felt too lazy to claim it.

The room was overall quite clean – and so was the bathroom. All necessary amenities were provided as well. Thus, apart from the balcony door, the room was a fair value for money.

 

OYO Hotel & Casino – Casino & Service

The OYO is a hotel and casino – but (what I prefer), the casino area is not too huge and obviously also not the most popular one in the city. There are still quite a bunch of slots and the typical table games.

Check-in did not feel to be too efficient and took me more than ten minutes. The staff was friendly, though. The in-room WiFi did also work out quite well. In the backyard of the hotel, there was also a quite nice pool area with an adjacent gym. The security there, however, stated some strange rules to me: as the pool was closed, you could either head to the gym or sit down and relax to have a smoke – sitting down and relax without having a smoke is not tolerated. WTF, OYO guys?

The gym area was actually much better than I expected. Having reasonable training facilities just feels to be a must-have for a hotel nowadays.

Let’s call it “included in the resort fee”, but you could also state that “Nobody cares who parks in there” – the hotel has a quite large parking garage right next to the building. Not charming at all, but it does its job.

 

OYO Hotel & Casino – Food / Shopping

Of course, you shall not leave the hotel if you fancy a bite during gambling – and thus, there are some munch facilities around. Close to the pool, there is a snack bar / cafe and a bar, which I did not take pictures of. The two most eye-catching places are a burger store and – of course, the Hooters. Near the entrance, there is also a souvenir facility.

I should have tried out the Steak’n’Shake for breakfast, as in the morning found out that American Airlines does not drive a lounge in Las Vegas Airport, but I did not check out any of the food options. There is also quite a nice in room dining menu – what I also liked is that hotel guests receive some nice vouchers for meals and drinks during their stay.

 

OYO Hotel & Casino – My View

The review might sound a bit negative here and there – and the OYO is definitely not a super-posh place to stay – but: it simply does not want to be one anyway. Even though I don’t like the pricing structure, the hotel is still a bargain at a great location. It’s not the right option for your Vegas wedding, but in order to go to the hockey match, having party time with friends or also being out all day to enjoy the natural sights around Vegas (and you want to spent more money for that than for the actual sleep), it is a good option, definitely.

 

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