The Merits of the Case

Or at least that’s what the marketing department of the Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino want you to think.

Based on our recent stay there, I don’t agree.

We made reservations to stay at the Planet Hollywood during this trip because the location was excellent and we got a great price on the room. PH took over the old Aladdin Hotel and Casino earlier this year and we heard that they had remodeled and that it was pretty nice, so the grand opening room discount they offered sounded like a good deal. We were disappointed.

The casino has been remodeled with new seats and carpeting and lights. All the old Arabian onion domes and jewels have been removed and replaced with dark wood and wall paper and retro-looking column lights. The color scheme is beige and brown with accents of red and black and is carried out with a lot of geometric shapes and strands of lighted crystals. I think the feel is supposed to be understated retro Hollywood glamour, but personally I think it ends up being a bit more plain and boring retro Hollywood camp.

To me, Las Vegas is all about excess and glitz. From the awesome glass sculptures and the dancing fountains at the Bellagio to the giant Egyptian statues and pyramid at the Luxor and the Roman columns and fountains at Caesar’s Palace, Vegas often feels like Disney World for adults. Each casino is more over-the-top than the next, and you never have to guess at the theme of any given hotel. Based on what we saw this past week, I think Planet Hollywood lost sight of that somewhere along the way. And maybe they meant to get away from all of the cheesy Vegas excess. But they replaced it with dark and depressing, which isn’t very attractive or fun.

Our room was in the back of the hotel, with an ugly view of the theater roof below. That would have been bearable if the room was nice, but it was far from nice. We were on a floor that hadn’t yet been remodeled so the light fixtures still looked like genie’s lamps and the bedspreads were covered with pictures of jewels and silk cords. The carpet in our room was old and worn and dingy and the bathrooms, while clean, needed a good up-dating and some maintenance (and brighter lights!). The hotel staff wasn’t friendly, happy or attentive, although every single maid we encountered in the hallway was friendly and greeted us with warm hello.

We went to the pool the first day we were there and to get there we had to go to a different floor which was redecorated. However, I found the new décor to be worse than the cheesy old Arabian Nights-themed décor. The ceilings were painted a deep, dark gray and the walls were papered in a psychedelic dark gray and red circle print. The carpet in the hallway was dark gray with blood red interlocking circles throughout and the whole effect was dark and drab and made me think of a haunted house or a scene from The Shining. Once we arrived at the pool entrance, however, we were right back in the Middle East with colored tiles and stucco walls.

We decided that we had all the grumpy staff and dark colors we could stand and thought that we would try to find somewhere else to stay for our second night in Las Vegas. I got online and found a room at the Paris for Thursday night for nearly the same price as the one at Planet Hollywood. When I called the PH front desk to tell them we were checking out early, the guy I spoke with told me that we couldn’t check out early. After I argued with him for a few minutes about whether or not I could leave early, he transferred me to a supervisor who told me that we could check out early but that if we did we wouldn’t get the room discount we were initially offered since it required a minimum two-night stay. The discount was $20.00…I decided that $20.00 was well worth it to get out of the depressing atmosphere. Interestingly, the supervisor didn’t ask me why we were leaving or even thank me for staying there. I am beginning to wonder if condescending, reluctant customer service might not be part of their new theme.

So on Thursday morning we packed up our suitcases and dragged them down Las Vegas Boulevard to the Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino next door. The woman who checked us in gave us a room on one of the top floors overlooking the Bellagio fountains, with a view of the Eiffel Tower right outside the window. The staff was friendly, the room was updated and clean, and all in all it was a much better experience than our stay at the PH.

I know the Las Vegas shine and showiness isn’t for everyone, but I wouldn’t recommend the Planet Hollywood to anyone based on our experience. Unless, of course, you like your hotels to be brooding and serious and full of cheerless staff. In that case, it may just be your kind of place.