My standard hotel reviews include a breakdown by the following topics. Feel free to skip to whichever section you find most interesting.
- Experience (+Timeshare!)
- Lobby
- Room
- Hotel Space / Ambiance
- Food & Drink
- Fitness
- Miscellaneous
Experience: Luxor Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas
This comp room offer for four nights was thanks to my June trip where I made over $3,300. This trip was not nearly as successful, but fun nonetheless. Highlights include the timeshare we attended for a net $175 free play and my successful negotiation of three resort fees, saving me an additional $120. There were multiple issues with the room, and at checkout, but they were eventually resolved. I probably would not stay here again, but the $20 trick upgrade to a Tower Queen room was successful and appreciated.
TIMESHARE
First of all, for those who are not familiar, a timeshare is a deeded ownership to a property, usually consisting of one week at the property or a bundle of points to be spent on a combination of nights. Also, they typically are sold in a presentation format, where they show you the benefits of ownership, including a tour of the resort, finally culminating in the sales pitch and options by associates and managers.
OUR TIMESHARE EXPERIENCE
Signup Negotiations
At the intersection of Luxor’s East and West Towers and the walkway to Excalibur is a booth manned by Take a Break, a third party timeshare station. Over two days of visiting, they offered me various plans, but I finally negotiated up to $50 deposit, for a two night limited Sunday – Thursday stay at Luxor/Excalibur (worthless), $175 in free play (denominated in $25 chunks for either tables or slots), and my $50 refunded. They promised a quick trip, but that turned out not to be the case.
TIMESHARE DETAILS
They told me to be downstairs 8:30-9am and while I was on time they insisted I was late and put me on a shuttle to a different property, a bit farther away. Strike one. It turned out to be a Wyndham resorts property, so we were sure not to sign anything or provide too much details other than what is required. The very nice agent showed us the property and we talked about his side projects and hobbies, which made for a much smoother exit.
It still took about two and a half hours roundtrip, but upon returning to Luxor I found out from the mLife desk that I was supposed to go to the cashier. A bit annoying, as the timeshare people told me otherwise. At the cashier they were able to swap my $175 slot play between slots and tables, so I gave $75 slot play to the lady and took $100 for tables, which I promptly more-than-doubled with a lucky streak at blackjack. This helped fill my day 1 gap at the airport, thanks to the incredibly stingy bonus I got playing Plants vs. Zombies ($4 a spin gets me $53 bonus, really?!)
LOBBY & CHECK-IN
Rideshare drops off right in front of the property, and check in is on the right. Thanks to my Mlife Gold status, I was able to check in at the priority line. I tried the $20 trick (for the very first time!) and they gave me an upgrade from my comp’d Pyramid room to the Tower Queen room. I read on Tripadvisor that the Pyramid ones are dirty and gross so that was an easy ask. The suites were taken, unfortunately, due to some convention in town that week.
ROOM
To get to my room in the West Tower, I had to walk past two Starbucks, all the way to the back of the property, maybe a good 2-3 minute walk from checkin. The room was nice, with my luggage holder already laid out when I entered, and a decent looking bathroom, which albeit was a bit dated. I did find some random trash behind my curtains which housekeeping missed, so I was sure to let them know. Due to some other small issues with the room, like not having tongs for an ice bucket (and when I called about it they brought us a larger ice bucket) they offered to comp the resort fees for two nights. I asked for the third, and they agreed.
HOTEL SPACE / AMBIANCE
This hotel is on the MGM side (west side) of the Strip, near the southern tip. North is Excalibur and south is Mandalay Bay and Shoppes at Mandalay, all of which are connected to Luxor via walkways. There is also a tram between the three properties as well. It was lively, and I enjoyed watching people gamble as well. They have an Esports Arena, dark and a larger version of a PC Bang. There was a cool stage but I didn’t see anyone playing what I play, and the entry cost wasn’t worth it for me.
FOOD & DRINK
Thanks to the generosity of the Luxor hosts, we got two complimentary lunch buffets. In conjunction with MyVegas’s buy one get one buffet coupon, that meant three complimentary buffets! Too bad the buffet was not worth even free. Food quality was sub-par and I wouldn’t eat there again.
The food court wasn’t bad, especially with American Casino Guide’s coupons (everything basically buy one get one) making things more reasonable in price. Not exactly healthy in options (pizza, burgers, fried chicken, hot dogs, subs, etc.) but don’t go to Las Vegas to be healthy.
FITNESS
Gym closes at 7pm, and is located close to the spa. Be careful, you may be stuck there with dumb people who don’t rerack their weight and just drop them on the floor repeatedly, even though there are very clearly displayed signs to not drop weights. I did inform the management so hopefully they took some action. They have a pretty large pool also next to the West Tower elevator area, and I worked out around there and got some nice shots of the pyramid.
MISCELLANEOUS
Internet was annoying to a point, kind of like Hilton, in that I had to sign in repeatedly on my devices, multiple times a day. I was not able to connect and say I am staying in a room, so it kept disconnecting me. Speed was also poor, about 4-10mbps, but good enough to survive. It was something like 100 degrees as well, so I minimized my time in the sun. Overall, for free – resort fees comped off – this was still just an okay stay. Food was great sampling for my birthday time.
Featured Image is the exterior of the hotel, taken from the pool area. Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links which, should you click through and/or make a purchase, grant me a commission. Also, I only post in the best interest of my readers. Lastly, thank you for supporting my blog and my travels.
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