A Brief Downtown Grand update

I just returned from an almost-four day stay in Las Vegas and stayed (and played) at the Downtown Grand.

I have always enjoyed my stay there, this having been my fourth separate visit since their soft opening in October 2013.  Many others, including Vegas Bright’s own sammasseur, have chronicled the issues with the property since that opening two years ago.  And though message boards are all over the failures (and it is clear that some are waiting – impatiently – for its inevitable collapse) I still enjoy the hotel and continue to stay there.

Do note that I was there on a three-day comp of a Premium corner room, though that was from an offer based previous gambling play.

One of the changes since Jim Simms took over as CEO was the relocation of the table games into the former baccarat and high limit rooms with reduced table gaming hours.  Vital Vegas even posted a picture of this new set up.

At some point since Vital’s August 31st tweet, they did some re-rearranging.  The Downtown Grand moved the craps tables back to the casino floor, just outside the new table games room.  This makes sense because on a relatively busy Saturday night, the craps tables were hopping, and the proximity to the table games didn’t make the tables games seem quite so isolated.  In actual practice, the table game room looks a bit like an extension of the casino floor.

Another change at the Downtown Grand is the institution of a charge for valet parking.

(“A charge for valet parking?” you may ask. “Where is this? Chicago? San Francisco? New Orleans?”)

As you pull into the valet parking, a prominent sign on Saturday showed $11 for valet parking (while it was $7 on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday).  Taking a leap of faith that hotel guests – or at least those at my comp level – would get the fee waived, I pulled in on Saturday evening.

After dumping a bunch of money Saturday night, I went to the players club to see if I had reached (or how far I was from reaching) the next level. The clerk couldn’t tell me how far I was from the new level, but she said that I had gambled enough to receive a voucher for the valet charge to be waived. She told me to give the voucher to the hotel clerk.

Long story short, while trying to check-out it was discovered that the voucher had already expired. I was then ping-ponged back and forth between the hotel desk and the players club booth until finally, a front desk supervisor intervened, with a comment that I should have never been charged for parking because I was a hotel guest.

*Sigh* If I was a hotel guest, why was the charge even there in the first place? And why didn’t the valet attendant, two different players club clerks or the hotel desk clerk know? Or, did the front desk supervisor just use his discretion to waive the charge?

I dunno, but at this point I have NO idea what the policy on valet parking is.  Self-parking may just be easier.

Look for my trip report within the next few days!

[Images: Downtown Grand, Michael James]

Michael James

Michael James is a true Vegas Nerd. First falling in love after hearing details of an aunt’s visit in the ’70s, and nurtured when the gambling bug hit as casinos started opening on every street corner across the country in the ’90s. When not reading Vegas blogs and message boards, he’s a metals buyer by day and a competitive bowler by night in Milwaukee.