- This is definitely one of the funkiest hotels
I've stayed in.
In this video, I'm gonna give you my review
of the Virgin Las Vegas Hotel.
I'm gonna show you the common areas of the hotel,
the inside of one of the rooms.
And I'm gonna conclude with my overall review,
my pros and my cons.
There's some things I like
and some things I definitely don't like.
So, let's check it out.
First, I wanna start with the neighborhood this hotel is in,
and then I'll take you inside.
It is located here at the intersection of Paradise
and Harmon Avenue.
What's around here directly?
Well, the most notable thing is the Hofbrauhaus,
the famous German beer drinking hall.
If you like beer, that's the spot for you.
There's a White Castle burger
and also a CVS on the other corners.
Where is the Las Vegas Strip?
The Las Vegas Strip is just this way down Harmon, one mile.
Are you gonna walk?
You could, it's a mile.
There's really nothing else down the street
that you'd wanna walk to.
So I think they figure most people are gonna be driving.
Parking here is free, which is nice.
And also Rideshare picks up right in front of the hotel
which is nice, and taxis pick up out here as well.
A lot of hotels, you have to get Rideshare
down in the garage or in the back.
Not so at the Virgin, they put Rideshare right in front
where it should be.
You can enter into the hotel from either the parking garages
or from the main valet, Rideshare entrance.
As you come in the main entrance
and you turn to your left,
you will see the hotel check-in area.
They've gone for this kind of light desert vibe for it.
You can see the cactus in the background.
There's a few kind of funky tables and chairs to sit in.
Looking a little bit to the right, you see the casino.
The casino here is operated
by the Mohegan Sun Native American Tribe.
It was not at all busy when I was here
in the middle of December.
And then just to their kind of right side
of the entrance doors, there's another funky hotel bar.
And then there's like a bar within a bar,
just beyond this one is the shag bar that looks shaggy.
That's the best way to describe it.
They've also got a photo booth in front of it
that takes some of the world's worst photos.
Let's take a look at some of the other shops and restaurants
along the ground floor, along the casino.
The hotel's main restaurant
is the Commonwealth Kitchen and Bar.
This is where you can get breakfast, lunch, dinner,
all those sorts of things.
Nobu has an outpost here.
That's the high end sushi restaurant.
There are other locations over at Caesars Palace.
There's a pizza place, pizza by the slice.
Looked pretty good.
There's a beach bar, that's also a restaurant
that overlooks the hotel's pool.
So let's go ahead and divert to the pool for a moment.
There's kind of two parts to the pool,
the hotel pool and then the beach club.
It was winter so it was closed,
but it's got some really neat actual sand
as part of the pool.
So if you like pools and you're here in the summer,
this looks like it would be really nice on a hot day.
Heading back into the hotel underneath one of the towers.
By the way did I mentioned there's three towers?
Let's take a look at that now.
There are three towers.
There's the Ruby Tower that you see on the left,
that's the highest end tower.
That's where the suites are in the hotel.
The one I'm in is the Canyon Tower.
It's a white curved one.
And then there's the Opal Tower,
which is the other glass tower.
The Ruby Tower has its own check-in area for guests
who are coming into the Ruby Tower.
It's also the closest to the Harmon Parking garage.
So heading back inside,
since we were talking about the Ruby Tower,
that's where you'll find the gym.
That's open to all patrons.
It's a really nice gym.
There's a view of the pool.
Some nice elliptical machines, workout equipment,
and the canyon vibe or the desert vibe of the whole hotel
is continued in here with the wallpaper.
You'll find the juice bar up here on the second floor
with juices and breakfast sandwiches.
And the hotel spa is also located on this second floor
of the Ruby Tower.
Going downstairs from there,
there's a little gift shop run by Hudson.
The people who run a lot of the airport gift shop,
snack shop things, interesting in a hotel.
There's a Thai drinking place.
You can get Pad Thai here, 16 bucks really interesting,
funky inside in here.
There's a bar in the middle of the casino,
a steakhouse that probably wasn't open
'cause I was doing this a little too early in the day.
And then over in the Canyon Tower,
there's another larger gift shop marketplace,
also appears to be run by Hudson
but this one had more of kind of a rockstar theme
with some cardboard cutouts here.
Next to that, a Dunkin Donuts for all of your dunkin needs.
And then just next to that is an Afters Ice Cream,
not clear to me whether they just weren't open now
or they're opening, but Afters Ice Cream
serves really good, like ice cream on donuts
or hot waffles, pretty tasty.
And going in the elevators in the hotel,
they all kind of match the elevators
of the tower they're in.
So the Ruby Tower elevators are Ruby colored,
the Canyon Tower elevators you go in
and it looks like a canyon.
And then the Canyon Tower elevators
when you go up to the guest room floor,
it looks like a canyon there too.
They've also put a nice seat there so you can sit
if you're waiting for people at the elevator
and they also have kinda like done funky things here
on the guest room floors where like the ice,
they call it rocks, but yes that's ice.
And then finally in the Opal Tower
is the Funny Library Coffee Shop.
I know you probably thought I was gonna say funky.
No, no, no Funny Library.
That's the really name of it,
but it actually does have a really funny
and funky seating area.
Now that we've seen everything around the hotel,
let's check out one of the guest rooms.
This is guest room 2970,
a King Strip view room in the Canyon Tower on the 9th floor.
So as we come in the room, we passed the closet
and the bathroom that we'll take a look at
in just a little bit.
You can see as you come in, the room is hip and funky,
interesting furniture.
The bed has this little corner thing right here.
This isn't a chair.
This is actually like a footboard corner
that is part of the bed.
It's maybe a little bit easier
if we look into the room this way.
So we're not looking out into the sun on the balcony
that I'll show you in just a moment.
Some interesting artwork there above the bed.
Over here, there's a nightstand and then what looks to be
like a little chair that you could sit on.
Each side of the bed has one of these.
This one has a really funky night lamp.
You know, it's not just any night lamp.
The remote control seems to be
like this fancy remote control
that charges on a wireless charger.
Assume you could put your phone there.
They have some nice power outlets
with USB on the side of the bed.
And also the bed has these little reading lamps
that you just pull out and they turn on
when you pull 'em out.
I like that feature.
There is a red sofa here in the corner
like a corner sofa seat, three or four people.
And then they got a little table right here
that you could move to put in the middle
if you want to eat right there.
Also, there's a chandelier up above that sofa.
Other interesting amenities in the room,
the television, the little buffet that is underneath
the television is made to look like a drink cart.
We're in Vegas, the version hotel's cool
is a drinking hotel.
So you have a drink cart for the buffet.
There's a mini bar here.
This is one of those pressure sensitive mini bars.
So if you're staying here,
don't touch it unless you wanna buy the stuff.
And then there's another mini bar down below
but there is no refrigerator for you to put your stuff.
All right, and then next to that is a little makeup table.
So it's got this little cute little short makeup chair
and then right here is the mirror.
You open this up and you have
the big three piece mirror right there
with some place for chargers
and things like that right here underneath.
Oh, and you can also turn on a light
so it's a lighted mirror.
Great for doing makeup.
Before I show you the bathroom,
I want to show you the view off of my room.
What's interesting is it's not a window
but it's actually balcony doors
and the doors open a little bit.
There's a little latch right here.
So you can't open it all the way,
you can open it up that much.
And then if we come out this way
then you can see the view out here.
That's what you saw earlier.
There's the Strip in the back
the pool complex in the middle, and the two hotel towers.
They're kind of a cool view off this room.
Okay, heading back through the room.
Let's go ahead and check out the bathroom and the closets.
Oh, I wanna point out there's an interesting door right here
that you can actually close off the bathroom
and closet part of the room from the rest of it.
Maybe the hallways get noisy
and so this helps cut down the noise.
This is also a connecting room
that could connect to the room next door.
Oh, and it's funny it has little peephole in it too.
So I don't know why you need the peephole from this door
into this room because like that's the outside.
So that's the front door we walk through.
There is a big full length mirror right here.
And then just to the left of that big door
that I walk through is one of two closets.
This closet just closes with like a curtain here.
It is illuminated and there's also the hotels safe down here
and a drawer that is empty.
Ironing board, I don't actually see an iron here.
There's no iron in here either.
So I guess you have to request the iron
but this is the second closet.
So if you've got a lot of clothes,
you'll be good here 'cause there's a lot of places
to put your clothes.
Final part of the room is the bathroom.
Fairly small bathroom.
And I feel like they did
a fairly inexpensive renovation of it.
This hotel used to be the Hard Rock Hotel
that was then remodeled to become the Virgin Hotel.
And so they didn't really changed the layout
but they put new things in.
You can just tell in bathrooms
or some of the hardest remodel.
One single sink in here
and then the shower over here
has a rain held and a handheld.
And I guess they've heard that seats are popular in showers
and so they put a little wooden stool there in the corner.
I do at least like that the soaps
are kind of these separate soaps
and not the common soap amenities.
Now, I will point out the lights here flicker.
I'm not sure if you can tell on the video
but indeed they flicker
and then kind of like a like a weird light that's up here.
I don't love the lighting in the bathroom.
It's yellow, it flickers,
and then the lighting that's on the mirrors
this white harsh light.
I think this is probably my least favorite part
of the room is the bathroom.
Okay, now that we've seen everything around the hotel
and the inside of one of the rooms,
it is time for my overall assessment.
I am joined by my traveling Panda Topher,
I'm Chris, he's Topher, together we make Christopher.
He helps me review all of these hotel rooms
then helps keep me honest.
So we always rate hotel rooms on a scale
of one to five Tophers.
And Topher, how many Tophers is this hotel gonna get?
It's gonna get two and a half Tophers.
All right, so first we'll talk about the pros
and then we'll talk about the cons
of why it got two and a half Tophers.
But first I wanna tell you how much this hotel cost.
The room rate was in the $50,
overall, it was like $64 all in really quite inexpensive.
And so you might think when I get to the cons,
"Chris what do you expect for $64?"
I will tell you, I expect a room
that they can actually keep clean and nice
for whatever rate that they charge,
which unfortunately isn't what I got in this room.
So first on the pros, it's cheap, right?
$64, I mean for a room.
It's also very interestingly decorated.
It's creatively decorated.
The hotel does have this kind of newish vibe to it
that I've used the word funky way too much
so maybe now I'm gonna use the word hip.
It does not look like most other hotels I've stayed at.
It has a vibe kind of like W Hotels,
trying to go towards the younger crowd,
trying to attract people that want something
that looks unlike other hotels that they've stayed in.
You know, maybe it's kind of like a boutique hotel
only in a big setting.
Free parking is nice at the hotel.
It's also nice if you're doing Rideshare
that that picks up right in front of the lobby
instead of some place in the parking garage.
And you know, this corner that it's on
with 7-Eleven across the street
and the Walgreens and the Hofbrauhaus
even though it's not like center Strip
or Downtown Las Vegas,
you know there's a few things on this corner
you can go to and you can certainly get that German beer
which is great for beer lovers.
Okay, so now onto the cons.
I'll start with the fairly obvious ones.
And then I'll hit the fatal ones
that really got this the two and a half Topher rating.
Cons location, it's not great.
You know, it's a mile from the Strip
and yes, you can walk it, you just don't want to
'cause there's nothing down that street
which means that, although there's free parking here
if you're gonna be driving to the Strip,
you'll likely end up paying parking
wherever you go on the Strip.
If you're taking taxis or Ubers,
you're gonna take a one or two mile Uber or taxi ride
which I'm sure those drivers always love.
That was sarcasm.
The casino itself felt very unlively.
And maybe it's because I'm here in the winter
and so there's not many people here
but of all the casinos I was at on this trip
this one definitely felt the most dead
with the least amount of people in it,
which means I mean if you're looking for a casino
that you can sit down at any slot machine you want
or go to any table you want, this is the place right now.
Still a little bit undiscovered, I think.
Okay, so now onto the fatal flaws
that really got this two and a half Tophers.
Just the room wasn't that clean.
It wasn't prepared that well, it wasn't serviced that well.
That orange sofa that's over there,
if you look real closely at it,
it's got like, I don't know lint, dirt,
it just doesn't look like a clean thing
that I want to sit on.
On this counter right here
that I've actually got my camera on right now.
There's two glasses, one's face down, one's face up
and the coaster was ripped on one of them.
I didn't do that.
That's how it was when I got in the room.
I don't know how any room service attendant misses
a ripped coaster and a glass that's up like that
was used by some other guest
because I did not use that glass
nor did I tear that coaster.
And the bathroom, you heard me mention
that the lights flicker, the lights also buzz
in the bathroom.
And then there's this kind of black ring around the light
that has a lot of water spots on it.
That's something that they should wipe
when they clean the bathroom.
And then back towards the entrance where the mirror is,
there's like something wrong with the mirror.
There's like a part that's hanging off on it on the bottom.
Over, well the room is just not well serviced
and so I can't give a great rating to a hotel
that doesn't service their rooms properly.
And the other feeling I get about this hotel is
it's the rebranded Hard Rock Hotel.
They clearly spent a fair bit of money on it,
but they didn't go all out.
There's this chandelier in the corner
and they could have run the wire into the ceiling
but instead they took the cheap approach
and just put the wire in a case
that goes along the ceiling and down the wall.
So a lot of things that they did in the remodel
they definitely tried to go the cheap route
instead of the good route.
And so I don't think at least in this tower,
the Canyon Tower, I don't think the bones of it
were all that great to begin with,
rooms aren't all that big,
there's a connecting door,
I can hear sounds from the room next door.
So they didn't do substantial things
to make the rooms feel big, to make the ceilings feel larger
because they kind of moved into an existing building.
And so I sort of feel like with the hip, funky vibe
it's a little bit like they're putting lipstick on a pig.
You know, they've dressed it up a little bit
but underneath it's still a pig.
So now overall, the question is,
would these cons keep us from staying
at the Virgin Las Vegas Hotel again?
It probably would.
I mean, unless somebody convinced me otherwise
that they've fixed their service issues,
they've cleaning them then that was just,
"Chris it's because it's a new hotel, it's the pandemic.
We can't get good staff. We don't have the time.
Or Chris, the problem is you booked in the Canyon Tower
and not the Ruby Tower where the really nice rooms are."
I don't know but don't sell me a room
that you can't be proud of.
So now you might be asking yourself,
"Chris, if I shouldn't stay at the Virgin Las Vegas Hotel
where else should I stay?"
Well on this trip, I also stayed at Resorts World Las Vegas,
and at Circa Downtown,
you might consider one of those two options.
Their rooms were all well kept nice and clean and spiffy.
You can check out those reviews right there
or find links of the description below.
As usual, I won't say goodbye
'cause I'll see you in one of those videos.