Being here on a free room offer, we got one of the less desirable rooms, 3rd floor (bottom of the hotel, it seems, since the 2nd floor appears to be offices) of the older tower. Beds were kind of low to the floor, TV reception was often bad, the window looked out onto the satellite dishes on the keno roof and out towards Binions' parking garage. However, it was clean with a minor exception for the bathtub which had simply seen too many years.
Location is not good, either. You're off the Fremont Street Experience, halfway to the bus terminal depot. While this isn't a problem during the day, it may be a little scary at night, especially if you're walking from FSE to the hotel alone. For the safety-concious or simply paranoid, you can enter Las Vegas Club, meander around to the back of their casino, and exit out the lobby and you'll be okay. The doorway leads out to a brightly lit area where you can cross the street to the Cal. One evening I encountered panhandling in front of the hotel, but again it's brightly lit.
"So then," the curious reader asks, "why come here?"
Well, if you're from Hawaii, you probably know that this hotel started the concept of catering to visitors from that state, an idea that has been slightly co-opted by the rest of the casinos downtown. However, even if you don't know the difference between ohana and kokua, you can probably get a room here at a very acceptable rate. And if you have a choice between California or Main Street Station as part of a casino promotional, you'll have less railroad and freeway noise than at MSS.
There's also the service. Boyd Gaming seems to be quite good at motivating their employees. They may not be the flashiest or the friendliest staff in the city, but they get business done and they do it well. A few flaws and some minor but obvious tip hustling were apparent, but at least they didn't seem look down at you like some of the strip resorts will.
If you're a serious gambler and location doesn't matter much to you, go ahead and give it a whirl.
