Booked the Westin Casuarine through Priceline's Name Your Own Price feature. I bid 70$ per night for a 4 star on the south strip. As with the previous reviewer, I have the same complaints. First of all, this is not a 4 star (even less a resort) and it is not on the strip... It is located behind Bill's Gambling Hall and the Flamingo. For a fast walker, it is at least a five minute walk from behind those hotels. Fortunately, I got this hotel for pretty cheap, so I can't complain too much... but I would NEVER pay the full price rate this ''resort'' is asking for (around 169$ a night for weekdays).
I had a nice room on the tenth floor with one king bed. The room was very clean. The bed was extremely comfortable... probably one of the best hotel beds i've stayed in. The room was very well decorated. In-room amenities included iron and ironing board, bar ($$), phone, alarm clock, safe, cable TV, shampoo & conditioner and a Starbuck's coffee maker (the tassimo kind). From what I've read from the previous reviews, this is actually an old revamped hotel (Maxim)... but I would never have guessed it. Everything looked modern and clean. My only complaints with regards to the room are: 1) no fan in the bathroom (after a shower the whole bathroom fogs up and takes an hour to clear) 2) not enough soap (they supply you with one bar of soap per day... although it's a nice smelling soap, the bar is way too thin and barely lasts one shower).
There is a casino on the main floor, but don't expect much action there. There's rarely more than 10 players in there at a time. Only moments it gets busy is during happy hour (5pm to 8pm I believe... for .25c roulette, 3 dollar blackjack).
My biggest complaint with this Westin is the 15.00$ + 1.66$/day of resort fee they charge you. This fee came as a big surprise to me because I booked this hotel with Name Your Own Price and I expected my bid to be the total price. For 5 nights, this came up to 80 something dollars... not a negligible amount!! As per front desk, this fee covers the following: free local calls, pool access, free parking and the Westin WORKOUT area... big whoop. Most hotels offer this for free. And the ones who don't usually charge a resort fee that is much less excessive than 16.66$ a day!! Basically, it's a scam! When you look at the surrounding hotels that actually ARE on the strip (Flamingo's, Bally's, Imperial Palace, Harrah's, etc) and what they have to offer, there is no doubt that the Westin Casuarina is NOT a resort.
So, to summarize, the Westin Casuarina is not a bad hotel. It offers clean rooms and is reasonably close to the action. If you don't mind walking a little bit to get to the strip and you are able to get it for cheap (max 65-70 a night with resort fee) with Hotwire and Priceline, then I would recommend it. Otherwise, at that price, you are much better off staying on the strip.
**Be careful with the abusive charges I've noticed:
5.95$ for the bottle of water in the room (there's two free ones in the bathroom, some people could be confused and open up the expensive one instead).
16.00$ a day for internet access.
International calls: 60$ a minute + connection fee
