Having stayed at the Imperial Palace in 2005, when my sister, some friends and I went back to Vegas in September 2008, I knew what to expect from this hotel and it easily met my expectations. This is the only place where you will get true value for money and personally I'd rather save the extra $$$ for shopping and gambling!
We booked via Expedia for 10 nights in Deluxe rooms - obviously a Deluxe room at the Imperial is probably on the same level as a Standard room in other strip hotels but let's face it, you don;t go to Vegas to sit in your room and admire the wallpaper! Well, we didn't anyway!
Upon arrival, there was a fairly long queue at check-in but this is to be expected anywhere in Vegas, especially as we arrived at the hotel not long after the official check-in time of 3pm. The queue moved pretty quickly and we were seen by a very pleasant woman who advised us that there were no Non-Smoking rooms available but there would be some the next day. Therefore we stayed in Smoking rooms for one night which wasn't a problem as they were clean and didn't smell or anything. The next day we just had to call down to reception and they gave us Non-Smoking rooms with no problems.
When we stayed in this hotel in 2005, we were in Standard rooms and in my opinion the Deluxe rooms aren't much different except for the decor being a bit nicer. All their rooms seem to be spacious and clean and I love the fact that they have balconies. I don't think there are many hotels on the strip that offer private balconies! We had a view of the pool and our friends were on the opposite side of the corridor and had a view of the mountains and horizon, both views were great.
The rooms had air conditioning units which worked fine and standard CRT TV's which had a decent number of channels. The bathrooms were nice and clean with a bath/shower combo and a nice sized sink/vanity area. Lots of towels and flannels which were changed regularly.
We loved our housekeeping lady, Linda, she was so funny! We had a good laugh with her when we saw her and she was so friendly. We always left her a few dollars each morning which I first read about doing on here and is definately worthwhile.
The casino area of the hotel is by far one of the most fun and relaxed environments out of all the strip hotels. Yeah it's a bit smoky but thats one of the things you have to accept if you're going to be hanging around Vegas casinos!
We only ate in the hotel once as there were so many other places we wanted to go to - we stopped in the Teahouse place late one night after we'd been out and I had a delicious BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger and fries...great value for money and just what I needed after a few beers!
We also stopped off in Betty's Diner quite a few times to grab coffee and snacks and I really recommend you try this place if you get a chance. The coffee isn't great (there's a Starbucks next door in Harrahs) but all the snacks are freshly made and delicious! The peanut butter cookies, chocolate croissants and pastries in particular! Mmmmm!
Overall, I highly recommend this hotel if you are just looking for a place to sleep and shower, etc - you can't get a better location for this price. If you have higher expectations of a hotel room though, you could be disappointed if you stayed here.
Personally, I've already booked to go back to Vegas and guess what, I'll be staying at the Imperial Palace again! I love it there.