I had originally planned on staying on the strip, but checked out this hotel when I found out it's new. New hotels are always nicer.

Hotel is new about 2.5 years old & nice. The casino is well-lit, the rooms are spacious & well appointed. This hotel looks exactly like the pictures on its website & photos other guests have posted.

Registration is directly across the casino & as previous guests have commented, you must go through the casino to get to the elevators to go up to your room. The casino is smoky as expected. However, if you're just wanting to go up to your room or leave the hotel, walking through the casino is not that bad.

Parking is free & you can park in the parkade or park outside in front of the hotel. We parked outside & had no problems finding a spot. Valet parking is $9. Upon arrival there's Valet help in unloading & taking luggage to your room. They take down your name, take your luggage & give you a receipt. Once you've finished checking in & are in your room, dial the Bell Desk from your phone & they'll deliver your luggage.

Upon checking in, you get a coupon book that has discounts for the restaurants, 2-for-1 buffet, free gift (3 gold-looking mardi gras bead necklaces), 10% off Seatle's Best coffee, etc.

The 2-for-1 buffet was good. Chinese food at the Coronado cafe was very bad so avoid it. Food was too salty, had too much MSG (monosodium glutamate) & didn't taste fresh at all. The won ton soup was so chewy that I though I was eating bubble gum, come on.

Avoid Seatle's Best Coffee, the Phillipino ladies in the morning were extremely rude & had poor customer service skills. Another customer saw one of them discreetly spit in someone's coffee after the guy complained she handed him the wrong coffee twice. Be careful if you decide to get coffee here. The bar at the casino also serves coffee, hot water, etc. & it's free drinks (tip the waitress $1) if you're playing at the casino. There's a McDonalds a couple minutes North of the hotel, too.

Sign up to receive the hotel's discount sent to your email address. Go to http://southpointcasino.com & click the button on the bottom left of the screen "Sign Up Now for Exclusive Email Offers".

I had already made my reservation, but signed up anyway. About 2 weeks later, I received a discount code sent to my email address for 25% off the posted rate. I called reservation, mentioned the discount code & they adjusted my rate.

I got 1 room with 2 queen beds for $53/night weekdays & $112.50/weekend. The posted rates were $73/night weekdays & $150/night weekends. Not sure if the discount code (EDEAL28) still works, give it a try. Upon checking out, they gave me a coupon for 20% off the posted rate for a return visit. The discount code is BBK1106 & expires June 30/08. Mention these discount codes when you make your reservation. I made my reservation on the hotel's website.

The room is huge with 2 queen beds, a big LCD screen TV, a desk & chair, a large dresser, coffee maker & coffee. The bathtub & toilet are in an enclosed room right behind the sink/vanity. Lots of counter space. There is no fan in the bathroom so you might want to leave the door open while taking a shower otherwise, all the steam will build up & fog the mirror.

Toiletries are from Bath & Body Works. They include shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, lotion & a bar soap. The shampoo, conditioner, shower gel & lotion are large size for hotel toiletries (59 mL or 2 fl oz). For those who love Bath & Body Works' products, the scent of toiletries is coconut lime verbena. It's a fresh lime smell & not much of the coconut.

The business centre has computers, but internet is $10.99/hour charged to your credit card. However, a couple minutes drive North of the hotel is the Clark County Library where you can check your email for free. There's a computer that allows 15 minutes access anytime or you could ask the librarian for a temporary card & get 1 hour of free internet when booked in advanced.

Next to the library, is Food 4 Less where you could get groceries & water. Next to that is the Las Vegas Outlet Centre & a strip mall with restaurants.

The hotel, despite being South of the strip is convenient & not super busy. We rented a car & it took about 20 minutes from the hotel to the North end of the strip (The Wynn hotel). It took about 15 minutes to get to the airport.

I did notice guests smoking in the elevators & on non-smoking floors despite signs that said no smoking. The Bell Desk can loan wheelchairs for use within the hotel for free. It's $25/week if the wheelchair is taken out of the hotel.

I highly recommend this hotel because it's new, very clean & the rooms are wonderful. Ask for a roomaway from construction to avoid the noise. I didn't hear anything except for some hammer pounding sound for about 5 minutes one morning. The hotel is adding 800 more rooms so if you're staying here later in the year, ask for the newer room & it will probably be even better.

If you want to avoid the casino & smoke altogether, stay at new Hilton Garden Inn a couple minutes North of this hotel near the Las Vegas Outlet Centre. It has no casino & includes fridge/microwave in the room, but I think the rate is higher than what South Point charges.

Do try the buffet at Spice Market restaurant in the Miracle Miles shop at Planet Hollywood. It's $17.99/person for lunch & it's very yummy. There's Asian, Mexican, Japanese, Indian, Italian cuisine, salad bar, seafood, ribs, soup, desserts. There's a lot of variety & it was one of the best meals we had in Vegas.

We were in Vegas for the Interop Convention held at Mandalay Bay. Last year we stayed at Mandalay and were very disappointed - long check in, couldn't get near the pools, worn room, TV in bathroom didn't work, lots of noise from hallway, etc. definitely not worth the price. So, this year we decided to stay off the strip as we always rent a car so that was not a problem. SP does have shuttles to the strip and airport. Check in was a breeze and we were given a coupon book plus we got extra points at the slot club since both our birthdays were in April and we stayed there during our birthday month. Plus they had a members promotion going on one day and we got 2 T-shirts and a nice Thermos set. The staff were extremely friendly and service oriented. We checked in early and they put us in a room away from the construction. Not much of a view but the room was quiet and like new with a large, flat screen TV. Another nice feature was that the bathtub/shower and toilet are in a separate room from the vanity/sink area so we could both get ready at the same time. The only negative was that the pool was closed due to the construction but it is supposed to be open for the summer.

We used a coupon from the book for a 2 for 1 breakfast buffet which was good. We also shared a huge sandwich at the Deli one day which was very good. They also had gigantic pastries. The dinner buffet was just average. One morning we had breakfast in the Del Mar Cafe which was also very good. They also have a Steakhouse and Mexican restaurant which we never got to try. The Sports Book had 75 cent Vienna hot dogs.

There are numerous bars with nightly entertainment. We had originally planned to go to the Bill Medley/Paul Revere and the Raiders show but had a change in plans.

The casino has ample slot machines and tables with low limits. Quite a few times the whole place would be humming when we walked in from the parking garage and we would just have to stop and play and it paid off nicely a few times.

South Point is definitely not suffering from the cutbacks, rude employees and low payouts I keep reading about at the Strip casinos. For 1/4 the price of what we'd have paid for Mandalay this was a real deal and we'd definitely stay here again.

We stayed at the Southpoint May 7-10, 2008 and found it to be a very nice, comfortable, clean, and modern facility. I could not find one single thing to complain about, and believe me I looked critically because this hotel is the site where a rather large group that I am involved with will be staying at later in the year.
Every staff person I encountered from the Housekeepers, Restaurant workers, Front Staff, Spa, Casino workers, and the Sales & Catering Department exhibited friendliness and professionalism.
We visit Las Vegas at least once a year, and have for the last 20 years, and this was our time staying at a hotel, which was not in the center of the Strip. We had no regrets.
We did not experience any of the things that have been negatively stated and would not hesitate to stay at the Southpoint again.
There is enough activity within the hotel that you do not have to venture out. SOUTHPOINT KEEP DOING WHAT YOU ARE-DON'T LET ALL THE GREAT REVIEWS CHANGE YOUR SERVICES.

Gorgeous rooms, all you need under one roof for entertainment, great buffet, convenient shuttle service to the strip. We had a great time here, highly recommended!!