I stayed at the Rio for 4 night in mid May. I found excellent rates ($52) on thier website listed under hot deals. After I booked the room I read the bad reviews of the hotel. After this I was a bit skeptical of my choice. As soon as I arrived I knew I had made a good choice. There was a long line for check in but it moved really fast. The room was nice, clean and large. Maid service did an excellent job!

The only complaints I have is the food is grossly over priced and the air conditioning in the room was not the best. It got a little too warm, had to sleep with just the sheet. The offstrip location makes visiting the strip a little inconvenient. You have to deal with catching the shuttle to go to and from.

These complaints are easy do deal with. For cheaper food prices walk over to the Gold Coast they have good food at great prices. They also have looser slots we won $534 playing penny slots after eating dinner one night!!! As for the air sleep with just the sheet.

The shuttle is something you should know you have to deal with before you even book your room. It runs every 30 minutes so the wait is not long. Over all I highly recommend this hotel and would definitely stay again!

Spent 10 days at the Rio - 7 for a convention 3 for pleasure. Sixth stay at this hotel and I must say, the Rio is showing it's age. Received a room in the Ipanema Tower - 13th floor (thought casinos didn't have Floors numbered 13??). They advertise the hotel as "all suites", but they are just very large rooms. They seemed to have upgraded the bedding - now a duvet cover over a down comforter and large bolster pillow. TV still behind doors in dresser - they need to upgrade to flat screens. Room in good condition - large sofa, 2 big chairs, coffee table and work table with 2 chairs. As soon as you walk into the room, there is an area with the closet (with refrigerator), and long vanity with double sinks and 4 drawers. Food in hotel was expensive - ate in the Steak House twice - decent meals. Cheapest food was at Sports Book - you ordered the food, got a number and waited for the food to come out and then got a table at the Sports Book to eat. Food was ok for the price. Took the free shuttle to the strip twice - seems to run fairly regularly. Casino was empty on Saturday night! Slots were tight. Internet was very slow for $9.95/day. You could pay $12.95 for high speed (supposedly) All in all, good stay - great staff.

I've stayed at the Rio many times previously over the past decade. Arrived around 2pm on a Tuesday in mid-May. There was no line at check-in so I got my room quickly. It was on the 16th floor facing the pools and the Strip and not too far from the elevators.

The room looked clean but apparently the maid forgot to retrieve a couple of dirty towels on the floor next to the toilet. That was the only negative of my stay at the Rio. It was quite dead in Vegas with small crowds and no lines for anything, anywhere. I never had to wait for the a five minutes for Valet to get my vehicle.

I didn't eat at any of the Rio restaurants, but that's because I wanted to do some exploring and sample some non-hotel and some locals places to eat.

The casino wasn't very busy and the Masquerade Show in the Sky was cancelled for the week. However, I've seen it many times before. Overall, I had a good stay at the Rio and also won a few bucks at the sportsbook (I bet on the Denver Nuggets defeating the Dallas Mavericks).

On a recent trip to Vegas we stayed at the Rio since I got a totally comped 4-night stay. I had stayed there before so had no qualms about the fact that it is off the strip. It's right across the street from the Palms where we planned on eating at Gardunos. By the way, Gardunos has a fantastic Sunday Margarita Brunch. This was our third time there and well continue to visit the Palms if only for the Margarita Brunch. It's that enjoyable! Anyway, back to the Rio. The best thing I can say about the Rio is they do have the fantastic World Buffet. But come hungry, there are so many great choices.
Over all our experience with The Rio left us disappointed. Services everywhere were not what I've come to expect in Vegas. For instance, the day we decided to visit the pool was the day they apparently chose not to open the main pool. There were quite a few people in the pool area but the main pool was completely roped off. Of course, the pool bar was beyond the main pool, so we had to jaunt over there to get our pool drinks. (There was a closed pool bar near the pool that was opened! Was beginning to think this place was run by politicians.) All in all, it seemed that most people who worked there that we came into contact with were bothered that we were even there. We constantly felt like we were in their way! Aren't they supposed to want us there?
The room was not as nice or clean as I remembered from my last stay there. I don't think they vacuumed once during our 4 night stay. One evening I noticed a red mark on the coffee table. I figured it must be nail polish and perhaps difficult to remove. But, no, I rubbed on it and it came right off. One evening upon returning to our room I noticed that ome of my pillows was missing from my bed. The bed was made, but the extra pillow was still on the floor on the far side of the bed where it must have fallen while I slept. That's what tipped me off to the possibility that they weren't vacuuming. So I looked a little more closely at the floor and noticed some bits of things that would've easily cleaned up with a quick run of the vacuum. Then I started paying more attention to little things. ie. fingerprints on the windows, etc. ... I've always expected to not feel previous peoples presence, and this was certainly not the case.
I knew ahead of time that they do not have coffeemakers in the rooms, but it would certainly be a nice addition.
I also noticed the smell in the Masquerade Village area was just awful. It reminded me of the smell in Las Vegas' downtown casino the Plaza. I've you've ever been there, you know what I'm talking about.
I am still considering writing Harrah's (the group that owns the Rio) a letter describing my disappointment. I could only imagine that they would like to know the reason I won't be returning. And the biggest part of that would be the people who work there who aren't the least bit welcoming.