We came to Vegas for our 30th anniversary in December and you can read the reviews about the Bellagio and Venetian. So, how on earth can I compare these with Bill's. To be honest, I am getting very tired of "business" and so called luxury hotels. In general they are varying standard and take about 15 mins to get from your room to anywhere.
I read a lot of the reviews - in the UK we have the travellodge and it is very comparable. We have stayed there now for two periods of a few days and will be going back for our last week
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Tips
**** Park yourself: Third floor is once more round the spiral and saves scrabbling for spaces on 2 which is where everyone else goes. There is no valet parking, but the distance from self park is the same as Bellagio's valet parking to the front desk - so long as you park close to a lift.
*****Short Distances: Bring your cases down to the lobby and take another elevator up to your room with perhaps 2 mins walking. Compare that to a walk through the casino in almost every other hotel - yes you are still in the casino - and have to pass perhaps 4 slot machines on the way.
*****Bring Slippers: Beds are reasonably comfortable and, being very fussy, I have not had any issues with cleanliness in the rooms except for the carpets. Yes the furniture is old, but bring a pair of £1 slippers and have a look at them after 5 mins and you will be glad you wore some. Honestly though, do you ever walk without slippers - I don't regardless of the quality of the hotel. It is cleaner than several of the rooms in the Flamingo next door - and I will never stay there again!
*****Wallmark coffee machine (about $9). The booze is cheap but coffee on the strip is expensive. These machines pay for themselves after 3 or 4 cups. Although Bill's is right on the middle of the strip and there is lots of booze around, coffee was harder to find (except in buffets) though you can get some in the cafe downstairs. Having said that, we also bought one when we stayed at Bellagio due to the distances involved.
Things I wasn't so keen on
*****Noise - from Flamingo's on the Friday and Saturday ( but not in the week so much). We were on that side of the hotel and it was fairly annoying, but then you get what you pay for. I would imagine that the strip rooms are also fairly noisy with the road works at the moment, but that would be true of any hotel with strip rooms.
*****If they overbook, they take you to Flamingo's. I would never stay there - see my review why.
Things I Liked
*****Helpful and friendly staff. Never had any issues, even when we left a phone charger.I read some derogatory comments in some of the reviews but I can honestly say all the staff we encountered were excellent and very pleasant. I think that some of them may have a reserved nature, but if you are nice to them, they certainly are nice back.
******Short checkin lines --- of precisely us. We looked over at Bellagio's to see what their new garden display was, and to be honest, every checkin was open and if I had just got off a plane, I am not sure I would have liked to join a queue of 15 or so people. I was shocked, but someone I was meeting booked into another large hotel and waited about 30 mins.
******"Reasonable costs - read cheap. I always booked through their site as I have some particular medical needs which are very easy to annotate.
*******Very short queues: except for the main bar and cafe at peak times
*******Cafe: The special steak and eggs is ok - also comes with hash browns, coffee and toast. Miracle mile which is close also do breakfasts. There is a good range on the menu, but top prices are about the same as some of the buffets.
Good or bad, you will always find I am very honest and sometimes a tad blunt. I write it as I see it. My wife and I were very happy at Bills and will be going back for another week before we fly out. We thought of trying TI only because it has a buffet and is also cheap- but then the Bellagio is about 5 mins across the road and that has the best buffet on the strip (TI buffet is also good, but the Luxor has gone down in quality when we went there a couple of weeks ago). We will be booking Bills again for the final week and might go to Bellagio's just because....for one or two nights before we go. Of course 1 might in Bellagio costs about the same as a week in Bills.
