Background:
I was planning a trip to Lake Powell and Antelope Canyon. Since I was making the trek from LA, it made sense to stop by Las Vegas too. I have Caesars Diamond Status from my status match from Wyndham Diamond so I was happy to find a comp for the Rio Las Vegas. I also found a $37 all in rate for a renovated room at Harrahs. Decisions, decisions… All resort fees are waived with Caesars Diamond, so a free room really is free!
I ended up choosing the Rio (oops!) because hey, free room! I don’t regret giving it a try, but next time I’ll fork over $37 to try another hotel. The off strip location wasn’t a problem for me as I had a car, but if you’re flying in to Vegas, the location of the Rio might not be too desirable.
Arrival:
We parked at the Masquerade Tower parking garage, as our room was located in the Masquerade Tower. The casino was essentially empty during the afternoon on Tuesday.
There’s a separate check in room for Platinum, Diamond and Seven Star members. It was nice and emptier than the main lobby. There’s also a lot of “self-check in” kiosks in the Main lobby without a wait.
The front desk attendant Daniel was nice and helpful. He found us two rooms with 2 Queen Beds each that were adjoining. My dad also has Diamond, so we booked two rooms for our group of four. Apparently though, he gave us super outdated rooms…
The Rio Las Vegas Room:
We had two rooms in the Masquerade Tower, and oh my the online photos on the website looked a lot better. The Rio opened in 1990. Minus the flat screen TV, I honestly don’t think they’ve renovated the rooms since then.
All the rooms at the Rio are marketed as “suites” and they are very roomy at 550 square feet. Maybe they forgot about the second R: RENOVATE.
The bathroom area has a large vanity area with a sink, then the bathroom has a sink, toilet and tub/shower combo.
The living room had a very old sofa, and a small desk was provided. A mini fridge was provided in the room as well.
The cleanliness was the large issue. The hairdryer was stained, and half the towels were nasty. My bed had a pretty large stain on the top cover.
Also, the towels and bed linens were ridiculously old! They all had fuzz balls and were falling apart. Thank goodness it was only one night!
One funny feature of the room was the see through window from the shower to the bedroom? Odd…
In terms of noise, our floor was a literally a ghost town so it was quiet room to room. Not sure how loud it would be with a full house. But, we could hear the train horn from outside. And we were 14 floors up! All that aside, I surprisingly got decent sleep.
Fitness Center:
On my long walk from the Masquerade Tower to the Penn and Teller Theater, I passed by a fitness center! It exists! But I didn’t have time to use it.
Penn and Teller:
With Caesars Diamond, we got free show tickets (two per person) at many of the shows at Caesars properties. Our first choice was Wow, the water show/Cirque Du Soleil knockoff, but it was sold out for our dates. We ended up taking Penn and Teller, and got really good seats! It was perfect, as the show is hosted at the Rio. That was definitely the highlight of the stay! The magic tricks were great, although I did feel the beginning of the show was a bit slow, which is kinda annoying when the show is only 90 minutes long.
I checked Ticketmaster, and our seats were $85 worth each! I enjoyed the show, but definitely don’t think it’s worth that much. In my opinion, it’s worth closer to $40s. I hear if you want to see it they often have coupons on Groupon and such.
The Verdict:
The ridiculously outdated rooms really makes the Rio Las Vegas Comp Room not worth it! There are far too many hotels in Las Vegas to choose from. I probably won’t be staying here in the future.
Have you stayed at the Rio Las Vegas? Comment your thoughts below!
Happy travels,
Ty
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This is nothing new Rio’s rooms frankly all the faculties are outdated with no end in site. It’s one of those older casino’s limping along. Not withstanding the fact it is “off strip” and poor access
I had good time at rio but the window that looks from shower to bedroom is creepy! Rooms could be renovated , but overall i would give it another shot!
I stayed at comp rooms at Rio, Harrah’s, Planet Hollywood and The Crownewell. Planet Hollywood is the best, while Crownwell is the worst with dirty rooms, blood stains and angry belligerent managers.
I stayed there once and only once and that was 20 years ago and the room looks the same,right down to that useless window in the shower! It was a dump then too.
I stayed there April into may this year I enjoyed my stay lots of nice people and things to do. I don’t care about the room it’s cheap I’m only sleeping and showering and back out again
Diamond status, and stayed at the RIO for convenience of playing the WSOP, big mistake. First night ceiling leaked, and asked to leave room for repair. After driving 2 days you kind of need some rest. Nope, Room service had to be called twice for room to be made up. Fire Alarm goes off, Elevators shut down so ask Security if we should take Fire Exit, so at 60+ yrs old, walked down 19 flights in a more than discussing stairwell. Security Desk downstairs told us, we aren’t suppose to use them and should had been locked. So are we just suppose to leap to our death? I could go on about the age of the room, how the phone in the room didn’t work, along with the Key, but I leave it with the most discussing, Bed Bugs. Enjoy your stay there, we won’t be back.
implosion time for The Rio
implosion time for The Rio it is old age thing
Clearly the owners don’t give a rats. They have decided that they will make more running it down and eventually blowing the whole thing up rather than upgrading.
Spot on review! We stayed there in fall of 2017. Then found that the REVIEW JOURNAL newspaper printed, “Nov 14, 2017 – Five months after an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease was reported at the Rio, the number of confirmed cases of the pneumonia-like bacterial illness among guests has risen to seven, with 29 more cases suspected, the Southern Nevada Health District said Tuesday.” Yeah… implosion should be scheduled immediately!
We also had the creepy shower window – and peeling wallpaper. We switched rooms and sprayed Lysol on EVERYTHING.
Consider the fact that they have way over 1000 suites…..even if its true that 7 guests got ill…….that’s less then a tiny fraction of less then 1% Also it was never proven that there was any outbreak at the Rio. Older properties have some odd feature(s), like the shower window. If you want shining Marble stay at the Winn, or other mega (expensive) resorts, and be prepared to pay $8 for a can of soda from the machine, and $600 for your room (or thousands for your suite) PER DAY. There is good news……Caesars has just sold, and with hope the new owners will start fixing things up. Caesars had Billions in Debt.
Wow…..complain much? If you want a spotless room, with updated furniture, go with the bigger properties….Like the Wynn, or the Bellagio. BUT…expect to pay $300—$2000 a night for a suite. Not defending the Rio, but at cheap rates it takes a lot of turnover to afford multimillion dollar remodels. I have stayed at the Rio, my room was spotless….sometimes the rate you pay can effect which room/suite you get.
Looks like you had one of the original style rooms of the Masquerade Tower. Many rooms in the Ipanema Tower have been renovated. As for the shower window, don’t stay at the Waldorf Astoria (former Mandarin Oriental) as the bathrooms have glass walls to the bedroom. Agreed though that the Rio has seen better times, and it’s remaining days are numbered.
I stayed there for almost a month in June and July for the World Series of Poker in a regular masquerade room with no problems. And it is rare for me to stay in any place a whole month with not a single issue. The room decor was outdated but the large size of the room more than made up for it in my particular case. The room size was the most important thing to me for with such a long stay, along with the location close to the poker. But if the most important thing to you is luxury and/or staying in an instagram-worthy hotel, there are many nicer hotels in Las Vegas.
You got the crap tower of the two, the other one is much better.