Rio Las Vegas

Rio March 2014

Mar 12, 2014 at 4:48 pm

I've seen a lot of horror stories about the Rio and wanted to provide an update that wasn't several years old.

Now, I'm pretty easy to satisfy. If the place isn't obviously filthy, then it's fine by me. However, I literally did not see anything about my room that seemed dirty or nonfunctional. The carpet was a little worn in the buffet, but I'm not rating the buffet; my room was fine. I'm a non-smoker and rather militant about it; my wife is a non-smoker with breathing issues so REALLY militant about it, and our non-smoking room did not smell of smoke in the slightest, one of the things we were a little worried about from some of the other reviews (the casino, on the other hand, was a different story, but that's going to be true of anywhere in Vegas).

We waited maybe five minutes, and that's an overestimate if anything, to check in (at around 4:30). The only issue we had was that we had requested a King bed and they didn't have any available (we had initially said we'd be checking in at around 7 PM, so that might have something to do with it). We instead got a room with two Queen beds on the 15th floor of the Ipanema tower, which was fine with us. The view directly below us wasn't anything to speak of (it was basically the loading dock and cooling plant for the casino), but further out we could see the Encore, the Stratosphere, and downtown (along with a lot of residential northwest Las Vegas, which was more sedate but still had some pretty lights in the early evening), and the mountains off in the distance, so no complaints there.

Bathroom: tub in a shower enclosure, with a shower head mounted on the wall ... if you've got something fancier than that at home you're richer than me and probably aren't considering the Rio anyway. There wasn't a separate shower and soaking tub, but everything worked fine with no mildew or other issues that some other reviews I've seen complained about. The toilet is in the same room as the tub... again, if that's something you're not used to already, you're probably not looking at the Rio.

Oh, and price. Yeah. Can't complain about that. Rooms were $22/night (the advertised rate was higher, but I signed up for the Caesar's Total Rewards program online just before booking the rooms in case there was a deal and was immediately offered a 30% discount), and taxes and the resort fee brought that up to $40 or so. I knew about the resort fee going in so that wasn't a surprise even though it's kinda sneaky.

The Rio is off the strip. You need to know this. It's not FAR off the strip and there's a free shuttle that will take you to either Bally's or Harrah's (both of which are on the strip, though the shuttle stop, especially at Harrah's, is back a block or so from the strip itself) and back, but if you're expecting to walk out the front door and be on the strip, just know that's not going to happen. Also, the shuttles, despite running every half hour, can get full ... I was literally the last person allowed on the return shuttle from Harrah's. I presume they run more than one shuttle at once during the summer, because otherwise, you might have to wait a long time to get on. For the price difference, though, you could take a cab if you had to, and the rooms at the Rio are huge. I think calling them "suites" is a little disingenuous (there isn't a separate sitting/sleeping area, for example), but I certainly can't complain about not having enough space to stretch out. While I'm neither recommending nor condoning this, you could easily sneak in a half dozen people and they wouldn't have to sleep on top of each other unless they wanted to.

Cocktail service in the casino was a little slow getting started, but once they did come they kept coming back; the only time I didn't have a drink in my hand after they brought the first one was when I started feeling a little buzzed and waved the server off for a round. The Rio does this a little differently than at most places; someone (usually a guy) walks around with an iPad taking orders which are directly transmitted to the bar, and then a few minutes later the server comes by with your drink.

Not worth the savings

May 12, 2013 at 3:33 pm

We arrived at 11 pm and found ourselves waiting in line for approximately 45 mins. Once at the counter, the girl serving us proceeded to make us feel like idiots for having believed the Rio hotel rep. we had spoken to, Westjet, and our booking agent about what we were going to get in terms of our rooms. My friend and I were not staying in one room; but both of us got the exact same deal which meant we DID NOT have a view of the strip, a soaking tub, or a king sized bed! What we got was a view of the mountains, two queen sized beds, a regular bathtub with filthy tiles and lots of lots of attitude when we both said that we hadn't signed up for this! However, since we were both exhausted and hungry, we took our keys and made way to our rooms. The Rio provides a Tassimo coffeemaker and two paper cups but nothing else. I thought this was an oversight of the hotel and so I called the front desk asking where the pods were; had they simply forgotten to place them in my room? The response I got was that the hotel can provide the pods but at $8.00 for a box of three. I have to stayed at Travelodges where complimentary coffee was found in the room. Anyway, like I said, we were hungry so we made our way back downstairs in order to find a place to eat. After walking the 1.5 mile trek back to the elevators, we came across the Grill situated in the centre of the Casino just off of the Ipanema towers. We were greeted, our drink orders were taken, and the wrong ones were delivered. The restaurant was not busy but not only were we given the wrong drinks, but we were also ignored for the next 20 mins.; so we left. Since it was way passed midnight, closer to passed midnight at this point and we were both becoming listlessly from starvation, we pounced on the Burger King we found a half mile into the casino and ate a typical fast food meal for less than $10. The room itself was not worth the money we paid mainly because despite the claim that it spans over 600 sq feet, it sure didn't seem that big... the walls were as thin as rice paper...you can hear the next room's toilet at all hours of the day... Overall, I would not recommend it at all. Sorry Rio.

RIO 2010 Very Good Stay GREAT STAFF

Apr 06, 2012 at 6:02 am

OK I see all these scathing reviews so here's my 2 cents;

Stayed here in July/2010 Thurs-Sun.

Check in was easy we arrived at airport at 1045, picked up our rental car in 5 min, drove to RIO in 5 min, and checked in in 2 minutes.

The main desk staff was great, the gentleman checked his computer and told us that they were still cleaning our room and then realized he had an open room and immediately gave us that room. Mind you, our room was comped, but I have never had a really bad room except at Caesar's, where I'll never stay at again. Room was a little dated but clean. Housekeeping kept the room clean everyday without bothering my wife and I the entire trip.

Restaurants were a bit pricey but food was good. Get the Buffet of all Buffets if you plan on eating at the buffets its worth the price. You can eat at just about any Harrah's buffet for a 24 hour period unlimited. RIO's brunch is very good.

The pools were great, we go out when they open and try to leave by 11 before it gets too crazy with young drunk kids.

Now the best part the staff was great. I play craps and like to chat with the dealers. The crap's dealers were a great!! They were the best customer service I have ever had. They were experienced (always a plus), friendly, and always remembered a bet if I forgot. They gave my wife and I suggestions on other things besides gambling. Told us about hiking up Mt Charleston, shopping, etc. BEST DEALERS EVER!!

It was a winning trip so that made it even better.

All in all I would stay here again.