The Historic Riviera
The Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas just had its 60th birthday. Unfortunately the celebration was a bit of a sad event since everyone knew the historic casino would be shutting down. In fact, the Riviera is shutting down tomorrow at noon.
I have lived in Las Vegas for over 20 years and have watched as historic (by Vegas standards) casinos were imploded one by one. This city has a unique history and the loss of these casinos is definitely felt. I actually love what Vegas has become, but I love the historic version of the city as well.
Nothing left on the Strip says “Old Vegas” like the Riv. During a visit a couple of weeks ago I took the time to appreciate the decor which is definitely out of another era. Her glory days are most definitely in the past, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve a nice goodbye.
Using Hotel Tonight to Book
During my visit a few weeks ago I got the idea to possibly stay at the Riviera on the last night. At the time rates were quite high, since all of the hotels jacked up their prices for this entire weekend due to last night’s boxing match. (Demand was lower than expected and rates have come down.)
Since I have some Hotel Tonight (my review) credit, I decided to wait until a few days before to see if it popped up there. A few days ago the Riviera did show up for $39 plus $5 in taxes. I redeemed $44 in Hotel Tonight credit and reserved my room. (You can find out how to get a $25 credit when you sign-up in my review.)
This is one case where Hotel Tonight did well, but there is a catch. Rooms at the Riviera on all major online travel agent sites have dropped to $61 per night, so $39 is definitely a deal. Unfortunately now the price on Hotel Tonight has dropped to $34, so in this case I saved, but could have saved more by waiting. (I did email them to see if they will credit the $5, but I doubt they will given the terms.)
Conclusion
I’ll have a full write up in the next week or so about the Riv’s final hours. Hopefully it will be a fun atmosphere and I always have the option of going home if the maid decided not to clean the room properly on her final night!
I’m glad I was once again able to use Hotel Tonight to save some money on my stay. Unfortunately in this case I should have waited a little longer, but I’m not complaining. See you at the Riv!
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Very cool. Nice rate. Have fun. How are you going to take-in the final night? Are you going to catch a show, dinner and/or gamble?
And will you be covering the implosion in a few months? 🙂
I’m going to hang out with a friend and probably go to bed pretty early. Want to be up and about tomorrow to take in the final few hours! As for the implosion, hopefully!