Luxor Hotel & Casino Review
A couple of months ago I wrote about how I plan to requalify for Hyatt’s Diamond status. Being a Las Vegas local, I have the unique ability to pad my stays with the occasional mattress run to a cheap Mlife hotel like the Luxor or the Excalibur. The other day I did exactly that.
I used to live very close to the airport and early morning flights weren’t much of a problem, but recently I moved further away, so when my son had to be at the airport for a 6am flight to his grandfather’s, I figured a stay at the Luxor couldn’t hurt.
A Great Rate
Using the Mlife website, the rate for my stay was $25 plus tax and resort fee. ($56 total. Ouch!) I booked the lowest category room which was in the older Pyramid tower, but was upgraded to a room in the newer East Tower.
One of the best improvements it seems that Luxor has made is the addition of WiFi throughout the property. As recently as last year, they only had wired internet, but my room had very fast WiFi. As far as I can tell, this has been rolled out property wide. I know a lot of people would try to get out of the resort fee because of the poor internet, but that excuse likely won’t fly anymore.
The Room
The room itself was decent. It is a typical 3 star room, but the bathroom was actually nicer than I expected with both a tub and a shower. Overall the room was cleaner than I experienced at the Bellagio and the beds were comfortable enough. Our view of the other two towers wasn’t spectacular, but was actually quite beautiful when the sun was coming up.
The Secret MLife Lounge
Most people don’t know that the Luxor actually has a lounge that is open to all Mlife Platinum and Noir members. The reason I call it “secret” is that I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere on their website or elsewhere. I actually heard about it from a few bloggers last year during BACon. Unfortunately the secret lounge is best kept secret, because it sort of sucks.
The lounge is located downstairs in the old lobby and check-in area. To get to it, you must take an escalator down from the main level. The escalator is located to the left of the walkway that leads to Excalibur. Once downstairs turn left and you will see the lounge up ahead on the right.
Perhaps the only thing this lounge is good for is to get a free water, soda, juice or coffee, because that is all they have. There are no snacks, the seating isn’t too comfortable and the area just outside is used as a group check-in, meaning it is loud. Like incredibly loud. My son and I poked in, took a couple of photos, grabbed a drink and left.
Overall Impressions
The Luxor has a bad rap in general because of the dated rooms in the Pyramid Tower and previously the lack of amenities such as WiFi. While I am sure the rooms are still somewhat dated, if you can get yourself into one of the newer towers, then you are going to get a room that is just about as good as anything you can expect for around $50 in the United States.
With that said, I’m not impressed with the setup of the Luxor. The pool is basically located in the back towards the parking lot and the bridge towards the parking runs right through it. All of the unique theming has been removed, so what is left is very generic. It is a decent cheap option in Vegas, but don’t be fooled by the 4* ratings on some of the travel agency websites.
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Luxor is 3 stars? Wow. Better than it looks. Place always looked like a low end dump to me. I’d mattress run but would never sleep there.
The resort fee is an outrageous sham, especially at dumps like the Luxor.
It really depends on your standards, budget, your goals, and other available offers.
Its like saying, “McDonalds sux dick! Such nasty food. Rather eat at Ruth Chris! You call that a burger!? Zero stars!”
Uhh.. its McDonalds dude. Ruth Chris doenst even play within the same galactic universe as McDonalds.
Same could be said here. Luxor and Excalibur used to be baddass state-of-the-art hotels way back in the day. Loved staying there. Now, obviously they are old school. I mean how do you compare that to SkyLofts @ MGM or Penthouses @ Aria. You cant. But Luxor is totally a 3/5 star hotel thats on the strip, cheap, clean, still fun, close to everything and you still get good ass service.
You wanna see a real low end dump?? No problem, just go one block outside of the strip in either direction. The change of scenery is staggering. Literally the strip is like a bubble. Go stay at Hiltons/Choice/Wyndham low end ghetto hotels off the strip. I think those are like -10 stars when you compare to hotels on the strip.
And if you really wanna mattress run it, Luxor is too high class for me. I wanna go to a real dump with cheap as beds and bed bugs and nasty sex juice stains for my qualifying stays.
Hey Shawn,
I’ll be a platinum for my upcoming trip to the MGM grand in Vegas. Do you know if there is any lounge available at that property? I haven’t found anything online mentioning it.
Gary
I think MLife works for normal Diamond qualification but not the fast-track Diamond challenge.
Correct.
I think MLife
@walt my understanding is that mlife hotel stays do count toward qualifying for or maintaining annual status. however, they don’t count toward the diamond challenge.
That is correct. Thanks Jack!
Also, mLife stays don’t qualify for the quarterly promos. (They used to.)
As a Hyatt Diamond on a Monday, the Luxor upgraded me to a nice suite in the West Tower, although it may have been more of my patience, letting an annoyed customer go ahead of me.
FYI: These stays appear to post once a week, on Mondays, and not within 1-2 days like normal Hyatt stays.
Hey Shawn,
I thought MLife hotels don’t qualify for Hyatt Diamond status? Have you confirmed that they do? I’ve read threads from people saying that Mlife properties do qualify based on conversations they’ve had with a Hyatt agent, while others say no? I’m confused. Any clarity you can add would be greatly appreciated.
Hey Walt, as others have mentioned, Mlife stays count towards earning Hyatt status the old fashioned way, but not for the challenge. I am already Diamond, so I am trying to requalify with 25 stays.