hospitality review: Motel 6 Boulder Highway, Las Vegas, Nevada
* (one out of five stars)
Reason: poor internet connection not included in the room fee, and faulty door key card that didn’t allow easy access to the room.
By Reviewer Rob
When you’re on a road trip far away from home you want a place to stay that offers the basic comforts, safety and hassle-free atmosphere of your natural environment for as long as you have to stay there.
As many of you know I was in Las Vegas last month to attend and report from the AEE trade show at the Hard Rock Casino, which I wish I would have booked accommodations for long in advance of the show because I waited until four days prior to leaving and was kicking myself as these last minute arrangements made my available options much slimmer. I ended up finding an affordable room at Motel 6.
I was optimistic. I did have lodging in Vegas for the show afterall.
Things started out okay at Motel 6 Boulder Highway but they didn’t stay that way. I was first pleased with the layout of the motel, and that I could check on my vehicle by peeking out the door easily from my upstairs room, which was clean and well-stocked with towels and had a good secure door with a slide-lock so the cleaning lady couldn’t barge in on me accidentally at 10:30 in the morning when I was drinking coffee out of a thermos naked. The TV was functional and all the lights worked. But the next day is when things went to shit.
Two of the most important factors with staying in a motel or hotel are internet connectivity and ease of reentry to your room. The internet was “extra” here and came in two levels of service: poor and worse. For $2.99 you got their basic internet which was as slow as AOL dialup circa 1997, and for $4.99 you’d get their delux package, which was just as slow as their cheaper version only it cost two dollars more.
When I was finally able to log on to my email accounts and to the Reviewer Magazine Press blog on the Reviewer website to post a DVD review, I then wasn’t able to get any Youtube videos to play – the graphics on their homepage wouldn’t even load.
Fine. This I could deal with. There’s always a Starbucks close by if all else fails. Really high speed internet should be included in a Las Vegas motel room rate in 2015, but whatthefuckever. What really pissed me off was that I WASN’T ABLE TO GET THE STUPID DOOR ROOM KEY CARD TO WORK WHEN I GOT BACK TO THE GODDAM MOTEL AT NIGHT. Each time I tried to get into my room and failed I would look up accusingly at the black dome of the security camera mounted in the balcony directly in front of me and utter a quiet curse.
So I had to walk all the way to the front desk in the office about a half dozen times in the 38 degree January night during my stay at Motel 6 Las Vegas – Boulder Highway and get them to issue a new security card when I was tired as fuck from covering the trade show down by the strip or returning from the 7-11 on the corner. Beyond irritating – especially when the dooshbag at the counter would question if I had “another person in the room”, or did I “put the card near a magnet?” No, dickweed, it was in my wallet the whole time and the nonexistent hooker shooting up in my room would have heard me trying to unlock the front door and let me in so I wouldn’t have to talk to you at the front desk.
The desk guy asked the tall Nigerian (or whatever he was) security guard to walk over to my door with a new card and he showed me that even he couldn’t get the door to open every time. But at least he knew a slight of hand trick that worked part of the time while he was trying to embarrass me with how inept I must be as he was able to open it at least 40 percent of his attempts, the door was STILL NOT functioning properly so why the fuck can’t they just fix it or volunteer to put me in room with a door that works? If some other lodger was stumbling in drunk from the bar do you think they’d want to deal with this?
I can’t recommend this motel or say I will ever want to stay in it again if there’s any other available choices.
Security, comfort, ease and internet is all a weary traveler wants. Motel 6 Las Vegas Boulder Highway did not deliver.
Total $264.27
Collected by Expedia
Room Price
$264.27
5 nights
$47.19 avg./night
1/20/15 $39.99
1/21/15 $43.99
1/22/15 $43.99
1/23/15 $53.99
1/24/15 $53.99
Taxes & Fees $28.32
All prices quoted in USD.
Fee for in-room wireless Internet: USD 2.99 (for 24 hours, rates may vary)
Photos below from motel6.com via Bing.