Do not stay at this hotel if you want friends to come up to your hotel room. They charge $25 PER VISITOR if you want a guest to come up even if it's just for a few minutes or an hour. To get this guest wrist band, you must cross the street and pay this fee to the front desk. To enforce this rule there is a security guard at the front door that checks all guests to ensure they are wearing the provided blue wrist band and a rude lady at the front desk.
This policy is not the same as any of the other hotels in the area. El Cortez could be implementing this policy because it wishes to prevent friends of guests from staying all night, however, this could be counteracted in other ways (ie taking ID cards). Instead, they simply charge you $25, implying that the hotel is just trying to squeeze more money out of it's guests.
So, if you are trying to have fun in Vegas, pre game with a friends (or a few) or even hoping to hook up later in the night, avoid this hotel. It's like staying in a strict boarding school rather than a Vegas hotel room.