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| - The room: I stayed in a tower room, which was very spacious with dated decor. The room was clean, and I didn't have any "surprises" in the room at all. The mattresses are not the most comfortable and the pillows were flat in the middle because they are long pillows, and people often fold those in half to double them up. I liked the fact that there were complimentary water bottles in the room, and the mini fridge was convenient. Overall, the hotel experience was good.
The reason I am giving the hotel a mediocre review is because of their business practices on the weekend of the Life Is Beautiful festival. When I checked in, there was a little sign sitting on the front desk, saying that any additional guests would cost $25 per room per night and would need to wear a wristband (as if we didn't have enough of those to wear) in order to have access to the room and elevators.
Many hotel guests were unhappy about this, and we all pretty much agree we'd rather stay at the other hotels on Fremont next year and not pay the stupid fee. Then I did a little digging and have found other reviews that say that this practice actually happens quite often--whenever there is a holiday weekend for instance.
One of the main reasons I often get hotel rooms on Fremont is so that me and friends can have as much fun as we want, and drink as much as we like and nobody has to even think about driving because the flexibility is there. Unnecessary fees for additional guests ruins the flexibility and adds an additional hassle. I don't understand what El Cortez is thinking, but I will certainly never return there to do business with them because I'm never going to pay that fee and I have the choice to just walk over to any other hotel and pay less for a room, bypass a fee, to keep myself and my friends safe and off the road.
If El Cortez really wants to capture the twenty-something demographic that frequents Fremont Street every weekend, they need to stop trying to swindle their hotel guests.
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