Thursday, January 19, 2012

Las Vegas is Rude and Stressed Out

Las Vegas has ranked highly in unfavorable categories on two recent surveys.

Vegas was ranked #12 on a list of America's Rudest Cities by Travel and Leisure. New York was ranked number 1. Pretty much every major city in the country made this list though, so I'm not sure it means much.

Perhaps more troubling is LV's ranking as #2 on a list of Most Stressful Cities as ranked by CNBC. The factors considered were divorce rate, commute times, unemployment, violent crime, property crime, suicides, alcohol consumption, mental health, sleep troubles, and the annual amount of cloudy days.

While most tourists are insulated from the problems of the locals, there might come a time when travelers are adversely affected by the poor economy and other issues. We've seen some of that with the increased crime and panhandling on the Strip, although an increased police presence seems to have cracked down on that somewhat.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The Western is Closed

The infamous Western Hotel and Casino downtown has closed.

This is news to me, as somehow I had thought the Western had already closed a few months ago. It looks like I was mistaken, as they only announced the closure on November 15th, but the official closing date was January 16th.

Either way, the property is now officially closed, as reported by KTNV.

The Western opened in 1970 and at the time was the world's largest bingo parlor. In recent years the casino was famous for its low limits which attracted an eccentric crowd of lowlifes. The actual hotel part of the property closed a few years back.

Tamares Group, the owner of the Western hasn't yet said what they're doing with the property. They will try to relocate the 90 employees at their other properties (Plaza, Vegas Club and Gold Spike).

Monday, January 16, 2012

Cosmopolitan Dominates Vegas Tripping Awards

Vegas Tripping announced the 2012 Trippies award winners today. The awards are voted on by readers of the site.

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas dominated the awards, winning many of the major categories.

Cosmo took home Best Strip Hotel, Best Hotel Overall, Best Rooms, Best Dining Overall, Best Nightclub (Marquee), Best Bar (Chandelier Bar), Best Casino Carpet, Best Website, Best Social Media, and Best In Show.

These results are somewhat surprising because Wynn Las Vegas and Encore have traditionally won most of the awards. This year the only award Wynn or Encore won was Best Dayclub (Encore Beach Club).

Check out all of the results: 2012 Trippies.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Undercover Boss - Diamond Resorts International

The season premiere of Undercover Boss airing tonight features Las Vegas company Diamond Resorts International.

The company owns various timeshares around the globe including the Polo Towers on the Strip.

CEO Stephen Cloobeck will be doing the usual gimmick of dressing up as a common employee in order to get a better feel of what's going on in the company. At the end of the episode he'll probably end up giving the employees he worked with cash and prizes.

While this episode might not be as Vegas-centric as the MGM Grand episode was, it still might be worth checking out. Set your DVR for CBS at 8/7c.