The Oyo Hotel & Casino Las Vegas hasn’t had the best reputation among Las Vegas visitors, but things have ratcheted up (or down) a notch in recent weeks. It’s gotten to the point where guests have made official safety complaints to Clark County over its sporadic elevator service and air conditioning issues.
The budget casino hotel is just east of the Las Vegas Strip on Tropicana Avenue. Local journalists visited the property throughout last week and verified guests’ reports of dirty, cramped, or broken elevators recently posted on social media and online review sites.
We found this YouTube review, titled “The Worst Casino Hotel in all of Las Vegas,” from two years ago – and the creator got stuck in an elevator during filming.
In 2023, OYO Las Vegas was also found to be the most commonly criticized Sin City casino hotel for cleanliness issues in a large scale analysis of online review data.
The Problems
The OYO is well-known as a budget Las Vegas option, with a prime location just off the center of the Las Vegas Strip and rooms starting at just $20 a night. Its casino and amenities also market themselves to budget travelers, with low table game minimums for gamblers and deals on $2 beers advertised throughout the week.
In 2019, the former Hooters Hotel reopened as the Las Vegas property of Indian-based hotel and hospitality chain OYO Rooms. In recent months, the elevators have been consistently out of order at the hotel. Guests — some with disabilities, according to this Reddit forum thread — have been forced to join a lengthy queue for a packed and hot service elevator, or they can walk up to 12 flights of stairs in the 696-room hotel tower.
When guest elevators have been working, visitors reported getting stuck in them when they broke down again.
OYO also has a high rate of bedbug reports, compared to the standard at Las Vegas hotels. It was also found to be the No. 1 most complained-about Sin City casino hotel for cleanliness issues, according to a 2023 analysis of 500,000 online reviews.
Several guests have filed official complaints with Clark County, local media reports. That included one to public health and one to fire code compliance. County officials said neither was the correct place to file this kind of report, which should go to the Building Department.
Over this summer, Nevada Occupational Health and Safety investigated an air conditioning outage at OYO during a record 115-plus degree heat wave that led to complaints from staff.
David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.
