Arizona Charlie's Decatur - Casino Hotel & Suites

I have been staying at this hotel once a year for about seven years. I suppose that in itself makes a statement. I like being away from the hubbub of the strip and one of the draws for me has always been the wide range of home-cooked food at The Sourdough Cafe. Sadly, on my arrival a few days ago, The Soudough Cafe is no more, The site has been torn down and replaced by a modern looking Denny’s. This act will not influence my review directly, however this reviewer sees this as a huge step backwards, with Denny’s coming, nowhere close to the atmospheric experience and the food quality and range of menu at The Sourdough, and is a much lower standard establishment. There are currently refurbishments taking place on the first floor, and it will be interesting to see how that progresses. The rest of the hotel remains basically unchanged for years, and this suits me just fine, though a little redecoration might well be overdue. The check in desk was poorly staffed with just one person and a long queue for over 30 minutes on occasions. This reviewer does feels that back office staff should come forward at such times. My own check-in was a little slow, but generally acceptable. I choose a room in the Mountain Meadows wing as I find these to be a little better. The room was fairly spacious and had all the basic necessities such as a large bed, table, storage space and a safe. The air-conditioning system, whilst very dated, did work well and at a time of very high temperatures, this was most welcome. The bathroom was a respectable size and one thing I do like about this venue was the fact that each bathroom came with an actual tub with an overhead shower. The rooms were fundamentally clean, but have not been remodelled or redecorated in any way for years. Housekeeping was available each day, but it is not well publicised that this does need to be requested. When it is, it’s important to know this can be very early in the morning and if a guest has left the do not disturb sign on display, the room will be skipped. I had my room serviced twice over a four night stay. This seemed to be a reasonable balance. Towels were clean and fresh. One thing, the hotel could look into is some way of keeping the air in the corridors leading to the bedrooms, and that in the bedroom itself, fresher. There was a strong tendency for the air in all public places to be very stale indeed, and this is not aided by the fact that all casinos allow smoking in all public areas. The hotel does have the benefit of an outdoor swimming pool and hot tub and this was open from 10:00 to 20: 00. On this visit facilities were all working. Historically this has not always been the case. One thing that does concern me is the way the resort fee charged by Arizona Charlies has gradually crept up and now is significantly more expensive than the price of the room. I will never understand how this can be justified as the establishment is in no way of a resort standard. Hotel chains totally ignore how unpopular this fee is with guests and it has never been justified to visitors to Las Vegas. This is nothing other than being a way to artificially understate the cost of a room and allow the hotel to benefit from advantageous tax allowances. The so-called benefits that come for the fee are in reality non-existent, and include the tiniest bottled water of any hotel I have ever stayed at and local phone calls. These are nothing that any hotel in almost every city of the world doesn’t give as standard. One advantage of Arizona Charlies is the fact that there is parking available and this is not a chargeable event. This reviewer wonders how long this will continue. As a basic place to sleep, Arizona Charlies is suitable. It is, however, pricing itself out of the market. This act has definitely been speeded up by the closing of The Sourdough Cafe.

It’s been almost a month since I left there. I was told I would get my deposit back within 7 to 10 days. I’m still waiting.My next step will be to contact corporate or the Better Business Bureau. I read some reviews of people that said they never got their deposits back. There was no damage to the roof that we were in on the contrary there were several things that needed to be fixed. The toilet roll holder fell out of the wall, we had no working refrigerator for four days.

It was a pleasant stay, rooms had been updated since my last visit.