I finally stayed at Flamingo -- a hotel I had seen since my childhood in the 1970s, but never had a room there.

I don't have many comps these days. I did have a few comps for shitty downtown properties, but these are places which are known to be notoriously noisy, and I absolutely detest outside noise when I am trying to sleep.

The rates everywhere for Superbowl weekend were expensive, but they finally came down somewhat as time passed. I booked Flamingo, and then called the CCS (800 number) several times after that to re-rate my stay after I noticed it kept getting cheaper. I could not simply cancel and rebook, because it wouldn't let me cancel online anyway, so I just had them rerate it once I had them on the phone anyway. During a few of the calls, I got some idiot reps who told me it can't be rerated, but every time they got a supervisor who conceded it could, and they did.

Seven Stars are usually entitled to the best non-suite available, but not at Flamingo. Instead, the upgrades are controlled by hosts who sit in the VIP check-in room. The VIP room reps are not empowered to upgrade without the host approving, which sucks.

This is a similar setup to Rio, except Rio VIP agents ARE given the power to upgrade, and you are always given the best non-suite as a Seven Stars, regardless of your recent play.

The other problem was that I was no longer a Seven Stars member as of 2/1/19 -- the day I checked in!

I also had a hard time getting them to block off a room for me. I didn't want a noisy room -- meaning I was seeking a non-connecting-door room, and one away from the elevator, plus one on a fairly high floor.

The VIP room rep I called was very obnoxious about it, and kept insisting this couldn't be done. She also was very confused regarding the upgrade process, and kept giving me different stories.

When she got frustrated with the conversation, she said, "This call isn't getting anywhere. I'm transferring you to a host."

I kept yelling, "No, no, no, don't transfer me!" back, but she ignored me and cold-transferred me anyway.

I called back and attempted to reach her boss, at which point she told the person attempting to find her boss that she "thought she was helping" by transferring me to the host, which was complete bullshit. You don't say "This call isn't getting anywhere" to the customer and angrily transfer him away if you're really trying to help.

Her boss was fairly nice, and blocked off a room for me. However, he would not give me any kind of upgrade.

When I arrived, I was disappointed to find that the room had some maintenance issues. The most annoying was a constantly running toilet. There were a few other minor problems, as well. They did get a maintenance guy up there fairly quickly to fix the toilet.

The room itself was okay. It had a decent view of the High Roller, though you had to look out sideways to see it.

The room was indeed quiet.

However, it was small, so it's not something I'd want if I were staying with the family.

This was NOT one of their renovated rooms. I have not seen the renovated ones yet. That was the "upgrade" I was looking for, but denied.

Laughably, this room also had a sign on the door mentioning it being "Flamingo Hilton" -- a designation the property has not had in many years.

The front desk and VIP employees there were somewhat belligerent. They are far worse than the ones in other Caesars properties, who tend to be nicer and more gracious, especially in the VIP room.

Additionally, I found it annoying that they treated me like I was crazy when I insisted that Seven Stars (and to a lesser degree, Diamond) are given free upgrades to non-suites if available at other properties. They all acted like the doubted me, and kept just repeating, "It's based on your play", completely ignoring the Caesars de facto standard for upgrades.

Finally, at checkout, I paid with RCs, and once again they made the error of charging room tax. I have discussed this before out here, and discovered a Clark County law forbidding this. I proved it to Rio last year, and Rio ultimately conceded I was right.

Basically this isn't intentional, but the result of a longtime glitch in the system where tax doesn't get removed if you change your payment method from credit card to RCs, even if it's supposed to be removed.

They are "investigating" it for me, but the whole process has been slow. It's not a lot of money, but it's just the principle of the matter, especially if I stay there again.

Overall, Flamingo was my least favorite of the CET properties I've stayed at in Vegas.

My order of preference, for those where I've stayed, is as follows:

Caesars
Paris
Harrah's (upgraded "Valley" tower only)
Bally's
Rio
Flamingo

I have not stayed at The LINQ (former Imperial Palace), The Cromwell, or Planet Hollywood, so I can't comment on those.

You might be surprised to see Harrah's up so high. I actually somewhat like Harrah's, provided I'm in the upgraded tower.

I actually prefer Rio over Flamingo despite the Rio's crappy off-strip location. Despite being somewhat run down, Rio's rooms are large, and the staff there is fairly friendly.

Anyone here stay in the renovated Flamingo tower? Are the rooms any bigger?