I am currently writing this review from my laughably terrible room at the Stratosphere using the laughably expensive $12 a day internet (more on that later).\n\nThis whole place just reeks of quiet desperation and looming bankruptcy. Tired, old and sad.\n\nMy best friend, her husband and two of our other friends were coming to Vegas and were not in a position to be high rollers so when my friend booked the rooms, we got the cheapest place available pretty much. It WAS ridiculously cheap (I think less than $40 a night for our room) but I really wish we had spent ten or fifteen bucks more a night and stayed somewhere nicer and closer to the nicer part of the strip. We would have ended up spending the same amount of money anyways, since a cab is a minimum of $15 each way to the Bellagio or Aria etc and can be as much as $25 if you leave a 20% tip and pay by credit card, for which there is a $3 fee) and we would have been so much happier. After reading through all the other shitty reviews of the place, I have to say our experience seems pretty typical. We didn't notice the neighborhood feeling particularly ghetto or feel unsafe walking to the car at night, but maybe that's because most of us grew up in East or West Oakland? I have stayed in a lot of really posh hotels, a lot of really cheap motels and plenty of shitty hostels and this was truly the worst spot I have stayed at overall. I would have much preferred to stay at a Motel 6 or Howard Johnsons, etc. \n\nCONS\n\n- When we arrived we had to stand around for fifteen minutes and then go hunt down a bellhop who would take our bags up to our room.\n\n- Our room was fucking gross in addition to not being updated since the early 80's I'm guessing. The bathroom was dirty and the size of a broom closet. The lights flickered forever before turning on and were not very bright. It was pretty smoky smelling. The window (singular) is only 2.5 feet wide and has a gorgeous view of the parking garage. The TV remote was out of batteries and the sound was off from the picture. There was no refrigerator. The toilet took multiple flushes to flush any toilet paper. I found a small cockroach in the bathroom. On the second night our tub wouldn't drain (like ten inches of water to stand in while showering and then couldn't shower because it would overflow). We complained about each of the problems that were fixable and they did eventually send someone up to clean/give a new remote/look at the toilet/fix the tub draining problem, but they never once offered to switch our room or comp us anything for our inconvenience.\n\n- Super far from everything, as I mentioned previously. We probably spend more than $100 on cabs in three days.\n\n- They charge $12 a day for internet PER COMPUTER!!! Not only this, but on the third day, they charged me twice for internet for my laptop and it wouldn't even work. I called the service number where I was then disconnected twice before finally hearing that the charge had been removed and they fixed whatever the problem was with the internet.\n\n- The service was shitty almost everywhere in the hotel and casino. I don't gamble but the whole casino just looked so tired and sad and desperate. The other casino's we walked through looked much more lively and with much more attractive people. \n\n- The food is gross (especially if you're a 'foodie', but lets be honest, even the fine dining establishments in Vegas are at least something of a tacky copy of their namesake's better restaurants in New York or The Bay Area). We ate at Roxy's diner and it was like a subpar Mel's diner with the same tacky 50's theme. I had the caprese eggs benedict which was ok but the eggs were really overcooked (totally opaque yellow and hard in the yolks). I had eaten one half and asked the manager to either remake it or refund me 50%. He agreed. Then when the check came he had only taken off 25%. I complained and he rolled his eyes and took off another 25%.\n\n-We heard other people staying at the hotel complain about having their room robbed (I can't confirm this obviously, but they seemed believable). We chose not to have our rooms cleaned during the three days we were here because we were worried that valuable or medication might disappear. \n\n- Weak drinks. A pitcher of daquiris a person at the pool bar brought on nary a buzz. Boo. Even when we supplemented them with one or two 'alcohol infused popsicles'. These things were kind of hilarious. They had to put some kind of gelatin in them to solidify the alcohol so consuming them really was like blowing a guy with a frostbitten semi. \n\nPROS\n+ When we finally did get a bellhop to bring our luggage up, he was a really sweet old guy who rapped west coast shit for us. A little Snoop and Pac.\n\n+ At the pool we went to, the bartender was really nice. I dropped my $22 pitcher (its a SMALL pitcher) of strawberry daiquiri and he replaced it for free. \n\n+ The bed was actually pretty comfy. I slept well and had no back problems, which is rare for me