Hilton is rebranding the former Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas that was foreclosed and closed down in May 2010. The hotel reopened in February 2011 as Ravella Lake Las Vegas managed by Dolce Hotels & Resorts. The hotel is now undergoing another brand change and will be Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa in June 2013.

The website is not currently accepting reservations.

What to do around here

Enjoy the fantastic location of the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa, only 15 miles from McCarran Airport and 17 miles from the Las Vegas Strip. The tranquility of the nation’s largest man-made lake and its surrounding 3,400 acres, offers a retreat from the hurried pace of downtown Las Vegas. Explore the picturesque Village at Lake Las Vegas, adjacent to the hotel, which features Casino Monte Lago, championship golf, a marina and a wealth of upscale shops and international restaurants. The Village also hosts a number of events each year, from boat races and music on the lake to winter ice-skating. Take the complimentary shuttle from the hotel to the bright lights of the Strip to experience world-famous shows, impressive casinos, thrilling activities and vibrant nightlife.

Hilton Lake Las Vegas

Lake Las Vegas is east of Henderson, Nevada, about 17 miles from the Las Vegas Strip. In 2009 the two lakefront hotels were Loews and Ritz-Carlton. In March 2012 the Loews Resort rebranded to Westin.

The real estate downturn severely impacted Lake Las Vegas.

Personally I am a fan of the Lake Las Vegas location. A Hilton resort will be a nice addition.

Hilton Lake Las Vegas (This is a 2009 photo when the hotel was Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas.)

I have written several posts about the two Lake Las Vegas hotels over the past few years with numerous hotel photos.

Related Posts:

Ravella at Lake Las Vegas Summer Sale for Cheap Luxury (May 17, 2011)

Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas (8-21-2009)

The Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa (3-29-2012)

Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort and Instant You First Gold Elite Offer (8-21-2009)

Hilton is celebrating the branding of the Tropicana Las Vegas Resort & Casino as a Doubletree by Hilton with a one million points giveaway.

The partnership of the Tropicana and DoubleTree by Hilton brand was created October 2012. The property has been refurbished at a cost of $200 million and a renovation of 1,500 guest rooms.

Tropicana Las Vegas sweepstakes

One Free Million Points Giveaway Entry

January 22, 2013 to April 22, 2013, residents of 50 US and Canada, exc. Quebec can sign up for the one million points giveaway. One free entry is available online.

Another entry is earned with every stay at the Doubletree Tropicana Las Vegas through April 22, 2013.

Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill in Caesars Palace Las Vegas opened December 2012. Celebrity chef restaurants hold little sway with me in dining. I am simply not much of a foodie. The environment created in the Pub & Grill with the music and drinks is what I found attractive along with a stylish post-punk fashion.

I was surprised to learn our travel blogger tour included a free dinner and drinks at the Pub & Grill.

Beer is one of my true loves. There are over 80 beers at the Pub with more than 20 on tap. Uncommon imported beers for free is one way to this man’s pleasure. Read More…

“Experience is the teacher of all things” is a quotation attributed to Julius Caesar.

Caesars Palace Las Vegas has no apostrophe in the name. The idea is that all guests are Caesars.

Well, some guests at Caesars receive a welcome more imperial than others as I learned on a site visit to Caesars Palace on the opening night of the New Media Expo January 2013 conference in Las Vegas.

Caesars invited a few bloggers to tour some suites in their one year old Octavius Tower. The Octavius Tower and Augustus Tower are two of the six hotel towers at Caesars Palace Las Vegas. Together they are referred to as “The Laurel Collection” when booking on the website. Read More…

Las Vegas Boulevard is full of hustlers. Tourist modis operandi is to avoid the face, wave off the pitch and move on.

Yesterday, I took a different tack to the Strip while on an extended lunch break from the New Media Expo 2013 conference at the Rio. I faced up the hustlers on Las Vegas Boulevard working the Strip in front of the Bellagio fountains, Caesars and Cosmopolitan to get insight to the street players, peddlers and performers. Read More…

Driving from Monterey, California to Las Vegas requires a 250 mile trek across the western portion of the Mojave Desert. All those travelers on Route 66 during the Dust Bowl era coming west welcomed the end of the Mojave Desert when crossing the Tehachapi Mountains to find the irrigated promised land of orchards and agricultural fields around the Bakersfield area in the Big Valley of California.

The drive is tougher for me going east as I leave the forests of the Monterey Peninsula and travel south through the green Salinas Valley and then turn east to cross the California Central Valley to Bakersfield. The Central Valley is a 100-mile wide flat landscape in typically mountainous California. Read More…

The Venetian and The Palazzo Las Vegas are celebrating one year as the charter members of the InterContinental Alliance Resorts with a May 8 one-day redemption sale today-only for reward nights at  25,000 points per night for stays from June 10 to August 16, 2012. This special offer ends at midnight eastern or about 9pm Pacific time May 8.  Update May 8: The countdown clock for this offer is not working correctly. An hour after I posted this the clock still reads 13 hours, 44 minutes remaining for the sale.

• Only Sunday-Thursday nights June 10-June 30.
• Any night of week July 1-August 16. Read More…

U.S. Travel Association offers five weeks of Daily Getaways travel discounts Monday through Friday from April 9 to May 11, 2012. These discounts are mostly for hotel stays and loyalty points and car rental discounts. There are also theme park and tourism discounts. Quantities are limited and buyers need to be ready to make an immediate purchase when these items go on sale.

At this time the offers are posted only for the first three weeks of the 2012 five weeks of sales. Read More…

Lake Las Vegas, about 20 miles from the Las Vegas Strip outside the suburb of Henderson, Nevada has a new Starwood Resort today with The Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa.

The hotel has actually been around since 1999, first as the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas Resort. Since 2006 the property has been the Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort.

The Westin Lake Las Vegas enters SPG as a category 3 hotel.

Rates tonight are $179. There is a grand opening special stating rates from $125, but I did not see any rates lower than $161 for dates I checked in April and May. I didn’t find any availability for $125 per night before June 1.

I expect some good deals that will be significantly lower than $179 after the initial rebranding launch. Cash & Points stays at $45 and 2,800 points are also a good option, but again no availability today until June.

Lake Las Vegas: a man-made resort folly.

The economic recession that has resulted in 1 out of every 9 homes in Las Vegas in foreclosure also impacted the region’s hotels. The Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas went bankrupt, closed down in May 2010 and reopened February 2011 as Ravella at Lake Las Vegas, a Dolce conference center resort.

Loews Lake Las Vegas defaulted on a $117 million mortgage in 2009 and was placed in receivership. Pyramid Hotel Group has been managing the hotel since it defaulted and also manages the Westin Las Vegas Hotel, Casino & Spa since the previous owners turned over the keys last year in bankruptcy.

Westin Las Vegas Hotel was seized by lenders after defaulting on a $160 million mortgage. I have to wonder if Starwood will drop Westin Las Vegas Hotel since it is generally not a highly rated hotel by SPG members. There are very few suites and I have never had anything more than a standard size room in several stays. The hotel is a couple blocks off the strip and kind of a letdown when there are so many great values in the major casino hotels for the same rate as the Westin.

I really enjoy the family environment around Lake Las Vegas and the Ravella property and now the Westin Lake Las Vegas. I think this is a great addition for Starwood Hotels.

Here is a Loyalty Traveler post from August 2009 on Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort. I also did a piece on Ravella Lake Las Vegas in June 2011 when there was a $59 rate. This piece has links to two other posts with photos of the former Ritz-Carlton property.

Las Vegas Sun (March 28) -

Loews hotel at Lake Las Vegas switching to Westin brand.

I just got off the phone with my mother. She celebrated her birthday this week at the Wynn in Las Vegas. Mom needed to vent her frustrations.

So why does my Mom say she will boycott the Wynn hotel now?

My sisters prepaid her hotel stay. Turns out that when my mother checked into the Wynn she was asked for the credit card used to prepay the hotel room. She told the desk agent that the room was a birthday gift from her daughters, and then the desk agent asked if her daughter had given her the credit card for check-in.

“Why would I have my daughter’s credit card?” was my mother’s reply.

Read More…