A Utah traveller who searched Booking.com for a Las Vegas trip ruled out one property on its reviews, then booked a place called Palette Las Vegas instead. When she reached the address on her confirmation, she could not find Palette anywhere, because the closest thing to it was the hotel she tried to avoid.
Ariana Patiño (@arianampatino), a Utah medical assistant and nursing student, told the story in a video that has drawn more than 62,800 views and some local media coverage.
“Quick little PSA, if you’re booking a hotel in Las Vegas, watch this before you book so that you don’t have to go through what we went through,” she says.
She had looked at OYO Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, the 696-room property near the south end of the Strip that spent years as the Hooters Casino Hotel, and passed on it. “It just had a lot of bad reviews, like it didn’t look really clean, and so I was like, we’ll steer away from that one,” she says. “Come to find out we got booked there anyway.”
How Did She End Up At OYO?
Her confirmation gave the address as 117 Tropicana Avenue. “We have the GPS going and we can’t see the hotel. We’re like, where’s Palette, where’s Palette,” she says. “Sometimes places in Vegas are kind of hidden, so I was like, maybe we took a wrong turn.” After circling, she pulled into the OYO car park and rang the number on the reservation. The agent took her confirmation number and told her to head inside. “Ma’am, I didn’t book at OYO. Where’s Palette?”
The photograph used on the Palette listing for the registration area was the desk in front of her. “When I walked in, I looked at my sister and I was like, this is it, this is the hotel,” she says. “We ask the receptionist like, Palette Las Vegas, what up, and she goes, oh, that’s us.” Patiño says she was told the hotel “just put the listing up to see which ad will gain more traction.” Local station 8 News Now, which interviewed her, noted it has not independently verified that exchange.
Others Allege Similar Bait-And-Switch Experiences
Her video set other people looking, and what they found was larger than one booking. Vital Vegas and SFGATE traced the same property advertised as both Palette Las Vegas and Collection O across Expedia, Booking.com, Travelocity, Orbitz and Trip.com, with a Palette listing appearing on OYO’s own site. Photos on those listings appeared digitally altered, with OYO’s signage swapped for other branding, and SFGATE found images of the Las Vegas Convention Center and Fremont Street, neither of which is at the hotel.
The names were not used at random. Palette is a real brand belonging to PRISM, the company that renamed itself from Oravel Stays in 2025 and whose hotel brands include OYO, Townhouse and Sunday. The same group bought Motel 6 and Studio 6 from Blackstone for $525 million in 2024. OYO’s own website puts the property at 115 East Tropicana Avenue, not the 117 on Patiño’s confirmation.
Why A Casino License Changes This
Commenters kept circling back to the same question. “Is that not false advertisement? Can’t they get in trouble for that?” asked mzsantana2024.
In Nevada it is a licensing matter rather than only a consumer one, because the building holds a gaming licence. The Nevada Gaming Commission’s regulations lists among the grounds for disciplinary action any “failure to conduct advertising and public relations activities in accordance with decency, dignity, good taste, honesty and inoffensiveness, including, but not limited to, advertising that is false or materially misleading.”
The platforms moved first. Expedia told the Las Vegas Review-Journal its policy states content “cannot use generative AI to mislead, misrepresent, or misconstrue the property to drive bookings,” and suspended both listings pending an investigation. Booking.com said it has “dedicated teams and technical tools that monitor for suspicious activity around the clock.”
By mid-August the listings were being pulled. OYO took both fake properties out of its own booking system, and Expedia marked Collection O closed, though Palette and Collection O were reportedly still showing on Trip.com at that point.
“We Had To Stay There”
Patiño asked to cancel on the grounds of false advertising and was told the cancellation policy stood, which meant forfeiting the booking plus a $200 fee. “I’m not losing all that money, so we had to stay there,” she told 8 News Now.
The thread was equal parts practical advice and sheer disbelief. “The reviews are so bad they had to disguise their name,” wrote jesswitthamess__, in the most-liked comment. Jacquesdelisles argued she should have gone straight to the platform: “The address didn’t match and the name doesn’t match. This is a safety risk and unacceptable.”
Patiño, meanwhile, had little patience for the people telling her she should have known. “I made this video to raise awareness so it doesn’t happen to other people,” she wrote. “Maybe let’s blame the corporation that is making two false advertisements of hotels that don’t exist to trick people, instead of blaming the people it happens to.”
Via email, OYO told BoardingArea, “As part of our broader dual-brand strategy for the different accommodation options at the property, we were evaluating how different blocks, or room categories could be positioned under different brands. However, the listing went live while the related renovations and signage at the property were still being completed.”
OYO added, “We urgently reviewed how this happened and have taken immediate steps to correct the affected listings and ensure that they are made available only once the relevant renovations are complete.”
The brand said they would reach out directly to those affected and offer replacement accommodation or refunds, and concluded, “We sincerely regret the confusion and inconvenience caused. Our priority is to do the right thing by our guests and ensure they are treated fairly and appropriately.”
BoardingArea reached out to Patiño via TikTok direct message and to PRISM and Booking.com by email for comment.
@arianampatino PART 1 of 3: Vegas travelers BEWARE 🚨 I specifically chose not to book OYO after reading the reviews, booked ‘Palette Las Vegas’ instead, and somehow ended up at OYO anyway. 😳 Sharing our experience so other people know to double check these listings before booking! @booking.com #lasvegas #VegasHotels #bookingdotcom #vegastravel #oyohotel ♬ original sound – Ariana Patiño
