It's an easy mistake that anyone could be forgiven for making -- and one which has been positively encouraged by the owner(s) of the other, subsequent Thunderbird Hotel to which you refer. While the Thunderbird Hotel & Casino debuted in 1948 on the site of what's currently Fontainebleau, previously Wet n' Wild water park, its diminutive namesake was originally named the Lotus Motel and was located further to the north, at 1215 S Las Vegas Blvd., opposite what's now the Stratosphere. Here's the story.
When Bob Stupak's notorious "VIP Vacation Package" actually turned out to be a success, the self-styled Polish Maverick found him short of accommodation at the 100-room Vegas World, so he began buying up neighboring motels to use for the overflow joints (much to the understandable chagrin of some customers). These low-rent properties included Vegas World Manor, Vegas World Chalet, the Sulinda, Viva Las Vegas Villas, the 93-room Thunderbird Hotel, and 156-toom Thunder Inn motel (plus the neighboring Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel).
In due course, an additional tower was added to Vegas World, today incorporated into Stupak's Stratosphere, and by 1999 their owner evidently no longer had any use for the low-rent properties across the street, after his dream of building a 15-story $400 million Titanic-themed resort on the site hit an iceberg-sized obstacle in the form of local-resident opposition and a zoning-change refusal from Las Vegas City Council.
Stupak quietly sold the whole parcel to local businessman Douglas DaSilva for $5.35 million, but the transaction didn't stay quiet for long. In typical Stupakian style, the situation quickly descended into a mess of legal wranglings over alleged outstanding liens, a liquor-license dispute, title claims, unpaid legal and utility bills, breaches of contract, and personal property including a safe of Stupak's containing some (so he claimed) genuine Moon rocks, among other things.
While the opposing parties battled it out in court, DaSilva invested a small fortune into stripping and refurbishing the Southwestern-themed motel and attempting to improve its dubious image. "When we first got the property, the clientele were of a somewhat unsavory nature," he commented at the time. Still, by 2003 the reviews on sites like TripAdvisor were no less charitable, chronicling a shopping list of complaints that ranged from untimely repairs that resulted in lumps of plaster raining down from the ceiling, to bedbugs, electric shocks, and a distinctly dubious parking lot. Given a choice, travelers on a budget were advised to sleep in their car before they took a room at The Thunderbird.
How exactly the legal quagmire resolved itself, we're not sure, but fast forward a decade or so and we find Mr DaSilva in some financial hot water, claiming to have personally lost $20 million in the course of the previous decade. His boutique Artisan Hotel (originally purchased as a Travelodge, around the same time as The Thunderbird) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Dec. 2008 and the following year was temporarily shut down by a health inspection that found mold in the ice machines, bugs in the alcohol, and mouse droppings, among other nasties. DaSilva pleaded guilty to writing a bad check and filed for personal bankruptcy, still owing millions to investors in his numerous real estate enterprises (which were not limited to Nevada).
While the Artisan was purchased by the Siegel Group (owners of Rumor, the Lodge on Mt. Charleston, and the weekly-rental apartment complexes around town), The Thunderbird also changed hands in 2010 and was (ambitiously) renamed the Aruba Hotel & Spa by buyer Wes Isbutt, formerly of downtown's Arts Factory. The Aruba dubbed itself "historic" and intimated that its Thunderbird Lounge was one and the same as the showroom at the original Thunderbird Hotel (even going so far as to mimic the original's color scheme and thunderbird statue on the facade -- see below). The claim was entirely spurious but fooled more than a few hapless travelers (not to mention some travel websites), yet the venue did at least start hosting some interesting live entertainment, including a series of shows staged by off-duty cast members from Cirque du Soleil.
The reviews didn't get any better, however -- when we checked in (metaphorically speaking) in 2011/'12, we found references to broken elevators, missing towels, dirty rooms, soggy chicken wings, below-average service, a dance floor that was "somewhat dingy and could use a good scrub," and double charges on bills. Hence, it was of little surprise when, without fanfare or warning, in 2014 the Aruba closed-up shop.
Fast forward again, this time to the beginning of this year, when there came an announcement that current Isbutt and his business partner, Ilan Gorodezki, were pumping some $3.5 million into the Aruba in order to restore what will once more be known as The Thunderbird to some former glory that it never actually possessed. When their vision is complete (this summer, if all goes according to plan), the entire place will have received a "Palm Springs"-style makeover, with retro shades of The Peppermill aesthetic informing the decor in the bar area, apparently. The showroom will be revived, with standing room for 400 and live entertainment nightly, although reports do not clarify whether or not the three-story property will offer accommodation or not. Stay tuned!
As an interesting post script, in the course of researching this answer we came across an interesting interview with Bob Stupak in Lawrence Mullen's appropriately titled academic work, Las Vegas: Media and Myth, in which the former casino owner describes how "the first time I came to Las Vegas in 1965 ... I stayed for about a week or so I stayed at the Thunderbird Hotel. When I was came back to the hotel about 3:00, 4:00 in the morning, I was hungry, so I went to the counter in the coffee shop. The waitress came over and and said, 'What would you like for breakfast, lunch, or dinner?' Just that little question and I knew I was in the right place. I knew I was where I should be. I cam back plenty of times and decided to settle down here, only to get into the gaming business. There's Las Vegas and that's Flatsville. Flatsville is the rest of the world."
