Question of the Day - 23 December 2024

No one ever accused OYO Las Vegas of being a stickler for quality and the folks there aren’t talking about their new pay-for-parking regimen.

This property has been somewhat second rate since it opened as a Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge in 1973, putting it at slightly more than 50 years old. When HoJo's went bankrupt a couple of years later, it was bought out by a group from the Riviera and renamed the Paradise. It took only six months for those owners to go belly up, due to a credit scam perpetrated by the Philadelphia mob. The new owner, a New York developer, renamed it the 20th Century; he sold it to Herb Pastor of Coin Castle fame who renamed it the Treasury and resold it to a group that went bankrupt within a year. Then it was the Pacifica, then the Polynesian. Finally, in 1989, it became the San Remo and retained the same Japanese owner till he sold it to Hooters in 2006; of course, they rebranded the joint. 

OYO finally came along in 2019 and renamed it. OYO reportedly spent $20 million in renovations, but frankly, the revolving door of owners, a distinct lack of investment, long-deferred maintenance, and other diminishing returns have left it, as the second question notes, somewhat tattered around the edges.

Which brings us to paid parking -- another strange situation. As for what the "deal" is, we can only speculate as to their motives.

For one thing, everyone’s doing it. Well, almost everyone. Casino Royale, Circus Circus, Treasure Island, and Sahara all still offer free parking. But it’s gone the way of the dodo on the south Strip and OYO, the last holdout, obviously thought it was missing the fun.

For another, it’s a way to get a pound of flesh from those customers who may be parking for free at OYO, then gambling at a nearby MGM Resorts casino like Excalibur, New York-New York, or MGM Grand, all a stone’s throw away. Besides, with Vegas Golden Knights games having resumed, OYO probably also wants a piece of the event-parking business it wouldn't otherwise get.

But will they actually get it? That's hard to say -- because as far as how it all works, we couldn't quite figure it out. 

Anthony Curtis took a ride over there to see the "deal" first hand and reports that there are no gates, so you don't get a ticket on the way in and nothing stops you from exiting without paying, at least that's visible. Instead, signs instruct you to scan a QR code that brings you to the website for the Metropolis parking service. There, you pay $8 for three hours and a flat $20 fee for each 24 hours spent by your car in the parking garage. You also pay a 99-cent service charge.

As mentioned in the first question, there's no exemption for locals, a sharp difference from MGM and Caesars policies, where locals get three hours free.

Anthony wondered if cameras record your license-plate number, but that seems unlikely to us. That technology, along with a direct connection to all 50 DMVs, plus rental-car companies, and the paperwork involved in billing people at their home addresses, then expecting people to remit $8, is delusional at best. 

Our conclusions are that OYO is preparing to install gates sometime in the near future and in the meantime, short-term parking is on the honor system (and good luck with that). We haven't been able to determine if hotel guests are now being charged $20 per 24 hours for parking, but we wouldn't be surprised. If anyone knows more than this, we're all ears.