Royal Resort Closes and Nobody Notices

By Scott Roeben, on September 23 2021

2 min read 24 comments

An off-Strip hotel, Royal Resort, appears to have closed with little fanfare.

Sorry, zero fanfare.

In fact, pretty much nobody even noticed the hotel closed. An entire hotel. Weird.

Royal Resort Las Vegas — Royal Resort’s demise has been met with what’s referred to in the hospitality industry as a “shrug.”

Following a report Royal Resort (“resort” is used very loosely here) closed, we called and the number’s been disconnected.

We then reached out to the owner of the property, GWP Real Estate. While the company wouldn’t provide any information, we were given a number for the property manager. That number led to a voicemail not accepting messages.

So, while we haven’t been able to get official confirmation, it appears the Royal Resort has passed on, is bereft of life, has kicked the bucket and shuffled off its mortal coil.

Royal Hotel is an ex-hotel.

Royal Resort closed — Dibs on the piano.

Insult to injury, the owners let Royal Hotel’s domain name expire without renewal.

We didn’t visit Royal Resort often, as it didn’t have a casino, but we saw a show or two at its Majestik Theatre.

The space saw its share of niche (low budget) shows, including “Judy’s Musical Matinee,” “Dr. A’s Magic Medicine Show,” “Sinatra Up Close and Personal,” “The Magic of Michael Aslan” and “An Intimate Night With Elvis.”

In 2017, we interviewed cast members of “Majestik Burlesque” for our podcast. They were very nice.

The Royal Hotel was home to The Barrymore, a faily well-received restaurant that has definitely permanently closed.

There were big plans for the 230-room Royal Hotel back in 2015, but drama ensued. What might have been.

GWP Real Estate owns not only Royal Hotel, but also “the consecutive lots to the east and west of the Royal Hotel, which consist of a 43,470 square foot shopping center on 3.7 acres and and a 306,000 square foot office building on 3.3 acres, for a total of 10.5 acres fronting on South Las Vegas Boulevard.”

GWP’s Web site says there are “plans to develop a future high rise hotel and casino.”

The history of Las Vegas is littered with “plans.”

While the closure of Royal Resort has been met with a collective “meh,” it’s in a pretty good location at 99 Convention Center Drive, in close proximity to the newly-expanded Las Vegas Convention Center.

Royal Resort is also very close to Tacos El Gordo, so there’s that.

We didn’t want the closure of Royal Resort to go completely unnoticed, so there’s a this, a reasonable facsimile of fanfare. You’re welcome.

Next up

First Word: Kestrel Planned for Area 15

September 23 2021 — 2 min read — 1 comments

24 Comments

Michael April 29, 2024

I been trying to book a room there this weekend just to have no ring or answer. I like this hotel, it offered free parking, no resort fees and price was great. The rooms were great. Wish they didn't close
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Albert January 13, 2024

I was a casino dealer there back in 1990. I got a job at the Sahara and left there. A week after I left the casino shut down.
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Rich September 25, 2023

The Royal was my Go To place for quite a few years attending CES and back in the day, ComDex. I was seriously dissappointed to not be able to stay there. It was priced right, and a whole lot nicer then staying at Marty Grau or The Rose (which is also closed now).
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Larry R February 2, 2023

My wife and I stay at this hotel several times over the years. We loved it, it was quite, clean and we always enjoyed our stay. One of two reasons we like it was the price, always family affordable, and secondly was the "No ripoff resort fee" charged by all of the other hotels in the area.
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John F December 30, 2022

Oh, I noticed it closed! Very disappointed. I loved the Royal Resort. Stayed there a few times for trade shows. Easy walk to LVCC. Rates were reasonable with no ridiculous resort fees or parking fees. The rooms were dated but thats why it was such a good bargain. This was the last place of it kind near the strip so its worth writing an article about it. Thanks for doing so!
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Chris Clawson December 17, 2022

I worked at the Royal hotel and casino, yes casino from 1996 to 2005. It was a small casino with about 100 slots and two blackjack tables. The casino closed about 2003. Time share took over around 2000. Mr. Rothman owned the hotel and casino until he retired. It was a very busy hotel during conventions. I worked both hotel and the cashier cage. I had to leave to take care of my sick dad in Sun City Arizona in 2005. It was fun working there.
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Rich August 22, 2022

I loved the Royal, and stayed there many many times, for the CES Convention, and a few others. It was the perfect place to stay for conventions. I stayed there shortly before it closed, and there was no indication of anything "Up". I found it was closed when I went to book my stay for CES in 2022. I will miss staying there, as now I have to find something else.
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Goddess goddess March 7, 2022

1-4-21. My timeshare. Returned my maintenance fee. Plus 500.00 dollars to sale my week back to them. Some lie about a fire at the resort And the building was damaged. So I don’t have that fee increase every year Any more. I did love the location.
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Joy Paice February 6, 2022

Iv stayed there about 6 times...a gem of a hotel..no resort fees and easy access to the strip..lovely pool..I'm very upset this has closed as I loved it..very sad
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larry February 3, 2022

Wondered what happened. Very Sad News for us "common" folk. I stayed at the Royal for at least 15 years while attending the NAB Convention. It was a pleasant stay, clean, reasonably comfortable, quiet, with a very friendly, helpful staff. I met some very nice people and had some good chats with them. An easy check-in. The pool was quiet and well-maintained. There was no casino, but so what ??!! That actually made the Royal more attractive. It was a great location for conventions. It was a short walk to and from the Convention Center without wasting time and money on shuttles or cabs. If you wanted casinos or shows, it was easy to get to the strip. And just up the block, breakfast at Denny's and fantastic Mexican take-out across the street. No, the Royal wasn't a high-rolling, fancypants Las Vegas "resort". It was a reasonably priced place to get a good rest for the next day of Conventioning. And for those who drove in, parking was free and there were no highway robbery "resort" fees. Truth is, LV lost a good place to the over-Commercialized flops we are left with.
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Jan Medjesky September 25, 2021

Went there about 2 or 3 years ago to see Zamora, a weird show. It was held in a regular room in the hotel on maybe the third floor. While waiting to go up people came to see the show and wanted to use the restroom on the first floor while waiting. Were told the restroom was not working on the first floor. “We will get someone to take you to a room upstairs with a working bathroom, then come back down to wait”. As if that wasn’t enough, the show we finally saw in a converted “showroom” held some chairs for the 12 people that attended. The “stage” was the end of the room with a black curtain backdrop. He was supposedly a magician or whatever. All I remember was when he shoved a needle through his arm. Zamora was the only person we ever saw. After the show there was a counter by the door with all kinds of creepy “things” to buy. Really glad I didn’t pay for this show. Strangest thing I ever saw.
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Boulder Steve September 24, 2021

Out of sight..out of mind. And now out of business
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smoothgrh September 24, 2021

I wanted to visit that place because I read that Frank Sinatra's pianist, Joe Vento, played there and had a huge repertoire of songs. The latest news was he turned 100 in the hospital back in 2017, and there has been no news of him since. I called a few years ago and an employee said he no longer performs there.
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Michael Alexakis September 24, 2021

I once had a Royale with cheese, in Amsterdam, the kooks over there dip their fries in mayo...
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Jaxon September 24, 2021

Buying the Royal for its land, isn’t as hard as it sounds. The timeshare company that owned the building and land could have just unlisted the property as a possible resort to stay at, giving them the opportunity to sell the property to the highest bidder. I’m kind of surprised that the Jockey Club or whatever that is surrounded by Cosmopolitan, hasn’t been bought out.
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Gregm September 24, 2021

Although it's ages old, LVA did a QOD on the Jockey Club. Interesting read.... https://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/question/2013-10-02/
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William Wingo September 24, 2021

In 1986, I went to a Jockey Club timeshare promo and got free tickets to "Legends in Concert," but passed on the timeshare itself. It's almost incredible what it's morphed into since then. Debbie Reynolds was also into timeshares, but apparently they didn't sell very well and that didn't prevent it being imploded eventually. I stayed there in 2002 when it was the Greek Isles, probably in one of the ex-timeshare suites. Many timeshare owners would probably take a reasonable buyout to get out from under the never-ending maintenance fees.
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William Wingo September 24, 2021

Here it is on the map: a small, inexpensive property right across from Resorts World and Encore. Can't have that. https://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.131983&lon=-115.162683&z=16&m=bh
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Beach Bum September 23, 2021

I forgot that building was called Royal Resort. I stayed at the old, nearby Debbie Reynolds property in early 2007. Back there there was still a Riviera, so that little area wasn't a bad place to stay if you aren't in a big strip resort. I would have to think the area of the former Debbie Reynolds and Royal Resort properties will eventually wind up with some big, new property that will be popular with the convention crowd given the expansion of the convention center. The footprints of the old joints were too close to the expanded convention center to remain as old, discount hotels. I haven't been down that road in a while. I remember there was some club at the end of that road. Was it the Beach, or the Shark Club, or something? I remember going there long ago. And in 2007 it looked like it was shuttered.
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Mariza Shavelle September 23, 2021

I thought Royal Resorts was in one of the timeshare programs. I've stayed there a few times. CAn they actually close a property that has timeshare owners?!? I thought as a timeshare owner, you buy a fraction of the property unit for a particular week.
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Jackson September 23, 2021

Based on what I can piece together using public sources, I think you are partially correct. The Royal Resort used to be the Royal Vacation Suites. Under that name, it was a timeshare. But when you search for real estate transactions for that address, they all are from 2013 or earlier. I'm speculating, but I'd guess that some company bought out all the timeshare owners. Also a guess, I imagine this was done primarily because that company wanted the land (and not the old building). As Scott notes above, this property was going to be something larger but those 2015 plans never happened. In general, getting the majority of owners of a multi-unit property to sell can be tough. But given the fact that the building was old, I'd bet it wasn't too difficult to get the timeshare owners to sell their interests.
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P fox September 24, 2021

I actually owned Timeshare there many years ago guess it was 2013 that it stopped. Basically the hotel was upping the costs for year maintenance until it was so high 90% of the TS owners complained, then they broke away from being apart of the international time share company. Which caused many issues as you'd bank a week or two into either the Royal resort or into the international TS companies, so if you used the international company to bank you lost those weeks. Plus the quality of the hotel went from middle to high then down to Motel 6 level. So as Owners we actually all put in for it to not be a timeshare anymore and any extra payments you owed were nulled.
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Lawrence September 23, 2021

Stayed there on a Saturday, January 2020 dirt cheap. No complaints. The peppermill was within walking distance. A highlight was one of the room TV channels played the Robert Urich show Vega$ on a loop.
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MICHAEL MICHNIAK September 23, 2021

I too stayed there about 5 years ago. It was a busy weekend and prices were high everywhere else. I did some research and read reviews first. People said to ask for a remodeled room which I did and got. The room was fine. Nothing classy or posh, but clean and quiet. The pool in the back was nice too. I think they were catering to tour groups at the time. Many foreign languages being spoken.
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Royal Resort Closes and Nobody Notices

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