Harrah’s Council Bluffs Hotel and Casino

We were leery about staying here after reading some bad reviews, & it was 5 years or so since our last visit. We were here Monday-Wednesday. Arrived early (before noon). We were welcomed & able to check in with no problem. Even though h the description for the rooms has no mention of a refrigerator, we were pleasantly surprised to find one. All personnel greeted us warmly. We were disappointed that there is only one restaurant open on the days we visited, but many places have done the same since the dreaded Covid. At least they provide a shuttle to their sister property where there are a couple of more dining options to pick from. The tub did drain sluggishly, but the pressure was great. They do need to invest in new pillows. Those were not good at all. Yes, we will be back. It would be great to add safes to the rooms, too.

Vending machines are out of service. No water at the front desk, we had to go to the casino and get carded just to get water. Casino is ridiculous about carding. My husband and I are nearly 40 and got carded every time we entered, even if we ran to the room and came back to the same person. Horseshoe casino, ran by same company down the street. seemed to use more common sense on age than Harrahs. A lot of older slot machines and not a large casino. Hotel staff was friendly and restaurant staff. Casino staff not as friendly. Rooms are dated. Would not stay again, there are better places out there.

We first stayed here 20 years ago. Couple years ago when we stayed there was question in our minds whether we wanted to try it again. This august we did and we won’t return. Walking in the property has not been cared for. The landscaping is not maintained with weeds and trees going everywhere. Construction is going on, I asked front desk clerk the plans. She said parking lot and replacing sky lights and plans for plumbing. Nope not the rooms. Rooms are dated. We got half pillows. The bed post shakes and the towels were worse than motel 6. No bottles of water in the room. Not even the overpriced bottles. Casino was also dated and not enjoyable. We had dinner at 360. Food was great, service was great and we liked our drinks. Again dated bar and restaurant. Maybe we will go back to eat and skip the hotel and casino but doubt it. So sad the days of this being a hopping nice place are past.

The overall room was in better shape than the Kansas City location, but did have a few issues. Drain in bathtub drained very slowly-water was ankle deep when taking a shower. Hot water faucet leaked water over vanity. Main lobby is under major construction-some construction noise. Front desk staff was not friendly or helpful compare to other Harrah properties. I asked for the phone number to another Caesar property close by-Horseshoe-they said they didn't know the number (really!). Took 3 separate attempts over 4 hours to get extra supplies from House Keeping. Neither they or the Front Desk will answer the phone. I was charged an extra $10 fee for my reservation upon check out, their website was down when I tried to make the reservation online (2 times over 2 days) and had to make the reservation thru the toll free number.

Stayed at Harrah's Council Bluffs and overall terrible. Was very tired of hearing from staff " nobody wants to work". Trying to get a waitress playing machines was very frustrating. The ordering your own drink on the computers weren't working on half of the machines. Valet parking was closed. House keeping did not clean our room and had all day to clean it. Most of the time when I would ask staff the why's and how comes it was " nobody wants to work"