How to find a hotel in Las Vegas with a freezer?

January 9, 2019 8:48 PM

I have to go to Las Vegas for a conference in March. I need to find accommodations with an actual freezer in the room to keep my medical ice packs cold. The conference hotels can't help me, and I am not sure how to find a place that will work out!

For a neck injury, I use gel ice packs that must be frozen in a real freezer—not those little shelves in mini-fridges. When traveling, I normally stay at either at an Airbnb or an apartment-style hotel room.

I am going to a work conference in Las Vegas at the Sands Expo Convention Center. I called the attached hotels, The Venetian and The Palazzo, and they can not provide a freezer for my room. Neither can the other conference hotel, Treasure Island.

I realize that there are dozens of hotels in Las Vegas and I can just start calling them, but I have no idea how to narrow them down either by convenience to the conference or by probability that they can accommodate me. I have never been to Vegas before and I don't know the geography. I am open to staying at an Airbnb, but I can't tell how far away the available options are. I would like to stay close to the conference, but I realize that might not be feasible.

MeFi, please hope me!

posted by radioamy to Travel & Transportation around Las Vegas, NV (23 answers total)

Response by poster: To clarify: open to any place with a freezer, whether it's a hotel room with a kitchen(ette), Airbnb, regular hotel room that can provide a small freezer, or anything else that I haven't yet considered!
posted by radioamy at 8:55 PM on January 9, 2019

Consider the Polo Towers. They were designed as a timeshare (and may still mostly operate as one), and their 1br and 2br units (but not the murphy bed studios) have full kitchens, with freezers.

It's a 10 minute cab from the Sands Expo/Venetian, which by Vegas standards is quite close.
posted by toxic at 9:05 PM on January 9, 2019

I would go to Kayak, set the destination as the Sands Convention Center, amenities to include kitchen/kitchenette and distance to be what works. Here are the results with distance set at 1 mile. You should be able to pick what works best and then go to the website and see if they have full size refrigerators with real freezers and then just call if you need to confirm.
posted by metahawk at 9:06 PM on January 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

What's your budget? Vdara is on the strip and has full sized refrigerators in the suites that presumably have fully functional freezers but is a bit pricey for some per diems.
posted by Candleman at 9:15 PM on January 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I have approval for the conference hotel, which is $250/night. I could probably get approval to go up a bit if I had to, given the circumstances.
posted by radioamy at 9:31 PM on January 9, 2019

Or! Could you make the case that between Uber/Lyft/taxi fares and the time you waste commuting, it’s worth your company’s while to spend $129 to ship a mini freezer to the conference hotel?
posted by slmorri at 12:14 AM on January 10, 2019 [3 favorites]

We stayed at the Marriott Grand Chateau on our honeymoon; it’s a timeshare resort and our suite had a full kitchen. Looks very close to the conference center.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:11 AM on January 10, 2019

Would bringing along a good small cooler work? You could keep refilling with fresh ice throughout your stay, and your ice packs would stay nice and frozen nestled in the ice.
posted by fourpotatoes at 1:36 AM on January 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

Assuming that you mean a regular freezer = something that can keep a temperature of -20C:

If you're really stuck you could submerge your neck packs in an ice/salt bath. You can easily get to -20 using a 3:1 ratio of ice and normal table salt (by weight) and if you're willing to go to calcium chloride you can get as low as -30C. This would allow you to just use the ice machines in the hotel with a ready supply of salt.

I don't think that a normal cooler will work for you as I am assuming that they would need to be kept at a lower temperature than 0C, which is what you would reach with ice alone.
posted by koolkat at 2:02 AM on January 10, 2019 [2 favorites]

I used to have issues with needing ice packs. We changed over to those ice bags you see in old cartoons. you open it up, add some ice cubes, done.

Amazon
posted by tilde at 2:21 AM on January 10, 2019 [4 favorites]

When I go to Vegas, I stay at the Platinum Hotel, which is a block off the strip and not fancy in any way, but rooms are really big and clean and nice and include a full-sized kitchen with a full-sized fridge/freezer.

Other than that, you probably need to filter for extended-stay brands like Hilton’s Homewood Suites or Marriott’s Residence Inn.
posted by thejoshu at 4:10 AM on January 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

I’ve stayed at the Palms which had a full size, actually oversized, fridge/freezer combo in the room with a kitchenette. I booked it on one of those last minute apps so I can’t speak to the price but you could give them a call.
posted by rdnnyc at 5:04 AM on January 10, 2019

I would ask the front desk at the hotel to keep them in a freezer they have access to...might not work but worth asking.
posted by agregoli at 5:57 AM on January 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

The Hilton Grand Vacations on the Las Vegas Strip property offers suites which have full refrigerators. It's at the, um, quiet end of the strip and only 1.5 miles to the Sands Expo Center. I've stayed there and it's nice, but they do not offer usual strip amenities like a full service restaurant or bar.
posted by Vek at 7:00 AM on January 10, 2019

We stayed at the D downtown in a suite that i believe had a full fridge. might try that if you don't mind being downtown.

might be a better price than a suite elsewhere and it was awesome.
posted by domino at 7:25 AM on January 10, 2019

It's a weird idea but a friend of mine who travels a lot for work once bought a mini fridge with freezer and had it shipped to a hotel for storing breast milk. It feels quite wasteful but might be the easiest way. She also frequently got hotels to put her pumped milk in the freezer for the staff, so that can definitely work as well.
posted by ch1x0r at 8:41 AM on January 10, 2019

Extended stay hotels, like the Marriott Residence Inn, usually have full sized fridge/freezers in their kitchenettes. There are a few near the strip.
This one is not far from the Expo Center.
posted by topher74 at 8:47 AM on January 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

I've had hotels put ice packs (for baby's bottle on road trips) the hotel-restaurant freezer. It's worth calling the concierge desk and asking.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 9:16 AM on January 10, 2019

When I needed access to a real freezer the hotel accommodated me by placing my items in the kitchen freezer, with the courtesy that I was allowed to enter the kitchen and find an employee to pull my stuff out.

That might be a difficult request at a very large hotel, but you might try a smaller hotel, or you might talk with a concierge at a larger hotel and see how they handle this. A larger hotel might accommodate you via the security/ first aid office rather than one of their larger restaurants.
posted by vignettist at 9:53 AM on January 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: This is all helpful so far!

I hadn't thought of ordering a freezer and having it put in the room—I am not sure of the logistics of that, how would that work?
posted by radioamy at 10:18 AM on January 10, 2019

You've had a bunch of suggestions already, but the one bedroom suites at The Signature at MGM Grand have kitchens with full size refrigerators. The junior suites do not. Note that it's a hybrid condo hotel, so you can book through MGM (at that link) or find numerous individual units on things like VRBO or presumably AirBNB (the latter of which didn't exist the last time I planned a stay there). If you book through MGM you'll get daily housekeeping and be on the hook for a resort fee. If you book through VRBO make sure you really understand what your services and fees will be. Some owners only do housekeeping at the end of your rental, and they may charge cleaning fees or deposits that change the total rate by quite a bit. If you like the idea of that property make sure you shop around for the best total package for you (and your employer's booking and expense system).
posted by fedward at 10:26 AM on January 10, 2019

Answering the question of how to get a fridge shipped to the hotel, my friend called the front desk and got a manager, then ordered it on amazon prime same day to her name, care of the manager on duty's name at the hotel.
posted by ch1x0r at 9:29 AM on January 11, 2019

Response by poster: Update: The conference expanded to another hotel, The Wynn, which is where I am staying. I had to call a couple different times, but finally got a Front Desk Manager who made some calls and found out that they have a few cube freezers available for this type of situation, and they'll make a note to put one in my room! He said they don't get the request often so not everyone knows about it.
posted by radioamy at 10:40 AM on March 23, 2019 [1 favorite]