Polynesian Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Triblend Tee

Description

Polynesian Hotel & Casino occupied 115 East Tropicana Avenue in Paradise, Nevada, originally the site of Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge (1973). Launched in 1985, the Polynesian reflected an attempt to capture tropical elegance on the edge of the Strip. It followed a sequence of short-lived identities—Paradise, 20th Century, Treasury, and Pacifica. The property featured a distinctive Polynesian-themed aesthetic: tiki-style décor, tropical landscaping, and the promise of island escapes, albeit modest in scale. The casino and hotel serviced convention-goers and budget travelers seeking themed ambiance without soaring room rates. The branding attempted to stand out amid nearby mega-resorts while offering an intimate alternative to the Strip’s glitz. Despite its imaginative makeover, the Polynesian Hotel & Casino struggled financially. The broader property—operating first as Howard Johnson’s and later under multiple names—never reached stability. In 1989, it became the Hotel San Remo, shifting strategies to draw new audiences. The evolution didn’t stop: it later became the Hooters Casino Hotel (2006), and eventually the modern-day OYO Hotel & Casino (2019), as the city’s hospitality landscape modernized. Though its stint under the Polynesian name was brief, the phase reflects Las Vegas’s restless spirit in the 1980s and 1990s—where theme reinventions and identity experiments were common. It offers a snapshot of the period’s themed marketing optimism: the idea that passengers on Tropicana Avenue might be transported to a South Pacific oasis in miniature form. Today, it stands as one chapter in the long, shifting narrative of a property that became a metaphor for transformation itself.