The Inn at Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Ladies Cotton Tee

Venue History

The Inn at Las Vegas was a small hotel located at 1501 West Sahara Avenue, just west of Interstate 15 and only a short distance from the Las Vegas Strip. Opened in 1979, the four-story property represented a more modest alternative to the enormous casino resorts that dominated Las Vegas during the late 1970s. With approximately 64 guest rooms, The Inn catered largely to travelers seeking convenient accommodations near the Strip without staying inside one of its major resorts. Its location on Sahara Avenue provided quick access to the Sahara Hotel, Las Vegas Boulevard, Interstate 15, and the growing commercial districts west of the Strip. Unlike the sprawling destination hotels nearby, The Inn was compact, straightforward, and designed primarily around lodging. Vintage photographs from 1979 show the hotel using the simple name “The Inn at Las Vegas,” displayed prominently on its roadside signage. Although the property is sometimes remembered or described as the Inn Hotel Casino, surviving historical documentation does not indicate that it operated the kind of substantial casino associated with Las Vegas resort hotels, but rather a small boutique-style casino. Its true relevance instead lies in the long succession of lodging businesses that occupied the same building. During the following decades, the hotel underwent several changes in ownership and identity. By the 1990s, it operated under nationally recognized brands including Ramada and later Travelodge, with federal lodging records listing the property as the Las Vegas Inn Travelodge at the same 1501 West Sahara address. The building received its most dramatic transformation during the 2000s when it became the Artisan Hotel Boutique. The Artisan abandoned the conventional roadside-hotel atmosphere for an elaborate adults-oriented boutique concept filled with reproductions of famous artwork, dark interiors, ornate furnishings, nightlife, and a European-style pool. The Artisan closed in 2022 for another major renovation. On June 2, 2023, the property reopened as The Lexi Las Vegas, continuing the building’s hospitality tradition more than four decades after The Inn welcomed its first guests. Today, the former Inn at Las Vegas remains an unusual survivor from 1970s Las Vegas. While countless contemporary motels and small hotels have disappeared, its original structure still stands, continually reinvented as the city around it changed.