Touring Circa’s New Platinum Floor Before Its Public Debut

^{Every room at Circa has a king bed, even in this standard room on the resort's newest Platinum Floor. (Photo: Vanessa Alves-Johnson / Casinos.com)} 

Weeks before Circa Hotel and Casino unveils its newest luxury rooms for public booking, Casinos.com got an early look at what’s coming for the downtown Las Vegas property. As far as we know, Circa is the only property in Las Vegas to put custom king-size bunk beds in a hotel suite and to break the prototypes to make sure they'd hold up.

Dustin Personius, Circa's assistant director of hotel operations, walked me room to room on the property's Platinum floors for an inside look at what's coming. Just a few minutes later, we would head to a suite to chat with Circa CEO and media darling Derek Stevens and talk through the bigger-picture thinking behind the new additions.

The hotel has added two new “Platinum Floors” and 49 rooms, including three new room types and one enhanced version of an already-royal suite. The rooms will go live for booking on Circa's website starting Sept. 1, timed before the NFL season unleashes a wave of demand for hotels from people looking to experience sports in Vegas.

"We had this crazy idea that we would take one or two of the Founder's Suites and turn them into a ‘Founder's Entourage’ with king-sized bunk beds, meaning you can bring your entourage with you," Personius said.

Exploring The Platinum Floor: Bunk Beds In A Suite?

Our tour started off in the Circa Studio, an enhanced version of an existing room type that's already in this hotel. There are about six of those rooms in total, though only two have a floating wall separating the king bedroom from the living room.

The rooms have a Murphy-style folding bed behind that wall, with the same mattress, bedding, and headboard as a standard king bed. So anyone who is banished to sleep on the hotel's couch doesn't have to compromise on their sleep quality, unlike a typical sofa sleeper would.

Views from a Strip View room on one of the Platinum Floors. You’ll get a great view, but the sunlight can creep in at sunrise. (Photos: Vanessa Alves-Johnson / Casinos.com)

During the tour, we checked out the new Platinum King rooms, which offer sweeping views of Sunrise Mountain and the east Las Vegas Valley. But those views come with a trade-off. With the suites so high up, the sunrise can be brutal for anyone who stays in that room with the curtains open.

“Close those blackout curtains at night because that sun is just brutal in the morning,” Personius said. “It'll wake you up after a night in Vegas when you might not be quite ready.”

The biggest addition on the floor is the Founder’s Entourage Suite. The name is pretty fitting, considering that it can sleep so many people. Circa has about six Founder’s Suites in total, and the team is converting two of them into Entourage-style units with two bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, a living room, and a bar, all in the same unit.

Who would’ve thought to put king bunk beds in a suite? I’m sure a high roller will attempt to recreate The Hangover in one of these massive rooms. (Photo: courtesy of Circa)

When the room goes live to the public, that second bedroom will have two sets of king-sized bunk beds with custom staircase work to reach the top bunk. Only one of the bedrooms in the Founder Suites has the bunk setup, while the other is a traditional second bedroom.

As far as Personius knows, Circa is the only property in Las Vegas to have bunk beds inside a hotel room. They feel like it's a fun touch, but still make sure the beds are built to last and can support the room and the number of people in it.

“Basically, they build the units … and then they break them to make sure they’re solid,” he said. “With a little bit of cuddling, the room itself can comfortably sleep up to 10 people.”

The additions to the new floor also include the Sunset Suite, one of the rooms Derek Stevens likes to stay in when he stays on property. It's named for the open views of the southern and southwestern parts of the Vegas Valley. I could definitely see it being easier on the eyes in the morning than the Sunrise Suites.

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_{When CEO Derek Stevens stays at Circa, he prefers the Sunset Suite. But then again, who wouldn’t like it if they could afford it? (Photos: Vanessa Alves-Johnson / Casinos.com)}

Every room inside Circa has a king bed and a refrigerator, compared to the stocked mini-bars that will ding you with a charge for even picking them up too long. The lack of predatory minibars is something that Circa is very proud of.

Reading The Room On Circa’s New Customers

Circa opened up back in December 2020 with just about 500 rooms, leaving about seven floors worth untouched for later development. Stevens told me that Circa was intentional about not using these rooms when they opened six years ago.

"We felt we needed to know a little better what the consumer wanted and know how the building and our machine ran,” Stevens said. “These are the last two floors. You have to get it right on the last two."

By October 2024, Circa had already added four floors of standard rooms, bringing the total to about 618. He feels the patient approach has paid off, as the traveler base in Las Vegas has shifted significantly.

People are coming to Vegas now with different intentions, especially as sports tourism grows. It started with boxing, and the Golden Knights and the Raiders have continued to bring people to town for expensive sporting events. Conventions and business travel only continue to keep people coming to Vegas.

All things considered, people are coming here for more than just gambling and, as a result, expecting more from where they stay. They still have offerings for the budget traveler through standard rooms and their all-inclusive package they brought back this year, but Stevens said the average Vegas visitor is more discerning in their tastes.

“I’m glad we waited until now to open it up, because it's a situation where there's higher-end customers who have different requirements to focus on in the traveler today," Stevens said. "I started coming to Vegas when it was $99 round trip from Detroit to Vegas. Those days are nothing but fond memories, and it's long gone. Consumer expectations are far, far higher than what they used to be."

The ceiling height also plays a role in the overall design of the floor. All of the rooms sit about a foot taller than the rest of the tower, which actually makes a noticeable difference when you see it in person. This was originally intended because they wanted these floors to accommodate full parlor suites before they changed course.

It made enough of a difference that the design team felt that bringing in fixtures, furniture, and equipment you might see in a suite could make a technically standard room feel more high-end. When Circa first opened, suites accounted for about 30% of the total inventory, a pretty suite-heavy mix.

Even the bathrooms in Circa’s rooms pay homage to old-school Vegas flappers and table games, while still feeling modern with gold-and-white accents. (Photo: Vanessa Alves-Johnson / Casinos.com)

According to Personius, this time their goal was to get "more heads in beds" by offering more standard rooms to get guests on property, on the casino floor, and in their meeting/events spaces, rather than just adding more suites.

The Price Of Circa’s New Top Tier

The rooms in this new addition are impressive, but so is the price. Circa’s team says that the Founder’s Entourage Suites should be done in the fall or winter, likely before the end of the year. Personius estimated that midweek off-peak rates for some of these suites are about $1,200 to $1,500 per night, but are expected to climb during football season, March Madness, and other high-demand periods in Vegas.

They specifically decided to build these this summer to take advantage of the quieter times. The summer months are usually busier on weekends, so they were able to prep these before the visitor rush in the fall and winter.

“Summer made the most sense because that’s when Vegas hotels typically have the most difficulty filling, especially midweek,” Personius said. “We’ve had the opportunity to not cause a lot of construction disturbance in the tower, especially before football season. It’s kind of like Christmas, New Year’s, and Easter wrapped into one every weekend for about 18 weeks, and it’s rapidly coming up.”

Circa is still the tallest structure in downtown Las Vegas and north of the Strip, standing at about 35 stories tall. The resort was the first gaming resort in downtown Las Vegas built from the ground up since 1980 on the site of the Las Vegas Club, Mermaids Casino, and Glitter Gulch Strip Club (where the Vegas Vickie Sign is from).

It remains a 21+ property that requires a valid ID for entry, owned by Derek Stevens and his brother, Greg Stevens, who both own The D and Golden Gate, also in downtown. They also mentioned to us that the 15th floor currently has no plans to be converted into guest rooms and is still used as an overflow and event space for larger gatherings.