Golf Club Motor Hotel Las Vegas History: A Vintage Las Vegas Strip Gem from the 1960s

A Motor Hotel with a Golf-Club Soul

Tucked into the northeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue in the early 1960s, the Golf Club Motor Hotel stood as one of the Strip’s most charming mid-century lodging spots. Directly across from the Tropicana Hotel and right beside the Tropicana Country Club, this 100-to-150-room property gave travelers a tasteful, smaller-scale alternative to the booming casino resorts. Advertised variously as the Golf Club Motel, Golf Club Hotel, or Golf Club Motor Hotel, it leaned into its identity with a towering roadside sign that promised golf, swimming, and a slower kind of Vegas vacation.

Private Pools and a 19th Hole Bar

What set the Golf Club apart from its Strip neighbors was something genuinely extraordinary for the era: private pool suites. Former employee Patrick Moreo recalled that several rooms actually contained their own individual swimming pools—not mere hot tubs, but full pools built into suite layouts. In a decade when most motels offered a shared community pool at best, this was a luxury that made the property legendary among regulars and transient tourists alike.

The golf theme extended indoors, too. Bill Hofferd, a longtime Las Vegas hotel and casino executive, operated the 19th Hole Bar on the property. It was a casual gathering spot where guests could swap stories after a round on the neighboring Tropicana course, and notable names like entertainer Rudy Vallée reportedly stayed overnight.

From Movie Set to MGM Grand

The Golf Club’s distinctive architecture caught a filmmaker’s eye when one of its pool suites served as a location in the exploitation film Las Vegas Strangler, giving the little motel a small but permanent footnote in Las Vegas film history.

By 1975, the property shed its golf identity and became the Baron Hotel, followed by the Mariner Hotel in 1977 under Airport Casino Inc., and the Casino Hotel around 1978. The building closed in late 1979, and the structures lingered a few more years before demolition. The site was converted to parking for the neighboring Marina Hotel, and today the entire footprint sits within the sprawling MGM Grand complex.

Standing at that corner of Tropicana and Las Vegas Boulevard, it’s hard to imagine the modest motor hotel that once glowed under neon there. Yet the Golf Club Motor Hotel reminds us that vintage Las Vegas wasn’t just about colossi—it was also about intimate motels with private pools, golf-club lounges, and a promise of a simpler, sun-soaked kind of escape.