If you're looking for a hotel on the strip with all the looks of a murder-infested motel, Imperial Palace is for you. Getting there was an adventure in itself. There is a driveway accessible from both directions on the strip. The driveway goes in between the Imperial Palace and Harrah's. The husband I are semi-educated, literate adults, so when I saw two signs, one pointing to Imperial's Valet service and the other pointing to self-parking, I took the one that said self parking. That was a mistake. It actually led to Harrah's parking garage. Fifteen minutes later, we made our way back to the same driveway and this time to the right turn. Once we were in it, we saw the sign on a pillar (behind another concrete pillar) that pointed the way to Imperial's self serve parking.\n\nPARKING IS AWFUL.\n\nCheck-in was breezy. And then there were the elevators. Stained carpets, cigarette butts, and graffiti. Run down with outdated decor, I can handle. But their standard of cleanliness did not inspire any trust in me.\n\nOnce we got to the room, we checked drawers, bathroom, and so on, as people are wont to do in a new place. Couple of things: There was a spot of blood on the wall in the bathroom. In the bottom drawer of the TV cabinet, there were papers from a previous guest dated two weeks ago. It was a sales list with the name, address and credit card number of some person who'd been there before us. Two possibilities: The last guest had shoved his papers in the drawer and had forgotten them and housekeeping does not do a thorough check of the room after a guest has departed....or, housekeeping is so lax that someone just decided to shove trash hurriedly into a drawer instead of actually cleaning up.\n\nI was hungry and the husband suggested room service. I rolled my eyes and didn't even consider it. If this was the mess they let guests see, I don't want to eat anything that comes from behind closed doors.\n\nAll in all, Imperial Palace is less of a hidden gem, than it is something that should probably stay buried.