The result is a mostly successful one in both areas, although those two conflicting clienteles and missions mean that neither hits a home run due to some inevitable clashes of style and direction.

The hotel, located just West of the Strip on Flamingo road (across the street from The Rio), is done in Vegas-meets-Palm-Beach-trendy with lots of muted tropical colors, plenty of plants, a ton of wood and stonework, and some eye pleasing shapes and textures. There is nary a hard edge in the most of the public spaces or casino, rather soft curves and round shapes lending a pleasant ebb and flow.

The casino dominates most of the main floor and it offers everything you need in a casino including all the latest slots, a lot of video poker machines, a sports book, keno and poker rooms, a high-limit salon, and all the table games you may want.

Around the fringes of the casino you'll find the restaurants and other diversions like a food court with a McDonald's and Panda Express among others, a 14-screen movie theater complex, a palm reader (get it?), a tattoo parlor, a sundry store, a Kids Quest arcade/entertainment facility for the children in your life, a beautiful pool deck, and a fully-equipped spa and salon offering all the latest treatments and pamperings.

The dramatic 40-plus story hotel tower features ghostbar, a super-trendy nightclub with unparalleled views of the city from their observatory deck, and Alize, a French eatery from the guy that runs local favorite Andre's.

A second tower has more rooms, more nightclubs, a recording studio for the many musicians who call the place "home away from home," and some exotic suites including one that has its own basketball court. Seriously.

A third tower is all condominiums ranging in price from expensive to unbelievably expensive. Leonardo DiCaprio is reportedly one of the people who has bought into the joint. Some of the units are available for rental but I doubt you can stay in Leo's place. Don't steal anything if you do.

The guest rooms are elegant in a modern sort of way with unbelievably comfortable beds (I didn't want to get up), huge lighted armoires, giant TVs with pay-per-view movies and high-speed Internet connections (complete with wireless keyboards), high-speed Internet, big bathrooms, a small writing desk and additional furnishings (depending on your room configuration), and other more standard amenities like iron and board, in-room safe, and coffee service.

I loved the rooms (and did I mention the beds) here - a great place to spend your time when you're not spending it gambling your life savings away. This is the kind of room (and did I mention the beds) that make you want to luxuriate instead of run around like a madman in Vegas.

A couple of minor complaints - the green light from the safe glared out from the armoire like some sort of alien tractor beam. It was disconcerting to wake up to in the middle of the night. Also, the towel rack is located inside the shower, so by the time I was done scrubbing my bubbles (so to speak) the towels were all wet.

But obviously those are minor complaints that may have been addressed by the time you stay there. The more major complaints are not directed at the rooms, but rather the hotel itself.

First, the elevators to the guest rooms in the main tower are located in the same area as the entrance to many of the clubs. This means that on many nights you're going to have to negotiate your way through ridiculous crowds of trendy party-goers - not a lot of fun when you're exhausted and just want to go lie down.

And then there's those party-goers themselves, which brings up the conflicts of mission the hotel is suffering from. Since the clubs aggressively court a young, happening crowd they attract a certain audience that may not jibe with the people who are staying in the hotel. I've lived in Los Angeles for over 20 years and have been a bouncer in a nightclub, so I'm not easily intimidated, but some of the people I ran into in the parking garage and on my way to my room intimidated me a little. Your average middle-aged couple from Ohio would be scared to death, which is meant neither as an insult to middle-aged couples, Ohio, or the club goers - just a reality.

So you have the locals - mostly retired folks - sitting there playing video poker and lining up for the buffet, while you have hordes of 20-something club kids playing "look at me" games and lining up for the nightclubs. It's a strange mix and I can't believe that either group is 100% comfortable with the other.

Prices are pretty good - as low as $159 on the weekends and as low as $89 during the week. As usual, busier times mean higher prices so don't take that as gospel.

Service was another area where I had some complaints. The bell desk and front desk employees had a little bit of "I can't be bothered" attitude, adding irritation to an already annoying bill miscalculation that was much more difficult to fix than it really should've been. However, I may have just caught them on a bad day so I won't indict the entire place on my one experience.

So if you can remove that demographic problem from the mix, The Palms is a terrific hotel, offering lots of dining and entertainment options, lively gaming, beautiful and very comfortable rooms (did I mention the beds), and more at a very respectable price.

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