Gay Las Vegas Boutique Hotel to Reopen

Posted on: February 25, 2025, 10:49h. 

Last updated on: February 25, 2025, 12:06h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.
  • One of only two Las Vegas hotels catering to the LGBTQ+ community is set to reopen in April
  • Its closure six months ago seemed permanent
  • A new investor, in addition to the owners’ decision to purchase their own building, proved fortunate

Six months after appearing to close for good, The Bent Inn, an LGBTQ+-owned and operated boutique hotel catering to the Las Vegas gay community, is set to reopen in early April.

This promotional material advertised the Bent Inn on social media. The hotel’s motto was “bending the LGBTQ+ Las Vegas experience.” (Image: Instagram/@bentinnlasvegas)

“We’re coming again, and soon!” reads a note on its website.

The adults-only hotel and lounge opened in October 2023 at 207 N. 11th St. downtown, steps from the Fremont Street Experience. It featured 33 rooms. It closed abruptly in September 2024.

Following the closure, an Instagram update from the hotel’s co-owners, Greg Kafka and Mark Hunter, blamed “ongoing battles with our general contractor” that financially took their toll. The contractor had placed a lien on the property that prevented Kafka and Hunter from converting their construction loan.

However, Kafka told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Tuesday that recent court decisions, and an infusion of new cash, have enabled another go for the business.

“We were fortunate enough to find a great investor, and we’re just going to come back better than ever,” he told the newspaper. “We listened, we learned and we are making it better based on those observations. And that’s going to be the cool part.”

One of the improvements is reflected in the hotel’s complete name. It was changed from the Bent Inn & Gastropub to the Bent Inn & Lounge Bar, with a shift in its restaurant toward shareable small plates.

Moonlight Shadow

The main reason Hunter and Kafka — a married couple who previously owned two gay men’s resorts in Palm Springs — can reopen the Bent Inn is they had no landlord to throw them out. They purchased the building that houses the hotel in 2020 for $1.9 million, according to Redfin.

The building opened in 1963 as the Moonlight Motel, whose biggest claim to fame was inspiring the 1984 Gun Club song, “Moonlight Motel,” which was written from the viewpoint of a downtown Las Vegas prostitute.

In the early aughts, the rundown Moonlight switched hands and became known as the Cheyenne before being converted into the low-rent Cerrito Apartments.

The Bent Inn hasn’t had the best of luck. Pandemic-related problems delayed its opening from early 2021, enabling a competitor to beat it to opening day by a month.

Queen Las Vegas, owned by Q Group Hospitality, also operates downtown, with its own restaurant and bar, and 28 themed rooms at the Thunderbird Hotel at 1215 S. Las Vegas Blvd. It also features the added bonus of a gaming lounge.

Before Las Vegas had two gay hotels vying for the community’s business, it had none since 2014. That’s when the Blue Moon Hotel shut its doors.

The Bent Inn & Lounge Bar is currently taking reservations starting in May at bentlasvegas.com