These hotels are almost all ideally located right on the strip, and loaded with amenities like room service, restaurants, bars, and casinos. 

However, I have no idea how to choose from the remaining cities, it seems there are a lot of potential options:- Midwest - Michigan (ie: Grand Rapids) seems to have options, also seeing Columbus Ohio and Indianapolis coming up- Reno - I've seen mentioned several times on here- Pittsburgh / Philadelphia / Twin Cities - All mentioned as lower cost to get started, and seem to be experiencing growthI'd ideally like to find a place that has strong potential for future growth, a diversified economy, and I don't mind living in (being close to nature would be a plus). 

Buying a building yourself to STR is ideal, but I also know a guy in Houston that has about 200 STR units.  

Higher-end finishes and staging make sense for a flip but aren’t always ideal for a rental.

What some ideal way to find investors to fund this deal?

Ideally, I’d learn by doing and would appreciate the opportunity to work with a mentor to help me get started.Any advice or direction is greatly appreciated!

This would be ideal in terms of cash flow (after a few years) and equity appreciation since you'd be achieving tremendous returns on limited equity in the form of appreciation, principal paydown and tax benefits aside from only cash flow. 

With this info I can provide you with more information as there are some good programs out there but if you are interested in 2nds for example the really good programs for seller financing may not be as ideal as one catered towards seconds as an example.

I save up every 3-5 years to buy 1 property 1.25x DSCRd, ideally through BRRR, and buy about 20% of my downpayment worth in a high-rate not fund--high rate as in a 2-5% above prime but not this egregious triple prime super high risk nonsense).

If so, flipping or active investing would be ideal.