escog

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but it does seem to be the appropriate place for this...

I completed a two-night stay at the Aria hotel in Las Vegas using Visa Signature Hotels. I stayed over the Thanksgiving weekend.

The rate included $100 resort credit for every 2 night stay, as well as, the standard benefits of free breakfast, a $25 dining credit, room upgrade, and late checkout. I booked through the Visa Signature Hotels website. I kept monitoring my rate, which was initially $199, $169; dropped to $189, $169; and then finally to $169, $169. I called up customer service to have the rates adjusted every time they dropped, but they said I would have to cancel and rebook. This was a bit of a minor annoyance, but I did it both times.

Upon check in, the clerk saw all of the benefits listed for my stay, and explained them all. The $100 resort credit was basically for dining or the spa/salon. The $25 was for dining. And, the free breakfast was basically a $20 value for the coffee shop (Cafe Ventro), the buffet, or room service. I was upgraded to a City View room.

Of note, the buffet was $25 on the weekend (without champagne) which exceeded the $20 value for breakfast, but they waived the whole thing. I used up the $125 in credits at Sage and Julian Serrano, which were both excellent.

The city view room was nice - basically a view south towards the Monte Carlo, but the window was a bit dirty.

I called on Saturday night to get late checkout, and the front desk clerk noticed that I had already been set up with late checkout, so I guess they do that automatically. Still, I would check.

One other benefit is "VIP" status at the hotel, but I don't know what that means. I suppose I could have looked for VIP check-in, but since the lines weren't very long when I checked-in, I didn't feel it was worth the effort.

On checkout, my account hadn't been properly updated with my credits; so I had to spend a few minutes getting that straightened out. They hadn't taken off the $125 in dining, and they had failed to waive one of my breakfasts. The clerk acknowledged the errors and fixed everything.

All-in-all, this was a good benefit. I got the same rate I would have booking directly with the hotel, and I got a bunch of benefits.