Originally Posted by Sydneyberlin

I’ve stayed at this property before about five years ago and was thoroughly disappointed back then. I am glad that I’ve decided to give it another go as my recent experience was much, much better.

As a Hyatt Globalist, you get matched to MGM Gold status which in theory comes with various benefits such as free Valet parking and an upgrade to “a preferable room”. While valet parking was easy to obtain (you basically have to queue at the MGM membership desk to obtain a physical Gold card which you then use at the parking pay station to wave the valet fee) and actually a benefit that’s better than what you get with Hyatt itself (free valet only usually applies for redemption nights), the “upgrade” turned out to be a bit of a scam: Upon inquiring at checkin at the special Gold and above “Invited Guests” about an upgraded room, this sets in motion a thoroughly planned machinery to SELL you an upgrade as they see this request as a way to make money. As a Hyatt guest, I am used to these upgrades to being free so I had no idea and the ensuing haggle about possible upgrades had all the hallmarks of a used car dealership, including the check in clerk “checking with the manager to see if we can do something for you” and then later whispering to me that he can go down a little bit more even but “please don’t tell anyone”. I observed many other guests at this special counter falling into the same trap and found the whole process rather shameful and nasty. I should have known- it’s Vegas, after all.

After endless haggling which would put a Thai market to shame, we finally settled on an upgrade. We haven’t been to Vegas in years so while I knew I was getting played, I was also keen to get a cool room so I was willing to pay the price. I ended up with a Tower suite on level 18 for which I forked out 200 US$ a night (plus taxes etc.) in addition to the 140 US$ base that I had booked my basic strip view King for. Now- the suite was indeed gorgeous but I constantly had that sour feeling in my mouth thinking that for $340 a night total, I could well have gotten a room at the Waldorf Astoria next door as well and being Diamond with Hilton too, who knows what room I would have ended up with. I also really hated the haggling itself, the insincerity of the whole process and the fact that an “upgrade” gets presented as a MGM gold benefit but when you ask for one, they tell you that the so-called free upgrade will only be a “higher floor” but then happily hard sell you into a much more expensive room. I’m sure that regular Vegas guests will be used to this but I obviously wasn’t.

Now that we got that out of the way, the actual stay itself was expensive but awesome: The suite was huge and had amazing wrap around windows from which we could see the strip (from the lounge room) as well as the hinterland (from the bedroom) alongside plenty of car park roof tops etc. that you can hardly avoid in Vegas. The bathroom had both a shower (a bit plain and no proper rain shower head) and a bathtub as well as dual sinks as well as one of those hilarious Japanese butt-sprinkling toilets, alongside a further standard toilet in the hallway. Most impressed however I was with the super comfy bed and more so the service which had been the issue in my previous stay. Daily housekeeping was offered without issues and done to perfection (this was not necessarily the case in the many Hyatt properties we stayed during our trip) and our time by the pool was nice as well. Unfortunately, staying in a “Tower suite” you don’t get access to the “Sky pool” which is reserved for guest staying in a “Sky suite” only but we found the main pool good enough. We did, however, get access to a special lounge which offered free coffee and some danish bakery for breakfast but nothing much else- meh.

We did encounter massive problems trying to get some wine glasses for our room but thus seemed to be an issue very common in hotels here in the US: Not sure whether it’s for safety reasons or the US-typical aversion towards potential lawsuits if someone hurts themselves on a glass splinter, or if really everyone here only drinks Bud Light and hence wine glasses are so exotic (surely that’s just a cliché, not?), or perhaps they were trying to force us into paying a tray charge for two empty glasses (they did mention this alongside other things during our ordeal)? After several attempts to obtain proper glasses, we finally managed to get some on the very last night but it was an unnecessarily complex endeavour while they could just offer two glasses in the room to begin with like most hotels outside the US do as standard.

All in all a great stay in a great room which given the circumstances was probably worth the upgrade fee. Might try a different property next time though in order to compare- or we might just be back, our stay was great after all.