DavidO

I'm in Las Vegas for TravelMart and had a chance to have a site inspection of the Mandarin Oriental on Saturday ... and will have an inspection of Aria tomorrow. Here are my reviews:

The Mandarin Oriental is, for now, the best luxury hotel in Las Vegas. Part of City Center, guests enter the hotel through a secluded Lower Lobby — so discrete that pedestrians walking down the Strip probably will not even be aware of the hotel entrance. An elevator whisks guests up to the Sky Lobby where they are greeted by the site of a stunning wall treatment when the elevator doors open. Featuring 1004 gold bricks shaped like ancient Chinese currency, the wall treatment reflects off the black marble floors - an elegant foretaste of the aesthetic treat to come. Turning to the left, a guest's attention will again be struck by the sight of the front desk silhouetted against a stunning view of the Las Vegas Strip. The Lobby also features the Mandarin Bar with its 240º view of the strip.

The secret to the hotel's stunning design? It was not designed by committee. Architect/designer Adam Tihany was given free reign to create a hotel with contemporary Asian spaces. His imaginative aesthetic is evidenced everywhere, from the design of the marble floors, to splashes of red in the hallways with their custom carpeting and hanging pendant lamps, to the textured fritted glass walls of the guest bathrooms designed to resemble raw silk, to the pendants hanging in Twist restaurant that create the impression of rising champagne bubbles.

I loved the guest rooms. The lead-in Cityscape room category is 500 square feet with a fully featured bathroom (oval soaking tub, separate shower, separate water closet, and dual vanities. Cityscape rooms overlook City Center, Mandarin rooms have a better view, and Mandarin Executive rooms feature Strip Views (either facing north or south). The Mandarin Premier room is larger, 650 square feet; most feature Strip views, but be sure to request one. Executive Suites (850 square feet) are large and interesting spaces; request a corner suite. Dynasty Suites and Apex are 1600 - 1700 square feet and are found on the top three floors; the Apex Suites are on the corner of the building. Finally, we were shown one of the three Presidential Suites called the Emperor Suite - a real WOW of a room with full kitchen, large den, dining area, large living room with grand piano, its own Exercise room (which can be furnished with the gym equipment of our choice), and a Master Bedroom.

The hotel has just 392 rooms with an intimate outdoor pool area on the sixth floor. The Mandarin Oriental has it all: a great location in the center of the Strip, great view, and incredible rooms. Las Vegas has a new "best" hotel!

DavidO

Aria

My first impression of Aria - after walking through a very loud casino area - is its lobby which has the ambience of a train station - large and impersonal. The front desk (pictured below) resembles airport check-in queues. Aria's lobby has none of the colorful and light-filled beauty of Bellagio - and certainly none of the contemporary elegance of the Mandarin Oriental.



Aria has 4004 guest rooms including 568 suites - and 16 restaurants. I had the opportunity to see a standard Deluxe Room (520 square feet) at Aria as well as a Corner Suite (920 square feet) and two Sky Suites. I was joined for the site inspection by luxury who was also attending TravelMart as a Virtuoso agent.

If you're looking for a clean, cheap, and even attractive room, Aria is a good deal. However, this is NOT a luxury hotel. No hotel with 4004 rooms can ever achieve that standard. Hallways are LONG, meaning you could walk forever to reach your room. Built-ins appeared to be constructed of formica and the headboards were vinyl. Bathrooms were "ok" but I was not impressed by arrangement of the step-in shower which was in the same glass-enclosed area just in front of the soaking tub.

Corner Suites are quite large and come with free internet. Suite bathrooms offer a completely separate oval-shaped bathtub with airjets - and also a Toto washlet toilet seat.

Sky Suites, in addition, come with access to a rather small club lounge (no view) and offer free round-trip airport transportation. We were shown a 1 BR Aria Suite (1050 square feet) a Penthouse Suite (1500 square feet). However, I was not impressed with these room products when compared to similarly priced suites at Bellagio.

Last knock on Aria... TravelMart has been held for 10 years at Bellagio which, for its faults (tired rooms that need freshening) has a beautiful lobby and pretty good service for a large hotel. Bellagio's catering is phenomenal for a large crowd. Aria? The food was mediocre. I barely touched my meal last night.

bhatnasx

FWIW - here's my review of Aria (as posted on TripAdvisor - note, I was not impressed at all, even though the rate was great) - I'm not sure I'd consider Aria to be a Luxury Hotel - Mandarin, definitely...

I'm an MGM Players Club member & received a decent offer for this hotel on a busy weekend in April ($129/night - not great, but decent for an on-Strip casino hotel.

Here's the good:
-Rooms were relatively spacious - we had a 2-queen bed room. Beds were comfortable & I appreciated the floor to ceiling windows with an automated curtain to keep the painful morning sun out.
-Hotel is well designed - it's a beautiful building & the location is pretty good
-There's a free tram that runs to the Bellagio & Monte Carlo is connected within walking distance

Here's the bad:
-Reserved a non-smoking 2 queen bedded room (this was for a Friday-Monday stay).
-Was told check-in would be at 3pm - requested an early check-in as for noon - was told that wouldn't be a problem at all.
-Arrived around 1pm at the hotel & was told only rooms available were smoking king rooms - not a huge deal since we did request early check-in. Asked if we could go to the pool area in the meantime & leave luggage with bell stand. Front desk agent hesitated, but relented.
-Came back at 3pm to check-in to see if the 2 queen bedded non-smoking rooms was available yet - was told it wasn't. Went back to pool, asking they call on cell phone when it was. No call.
-Went back at 4pm to see if the room was ready - nope.
-Went back at 5pm to see if the room was ready - this time a queen/queen room was available, but only smoking. Really didn't want a smoking room for 3-nights.
-Went back at 6pm to see if there was a non-smoking queen queen ready - nope.
-Went back at 7pm to see if there was a non-smoking queen queen ready - yep.
-Internet charges pretty high
-Unlike other hotels that have reasonably priced quick snack/lunch options for a quick bite, this one does not - had to go to Monte Carlo for that.

Thought it was pretty poor form to offer check-in at 3pm & not have a room ready for several hours afterwards (and you'd think in a hotel as large as they are with checkout supposedly scheduled for 11am, if I recall correctly, within 8 hours, they'd have the staffing to clean a queen-queen non-smoking room.

Also, you'd think with such a large new hotel, they would have designed it with higher ceilings so the smoke doesn't linger as much - but they didn't.

Saw the Elvis cirque show (on-site) - it was pretty good.

Decent hotel, but given the options that are out there, if you can get a good price elsewhere, I'd go elsewhere - only because of the front desk/check-in experience. Not even an apology or sorry for the inconvenience.

I'd recommend the hotel because it's new & trendy, but to a friend, I'd be hesitant & suggest that they not have high expecations.

bhatnasx

PS - good review of Mandarin. I live in Vegas have stopped by to check it out - it's a beautiful hotel.

matrol

where can i find las vegas hotel list. send me the links to that. ineed to book tickets online/ which is the best place in lasvegas

mike_la_jolla

I respectfully disagree. I just stayed at this MO and won't return. It is inferior in nearly every category to the (rather average) 4S.

CC is, at best, a train wreck.

Kagehitokiri

mike_la_jolla, it seems it has either gone downhill, or its mixed. FS is also mixed. there are a number of great MO reviews here, including one that put it ahead of amangiri. (amangiri also mixed.)

kingalien

Spot on.

mattm00se

I've held off posting anything about MO until I had a second stay, my quick bullet points:

February/March stay - 5nts in east apex suite (double upgrade on a centurion executive suite rate that was confirmed upgrade to dynasty at booking) - offered upgrade to emperor suite at checkin for $3500/nt, declined.

Stay this previous weekend: 3nts (was supposed to be 1nt..ran screaming away from the trump) - dynasty suite - offered upgrade to west apex suite for $500/nt, declinded.

complaints on first stay:

* Requested USA Today at check-in, had 3 different people explain to me the magical valet closet system and how great it is.... newspaper not delivered..mentioned to front desk on 2nd day, was still not delivered for rest of stay.

* Door staff was unsure of how to get a taxi the one morning I didn't have a town car setup for golf, took about 15 minutes of two guys running around.

* Door staff never greeted me by name, and always welcomed me like a new check-in every day after arriving back from golf (4 consecutive days, same team) - $20 tip on the way out, $20 tip on the way in for storing/retrieving the clubs, no sense of familiarity anytime I came in or out.

* Ordered eggs over easy every morning - received 3x over medium and 1x over hard - I assumed the kitchen wasn't accounting for additional cooking in the hotbox on the way up to the room (since I assume they can make an egg).


I'm happy to say all of the above complaints were mostly fixed on the second stay - door staff was still hit and miss with guest greetings, but otherwise everything else ran much more smoothly. I also find the door staff slightly..distant? perhaps overly formal..but much less social than wynncore TS/skylofts/4s door staff.

In regards to the comparison to the 4S - I found the service very similar (though a step below skylofts and butler svcs at venetian) - however we *much* prefer the apex/dynasty suites to the 180 strip view at 4S..so much more modern.


All in all this was an excellent stay - however my heart still belongs to skylofts, though the GF wants to make the MO our vegas home due to the spa.

Kettering Northants QC

Do any of the 3000+ room hotels on the strip NOT have the ambience of a fancy train station / airport?

3000 rooms on a busy night means maybe 6000 or so guests milling about trying to use the bars and pools.

We've done a few of them now - Bellagio, MGM (just after it opened), Mirage (many many years ago when it supposedly heralded the new era of hotels in LV), and Wynn last year.

We've never had any problems but just haven't really enjoyed any of them, they're so impersonal. Wynn, we found to epitomize the phrase, "Fur Coat No Knickers", e.g., superficially elegant and beautiful but actually far from it.

If and when we go back to LV we've said we won't stay at any of the mega resorts no matter how much the Casino owner trys to assure us that his 3000+ room resort is the utmost luxurious experience with world class this and that. The MO seems to have a good location, the FS at Mandalay Bay is for us a long haul up the strip and traffic can be bad.

Kagehitokiri

nice. exec > cityscape > dynasty > apex

some apex have connecting right? do any cityscape?

***

skylofts now has private entrance correct? but no connected restaurant or communal areas.

those kinds of things can make separate "wings" etc of a larger property acceptable, if the main property area is completely separated off for optional but not required visits.

mike_la_jolla

This is a bit off thread, but what is your opinion of reviewing a hotel by being given a tour by management as opposed to actually STAYING at the place and paying?

Also, if we are talking about the same MO thread, I remember more negative than positive. 'Affirmation bias' maybe?

Kagehitokiri

way more positive than negative and negative are more/very recent. (although 2 recent negative were from past stays...) not suggesting a pattern, nor emphasizing either. its clearly mixed, like many other properties here.

i did indeed word this badly, perhaps in the wrong order? just didnt come out right.
(its clearly mixed, and perhaps its gone downhill some since opening.)

pretty sure there were reviews in at least 2 threads.

also, while DavidO's wording is questionable sometimes (whose isnt?) he is always clear when he is or is not evaluating service. that is of course the primary concern here, but not the only thing that is ever discussed.

nnn

Dealbreaker for MO for me was the apparent distance from gambling. (Haven't seen it for myself, however.)

mattm00se

I'm not sure if cityscape exists/is bookable yet? The centurion exec rate books into dynasty.

East apex had a connecting - however they put the guest that was travelling with us across the hall instead (maybe different room class - forget what he was booked into). Dynasty did *not* have connecting (atleast the **28's).

***

Sort of .. it's a private door into/out of the MGM lobby - you still need to wander over to the VIP lounge (or elevator bank if it's closed) to get upstairs.

*However*, it's extremely convenient since MGM limo staging is a bit of a clusterf???. and you can skip the cab line if you're hopping in one.

It's about 20 feet from the main doors..feels a world away though