Bellagio, Vegas. Learn from my mistakes.
 

Was a last minute booking and missed out on loads of great Vegas Virtuoso packages. Ended up using FHR for the $100 credit, early in/late out, breakfast, and upgrade. In hindsight was a mistake not to plan ahead, book with David O, and be done with it but in my usual fashion I procrastinated. (In the event a problem arises David's a ferocious yet fair-minded client advocate!)

Clearly I was an idiot for not paying close attention to the DETAILS with respect to the FHR benefits.
Here goes ~
Arrival. Shocking, HUMONGOUS line, Disney-like, at the front desk. Fortunately I phoned in advance to inquire about the Chairman's Lounge, its location and inclusions. (I found out about the lounge online, albeit vague vague info and wasn't certain my room type qualified. Evidently when booking any suite you can access the lounge which is a front desk/concierge setup with fruit, soda, water and wine.)
No Chairman's Lounge signage or identifier of any kind. I asked around and the concierge directed me.
Evidently they were in the midst of a system failure, forcing a manual check-in for hundreds of people (500 convention attendees).
One of my rooms had been assigned prior to the failure, the other not, so they were to call when the system was back up and I could access the second room then. Received a call around 5.
No upgrade. (Booked bellagio suite. No suite upgrades with FHR.)
Dined at Olives. Excited to EAT up $170 of the 2x$100 FHR resort credits.
Ate breakfast at Bellagio Cafe using 4, $30 FHR breakfast coupons.
Received express checkout folio email showing the Olives charges and phoned the Chairman's Lounge for correction. Well, the jest of the message was...lady, READ the FHR letter provided at checkin, SOME of the restaurants qualify for the resort credit not Olives. What a huge bummer.
I was now on a mission to use up the 2x$100 (2 rooms) credit. Given I was catching a flight in the early afternoon I was left with little time to book a spa treatment but was able to secure a hair appointment ($115).
So, here goes, I'm checking out and was told again sorry for you, you've eaten at one of our restaurants NOT on the list, nothing we can do about that. She then said wow, you didn't use any of the credit. Yes, I had a $115 haircut but since I ran over here from the salon it's probably yet to post. The charge then showed up and guess what? Since I exceeded the $100 and spent $115, the $15 could not be credited. You can't combine room credits. At this point I was ready to throw up. (understand, i'm not writing the convo verbatim here, the woman at the desk smiled and pointed to the letter at each juncture.)
Upon departure I let the lounge folks know I'd traveled a ton using FHR benefits and never had I experienced a hotel as restrictive and obstinate, for this reason I wouldn't return.
It's illogical to me they operate in this fashion, with zero intention to mitigate anything. Guess I've been spoiled by FS & MO.
Clearly Bellagio could care less about me returning or becoming any kind of valued guest...their prerogative.

Sorry you had such a bad experience! I have never been to the Bellagio, but I am guessing the 500 conference delegates standing in line would have been an early harbinger of bad times ahead... :)

As much grief as it gets on this forum, for me it's "MO or bust" for all things Vegas....

Not really any great choices in LV. We were at the MO and if that's the best option that there is then things are a sad sad state of affairs..... but I guess I'm not allured by gambling, constant lights and a multitude of celebrity chef restaurants.. I guess LV isn't the choice for me...

FDW

The Bellagio is way past its prime, I was there last July (not as a hotel guest) and left after 10 minutes, as it's more Disney than luxury. The MO is quite nice indeed but my favourite remains the Encore.

My thoughts as well...

Here is the thing, Vegas Hotel-Casinos do not care at all about non-gambling guests unless you are a convention organizer. If you were playing $500+ a hand black jack or you were hosting an event using hundreds of rooms a night plus conference spaces you would have been treated like a queen but the casino hotels make very little money from regular guests who do not gamble.

I book rooms at Bellagio occasionally only due to location and because of its low room rates for suites. Bellagio is probably among the least luxurious of the hotels I've stayed at that claim to be "luxury", and IMO doesn't deserve discussion on this forum at all. To be frank, the low room rates relative to its Vegas competitors reflect the lack of luxury offered by the property. FT'ers who typically only stay at the type of hotel discussed on this forum should not consider staying there, period.

As far as the OP, it's a bit appalling that an FHR resort credit does not apply to an on-property restaurant... I would complain to FHR about Bellagio not honoring that.

To be fair, even those playing well over 500/hand at Bellagio get treated pretty badly at times - I can personally attest to that and have posted about it on other FT forums. It is just not a luxury property and their standards are not high.

Also, while focusing on gambling was true ages ago when casino-hotels operated loss leaders to support casino revenue, it's not nearly as true now that Vegas properties have diversified revenue streams and depend on FAB/conference/nightlife and honestly have put much less emphasis on gaming in recent times.

I really hate the Bellagio. I had such a bad stay in 2010, that´s enough for the rest of my life:mad::mad::mad:

Aria Sky Suites is the way to go with FHR in Vegas. That is, unless Skylofts is in the budget.

From my experience visiting Vegas a number of times, this is correct. It doesn't really matter to them what status you are outside of the city. They care about what you do and have done while you are there. Since hotels are a dime a dozen, they don't care whether you visit another one next time, unless you are a big spender at theirs.

You're 10 years too late when it comes to Bellagio... Wynn, MO then Sky Suites or Skylofts...

I am a gambler but do value the resort the most (which is why Skysuites and Skylofts are lower on the scale)...

More on Vegas
 

We purchased a two night stay at the Palazzo via Daily Getaway's earlier this year.

https://www.ustravel.org/marketing/daily-getaways

Overall, we had a nice stay - we like the location of The Palazzo, the suite was huge at +/- 1,300sf, high floor with a pleasant view away from the strip - towards sunrise and the mountains.

We also liked the Grand Canal shops and restaurants, and the easy access to them.

Why am I posting here?

While the stay met or exceeded our expectations in every way - really, the Palazzo delivered everything that they could or should and our stay was very nice - For our next stay my partner and I agree that we will give the Mandarin Oriental a try.

One other great NEW feature of Vegas: Uber! We were very happy about this in general, although a couple of the cars, like much of indoor Vegas, smelled like smoke. Yuck!

Bellagio
 

Terrible experience. I agree, the checkin area is a disaster especially when theres a horde of people taking pictures in the lobby.

Tried the tower suites at the wynn (thru fhr) earlier this year for the first time, will be hard to go back anywhere else.

Years back in Vegas history, when I made the unfortunate decision to book a suite at the Bellagio, I had the even worst idea to call for room service:
waiting time was between 2 and half and 3 hours
Indeed, everything is possible in LV!