bhatnasx

Brand new 42" flat panel TVs in the rooms now!

NYCTaximan

The rates does seems higher for REN and the Marriott compared to some of the casino hotels. If you want non-stop action, stay closer to the strip otherwise stay at the REN or the Marriott.

NDDomer86

While the hotels themselves may be owned/managed by other companies, Marriott International itself is a global brand/franchise and can survive the economic devastation in Vegas better than Harrah's or MGM-Mirage (the two main owners on the Las Vegas Strip) and thus maintain the integrity of its rates. That is why you will find Encore/Wynn/Bellagio for $99 a night while the Renaissance is $169 a night. Without having a property on the Strip, Marriott can also count on the points whores (which Flyertalk proves there are plenty of) to choose their properties over the cheaper (and sometimes nicer) properties on the Strip, despite the off Strip location. I think Marriott is shooting themselves in the foot here though as I was in the Residence Inn Hughes Center a couple of years ago (right before the economy went in the shi1tter) and a couple was trying to get a walk-in reservation and the hotel would only offer an absurdly high rate (of which I was paying about a half the quoted rate). I ended up talking to the couple because they were from the same county in Indiana where I once lived, but they ended up booking a room on the Strip for about 1/3 of the cost. I'm going to trust that Marriott knows what it's doing in terms of Revenue Management, but it seems they could have a lower walk-in rate at the Vegas hotels to attract the business they are otherwise going to lose to the more "Vegas-like" and cheaper hotels on the Strip.

tarheelnj

Stayed at the Suites property last week. Didn't like it at first - dingy lobby, no lounge, late start for breakfast (should be much earlier than 6:30 consdering it's LV), no wireless internet in room. Did an about face, though. New flat panel TV, room service breakfast right on time, Gold status acknowledged (and no base charge for breakfast or internet) etc. Had dinner in the restaurant my last night there and mentioned that I had a 7am flight and would miss the free breakfast. Waitress comes back with a bag with cereals, pastries, banana, and rolls for the next morning - no charge. Hotel gave me the breakfast credit against that dinner. Great service. Maybe helped that there was no convention and the hotel was pretty empty. Will definitely stay there again.

SkiAdcock

My guess is that the Ren & LV Marriott often have higher rates when there's a convention in town (since they ring the LVCC) than when there isn't one. We've heard of some inexpensive pricing at these properties, as well as expensive pricing.

The staff is great (as indicated by the breakfast scenario above), and w/ free full breakfast as well as i-net (for Golds/Plats), makes the property often a good deal since you'd have to factor in both when staying at strip properties.

Glad to hear the flatscreens are in!

Cheers.

bokeyes23

I wanted to comment on my stay back in May at the REN Marriott convention center. It was a great stay all around. The service was amazing, it was my wife''s Birthday and I told them before coming that I would appreciate any upgrades they could offer me as a gold. I also ordered chocolate covered strawberries in the room and when I arrived we were upgraded to a very nice suite with living room, half bath, shower tub in master bath and great view of the golf coarse. The strawberries had Happy Birthday drizzled in chocolate on the plate which was a nice touch. We loved the pool area because it had great lounge couches and was not completely sunned so you could relax out of the sun if you wanted to (which can be nice when its 105 in the summer!) The CL was great as well. We had a very nice diner presentation of prime rib (good prime rib though), they had snacks and desert too which were good. The staff was friendly, they had shoeshine service for free, and my internet was not working quit right so they sent up an IT guy to fix it immediately. All around my review is completely positive, I wasn't far from strip or downtown, Cabs were easily available and not to expensive. I will stay there again anytime, much better then most strip hotels I have been too. Thanks for all the FT input!

Boraxo

+1 We have stayed here several times. While not convenient to the Strip, it is a nice resort-quality property and as noted above the weekend rates are usually pretty good for this level of service (though with Vegas hurting some of the Strip resorts have some good summer promos). The casino is adequate and there is another next door, as well as PF Changs, Cheesecake Factory and other decent chain restaurants nearby (no need to spend a fortune on overpriced gourmet dining unless that is your thing).

Would not recommend for those who plan to troll the strip, but great for families.

Agreed. Particularly with the current promo rates, it doesn't make sense to stay at Marriott branded properties on the strip when you can get a much nicer room at Wynn, Mirage, Bellagio, etc.

Also realize that Marriott is ripping off the individual consumer - we recently stayed at Rez Inn (or was it Courtyard) near LAS courtesy of WN and the rate was about half the lowest avail web rate.

SkiAdcock

Might I gently suggest that we keep the Marriott (or Hilton etc) vs Bellagio/Wynns for the Vegas forum, and keep the focus in this thread on the subject title, which is the Las Vegas Marriott?

Cheers.

Boraxo

I would tend to agree, but I don't think it would be good advice to discuss the Marriott properties in a vacuum when other options are better and cheaper. For example, I think most people would opt to get a better quality room on the strip at 1/2 the price if they are informed of the option.

However that now having being noted, the focus should remain on Marriott.

bhatnasx

You may be able to get decent rooms on the strip, but not usually at 1/2 the price unless there's a major convention. But you've got to also take into account, IMHO, the fact that you're not paying a resort fee (Wynn's $20/day), and if you're a plat/gold, you're getting a good free breakfast ($20/day), free internet (upto $15/day), no real hassles to check-in & get to your room through a smoke-filled casino, and you can get into the gym for free. Sure, the pool scene at a non-casino hotel and the dining options will never be the same, but overall, the chain hotels in Vegas actually do provide decent value.

Jiatong

The trip report is so true, & the new TVs are great. A very nice property, other than when they say its 107 in August, it's probably the shade, & 115 in the sun. But, a nice pool to cool off in.

SEATAC

SO...is there a Concierge Lounge at the LVM?

Jiatong

No, there is not, the breakfast is in the main floor bar/resturant. & very hospitable local staff there.

SkiAdcock

Back again for trade show & took pictures of the property.

http://public.fotki.com/SkiAdcock/ho...egas-marriott/

Will update trip report soon w/ recent info, but I was pretty thorough in my first post.

Cheers.

SkiAdcock

I'll update the first post, but a couple of quick things:

Everyone is still friendly & helpful. I swear they take happy pills here.

They deliver the paper to the room (yeah!), as well as have a stack near the hostess desk in the restaurant.

The business center has 3 terminals & printers for use. Computers have USB slots, which came in handy when I needed to print out a word document. There is a max time you can be on the computer, whether it's to surf the net, read your email, print out word or excel docs. The countdown starts when you get on & there's a mandatory log-off, if you haven't already logged off. Think the time alloted is an hour, which is pretty generous.

The sesame chicken salad totally rocks.

Also the t.v. has a huge channel line up - including HD.