Eujeanie

http://www.reviewjournal.com/busines...ng-summer-stay

We're only staying one night, and we usually don't need a diet of macadamia nuts and vodka and condoms, but what a concept. I can't even wrap my head around it.

TerryK

Interesting promo. You need to stay for two nights and pay MYSTORY rate which is not the lowest.

joeypore

Definitely a Vegas-y promo.

I wonder if as an SPG Plat, if you get upgraded to the Lux tower, if they'll include all the Lux tower minibar items like the Moët Rose and such.

Non-NonRev

Not too shabby - my test dates of Aug 8-11 came up at $142 for story king and $212 for story suite.

I am sure that upgrades to a different tower will be blocked by the promotion terms.

thaliajen

I checked in today after a gorgeous stay at Caesar's. My 1st tip is, if arriving by cab, make sure they take you to hotel entrance and not the casino entrance. WTH? I am disabled and walk with a cane, and here I am lugging 2 suitcases and a heavy backpack through the casino. I didn't even know where SLS was, but an employee I asked for help in finding the desk told me that cabs can get in-easy/out-easy from the far off entrance, and they DO know to go to the front. Meanwhile, as he walks me to the front desk, he doesn't offer to help at all. Okay.

At check in I found they'd charged the wrong card even though I didn't choose a pre-pay. But I was assured that can all be worked out at check-out. I sure hope so or my debit hard will be charged instead of my credit card.

Check-in was painless, a very nice young man gave me the scoop. He had a welcome letter from a lady at Hotel Operations and it basically says welcome Plat (not Lifetime Plat as I would've preferred ) and explaining things like concierge, SPA, etc. Another sheet in the envelope tells you about earning 3 points for every dollar spent on eligible stays, explains welcome gift, explains upgrade, and while we already get free internet, explains that we get 2 free drink vouchers. Now, I'm NOT complaining, but I think they could get creative with this. I don't drink, so drink vouchers mean nothing to me. Couldn't they offer the equivalent to a drink voucher from the gift shop, so I could buy water or soda? And since we are paying this ridiculous resort fee, shouldn't we get breakfast AND the points? I'm just saying, 2 drinks do not equal a resort fee. Breakfast might come close, if it is good.

Now, on to the good stuff. I had 1st booked a $178 rate for a Story room. Then my dates changed. When I cancelled, it showed me as having a World room. I guess I'd been pre-upgraded to a different tower? But as it was just a room, I wasn't impressed. So when rebooking, I chose a Lux tower room. I guess it was a good move because this Lifetime Plat was kind of impressed by the Lux suite I am writing this from. I do NOT like that there is no bath tub, as I have nerve damage in my leg/foot and soaking my problems away happens about 3-4 times daily. But for 2 days, I can handle it.

The suite is gorgeous- really. And I don't give out compliments easily. It has a half bath at the entry, a very large dining/living room, and beautiful old-fashioned tapestries hanging from the walls. The room is all white, as is the bedroom. The bed is super lux, in the European style of no top sheet. I like a top sheet but the AC is working overtime to keep this place as cold as I like. So being able to cover up at night is sweet.

The furnishings are out of Alice in Wonderland, IMO. The sweet little table in the bedroom has a silver tree trunk on one side, a long lounge couch against the wall, and a simple white kitchen chair. Eclectic. I adore the little touches like a stationery kit on the desk, and a monkey ironing board in the bathroom. Great bath amenities so far. I would prefer a stronger scent to kill the smoke smell, but it IS nice to have shampoo, conditioner, AND body wash among the regular offerings. The suite has all kinds of extras from toothbrush and paste to shave kit, mouthwash, sewing kit, etc. The shower is huge, with 2 different shower heads- regular and rainforest. Again, I prefer baths, but if there is no bath, these showers are very nice.

I'm only 12 hours or less into my stay, but so far so good. I would recommend booking the room you want, or the highest type under the one you want. If I hadn't changed my reservation from Story room to Lux room, I might've ended up in that regular room in World Tower that I saw when I cancelled. I can't know for sure, but I'd bet.

So far, the most important part of the room- the AC- is working well, so I'm happy. I don't like being this far down the strip and am REALLY surprised by the price of the room $200/night when this hotel is so far away, but that's what I get for waiting until a few days before to change the reservation. I don't think, even when this is a W, that they'll attract many people at that rate, simply because we're so far from everything. But if you like staying away from it all, this is a great alternative. I'm not upset about the 200/night because I got a suite, and a lovely one at that. But 200/night for a room? In Vegas? Nope. I can get comped at many hotels. I did this for the experience. So I do hope rates drop, even when this becomes a W. I'd stay here again if rates dropped.

One note: I'd LOVE to have the mirrors above the beds removed, or covered. At a certain age, some women prefer not to see themselves at every angle. I'm sleeping on the edge of the bed to avoid it! But truly, a beautiful suite, so quirky and whimsical. I like it.

So far, so good!

joeypore

Unless there's an event going on, that's pretty high.

On Monday - Wednesday night's I've gotten as low as a $39 BRG rate, so roughly $76 with the resort fee.

Remember that the resort fee will add $30 + taxes to the rate. Unless you're already planning on using $50-$100 worth of minibar, I'd look at other rates.

joeypore

Also, Thaliajen, that seems like quite a high rate for a weekday at the SLS.

As I said in many posts, I've gotten an upgrade every time to the Lux room, even on the $19 rates the casino marketing offers. In addition, I've found a BRG on every stay I've done there so far.

Also, to your note about the mirrors and design and such, that is all very much the SLS brand. It's designed to attract the party / Hollywood crowd. The one in Beverly Hills fetches rates of closer to $600 and is quite the place to be for various occasions in LA.

Not saying that justifies the Vegas prices, but the brand is very much represented at the Vegas property.

Eujeanie

Nice upgrade, Thaliajen. Yes, we made the same valet mistake, thanks for reminding me. We arrived in our own rental car so there is no reason why they could not have told us to just drive around to the other side.

Please tell which restaurants you went to at SLS (and Caesars). Funny how we're in the same places just a week apart.

thaliajen

It is funny!
I haven't eaten here, with exception of room service. Same at Caesars as I'm on business trip, solo. But I love Serendipity at Caesars! I went yesterday but they changed cooks, so the menu was Brunch till 2pm. I adore their 3 cheese grilled cheese but wasn't about to wait another hour for it. Still, I highly recommend them and their frozen hot chocolate. There's also a great old Italian place called Battistas Hole in the Wall that is near the Westin, on a side street. Great food, great prices. Hope you have a fantastic trip!

Okijames

Stayed here in the Lux tower 4 nights for work this week.

Pros: Upgraded to a suite on the 18th floor, very nice, exactly as thaliajen described in post 245. Plenty of space, comfy bed, good towels, excellent bath robes. Convenient power outlets, including USB, in the desk and nightstand. Good food selection on-site.

Cons: Construction noise started about 7am each morning. Being here for work I was already up and going but I imagine leisure customers could take issue with this type of "wake up call" after a long Vegas night. Room charging at the sundry shop is outrageously inconvenient and time consuming. Beyond the typical room number and name, patrons must also supply photo ID (not a big deal) but then the cashier hand writes info into a log book, must then call someone in-house to get an approval code, this is subject to delays and multiple calls, more writing in the log book, keying approval into cash register, printing 3 versions of the receipt, then patron signs 2 of the 3. It's almost comical...

Net: It's nice to have another SPG flagged option in Vegas. The pros outweigh the cons in my opinion so I'll definitely stay here again.

Eujeanie

Back from our second one-night stay. This time we were in the World Tower (previous trip the Story). The World Tower room is much more conventional in layout with everything in one bathroom, a bed up against a wall (actually small window), a tv you can see from either the bed or the sofa in front of the bed. Had a small but real closet (as opposed to the metal rack in the WT room). In a word...boring.

No, really, it was fine - but after the Story there were no "stories" about it. No glow in the dark bed. No mirror on the ceiling. It did have the illuminated infinity mirrors but that's about it for "excitement".

We did not have construction noise per se but very early the trucks were getting lined up (the beep beeps) VERY early - before 6. No jackhammers or anything of that nature, but we were out of the room by 7.

This time we ate at Bazaar Meat (last time Cleo) and while we enjoyed the Restaurant Week menu I don't think I'd go back to Bazaar Meat, but I would definitely go back to Cleo again.

Another odd thing - not last time, nor this time, was anyone checking keys by the Story Tower, but they were at the World.

And it has been 4 days and the stay has not shown up yet in my spg account - I gave my number at check-in, we did video check-out, so if I do wait the week or whatever I'll bypass the missing stay route and use the e-mail contact William suggested.

We also, like Thaliajen, then moved onto Caesars Palace and had a wonderful 2-bath room in the Palace Tower. Love being so close to the pool.

thaliajen

No upgrades? I'm starting to think that it'll be difficult once Lux becomes W. Also, during my stay, no one was checking keys by the Lux elevator at all. I never even thought about it. But you did have to use your key to push the button. I'm glad you got back to Caesar's. I wish I'd done it the other way around and stayed at SLS first. I'm not seeing my Caesar's stay on my Starwood Account, but I guess those things take time. My SLS stay showed up right away. Glad you had a good time!

Eujeanie

No, we dropped down from only Gold to nothing Preferred Guest so I never expect nor do we get any upgrades from SPG.

I knew I was going to have a problem with getting credit for the SLS stay but I also know it will be easily straightened out (as it was before) so I'm not worried. And yes the Caesars stays do take longer to post.

Eujeanie

Well, I just heard back from SPG that my $19 CODE rate is NOT eligible for points.

Another thing that stinks is that we paid outright for our restaurant meals (did not charge them to the room) because I have a credit card that give me 6x pts for restaurants, but the restaurant charges just showed up on my bill as SLS charges, not under the name of the restaurant, so no extra points for me.

Bummer all the way around.

Eujeanie

William, you are very kind. Thank you.