Not THEHotel For Me
Written: Jan 21 '07 (Updated Jan 21 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Swank design, huge rooms
Cons: Dirty room, aloof service
The Bottom Line: Great potential, but it falls very short in a lot of aspects.
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| belynch's Full Review: The Hotel at Mandalay Bay/Las Vegas, NV |
This review is based on a two night stay at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV during January, 2006. Purpose of travel was business, and rate paid was variable: $219 first night, $179 second night. Room was booked directly through the hotel’s website, http://www.thehotelatmandalaybay.com/ - which was showing slightly cheaper than online retailers, orbitz and expedia.
A point of clarification – THEHotel is not the hotel portion of Mandalay Bay, it’s a separate hotel that is part of the Mandalay Bay complex. A room booked at Mandalay Bay (link to my review from Feb. 06) will put you in the hotel portion of Mandalay Bay, and not THEHotel. A room booked at THEHotel will give you access to facilities at Mandalay Bay.
Okay, now that that’s cleared up, here’s the review – oh yeah, one more thing – they really call themselves THEHotel (spelled just like that).
THELocation
THEHotel is located directly behind (west) Mandalay Bay. It’s a separate tower in a separate building that is adjoined via the parking deck and a connector through the casino, but it’s more or less separate.
The location of the Mandalay Bay complex is all the way at the Southern end of the strip, near the airport (taxi, $12). I discussed to some degree my personal feelings on the location of the complex, and instead of repeating myself, I’ll direct you to the link above.
However, I will say that if you want to leave the Mandalay Bay complex, you can take the free monorail to either the Luxor or the Excalibur (monorails run constantly and are free) and from there, you can either take the city monorail, or walk to points North.
If you’re driving to THEHotel directions are pretty clearly marked. Follow-signs to THEHotel and the parking garage (which is shared with Mandalay Bay). From the strip, if you’re heading north, you’ll make a left and then another left to enter the complex.
Self-park is free. Valet is available.
I should also note that there is a separate taxi que for THEHotel that is generally much shorter than the que in front of Mandalay Bay. If you’re staying at Mandalay Bay and need a taxi, I’d suggest going out to THEHotel’s que.
If you leave THEHotel to access Mandalay Bay complex you have two options. Walking through the parking garage will be faster, and will connect you to the hallway near “RumJungle” (not worth the $20 cover charge, in my humble opinion), this hallways brings you closer to the F&B areas of Mandalay Bay. If you go through the corridor connector it will place you near the sports book area of the casino.
THEFirst-impressions, checking-in
Pulling up in a taxi around 11:30pm, the main entrance, seemed rather unassuming in the middle of the parking garage. There were a few people milling around, and a bellman opened my door and offered assistance with my luggage.
I entered THEHotel and walked towards what I assumed was the direction of the front desk. I suppose I looked a little lost as when I passed someone they advised me to proceed ahead, and the bear to my right. Nice touch.
The lobby is designed in a dark and light motif. The floor is a white marble with black accents and the walls either have dark wood or are painted in a light beige. Everything is very “clean” and geometric. There are illuminated columns every so often which add to the ambiance. The design is a visual treat.
One of the first senses that I encountered was sound. There were people talking and laughing, but there was a steady stream of house music pulsing through the lobby. Very “W” hotel-esque. And, in a first, I didn’t hear the sound of slot machines clunking change into a metal tin, or the various sounds that emanate from a casino. Why? There is no casino in THEHotel.
Walking down the corridor I passed a restaurant (three meal) and a bar and lounge (named THELounge). There is also a little lobby/sundry shop near the intersection of the corridors.
For a bit of orientation, THEHotel is designed in an L-shaped building. At the center is where you’ll find the elevator bank.
The front-desk is down the “far” spoke from the entrances.
There were four people in line in front of me waiting to check-in, and I’d say I waited about five minutes. For a hotel this size, I considered myself lucky. The front-desk is expansive, and behind it is a giant modern-art print that help set the tone of this ultra-swank hotel.
The woman checking me in was extremely professional and pleasant and made a little small talk while swiping my credit card. Just like checking into the Mandalay Bay they ask for your license. Two keys were issued to my “suite” and my rate and check-out date were confirmed. I should note here that because I bought via the internet, half of my room was already charged to my credit card as a guarantee. However, this included tax(es) so the amount was rather ambiguous.
To the left of the front desk is a VIP check-in area. There were approximately a half dozen employees milling around in the VIP area and it would have been very nice if one of them hopped out to help the general line. Oh well.
THERoom, or should I say, THESuite
Taking the elevator up to my room on the 34th floor was kind of interesting. Being close to midnight now I was probably the only sober person in the elevator. The TV promoting the happenings at Mandalay Bay blared incessantly, enticing the drunken revelers as they spoke in slurred tongues, on their way up to Mix – THEHotel’s ultra-swank club located at the top of THEHotel.
I found my room without much trouble, at the end of a long corridor. Using my MagStripe keycard I entered the dark room. Fumbled for a second and then found the light switch. On came the lights and wow.
THESuite was larger than my apartment in NY. The first room, which is where I was standing was the multi-purpose room with a couch and sitting area in front of a huge flat-screen plasma. There are nine art prints above the couch, each with Chinese symbols.
Immediately at the entrance is a half bath (yes, a hotel room with 1.5 baths).
There is a large desk in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows (that overlooked the north end of the airport and the Mandalay Bay), with Ethernet connectivity and powerpoints (110v). The room is very chic and I began to understand why THEHotel could be so pretentious as to call themselves THEHotel. The Suites are the largest standard-size hotel rooms in Vegas. And I had only seen half the room.
I then wandered into the bedroom and low and behold two queens. Just like at the Mandalay Bay I had reserved one king and was confirmed it at check-in, yet when I got up to the room, two queens. Oh well, at least the room was a non-smoking so I was content.
The beds were a lot more comfortable than at the Mandalay Bay, but nowhere in the leagues of Marriott Revive beds or Westin Heavenly’s. There is a leather headboard that draws some of the attention away from the leopard print bed coverings (not my style). Just as in the other room there are floor to ceiling windows and against the wall was a huge dresser which contained another huge plasma (although not as large as in the other room).
I could watch some serious football in this room.
Furniture, including night stands are wooden, just like the large dresser.
The bathroom was huge as well, and featured a separate toilet area (didn’t have the splash-back flushing problems that I encountered at Mandalay Bay), a soaking tub, and a glass enclosed shower. There were two sinks, and yet another plasma mounted on the wall.
The tub and shower areas were adorned with black marble and above the sinks was a giant mirror, with a very nice frame.
THERoom Examined
Okay, I’ll admit it, I was seriously impressed with the room. As much as THEHotel emulates W hotel stylings and attitude, the rooms far surpassed many rooms I’ve stayed at around the world. And this was a standard “suite”, for the same price as what a standard room was going for at M’Bay next door.
There were some nice features to the room, like the little buttons next to the door that you pushed if you didn’t want to be disturbed, or if you wanted the room cleaned (little LED’s light up).
But the more I got settled in to my room, the more I found the flaws. Although the room is much more comfortable and functional than most hotel rooms in Vegas, there’s still stupid little quirky issues. There were no easily accessible plugs in the bedroom, so I had to charge my cell phones in the bathroom, where not only are they hard to hear if they are ringing, but they have the potential to get splashed by water.
The Ethernet cable (no wi-fi), just like my room at M’Bay had the clip broken off, so if I adjusted my laptop, whilst working, I lost connection. And, even if I could keep the cable in the back of my laptop, I couldn’t be super productive as just like at M’Bay they log you off the internet ($11.99 for 24 hours) just about every other hour for a few minutes. I swear this is on purpose.
There were a few lights burned out in the room, and they were never replaced.
I opened up the curtains in the bedroom and not only did I find duct-tape holding the window frame together (?) but also a lot of trash from previous guest(s) including chip bags and a condom wrapper. Its like the maid swept the trash back there.
I called down about the few little maintenance issues, as well as the trash in the room and was told someone would come up. They never did.
On my second day I made another little discovery that really bothered me. I picked-up the leather bound book about THEHotel (to find out the cost of using the gym - $20, are you freaking kidding me?) and I noticed something on it. A little white powder. And it wasn’t talcum. I looked around a little more and sure enough I found little traces of it here and there on the coffee table in the main room.
Now I’m no saint. And I know there are a lot of people in this world that enjoy drugs, and it doesn’t bother me (as long as they don’t bother me), but when I encounter it in my hotel room, where I could be charged with it? I have a problem with that. My job is sensitive enough that if I were to be tested positive with drugs in my system, or if I were tied back to drugs I would be terminated. Immediately. I was honestly angry that I was jeopardizing my job by staying at THEHotel.
I called down again to ask them to thoroughly clean the living room area, and as of checking out, they never did.
THEFood and Beverage
Everything I ate at the property, I ate over at Mandalay Bay, as there are very limited dining options at THEHotel. I had drinks at THELounge and they were as expensive as you’d expect from a hotel like this ($10 / drink).
Mix is the big lounge at the top of THEHotel and there were a ton of people coming and going. Seeing as it was AVN week whilst I was there (I swear I didn’t know about it before I arrived) I probably should have found myself up there, but I didn’t. I don’t know why, I’ve heard good things about it.
For more information about food, please see my (and other’s) comprehensive reviews on Mandalay Bay.
Room service is available.
THERecreation
In addition to people watching (which is phenomenal) there are a few other things to do. The SPA takes up the entire second floor and I’m sure is very nice. This is where you’ll find the gym, and as I mentioned earlier, the $20 entrance fee dissuaded me working out (jerks).
As I mentioned earlier, as a guest, you have full use of the M’Bay facilities, which include a shark tank, huge pool area, and of course a casino. Again, in the interest of not writing the same review twice, please click on my review of Mandalay Bay.
Mandalay Bay is part of the MGM/Mirage group, so their casino club card works for comps here.
THECheck-out
I checked out using the TV. There was no bill under the door, so I had to go to the front desk to get a copy (they do mail you a copy, but I wanted one right away to fill out my T&E report). The woman at the desk asked how my stay was and when I indicated that things weren’t great (I didn’t launch into a tirade) she said “oh well”.
I was e-mailed a survey a few days after I returned home and I gave them honest feedback. A week later I received a form letter inviting me to return and have a night’s stay comped. Nice gesture, but I don’t know if they took my concerns seriously. And honestly, I don’t care.
THEBottom-Line
THEHotel, if you couldn’t tell by the name, is pretentious. Does it deserve its self-prescribed attitude? Yeah, I’ll concede it does.
I really wasn’t a big fan of Mandalay Bay, and a coworker persuaded me to stay at THEHotel and I could tell it was definitely nicer. However, it failed in my basic needs of a hotel room, whether it’s an ultra-swank suite on the strip, or a Best Western in the middle of nowhere. Quiet, Clean, and Functional. It was quiet (in the room), but it definitely wasn’t clean, and the functionality wasn’t great.
The service was a big let-down as well
As far as what’s in THEHotel, its pretty limited, but I liked that. It had what I needed.
Will I return to THEHotel? I’ll use my comp room, but I think I’ll stick with the Palms from here on out. Despite what my coworkers try and tell me.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
belynch
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Location: Nyack, NY
Reviews written: 64
Trusted by: 17 members
About Me:
A full-time consultant, a part-time writer, and a volunteer EMT.
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