Great Hotel, but Not for Everyone
- August 3, 2009
- Rated 5 of 5 by
mikeef from boston, Massachusetts
Okay, we're back from what was supposed to be two nights there but turned into one night due to a mechanical at our friendly neighborhood airline.
About ten days before the trip, we called our Virtuoso TA and told him we hadn't heard from a pre-arrival concierge. He called them, and within an hour, we had an email. We requested dinner reservations and asked them to put juices, soda and water in our minibar. The PAC (Ava) did note that the juices are extra.
After a number of mechanicals on the way to LAS, we found ourselves short a day and had our TA call the SkyLofts and cut our trip from two days to one. They did so without a problem (We were staying at the FS before the SkyLofts, so we gave them 72 hrs.).
We arrived on our own on Monday afternoon. The room was ready, so three people (the check-in person, butler and bellman) accompanied us up to our suite. No upgrade to a 2-bedroom, so we're 0 for 3 with upgrades. I never know who to tip in these situations, so we tipped the bellman and butler.
The SkyLofts seems to have evolved from a strict luxury feel to more of a very upscale W (without the attitude). There was tons of mood lighting and the concierge mentioned that they open up the bar area in the lobby for drinks from 6-10, which we could conveniently charge to our suite. The room next to us had five 20-somethings in it who were pretty loud. Cigarette smoked seeped into the hall at one point, although it was gone within minutes. We also noticed a large family. Other than that, we saw virtually none of the other guests.
The suite itself was fine. They gave the typical welcome juice (Seriously, leave out the vanilla extract.) and the butler refreshed me on how to use the coffee maker and TV controls. The technology is over the top but quite clunky, particularly as it pertained to the TV and the lighting. There was no welcome platter of berries or little chocolate statue that they had given us in the past, only a small box of four chocolates. They had a nice mixture of green and white Bulgari amenities, although the green mysteriously disappeared, only to turn up later in my wife's bag. A request later for more green got us white, which was quickly exchanged for green.
Room service was from the Chinese restaurant Pearl and had a $15 surcharge. I don't remember if they had previously added a surcharge for Butler room service from a restaurant.
The temperature in the loft, particularly on the upstairs level, is definitely a problem. You could only set the temperature down to 65, but a call to the desk revealed that it would never actually go below 70. No one was able to explain why, although they did offer to send up a fan.
Other than that, the only other issue we had was when they called us shortly after 10 pm to ask us if it was okay to send an engineer over to fix the sink. Um, we hadn't requested someone to do so. Yes, we're sure. Oh, we like to go to sleep early, so please don't call us anymore.
The next morning, we had breakfast at the Mansion (instead of our Continental breakfast, which would have been free). The food was excellent, but you are really paying for the atmosphere. There was only one other couple in the courtyard with us, so we lounged for a while. It was the first time that I had ever spent $100 for breakfast, though.
Checkout was quick. Since we were able to drop off our rental car at the Dollar counter at MGM, we got the Maybach to the airport. Too bad that the driver didn't tunnel us on the return; it was a great ride.
Okay, so the verdict. We had a nice stay. There were a few glitches and I could see how some thought the service was a bit mechanical, but it's one of the few luxury hotels in Vegas that I would return to. We loved the isolation and the ability to cocoon in the room. The rate, with Virtuoso, turned out to be about $500, with a $100 F&B credit thrown in.
Mike
Editor Pick
Skylofts at MGM Grand
- December 31, 2006
- Rated 5 of 5 by
friedmanm from Minneapolis, Minnesota
Wow. A hotel within a hotel, the Skylofts at MGM Grand are among the nicest properties I have ever seen.
We arrived in the early afternoon and chatted with an employee about the original Nechita on the wall. She took us up to the lofts section to complete the check-in.
Note: There is a pre-arrival concierge named Erica who takes care of you ahead of time. We requested Danny Gans tickets (she got us dead center, about 25 rows back.), green Bulgari amenities instead of the white (done) and only diet Cokes and water in the fridge (there was some alcohol still there, but plenty of what we asked for). All the non-alcoholic beverages in your fridge are free.
The check-in is actually done in your loft. We were met with a large box of berries, several chocolate displays and glasses of fresh juice (cantaloupe, with coconut and vanilla extract). We were also introduced to our butler, who showed us around the loft. Normally, that process takes about 30 seconds. In this case, it took 15 minutes. They had everything, and I mean everything, covered. Need to recharge your I-Pod? There were two I-Pod chargers/speakers. Need to tell people where you were? You get personalized business cards. There was an office space, dining area, etc., in the downstairs portion of the loft. We ended up with Unit 91, which is the biggest of the 1-bedroom (we did not book through FHR, which was more expensive.). One word of caution: the living room is sunken, and I tripped over the step frequently.
Upstairs was also incredible. The bed was quite comfortable and the butler noted that there were 13 different types of pillows, in case the first twelve weren't right. The bathroom was huge, with an infinity soaking tub (think infinity pool) and a shower about the size of a steam room (five shower heads). There were two televisions in the bathroom alone, one over the sink and the other over the bathtub.
One of the benefits was being able to get room service from any of the MGM restaurants. At one point, we had four people in our room, two doing turndown, two delivering and setting up the room service (okay, one was the butler, who was there to show me how to work the coffee maker). Come to think of it, it was a touch uncomfortable, since I'm not used to living like a king. Overall, we saw far more employees than we did other guests.
At times, we felt like we never needed to leave the room. My wife got the flu one night and we ended up staying in the room. Fortunately, all the "pay per view" movies were free, so we had a chance to lie back, order room service and relax. Rooms start at $600 per night, but are worth every penny.
From journal MGM Skylofts in Las Vegas--A Few Days of Luxury