Complimentary Stay Review: Aria Las Vegas

Background:

I decided to do a quick road trip with my dad to Vegas in order to use our $100 Celebration Dinners from Caesars Rewards Diamond, as well as status matching from Caesars Rewards to M life Gold and Wynn Rewards Platinum. I haven’t been to Vegas since before the pandemic, and I heard Vegas has been quite crowded. Thinking it would help avoid the crowds, we decided to book a Sunday night as they are normally less packed. Boy were we wrong. Vegas is in full swing, regardless of it being Sunday or Monday. At least the indoor mask mandate came back, and at least at Aria the compliance was pretty decent (80%+).

How I Paid For the Room:

The nice thing about Sunday nights is that rooms are generally a lot cheaper in Vegas than the Fri/Sat nights. I used to play the Wynn Slots app a lot and use the gems earned for free rooms! Now they changed the game rules a bit, and you have to spend about $200 in order to be able to book the rooms with gems earned from the app. I’ve also amassed a bit of myVEGAS Slots Loyalty points over the years by playing the slots on the app for free but never used them. They offer free nights at MGM properties- from 15,000 points for a free night at Excalibur to 175,000 points at Aria. Without spending a dime, one can book a max of 1 free night at a time every 30 days if they have the loyalty points. For Aria, weekends are blocked off, so I was happy that I decided to go on Sunday, as I was able to book a complimentary night. I just had to pay a $51.02 resort fee. Not bad as the rate was $170 + resort fee!

I’ve visited Aria numerous times and enjoyed its location and casino area, so I was excited to stay in an Aria room.

QUICK TAKEOFF POINTS:

Date of Stay: August 2021
Room Type Reserved: Deluxe Two Queen Room
Pros: Beautiful on the outside, nice gaming area and a central Strip location that is easy to walk around.
Cons: Rooms in despair, pricing as a 5 star hotel for a 3 star room.

Check In:

I arrived at 4:30pm, and the standard check in line as well as Priority Line for M life Gold and higher had no line at all. I was quickly checked in, and the representative told me that I came at the perfect time as an hour before the line was very long.

The myVEGAS free night redemptions only book you into a King Room, and I asked if two queens were available. I noticed on the Aria website that the price for 2 Queens versus 1 King were the same for the night so I didn’t think there would be an issue. He said it would be fine, and we were placed on the 15th floor, and we’re told that unfortunately for two queen rooms they didn’t have any strip views available. If available, with M life Gold, you get free upgrades (excluding suites).

The Room:

Unfortunately, I got a really bad vibe once I left the elevator on the 15th floor as the wallpaper was popping out, and some signage had been scratched off. I even noticed a room missing the 2 from their room number.

Upon entering the room, there is a large closet area to the left with plenty of drawer space and hangers. Two robes and an ironing board are provided.

On the right, is the bathroom. There are dual sinks, as well as a separate W/C and shower and bathtub. The shower and bathtub has a weird setup where you enter the shower and the bathtub is in the back. I didn’t really like that design.

Toiletries were provided by Nip and Fab and were made in Canada. I didn’t care much for the scent but they seemed of decent quality.

When I arrived, housekeeping seemed to forget to throw away a piece of trash? I found this lying on the bathroom counter. Hmmm…
And the fixtures in the bathroom seemed like they were about to break off. Looks like no maintenance had been done since the resort opened in 2009.

The entry from the foyer to the main room was quite interesting. It was very sticky and felt like walking through a movie theater. Another ding for cleanliness…

The main room featured two queen beds, and a large armchair near the window. Aria’s standard rooms are 520 square feet and feel adequately roomy. One thing I found weird was that for a newer hotel built in 2009, the ceilings were quite low.

The “Mountain View” was actually better than I expected, as I could see Vdara and the Cosmopolitan. I didn’t mind the view at all.

The nice thing about the room was how high tech it was. All the controls could be done on the iPad for lighting, drapes and AC. It was pretty user friendly as well. You could also view the hotel amenities, order takeout; set the alarm clock, all on the tablet.

As with the norm in Vegas, coffee makers are generally not provided in hotel rooms. Interestingly enough, nothing was really provided at all- no pens/stationary either. And even with the indoor mask mandate being reinstated, no masks or wipes were provided in the room. Masks were handed out in the elevator area in the lobby as well as having a self serve station of individually wrapped masks.

There is a minibar- filled with snacks and drinks and no personal fridge.

The beds were comfortable, they were pretty firm and solid which was nice. Unfortunately, the sheets and bedding were very poor. I had much better bedding at the La Quinta Inn I stayed at a few years ago… I have no idea how they could use such horrible bedding when they are advertised as an AAA 5 Diamond Property. Maybe there’s a different wing I got assigned to? Take me to the 5 Diamond wing please…!

Towels in the bathroom had holes in them, and one even had red stains (yikes!)

Sigh. Not what I expect to see at 5 star properties. And I know, when in Vegas, you have to downgrade expectations as they are mega resort factories. But, at the bare minimum, I should have a room with clean towels and quality bedding. I didn’t experience anything like this at my stays before at Wynn, Encore or Palazzo.

The rest of the room was pretty beat up as well.

If you’re interested in a video tour of the room, you can watch it below.

Overall, the room was quite disappointing. It was better than the Rio (which was horrendous) but probably the worst room I’ve stayed in Vegas over the past few years.

Location and Amenities:

I absolutely love the location of Aria. Connected indoor to Park MGM, and you can take the Aria Tram to Bellagio as well. Perfect center strip location.

Self Parking is $18 overnight and Valet is $30/$35 weekdays/weekends. Note: If you have M life Pearl or higher, you get free self parking and if you are M life Gold or higher you get free valet parking. If you have the World of Hyatt Credit Card/are Discoverist, that can be easily matched to M life Pearl, or if you are Explorist with Hyatt that can be easily matched to M life Gold.

Outside of the room, Aria has plenty of famous restaurants from Javier’s, Catch and Din Tai Fung to name a few. Aria’s has 3 main pools on site as well.

The Aria Resort Fee is $45 + tax ($51.02), and includes

• Property-wide high speed internet access (public spaces and in-room)
• Unlimited local and toll free calls
• Airline boarding pass printing
• Fitness center access for guests 18+.

The resort fee contains pretty much nothing special, as typical with Vegas casinos.

The Verdict:

Overall, I had high hopes for my stay at Aria Las Vegas but was gravely disappointed. It was not atrocious enough to complain to the front desk, as I also paid just the resort fee for my stay, but I will definitely be trying a different property on my next stay in Vegas.

Have you stayed at the Aria Las Vegas? How was your experience? Comment below!

Cheers,

Ty