New Hotel Review: Las Vegas Hilton at Resorts World

In a nutshell: I had a fine stay a the brand new Las Vegas Hilton just a few days after their opening on June 24, 2021. There were a few hiccups as this was just a few days after opening, but overall I had a nice stay. The Hilton rooms are comfortable and well appointed. The new casino complex isn’t quite fully up and running, but there are still plenty of dining options, staff were friendly, and the pool area is quite nice. 

Earlier this week I met a few friends in Las Vegas who were in town for the opening of the brand new Resorts World casino hotel. The hotel contains three different Hilton hotel brands, including Conrad, LXR, and their standard Hilton brand. The Crockfords LXR hotel wasn’t open yet, but both the Conrad and Hilton were up and running. I settled on the Las Vegas Hilton at Resorts World over the Conrad to save a few Hilton points. After setting foot in one of the Conrad rooms as well, the two brands are pretty comparable in terms of quality. It’ll be interesting to see how the Crockfords compares, but I’m sure it’ll be a much bigger step up from the other two brands.

Now let’s jump into my experience at the Las Vegas Hilton and Resorts World.

Booking the Las Vegas Hilton at Resorts World

Initially, I booked my stay at the Las Vegas Hilton for 66,000 points, which is one of the highest amounts I’ve ever paid for a one-night stay at any Hilton property. Prices for opening night and the next several days were fairly high. Fortunately, I caught a tweet from a friend that let me know that prices had dropped, so I rebooked my stay a week out and saved 17,000 points.

Paying 49,000 points for one night wasn’t a bad deal. This is pretty high considering the cash cost of about $180 per night, but when you factor in the resort fee (which is waived on award stays), this is a fine deal.

Arriving into Vegas

I flew into Las Vegas on Allegiant, my first flight with the low-cost carrier in years and my second ever. Unlike my last trip, this one went without a hitch and I arrived into McCarran Airport right on time. Hysterically, with the heat wave hitting the Pacific Northwest, it was actually hotter in Medford than in Las Vegas. Go figure. And unlike southern Oregon, the heat felt nice as I left the airport and headed for the Uber/Lyft pickup zone.

One note on ridesharing: things are expensive right now. I don’t know if this will continue. Uber wanted $36 one-way to Resorts World, and Lyft was asking $26. Both are pricey, given the short distance, but I obviously went with Lyft.

Arriving at Resorts World, you might want to ask your driver to take you to the hotel entrance. The lobbies are accessed off of Resorts World Avenue rather than the front entrance.

Resorts World: First Impressions

Casinos aren’t my thing. So why was I in Vegas? The quick trip to see friends I haven’t met up with in over a year was the real draw. I do like new hotels, but there’s no way I would have ventured here solo. But I do have to admit that the new Resorts World property is pretty cool.

I’d spend quite a while wandering the hotel and casino over the first evening, taking in the feel of the new property. It is certainly nicer than pretty much all other Las Vegas casinos I’ve been in, although I’ve not been in more than 10 and only a couple of the nicest.

Beyond the casino floor and lobbies to the east end of the property is a mall-like area that is currently unfinished. There are a couple operating restaurants, and others will be starting up soon. The giant Resorts World orb is located here.

It took a little wandering to find the Hilton lobby. There are separate lobbies for each hotel brand. The Hilton and Conrad are easy to find. The LXR Crockfords lobby is more or less hidden. More on that later.

I’d figured there might be a pretty long queue to check in, but that turned out not to be the case. The front desk agent was super friendly and excited to be working at the Hilton. Most of the staff have just been on the job for a few days, and it was clear they were still being trained on the system. I was welcomed as a Diamond member and the agent confirmed all my stay details. The one thing that was overlooked was the breakfast credit, which I had to sort out in the morning.

One thing I noticed was how my ID and room key were handed to me. The agent passed them using both hands, handing them to me directly and not setting them on the counter. This seemed a bit out of place. I noticed this gesture when I visited China. Resorts World was supposed to have a Chinese theme, initially. This was later revised, but the property does have some Asian influence, especially among the food options.

There are three elevator banks for the Las Vegas Hilton, and they are spaced to serve three different floor blocks. You’ll have to make sure you take the correct one to access your floor.

My impression of the Las Vegas Hilton rose as I headed out from the elevator and down the hall to my room. The halls are nicely styled and inviting. It’s always awesome to try out a new property. I’ve been to a few that were only months old. This is my first stay at a hotel that is just days old, though.

Las Vegas Hilton – King Deluxe Room

The Hilton rooms are quite nice as well. I was assigned 17-361. However, the Las Vegas Hilton rooms aren’t large, especially by Las Vegas standards. They certainly offer everything you need for a comfortable stay, though. I really liked the color choices and style. I’ll just let the photos give you an idea of what they are like.

Make sure you don’t throw away your key holder. There is a QR code on the back that provides a property map, something you’ll likely want. On the inside is another QR code for ordering from the Resorts World restaurants.

I was a bit surprised by the minibar, which isn’t a feature much these days within the U.S. But it makes more sense at a destination like Las Vegas. Prices were still crazy, though.

The bathroom was lovely as well, with a very nice shower. After being able to take a look at a Conrad room, the Hilton holds up well. The showers are about the same. The Conrad vanity is larger, and the toilet is in a separate room within the bathroom. The overall room size at the Conrad is also larger.

Sadly, my room has a parking garage view. Still better than some other hotels on the strip, though.

The Other Resorts World Hilton Brands

As I mentioned, there are a total of three hotel brands in Resorts World. The Hilton has the most rooms, followed by the Conrad. The LXR Crockfords property is the high-end place to stay. After checking into my room, I headed over to the Conrad lobby. It is much more spacious and fancier than the Hilton lobby, which feels a bit cramped when there are a lot of people coming and going.

I was ultimately looking for the Crockfords lobby, where I was to meet a couple friends. The signage that pointed me down the hall to the Conrad lobby had also indicated that this was the way to Crockfords. But that’s not really the case. There is a “secret” door that lets you into the hall to Crockfords. Alternatively, you have to head through the Crockfords lounge and fancy high-limit gaming area.

You’ll head past the tables to the very end where you’ll finally enter the Crockfords lobby. It’s worth the trek, even if you’re not staying there.

As Hilton’s super-luxury brand, it makes sense that they don’t want people just wandering into Crockfords. But the lobby is really beautiful. We enjoyed some time at the lobby bar before heading out to grab dinner.

Food and Beverage Options

The dining options at Resorts World are extensive. The casino complex boasts 40 restaurants. However, the current scene was far from what it ought to be. my guess is that the dining will take a couple months to hit its stride. Between restaurants that aren’t quite ready to others running out of food, They are still working out some serious kinks in the first week.

If you’re staying at the Las Vegas Hilton at Resorts World, you’ll enjoy a $15 credit per guest per day as a Diamond member. This is limited to 2 guests, so you’re looking at $30 per day, max. You can use the credit at any restaurant in the casino-hotel complex, just be sure to bill the charges to your room. You’ll also likely need to mention the food and beverage credit to the front desk as you check out, as it was not automatically applied. It took the desk quite a while to remove $15 of my breakfast charges.

There are a couple options where $15 will get you far enough for a decent breakfast. I’d recommend Suns Out, Buns Out, a sandwich shop that sells a variety of breakfast sandwiches for $10-16. I ordered a bacon and egg sandwich and a coffee for breakfast, which came to exactly $15 before tax and tip. I ended up being given a sausage and egg sandwich, which was fine. But it wasn’t what I’d ordered and I want to mention that.

If you’re staying at the Conrad or Crockfords, you’ll be given $25 per person for breakfast, for a max of $50 per day. This food credit should be good for other meals besides breakfast, which is nice if you’re not a breakfast person. The Las Vegas Hilton is a $15/$30 per day market.

Most of the 40 dining options are in the Famous Foods food court area. Resorts World has a catchier name for it. You can order from any of the stalls using the screens, although these were still having some issues.

There are a number of sit-down dining options including:

• Kusa Nori (Japanese, including teppanyaki)
• Viva! (Mexican)
• Genting Palace (Chinese)
• Marigold (American)
• The Kitchen

The Kitchen is (currently) the only dining option open 24 hours. Everything else shuts down by 11:00 PM, which is frustrating if you want late night eats. After wandering the casino complex for a while with friends, we realized that we’d either need to head across the street to eat at Tacos El Gordo or Denny’s, or we’d have to settle for the Kitchen.

We ended up choosing the Kitchen at Resorts World. By that time, however, they had a 20-30 minute wait, as they were obviously getting a lot of business now they were the only operating restaurant when we ate at around midnight. The late night menu is also super limited.

I also grabbed a noodle bowl from Ten Suns the following day. I’d intended to just get a sushi hand roll from Nori Bar to tide me over before a group dinner, but the sushi place was out of almost everything as I tried to order through the kiosk. When I went to order one spicy tuna roll, the payment operations then failed. I’d hear about a different error the previous evening. There are still multiple issues plaguing the system.

Overall, though, the dining options are extensive and I’m hopeful that Resorts World will continue to improve until operations are running smoothly. The one place I wanted to check out but didn’t is the bar at Genting Palace. I don’t know what it is, but the aroma at the bar and restaurant is absolutely amazing. This is one of the high end options and it is sandwiched between the Crockfords high-limit gaming and the Hilton lobby.

Resorts World Pool

The pool at Resorts World is shared among the LXR Crockfords, Conrad, and Hilton Guests. Both the Hilton and Conrad towers offer pool deck access from their elevators. The overall pool area is quite extensive.

Resorts World offers a family pool area that looks great for kids. With the food court options, easy to navigate hotel, and kid-friendly pool, it’s not a bad option for families.

You could also still freely access an exclusive pool area including an infinity pool and cabanas overlooking the strip. My guess is that once the Crockfords hotel gets up and running and more guests are using this, they won’t let peons like me just wander in and take photos.

I spent some time at the pool and then met up with friends for a couple hours at the poolside Agave Bar and Grill. The bartenders were great, and we had an enjoyable time chatting about travel, points, miles, and more.

My friend Mark who writes for Miles to Memories ended up being the first person to place a poolside locker order, just for the heck of it. It was quite the scene when several attendants came to drop off a single bag of food! Keep up with all his action on the Miles to Memories Twitter and on all the deals and travel content at the Miles to Memories website.

Issues Checking Out

Check out from the Las Vegas Hilton at Resorts World was one of the longest ever. I had a total of three issues that needed to be fixed. First, the $15 per day food and beverage credit wasn’t automatically applied. The front desk agent was happy to remove it, but she had to be coached through the entire process. Next up was the resort fee. As a Hilton award stay, this should not be applied. And it is pretty steep at Resorts World. The agent checked with a manager to make sure what I was asking was correct. The resort fee removal also took a couple minutes.

Finally, I’d consumed one item from the minibar. However, it hadn’t yet registered on my folio. The Hilton staff said that the folio would be updated once it posted, but a couple days later I have yet to see an updated folio and charge. We’ll see if it hits my statement later. This could be a potential problem for them, if the minibars aren’t connected to the system yet. Even though check out took over 10 minutes all said and done, I was not in a hurry and didn’t mind waiting.

Don’t forget to admire the Resorts World model in the Hilton lobby!

Las Vegas Hilton at Resorts World: Final Thoughts

The Resorts World property really impressed me on the whole. There were a number of issues during the stay, including the folio issues and check out process, plus the multiple dining hiccups. I’m sure the new megaresort will get these nailed down in the coming weeks. Although things weren’t completely ready for the grand opening, the hotel is still up and running well and I really enjoyed my one night stay. The pool area is awesome, and compared to some other Las Vegas Strip properties, Resorts World is more family-friendly. I’d be totally happy bringing my kids here. I was surprised by the number of kids and families I saw during my stay.

Are you planning on visiting Las Vegas’ newest casino property? Let me know if you made it during opening week or plan to visit the Las Vegas Hilton and Resorts World soon!