Announced today, industry leading, equity based, luxury destination clubs, The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club and Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club, have forged a new exchange opportunity for the benefit of their Members. This strategic alliance presents Members of both Clubs an expanding universe of extraordinary destinations only these two renowned companies can provide. This affiliation marks a first for the destination club industry through The Lion & Crown Travel Co., LLC, the exclusive external exchange company for The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club.
The collaboration allows Ritz-Carlton Destination Club Members access to 17 Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club residences in North America’s finest beach, mountain and golf destinations including Scottsdale, Ariz.; Lake Tahoe, Calif.; Snowmass-Aspen, Colo.; Kiawah Island, S.C.; Punta Cana; Sun Valley, Idaho; Jackson Hole, Wyo.; Hawaii’s Big Island; Turks & Caicos; and Los Cabos, Punta Mita and Puerto Aventuras, Mexico. In return, Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club Members are able to convert their nights for use at 10 Ritz-Carlton Destination Club locations in Aspen Highlands, Bachelor Gulch and Vail*, Colo.; St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.; Jupiter, Fla.; San Francisco and North Lake Tahoe, Calif.; Kapalua Bay in Maui and Kauai Lagoons, Hawaii; and Abaco, The Bahamas.
“Beyond our exceptional Ritz-Carlton Destination Club properties, it is our mission to continually offer our discerning Members the finest partners and most exclusive vacation experiences,” said Peter J. Watzka, executive vice president and chief operating officer for The Ritz-Carlton Development Company, Inc. (an affiliate of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC). “We see this relationship as a tremendous first step in building a worldwide, branded network of exchange and travel services for the destination club segment.”
“Additionally, we see our alliance with Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club as a logical extension of the newly formed relationship between The Ritz-Carlton and Abercrombie & Kent brands announced with the launch of The Ritz-Carlton Rewards program last month,” continued Watzka.
“This exclusive relationship demonstrates our commitment to expand the range of destinations and luxury vacation experiences our members can enjoy around the world,” explains Abercrombie & Kent founder and executive chairman Geoffrey Kent. “Both clubs were founded on an equity model, a fundamentally more conservative choice than other clubs in the industry.”
Both Ritz-Carlton Destination Club and Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club Members benefit from coordination of everything from airport pick-up and pre-arrival provisioning of the residence, to arranging a seamless vacation experience. Ritz-Carlton Destination Club Members may also escape with Abercrombie & Kent on a variety of luxury and adventure travel experiences, discovering inspiring destinations that include Antarctica, China, India and the Galápagos Islands, at their most intimate and authentic. The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club Members can participate in this program in a variety of ways, including preferred access to Abercrombie & Kent tours on all seven continents; opportunities to participate in three exclusive trips created especially for The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club Members in 2011; and the option to utilize Abercrombie & Kent Private Travel to personalize itineraries through their Member Experience Advisor.
Visit: PrivateResidenceClubs.com
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Trump SoHo Gets Financing Boost
Trump SoHo, the flashy downtown hotel-condo project that has struggled to sell units, announced Wednesday it has restructured its financing with iStar Financial in a deal that increases its loan by $20 million.
The deal gives the 391-unit development more breathing room as it tries to ride out a turbulent real-estate market that's been particularly hard on condo hotels. It shows that iStar, which already has lent more than $250 million to Trump SoHo, has faith in the project. But it's not clear whether it will be enough to restore the project to health.
The Trump SoHo developer, a venture of the Sapir Organization and Bayrock Group, also revealed new details of its plan with a California financial company to offer financing to potential buyers who can't get enough credit to purchase a unit.
Analysts say both measures are intended to inject some momentum into the condo sales process, which has been sluggish and has raised some concern about the long-term viability of the Trump SoHo as a condo-hotel project. About a quarter of the 391 condo units are in contract, but only about two dozen of them have closed.
"The increase in the loan amount demonstrates the ongoing confidence and support of our lender, iStar," a Trump SoHo spokeswoman said in a statement. iStar officials didn't respond to requests for comment.
A Trump SoHo spokeswoman declined to say how the $20 million will be used. Often in restructurings of this type, lenders increase the amounts of loans simply to give developers funds to keep current on interest payments. The restructuring "allows some room for management and the developer to enact their plan," says Bradley Burwell, a hotel analyst with commercial broker CB Richard Ellis.
Mr. Burwell also said the new loan was another sign that lenders have been reluctant to foreclose when there may be limited opportunities to sell and they are uncomfortable taking hits to their balance sheets.
The Trump SoHo faces unusual challenges because, under the zoning rules that allowed it to move forward, condo owners are permitted to stay in their units no more than 120 days a year. On other days, they're part of the hotel operation. This arrangement has made it particularly difficult for buyers to obtain financing.
In an effort to get over that hurdle, Trump SoHo said CalCon Mutual Mortgage, a San Diego-based lender, would provide financing for condo sales and "is accepting applications from qualified existing buyers," according to a statement from Rodrigo Nino, president of Prodigy International, the Trump SoHo's sales and marketing company. The Trump Organization has a licensing and management agreement with Trump SoHo.
CalCon is offering loans to potential buyers as well as owners in contract who can't get the financing to close, said Josh Erskine, CalCon's president. He said U.S. buyers need to put down deposits of 40% of the purchase price, and foreign buyers are required to put down 50%. Most sales so far have been to foreign buyers, people familiar with the matter said.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the Trump SoHo was taking another uncommon step to close on deals: it is offering discounts of up to 25% off the agreed-upon purchase price as an extra inducement to convince buyers who might be getting cold feet to close on a deal.
"We look forward to contract holders honoring their commitments," Mr. Nino also said in his statement.
Donald Trump hasn't invested money in the project but his company, the Trump Organization has a licensing and management agreement that allows the development to use the Trump name. The deal gives Mr. Trump and his children—Eric, Ivanka and Donald Jr.—an equity stake in the project.
Original article Wall Street Journal
The deal gives the 391-unit development more breathing room as it tries to ride out a turbulent real-estate market that's been particularly hard on condo hotels. It shows that iStar, which already has lent more than $250 million to Trump SoHo, has faith in the project. But it's not clear whether it will be enough to restore the project to health.
The Trump SoHo developer, a venture of the Sapir Organization and Bayrock Group, also revealed new details of its plan with a California financial company to offer financing to potential buyers who can't get enough credit to purchase a unit.
Analysts say both measures are intended to inject some momentum into the condo sales process, which has been sluggish and has raised some concern about the long-term viability of the Trump SoHo as a condo-hotel project. About a quarter of the 391 condo units are in contract, but only about two dozen of them have closed.
"The increase in the loan amount demonstrates the ongoing confidence and support of our lender, iStar," a Trump SoHo spokeswoman said in a statement. iStar officials didn't respond to requests for comment.
A Trump SoHo spokeswoman declined to say how the $20 million will be used. Often in restructurings of this type, lenders increase the amounts of loans simply to give developers funds to keep current on interest payments. The restructuring "allows some room for management and the developer to enact their plan," says Bradley Burwell, a hotel analyst with commercial broker CB Richard Ellis.
Mr. Burwell also said the new loan was another sign that lenders have been reluctant to foreclose when there may be limited opportunities to sell and they are uncomfortable taking hits to their balance sheets.
The Trump SoHo faces unusual challenges because, under the zoning rules that allowed it to move forward, condo owners are permitted to stay in their units no more than 120 days a year. On other days, they're part of the hotel operation. This arrangement has made it particularly difficult for buyers to obtain financing.
In an effort to get over that hurdle, Trump SoHo said CalCon Mutual Mortgage, a San Diego-based lender, would provide financing for condo sales and "is accepting applications from qualified existing buyers," according to a statement from Rodrigo Nino, president of Prodigy International, the Trump SoHo's sales and marketing company. The Trump Organization has a licensing and management agreement with Trump SoHo.
CalCon is offering loans to potential buyers as well as owners in contract who can't get the financing to close, said Josh Erskine, CalCon's president. He said U.S. buyers need to put down deposits of 40% of the purchase price, and foreign buyers are required to put down 50%. Most sales so far have been to foreign buyers, people familiar with the matter said.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the Trump SoHo was taking another uncommon step to close on deals: it is offering discounts of up to 25% off the agreed-upon purchase price as an extra inducement to convince buyers who might be getting cold feet to close on a deal.
"We look forward to contract holders honoring their commitments," Mr. Nino also said in his statement.
Donald Trump hasn't invested money in the project but his company, the Trump Organization has a licensing and management agreement that allows the development to use the Trump name. The deal gives Mr. Trump and his children—Eric, Ivanka and Donald Jr.—an equity stake in the project.
Original article Wall Street Journal
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
The Strip's CityCenter hotels up the ante
High-tech touches and green innovations are set on a luxurious stage at the Vdara Hotel & Spa, Mandarin Oriental and Aria Resort & Casino.
Packed into 67 acres between the Monte Carlo and the Bellagio casino hotels, CityCenter is billed not just as the Las Vegas Strip's next evolutionary phase, but also as a spectacle capable of pulling the region's tourism from its death spiral.
Yet with nearly 5,900 new luxury hotel rooms to fill, that spiral may be intensifying. Between Dec. 1 and 16, the developers unveiled the 1,495-guest room Vdara, the 392-guest room Mandarin Oriental, and the 4,004-guest room Aria Resort & Casino and its 17 restaurants and cafes.
As a whole, the hotels offer a template for 21st century Vegas; it's the locus of sophisticated recreation for the well-heeled brainiac. Stuffed with whiz-bang technology, cutting-edge green operations and urbane décor, the hotels create a new kind of wonderland where pampered lifestyles tread softly on the planet's resources.
Vdara and the Mandarin Oriental offer a respite from sensory overload with casino-free lodging. The centerpiece, Aria Resort & Casino, provides an orgy of deluxe gambling, dining and people-watching.
The complex is connected by sometimes-confusing ramps, escalators and a three-station monorail, which make the place look more like a futuristic airport than a distillation of Manhattan. Without the chaos of taxis, office workers and urban grit, many areas feel more like a fantasy Manhattan, a sort of Theme Park for Rich People.
The cleanliness is a plus, the product of many eco-conscious, unseen factors. CityCenter made environmental impact central to its design and operation, and most buildings boast one of the highest ratings of sustainability, the U.S. Green Building Council's Gold LEED certification. Happily, natural light and fresh air are abundant in most private and many public spaces.
Clean air was one welcome surprise in a three-day visit to the new hotels. (The 400-room boutique Harmon Hotel won't open until late this year). Though a similar design sensibility of modern, curvilinear shapes and earth-tone palettes unites the hotels, each offers distinct amenities and advantages. Here are the highlights from my recent stays at all three.
Vdara
With nary a slot machine on the property, entering the 57-story Vdara is practically serene. Had I booked one of the hotel's natural-gas-powered limos, I could have offset my airplane flight's carbon emissions. Yet my arrival was cushioned by the lobby's light perfume, a 32-foot Frank Stella artwork and a (mostly) competent staff seasoned after 16 days on the job.
Though it has a sizable spa, pool complex, restaurant, bar and nearly 1,500 suites, the hotel's orderly layout makes it easy to navigate. Originally designed as a condo hotel, the 500- to 1,650-square-foot suites have the most residential yet urban feel of the three hotels. Even in the smallest suite, there's room for a lush king bed, sofa bed, reading chair, desk, kitchen, dining table and a free-standing spa bathtub.
Vdara (an invented name) is one of the few upscale Las Vegas hotels hospitable to families. Spring for one of its 250 Panoramic rooms, and you'll get a four-person dining room table, a washer-dryer and full-sized kitchen appliances.
Vdara also may be CityCenter's best hotel for conducting business, given the guest rooms' generous work spaces, laptop safes, fast wireless access and media hubs that can connect an array of electronic devices to the flat-screen TV. Those features and access to the compact fitness center are covered by a $15 daily resort fee.
A pool deck offers a variety of smallish swimming/dipping spaces and views of buildings. Life is better indoors: Even the smallest, lowest-price rooms offer multiple, wired-for-technology work spaces. The wide array of green materials in the custom-designed décor shows that sustainable design doesn't always mean burlap and bamboo. Design firm BBG-BBGM used stone, wood and metal to create a durable, eco-friendly and more natural environment, said Julia Monk, managing partner.
Vdara, which is behind Aria, is removed from the intensity of the Strip and from most CityCenter visitors. A corridor connects the hotel to a monorail that zips to the Bellagio, Crystals and the Monte Carlo. Just don't expect to transfer easily to any other hotel in the complex. Despite the developers' boasts of the center's "connectivity and access," Vdara refused to move my luggage across the road to Aria. This eco-conscious hotel required that my guest and I retrieve the car, drive the confusing loops to Aria and park again, instead of allowing a bellman to push a cart half a block down the sidewalk.
2600 W. Harmon Ave., Las Vegas, (866) 745-7767, www.vdara.com
Doubles from $129
Check CityCenter Rates at Hotels.com by city, dates and number of guests
Aria Resort & Casino
Aria is a universe unto itself, though the curving steel-and-glass structure designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects serves as CityCenter's crossroads. It's the destination for high-energy, high-priced activities such as gambling, drinking and dining.
Its two hotel towers, nine bars, 17 restaurants, 1,840-seat theater, gift shop, spa, pool and 300,000 square feet of meeting space mean you need never leave. Even if you're not a Vegas person who loves the roar of gambling energy, Aria offers a sophisticated new take on casino hotels that should appeal to the poker-phobic.
You need a flow chart to track the contributions of every designer and architect who gave the place its many distinct personalities. Some modern-day Mussolini must have made the hotel crews operate on time, which may explain how every restaurant was ready with menu samples at the Dec. 16 grand opening party. Most large hotel projects open in stages, yet all but Aria's pool and several Peter Marino-designed deluxe suites were ready for the gala, though paying guests, including me, arrived the next afternoon, its first open-to-the-public day.
Compared with Vdara, Aria's handsome guest rooms are less spacious and offer fewer in-room amenities, but the ivory, green and brown palette, walnut furnishings and chrome accents make it feel as luxuriously cozy. Aria switches up the predictable hotel room layout with built-in wood media centers (bring your own cords), automated curtains that wrap an entire wall and a large spa tub within the marble shower enclosure.
Day 1 revealed that the hotel's 10,000 employees are inexperienced. Few were well versed in the hotel's layout, fewer understood the room's high-tech features, and restaurant service was often awkward and slow. Service was almost absent in the 80,000-square-foot spa, where you may have to hunt for the coed Shio Salt Room and Ganbanyoku stone beds (heated granite slabs). Without a spa treatment, visiting the gym or spa costs hotel guests $30.
Still, the resort begs for superlatives, and earns a few, given that it's billed as the world's largest Gold LEED-certified building and has highly advanced in-room technology. A central control panel can open the windows, adjust the lights, temperature, TV, music and check flight information. Yet two engineers had to be summoned at midnight after the software crashed.
Despite its opening-day jitters, Aria's sophisticated design, cuisine, technology and commitment to environmentally sound practices set a new standard in hospitality and Vegas-style excess. Now, thanks to recycling programs, limousines fueled with compressed natural gas and ventilation married to slot machines that's built to clean and circulate the air, it's possible to enjoy excess responsibly.
3730 Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, (866) 359-7757, www.arialasvegas.com
Doubles from $159
Check CityCenter Rates at Hotels.com by city, dates and number of guests
Mandarin Oriental
The happiest words ever spoken to an exhausted traveler are these: "Consider it done." The staff members at the Mandarin Oriental follow up those reassuring words with the kind of service that has nearly vanished from luxury hotels with staff cutbacks.
Service was prompt, personal and attuned to privacy on my visit, two weeks after its Dec. 4 opening. A nice touch: A valet closet opens to the hallway to allow staff members to deliver laundry, mail or packages without disturbing the room occupants.
As the most luxurious, nongaming hotel in CityCenter, the 47-story Mandarin Oriental brings new aesthetics and expectations to hospitality. Guests get stunning views from the 23rd floor check-in desk, which is flanked by a tea lounge, the Mandarin Bar and Twist, the only U.S. restaurant by Pierre Gagnaire.
Interior designer Adam D. Tihany created an elegant, intimate and, ultimately, escapist environment where guests can, he said, "have moments where you don't have to think about anything but enjoying yourself."
He delivered on that promise with the room design, a mix of maximum-impact materials such as marble shower tile, leather and shell headboards, chrome accents and velvet upholstery. Sliding panels reminiscent of a tea house move to conceal the bathroom windows and reveal a softly rendered portrait of an Asian woman.
The guest rooms and public spaces subtly reference Asian design with art and decorative accents -- paintings of kimonos, panels that slide like shoji screens, pendant lamps that resemble Japanese lanterns, and high-sheen built-in drawers that suggest the lacquer and tiers of Tansu chests.
This level of service and style comes with a price: Plan on spending $345 for the least expensive room, $30 for valet parking, $18 to steam a dress and $100 to visit the spa without scheduling a treatment. Massages are a minimum of 80 minutes and cost $260 on weekends. Yet the portions and quality of food at the MOzen Bistro yielded one of the best values in the complex. The menu's mix of Indian, Chinese and other Asian flavors in the entrees, such as a complex curry and rice or a rack of lamb, are mostly $25 to $38.
Guests also get indulgent little extras in the rooms: yoga CDs and a mat; abundant Schott stemware in the bar stocked with half-bottles of liquor; a safe with a jewelry tray; and a fully outfitted bathroom with a multi-nozzle hair dryer and a flat iron in a silver leather case.
The rooms are wired with a high-tech system that can automatically control the drapes, temperature, TV and more. With most of the glitches fixed, this system worked.
Tihany's modernized view of Asia is, indeed, an escape to an idealized existence. It's ideal for CityCenter, a place that raises the stakes on fantasy, luxury and, ultimately, the future of Vegas hospitality.
3752 S. Las Vegas Blvd., (702) 590-8888, www.mandarinoriental.com
Doubles from $345
Yet with nearly 5,900 new luxury hotel rooms to fill, that spiral may be intensifying. Between Dec. 1 and 16, the developers unveiled the 1,495-guest room Vdara, the 392-guest room Mandarin Oriental, and the 4,004-guest room Aria Resort & Casino and its 17 restaurants and cafes.
As a whole, the hotels offer a template for 21st century Vegas; it's the locus of sophisticated recreation for the well-heeled brainiac. Stuffed with whiz-bang technology, cutting-edge green operations and urbane décor, the hotels create a new kind of wonderland where pampered lifestyles tread softly on the planet's resources.
Vdara and the Mandarin Oriental offer a respite from sensory overload with casino-free lodging. The centerpiece, Aria Resort & Casino, provides an orgy of deluxe gambling, dining and people-watching.
The complex is connected by sometimes-confusing ramps, escalators and a three-station monorail, which make the place look more like a futuristic airport than a distillation of Manhattan. Without the chaos of taxis, office workers and urban grit, many areas feel more like a fantasy Manhattan, a sort of Theme Park for Rich People.
The cleanliness is a plus, the product of many eco-conscious, unseen factors. CityCenter made environmental impact central to its design and operation, and most buildings boast one of the highest ratings of sustainability, the U.S. Green Building Council's Gold LEED certification. Happily, natural light and fresh air are abundant in most private and many public spaces.
Clean air was one welcome surprise in a three-day visit to the new hotels. (The 400-room boutique Harmon Hotel won't open until late this year). Though a similar design sensibility of modern, curvilinear shapes and earth-tone palettes unites the hotels, each offers distinct amenities and advantages. Here are the highlights from my recent stays at all three.
Vdara
With nary a slot machine on the property, entering the 57-story Vdara is practically serene. Had I booked one of the hotel's natural-gas-powered limos, I could have offset my airplane flight's carbon emissions. Yet my arrival was cushioned by the lobby's light perfume, a 32-foot Frank Stella artwork and a (mostly) competent staff seasoned after 16 days on the job.
Though it has a sizable spa, pool complex, restaurant, bar and nearly 1,500 suites, the hotel's orderly layout makes it easy to navigate. Originally designed as a condo hotel, the 500- to 1,650-square-foot suites have the most residential yet urban feel of the three hotels. Even in the smallest suite, there's room for a lush king bed, sofa bed, reading chair, desk, kitchen, dining table and a free-standing spa bathtub.
Vdara (an invented name) is one of the few upscale Las Vegas hotels hospitable to families. Spring for one of its 250 Panoramic rooms, and you'll get a four-person dining room table, a washer-dryer and full-sized kitchen appliances.
Vdara also may be CityCenter's best hotel for conducting business, given the guest rooms' generous work spaces, laptop safes, fast wireless access and media hubs that can connect an array of electronic devices to the flat-screen TV. Those features and access to the compact fitness center are covered by a $15 daily resort fee.
A pool deck offers a variety of smallish swimming/dipping spaces and views of buildings. Life is better indoors: Even the smallest, lowest-price rooms offer multiple, wired-for-technology work spaces. The wide array of green materials in the custom-designed décor shows that sustainable design doesn't always mean burlap and bamboo. Design firm BBG-BBGM used stone, wood and metal to create a durable, eco-friendly and more natural environment, said Julia Monk, managing partner.
Vdara, which is behind Aria, is removed from the intensity of the Strip and from most CityCenter visitors. A corridor connects the hotel to a monorail that zips to the Bellagio, Crystals and the Monte Carlo. Just don't expect to transfer easily to any other hotel in the complex. Despite the developers' boasts of the center's "connectivity and access," Vdara refused to move my luggage across the road to Aria. This eco-conscious hotel required that my guest and I retrieve the car, drive the confusing loops to Aria and park again, instead of allowing a bellman to push a cart half a block down the sidewalk.
2600 W. Harmon Ave., Las Vegas, (866) 745-7767, www.vdara.com
Doubles from $129
Check CityCenter Rates at Hotels.com by city, dates and number of guests
Aria Resort & Casino
Aria is a universe unto itself, though the curving steel-and-glass structure designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects serves as CityCenter's crossroads. It's the destination for high-energy, high-priced activities such as gambling, drinking and dining.
Its two hotel towers, nine bars, 17 restaurants, 1,840-seat theater, gift shop, spa, pool and 300,000 square feet of meeting space mean you need never leave. Even if you're not a Vegas person who loves the roar of gambling energy, Aria offers a sophisticated new take on casino hotels that should appeal to the poker-phobic.
You need a flow chart to track the contributions of every designer and architect who gave the place its many distinct personalities. Some modern-day Mussolini must have made the hotel crews operate on time, which may explain how every restaurant was ready with menu samples at the Dec. 16 grand opening party. Most large hotel projects open in stages, yet all but Aria's pool and several Peter Marino-designed deluxe suites were ready for the gala, though paying guests, including me, arrived the next afternoon, its first open-to-the-public day.
Compared with Vdara, Aria's handsome guest rooms are less spacious and offer fewer in-room amenities, but the ivory, green and brown palette, walnut furnishings and chrome accents make it feel as luxuriously cozy. Aria switches up the predictable hotel room layout with built-in wood media centers (bring your own cords), automated curtains that wrap an entire wall and a large spa tub within the marble shower enclosure.
Day 1 revealed that the hotel's 10,000 employees are inexperienced. Few were well versed in the hotel's layout, fewer understood the room's high-tech features, and restaurant service was often awkward and slow. Service was almost absent in the 80,000-square-foot spa, where you may have to hunt for the coed Shio Salt Room and Ganbanyoku stone beds (heated granite slabs). Without a spa treatment, visiting the gym or spa costs hotel guests $30.
Still, the resort begs for superlatives, and earns a few, given that it's billed as the world's largest Gold LEED-certified building and has highly advanced in-room technology. A central control panel can open the windows, adjust the lights, temperature, TV, music and check flight information. Yet two engineers had to be summoned at midnight after the software crashed.
Despite its opening-day jitters, Aria's sophisticated design, cuisine, technology and commitment to environmentally sound practices set a new standard in hospitality and Vegas-style excess. Now, thanks to recycling programs, limousines fueled with compressed natural gas and ventilation married to slot machines that's built to clean and circulate the air, it's possible to enjoy excess responsibly.
3730 Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, (866) 359-7757, www.arialasvegas.com
Doubles from $159
Check CityCenter Rates at Hotels.com by city, dates and number of guests
Mandarin Oriental
The happiest words ever spoken to an exhausted traveler are these: "Consider it done." The staff members at the Mandarin Oriental follow up those reassuring words with the kind of service that has nearly vanished from luxury hotels with staff cutbacks.
Service was prompt, personal and attuned to privacy on my visit, two weeks after its Dec. 4 opening. A nice touch: A valet closet opens to the hallway to allow staff members to deliver laundry, mail or packages without disturbing the room occupants.
As the most luxurious, nongaming hotel in CityCenter, the 47-story Mandarin Oriental brings new aesthetics and expectations to hospitality. Guests get stunning views from the 23rd floor check-in desk, which is flanked by a tea lounge, the Mandarin Bar and Twist, the only U.S. restaurant by Pierre Gagnaire.
Interior designer Adam D. Tihany created an elegant, intimate and, ultimately, escapist environment where guests can, he said, "have moments where you don't have to think about anything but enjoying yourself."
He delivered on that promise with the room design, a mix of maximum-impact materials such as marble shower tile, leather and shell headboards, chrome accents and velvet upholstery. Sliding panels reminiscent of a tea house move to conceal the bathroom windows and reveal a softly rendered portrait of an Asian woman.
The guest rooms and public spaces subtly reference Asian design with art and decorative accents -- paintings of kimonos, panels that slide like shoji screens, pendant lamps that resemble Japanese lanterns, and high-sheen built-in drawers that suggest the lacquer and tiers of Tansu chests.
This level of service and style comes with a price: Plan on spending $345 for the least expensive room, $30 for valet parking, $18 to steam a dress and $100 to visit the spa without scheduling a treatment. Massages are a minimum of 80 minutes and cost $260 on weekends. Yet the portions and quality of food at the MOzen Bistro yielded one of the best values in the complex. The menu's mix of Indian, Chinese and other Asian flavors in the entrees, such as a complex curry and rice or a rack of lamb, are mostly $25 to $38.
Guests also get indulgent little extras in the rooms: yoga CDs and a mat; abundant Schott stemware in the bar stocked with half-bottles of liquor; a safe with a jewelry tray; and a fully outfitted bathroom with a multi-nozzle hair dryer and a flat iron in a silver leather case.
The rooms are wired with a high-tech system that can automatically control the drapes, temperature, TV and more. With most of the glitches fixed, this system worked.
Tihany's modernized view of Asia is, indeed, an escape to an idealized existence. It's ideal for CityCenter, a place that raises the stakes on fantasy, luxury and, ultimately, the future of Vegas hospitality.
3752 S. Las Vegas Blvd., (702) 590-8888, www.mandarinoriental.com
Doubles from $345
Original Story: LA Times
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