not saying it's justified, but somewhat plausible if between checkout and check in times and they thought the room was empty.

Happened to me once when I forgot to lock the deadbolt. At least I assume I forgot. Who knows, maybe they have a special trick to undo the deadbolt.

Ok, I get this. The room also has a 6pm check-in. But no reasonable employee doesn't announce themselves or identify themselves after the fact even if it was an accident.

Now I'm confused. I assumed they said who they are, left and you confirmed with security. They entered the room unannounced and left without saying anything?

They opened the door, saw 6 people talking at the table, said "room check", and left. No hotel uniform.

Knock and enter should be the bare minimum. I thought that's standard procedure for rooms that are supposed to be unoccupied.

Just because they're an independent contractor doesn't mean they don't have to follow procedure or common decency.

I'd let management know there was an upsetting incident that made you and your guests uncomfortable and that you don't appreciate how security handled it after you approached them.

I finally got passed up to the director of guest experience. I didn't ask for anything, but was given $1500 in hotel credit. I guess guess that means L'Atelier was free (I'll post a review when I have time). I'm just glad it's over as it was bugging me.

Definitely would be pissed. Had someone at Aria last week knock and enter 15 seconds later. My naked ass should probably have yelled something but I didn’t and instead got up to go to the door, by which time she was already opening it and I had to slam it shut. That’s annoying. Yours is way worse imo.

ETA glad you got a bunch of credit. It sounded like you were going to get ****ed and that’s not acceptable

imagine if hotels had some sort of inside device to prevent outsiders from opening the door more than an inch?

not saying what happened was right, just kinda surprised both scenarios lack implementation of the privacy latch as soon as the door was closed.

We are entertaining a group of 10 people who are coming and going before dinner. Would you really put the latch on everytime when you're expecting people? I guess the answer could be yes, but that's super annoying.

If I was a guest at that happening and saw the host do that every time the door closes, I would suspect OCD.

thank you for the context, it matters
now i'm wondering if bitemefish was also entertaining a group of ten people

You probably already know that there is a simple tool that will open that from the outside in a few seconds.

But at least that would provide a few seconds of warning.

I apologize if you weren't responding to me. We definitely latch the door at night. Also, Tom is right and it won't matter if someone really wanted to get in.

only suggesting it's effectiveness in the 'honest' hotel employee circumstances.

I would be very annoyed.

Next question though is why you did not have the chain lock engaged?

I don't want to go over this again as I already stated why I didn't have the latch on the door. I will say that the privacy setting on the doorbell was on, which should have garnered a knock from the employee.

I am happy with the resolution looking back on it. I am not sure if I made a bigger deal about this than I should have, but early in the trip everyone wasn't happy with the idea of people randomly coming into the room. The managers I dealt with were very understanding. Aside from the person entering the room the only issue I had was that initially the hotel didn't seem to care (I noticed more concern when they put me in the wrong room last year).

To give extra context and a review, we were in a 2 bedroom Cosmo penthouse. I will say that I am not used to that many people in my room over the course of a week. We had someone come through while housekeeping was there to take note of cracks in all glass surfaces and mirrors. We also had a circuit breaker room which wasn't exclusive to our room and which they needed to access at one point because the room next to us lost power. And that was only from what we noticed while we were in the room.

Shared area (dining table, sofas, and wet bar)



Main bedroom/bathroom.

Second bedroom:

Powder room:

View:



As I said, we had 10 people in town (for a doctorate degree celebration for Gwen). I think this worked out for us overall, but if we do this again I would likely book a wraparound and an adjoining room although knowing we'd be on the top 2 floors is nice. The penthouse bathrooms aren't as good as the regular rooms. The bedrooms were fine, but I'm not sure we used the couch at all. The sex swing was a nice touch.

Not going to want to have a black light in the same room as that sex swing, lol.

Also to add... 10 people were in town. 4 in that room, 2 in another Cosmo room, and 4 people in 2 separate planet hollywood rooms. They let you have guest keys in the penthouse as you need it to get onto the floor. So people were coming up to the room before dinner a lot. While latching the door would be annoying at that time of day, going down to the first floor would be even more annoying without guest keys.

only reason i popped in was to make a comment on the sex swing in the corner and you beat me to it.
but since i'm here, my guess is Randall had the dead bolt thrown to keep the door open for his guests coming and going.
not surprised a hotel employee might want to courtesy check and see why a random room had access from the hall.

We had guest keys for everyone (as I previously stated they were needed to get onto our floor). There was no reason to prop the door open (and it wasn't).

welp, based on that recent bit of evidence the only obvious solution left is to draw and quarter them.

I did notice your review, but was dealing with my own stuff at the time. The latest Brettski vlog reminded me of your review (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn-8Wq_N4B8). I don't want to touch on things like the kitchen vs restaurants, etc (as I think it's either a long-term thing or if you don't really need that in your hotel). While I am not ready to give up the terrace at Cosmo just yet (although MGM may have something to say about that), it looks like a very good location, view, and space.

Thanks for the review.

Great review. I agree with just about everything you say about Vdara.

My wife and I stayed there for 3 days in June. We were staying at Aria later in the month (WSOP for me, pool for her) and Bellagio in July. It's always Aria or Bellagio (whichever is cheaper) when we go to Vegas, but the Vdara room was around $50 total for the 3 nights (I'm MGM Gold) so we gave it a shot.

Our biggest takeaway was the lack of "energy" in the place. The lobby feels stale because it is devoid of the constant dinging of slot machines. Pool is very nice but small compared to Aria/Bellagio. We won't stay there again for any of our "sit by the pool" vacations, but it's perfect for me for a WSOP trip. The lack of energy of the place becomes a positive after 12 hours of 10-handed NL, and the proximity is such that if you know how to navigate, you can be back in your room in 15min from WSOP. The walkway from Vdara to Bellagio being closed was a bit of a drag, but that should be open again come fall.

thanks guys - was worried the review got totally lost as it was the bottom of the page

the most equivalent place to Vdara is the Hilton Elara which tbh is a way better location for WSOP. Although not as convenient for the good cash poker rooms.

I might try it next time