Aria Deluxe King Room Review

I had a chance to stay at Aria Las Vegas recently. Normally this fine hotel would be out of my price range, but on this particular weekend it didn't seem to be that much more expensive than some of the other joints on the Strip - so I figured I'd give it a shot.



I booked a deluxe king room through the M life website, which was easy enough. Prior to my arrival I received numerous emails offering me online check-in, but I was travelling at the time so I didn't take advantage of that option.



I arrived to the hotel at 9:30 pm and after a long walk from the parking garage I found there was hardly any line at the check-in desk. Five minutes later I had my room key and was on my way.



My first impression of the room was the size. It's 520 square feet which I believe is about 100 square feet larger than most classic sized Las Vegas hotel rooms. Definitely a good sized room and bigger than I was expecting.



One of the things I had heard about Aria was that the beds are supposed to be really good. It didn't disappoint. This was a super comfortable bed causing me to sleep a lot - something I don't usually do that much in Las Vegas.



Before staying at Aria I was concerned about the long walk to the Strip through Crystals. It's slightly annoying to be that far offset from the Strip, but it wasn't too bad. Monte Carlo, Bellagio, Cosmo, and Planet Hollywood are all easily accessible by foot or tram. Overall I found the property to be very walk-able and easy to get around.



One of the things I like about Aria is that it's one of the nicest hotels in Las Vegas, but also provides a good value. It's a great option if you want to step up to a nicer room but don't want to pay Wynn or Bellagio prices.

Tropicana to Improve Anemic Results

New Tropicana owners Penn National Gaming reported their fourth quarter 2015 earnings yesterday. During the earnings conference call several minutes were devoted to talking about Tropicana and what the company will be doing to improve "anemic" gaming results at the property.

Several of the initiatives revolve around bringing Penn's regional gambling customers to Las Vegas and having them stay at play at Tropicana. In an era where other companies are forgetting about gamblers, it seems like Penn National knows where its bread is buttered and is ready to welcome gamblers into their newly acquired property.

Penn National COO Jay Snowden talked about Tropicana on the earnings conference call:

"We made significant progress on continuing to improve the overall gaming experience by upgrading the slot and table game offerings at Tropicana Las Vegas in the fourth quarter. We continue to right-size the cost structure of course, and prepare for our second quarter launch of the Marquee Rewards program at Tropicana Las Vegas. So, I don't think it's a surprise to anyone - our current gaming business volumes are still anemic at this point but we anticipate some real acceleration in the second half of the year once our regional database customers start to fill those hotel rooms."

"Now conversely the non-gaming trends at the Tropicana like the rest of the Strip operators in the fourth quarter were very strong. We're forecasting some strength year-over-year in our group convention business. Occupancy rates, ADR all look encouraging in the first quarter of 2016 as well - so no doubt we're benefiting from the rising tide effect in Las Vegas until we get everything else where it needs to be from an offering perspective at Tropicana."

"When we acquired this property close to 50% of the business was coming from wholesale or online travel agency bookings - that's down now closer to 40%. We envision taking that down to as close to zero as we can. 10-15% is probably the sweet spot for some weekday softness periods, but we're going to be looking to move that business aside as we bring our database customers in and still have plenty of room for the other 50% plus of the rooms to go towards strong cash ADR's of group business, convention business, transient customers. That's what we're seeing strength in right now - we've got plenty of rooms to accommodate those customers as well as our gaming customers."

Las Vegas Sands Fourth Quarter 2015 Results

Las Vegas Sands reported fourth quarter and full year 2015 earnings results earlier today. The weak Asia market continued to weigh on results, with full year consolidated casino revenue down 25%.

In Las Vegas at the company's Venetian and Palazzo properties gaming revenue was flat in the fourth quarter. Non-gaming on the other hand was very strong again with rooms up 25% and food and beverage up 20%.

Sands reiterated the decision to raise the quarterly dividend by 10.8% from 65 to 72 cents per share starting in 2016. I said it before, but it's impressive the company is able to raise the dividend in the face of weaker Macau gaming revenue.

On the earnings conference call CEO Sheldon Adelson talked about the prospects of expanding to other markets, mentioning Northern New Jersey, Atlanta, Texas, Brazil, Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand among others as possibilities.

There was also some interesting chatter on the conference call that Wynn Palace might get delayed again, although this is obviously speculation. We'll have to keep an eye on the upcoming Wynn Resorts earnings results for more detail about that.

Self check-in Kiosks at Caesars Properties

A recent LA Times article pointed out that several Caesars Entertainment properties have introduced self-check-in kiosks at their Las Vegas hotels.

The article praises the kiosks as a fast way to get into your room after a long day of traveling.

While this is a good point, and I generally enjoy using self-service kiosks (Alamo is my car rental agency of choice partially because they have kiosks) I'm a little wary of kiosks at hotels.

When you're in Las Vegas there are so many different room type options to choose from. Being able to schmooze the front desk agent (often with a $20 bill) can be your key to getting a better room.

With a kiosk I'm guessing your options will be limited. The kiosk will probably offer you an upgrade, but it will likely cost you much more than a single $20 bill. Also if you have a specific request or area of the hotel that you prefer - a kiosk might be less accommodating than an actual person.

We'll have to see if these kiosks catch on to the point of replacing front desk clerks entirely. That seems like a possible scenario, but I think the person-to-person interaction of a live desk clerk will still be an available option for the foreseeable future.

Giada at The Cromwell Review

It was New Year's Eve and my wife and I were looking for a quick bite to eat for lunch. We were around center Strip and things were starting to get crowded. We decided to see if we could get a table at Giada.

Somewhat surprisingly the restaurant was fairly empty, and we were seated immediately by one of the attractive hostesses. As an aside, every staff member at the restaurant was good looking.



My wife had the Lemon Pesto Grilled Cheese with heirloom tomatoes, which she enjoyed greatly.

I had the Lobster Hash with marble potatoes, Nueske’s bacon, lobster meat, peppers, tomato, onion confit with sunny side up eggs and toast. It was good, but I would have liked more lobster for the $34 price tag.



The service was great and the view of the Strip was nice even from our table, which was not that close to the window. Located on the second floor, I found Giada to be a good place to take in a meal away from the hustle and bustle of the Strip.