Vdara Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Paradise

I've stayed on this property a couple times; once in Nov 2016, and the other time being more recently, in Feb 2024. As a Las Vegas local, I enjoy doing a staycation on this property because of its elegance and above all, because it's a smoke-free property! I won't elaborate too much on my Nov 2016 stay since that was years ago, but I assure you this...that was my first taste of pure opulence with respect to hotel properties. For that stay, my family and I were in the One Bedroom Penthouse Fountain View Suite. This was the first hotel I ever stayed at that had an additional bathroom (powder room), which is always convenient for multiple people in a room. Since then, I was hooked on this property and finding rooms with that 1/2 bath feature. The view was phenomenal; being able to watch the Bellagio Fountains whenever you want from the comfort of your own room was awesome. I had zero issues during this stay - flawless experience!

For the Feb 2024 visit, my wife and I stayed in the One Bedroom Loft located on the 56th floor. This room was no short of breathtaking views - I mean it has to be considering you're on the highest floor that the elevators will take you to. The upstairs/downstairs living made it entertaining for me to run up and down the stairs to have the appearance of me trying to stay in shape. The idea of having an upstairs (I guess that would be considered the 57th floor?🤔), was truly special. However, I will admit that the view from the bathroom wasn't as great as the other side because the roofline was covering the majority of your view. But you can still see some of the other properties from a distance [i.e., MSG Sphere (peek-a-boo view), Resorts World, Rio, etc.] - no view of the Bellagio Fountains from this room.

The amenities in this room are great; I always enjoy using Vdara's bath products. The bedding was super nice (plush), the bathrobes and bath slippers were astonishing, the pillows were perfect, and the downstairs furniture were adequate. I thought the desk was kind of in a weird position and wasn't much of a desk space to utilize, but I improvised and used the window ledge as my desk, which worked better because I could work and see the views of the city at the same time without turning my head. The unfortunate events that I had to experience were:

Our TVs (both upstairs and downstairs), and phones had no connectivity. I couldn't call to the front desk (which was concerning from a safety standpoint), nor could I watch any TV throughout our entire stay. Since I'm a local, I have no issues with just hanging out in my room and watching TV since I've been to the strip so many times. Our service tech, Luis, did a great job in attempting to reconnect the devices, and although he didn't succeed, it was concluded at the end that the issue wasn't with the hotel; it was with the network company. The hotel did compensate us for the inconvenience and offered to switch rooms after the first night.

I was shocked to see a pair of (I think) men's boxers in one of the nightstands. Sorry, I didn't pick it up to verify, but I did attach it to this review in the event, the "owner" is looking for it? I mean, maybe this is their lucky pair? Regardless, I was baffled that someone is that gross to put their underwear in a nightstand drawer, and the fact that the room cleaners did not clean/inspect the room well enough, especially when you consider the amount that this room goes for.

Overall, this hotel is amazing. Although there were a couple of issues with my recent stay, I don't feel that this was significant enough to drop my rating to 3 or less stars, especially when the staff did their best to resolve the issue and provide compensation. But at the same time, the attention to detail was lacking in these areas in which considering the price of the room, those things should not have been missed in the first place. Of noteworthy significance, I wanted to highlight the extraordinary service that ALL the employees provided while I was there on both (2016 & 2024) stays. Highly recommend...

I’ve stayed at Vdara multiple times in the past and have always had positive experiences. I have recommended it to friends and family as my preferred hotel in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, my most recent stay was a complete disappointment with poor customer service and zero accountability from the hotel staff. This trip was meant to be a special celebration for my mother’s 70th birthday. We planned the trip nearly 6 months in advance and decided to splurge on a Panoramic Suite, which was advertised as offering expansive views of both the Las Vegas Strip and the mountains. We were assigned a room on the 6th floor of a 60-story building. I questioned this, pointing out that we had booked a Panoramic Suite, and the agent responded that “Panoramic” only refers to window placement, not views. I showed him a screenshot of the suite description, and he admitted that it is "deceptive", but dismissed us, saying, “Well, you booked through Priceline, so we can’t help you.” We went to the room hoping for the best. One “view” was a brick wall just outside the window. Another looked directly into a parking garage where people could see straight into our suite. The third was of an alley with a dumpster (photos attached). We returned to the front desk and were told there was nothing they could do— we’d have to contact Priceline for assistance. I asked if we could switch to a different room category and they offered a basic Stay Well Studio on a higher floor. We agreed, but asked for a price adjustment, since the Stay Well Studio is about half the price of the Panoramic Suite. Again, we were told to call Priceline. I called Priceline, and their agent contacted the Vdara. They said a manager named Sherry would contact us in the morning about moving us to a Panoramic Suite for the remainder of our stay. We never received a call from any manager. Because of the back-and-forth with the front desk and having to call Priceline to resolve the issue, our check-in process was significantly delayed. As a result, we didn’t receive our luggage until after 5:00 PM. When our bags finally arrived, I discovered that my brand new Tumi suitcase had been damaged. The protective cover—designed to safeguard it—was literally melted onto the surface of the suitcase. Since we had tickets to multiple shows that evening and it was now after 5pm, I was not able to report the damage until the following morning. I reported the damage to a manager at the front desk the following morning. I had to wait 45 minutes sitting on a bench in the lobby for someone from security to arrive, come up to our room to inspect the damage, take photos, and have me complete a witness statement. When I asked what the next steps were regarding my claim, I was told, “I don’t know, I just take the report.” At checkout, I again inquired with the front desk about how I could follow up on the damage claim, and no one was able to provide a contact name, reference number, or any information regarding what would happen next. We ended up staying in the Stay Well Studio for the entirety of our trip. The room was not particularly clean and had white stains running down the side of the bed and sofa (photos attached). It’s now been two weeks since our stay. I’ve contacted Priceline four separate times, only to be told that the Vdara has been unresponsive to their inquiries. All I am asking for is a refund for the difference in room cost between the Panoramic Suite and the Stay Well Studio. But no one at the Vdara is willing to take responsibility or even respond. This was supposed to be a joyful celebration for my mother. The level of indifference from the staff and management coupled with the misleading advertising of room categories is not acceptable. Future customers should be aware that booking a Panoramic Suite does not guarantee panoramic views. I’m extremely disappointed to say that after years of loyalty, I will never stay at...

Just finishing up a 5-day, 4-night Las Vegas vacation with some family and friends staying at the Vdara, posting my review now before I leave while everything is fresh in my mind. Overall a very nice experience, with a few caveats.

The good: The views are absolutely unbelievable from the high floors on the fountainview side. My wife and I stayed in a single-king suite on the 50th floor overlooking the Bellagio and its world famous fountain lake, and the view of The Strip from our room was utterly picturesque.

The bad: This hotel is high-end and luxurious, but it's also 15 years old, and it shows. A lot. Certain "high tech" features in our room that could or should have been perks or selling points felt more like detractors to the experience by the end of the stay.

The "alarm clock" in the room was a neat little infotainment tablet, except if you took the tablet off the dock, it died within about 30 seconds, the battery was utterly shot. Also, the tablet was bright as all hell, and woke me up more than once when it randomly decided that it didn't want to keep the screen blacked out like I had set, and turned itself into a spotlight 2 feet away from my sleeping face.

The in-room entertainment options are also extremely dated. The TVs do have an input panel inside an adjacent cabinet, including one HDMI input, but they also have... a VGA input, a composite RCA input, and an ancient proprietary iPod/iPhone connector, all three of which are hilariously defunct in current year, while conspicuously missing USB-C charging anywhere in the room. The TVs had typical hotel-PPV crap, a small handful of local cable channels, but no connectivity to Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, or any of the other services that have fully replaced old fashioned TV for the majority of people.

The blinds in the room are powered, which was cool at first, but the switch controlling them was not completely consistent in operation, often requiring commands be issued multiple times before the blinds would respond. Also, because the roll-down powered blinds have gaps between the individual panels to accommodate the mechanisms in the top, the "blackout" blinds were merely a suggestion. If you're a light sleeper, particularly one who is light-sensitive, you're getting up with the sunrise! I'd go back to traditional hanging curtains that I can actually pull wall-to-wall without any gaps in a second.

The ugly: The shampoo bottle included in the shower was not operating properly. The bottles are clearly intended to be "tamper resistant" (lol nice try), and are keyed in such a way that housekeeping likely has a tool to open them and refill them between guests. Our shampoo bottle had the pump intake tube separated from the pump body at the top of the bottle, so it wasn't pumping anything at all. The only way I could get shampoo out of the bottle was by unscrewing the cap and dumping it into my hand. Could I have taken it to the front desk for a replacement, or called to have them send one up? Sure, but at a 5-star resort hotel, my shampoo bottle really bloody well should work when I arrive.

Also, both of the TVs in our suite were pretty badly askew on their mounts. This would take a maintenance person 10 minutes to fix, and it is such a simple thing that absolutely tanks the aesthetic of an otherwise beautiful room. "Nobody goes to Vegas to watch TV in their room!" you might say... even if the TV never gets turned on, the eyesore of crooked TVs caught my eye the moment I laid eyes on them, and I couldn't unsee it for the rest of the stay. Once again, this kind of junk really flies in the face of the "5-star" hotel rating.

I would stay here again, but I hope that the little details could be improved. This hotel definitely feels like a luxury...