Hotel

This thread is to be used to discuss hotel accommodations at Venetian/Palazzo.

I stayed in identical rooms at the Venetian and Palazzo on separate trips to Vegas. I was amazed at how much difference there was. Obviously the Palazzo is newer, and it showed. We stayed in the Bella Suites which have 2Q beds and a couch big enough to sleep on (which also makes out into a bed, but I didn't figure that out until the third night). If you have a choice between the 2, opt for the Palazzo. Make sure you sign up for Club Grazie. After one night of green chip betting, I started receiving offers in the mail for 2-4 complimentary (Sun-Thurs only) accommodations.

My only complaint is that I received poor service on both stays. At the Palazzo our room was not made up one day and I ended up having to dry off with the bath robe. I was told that it would take 30-60 minutes to get towels, and we were about to go out for the night, so I didn't have time to wait. However, when I mentioned our room not being made up at checkout, they knocked $25 off our stay, so it was not so bad. At the Venetian it took 30 minutes to get a spare set of towels (though I was prepared for it that time).

Interesting comments by "dk" but our experiences have not been the same. Wife and I have stayed at Venetian & Palazzo and find the rooms virtually identical (we stay in the King rooms though). Venezia tower has the "older" Venetian-themed rooms while the original Venetian tower and Palazzo rooms were decorated almost identically. The room at our last stay at the Palazzo (March '09) had a few minor issues. Interestingly we never had a problem with housekeeping (though with the size of the place our expectations were that requests would take some time). We did have to sit around the room for a while two different times waiting on a maintenance guy to fix the room safe though.

Wife & I stayed at Venetian 12-20 thru 12-25 '09. We had originally reserved a room in the Venezia tower because it hasn't been remodelled (& "de-themed") yet, as my wife really likes the original furnishings. Unfortunately when we arrived we were told that the Venezia tower was closed down due to low bookings for this time of year; they were taking the opportunity to spruce the tower up, according to the desk agent (but they were not redecorating). We received a King, View room in the Venetian tower. There were no serious issues with the room but several minor ones: a gurgling sink in the bathroom (even when neighboring rooms ran water), the TV in the living area only received about half the stations it should, and the room safe "lost its brains" and wouldn't unlock. All the problems were taking care of promptly and without hassle (someone was up to get the room safe repaired within 10 minutes after we reported it, on a late Sunday evening). All the staff we encountered were friendly and helpful.

My father and I stayed at Palazzo 20-23 Dec. Unbelievably, when we got to our room just after check-in, there were no sheets on our beds. I called the front desk, and they offered to let us switch rooms, which I declined. When we returned several hours later our room was made up. There were no further issues the rest of our stay. In fact, we encountered several housekeeping staff in the hallways and all seemed very polite and friendly. Even though I have had something wrong with my room every time I've stayed at Venetian or Palazzo, I'll continue coming back (mostly because it's free).

We're about to book a trip and am considering either the Wynn or the Venetian. Late reviews on tripadvisor is showing awful service lately claiming cutbacks from the economy. But we really like the Venetian experience, but don't like the casino so much. On the other hand, the Wynn seems to have better service and I like the casino better, but not the shops as much.

And has anyone seen Jersey Boys?

Any thoughts?

If I had to choose I would probably go for the Venetian, as there are more things within walking distance than at the Wynn.

Convenience would be my reason.

Quote: boymimbo

And has anyone seen Jersey Boys?

My wife and I saw JB on Christmas Eve and we both thought it was fantastic even though we're not particularly big fans of early 60's music. The production values are top-notch and the cast really put on a good show.

We booked the Wynn. 4 nights, weekend, early March, all in for $1,200 Cdn on Expedia, includes a $75 resort credit. This is a phenomenal deal as the airfare for the two of is $752. So $450 for four nights at the Wynn with no comp seems to be a great deal. Someone's gotta kickstart this economy.

Several things I didn't like about the Venetian / Palazzo: recent reviews show many housekeeping errors; the resort "fee"; and the inability to take a late checkout without there being a charge. As well, the fragrance at the casino really is overwhelming. I liked the complex though because we are more at home in the Venice surroundings, it's a bit closer to the strip, and the restaurants are more mid-range than the Wynn.

Quote: boymimbo

...Several things I didn't like about the Venetian / Palazzo: recent reviews show many housekeeping errors; the resort "fee"; and the inability to take a late checkout without there being a charge. As well, the fragrance at the casino really is overwhelming...

I can't disagree with you about the housekeeping errors. But I must have poor "olfactory sensitivity" because I only notice the fragrance in the lobby, not the casino. And when I was there last month the resort fee was optional: I didn't have to pay the fee by simply stating I wasn't going to be using the fitness facilities.

That said, I really am going to have to do some gambling in Wynn to see what kind of promotions I'll get. I've walked through the place a few times but the casino always seems to be empty and charmless. Encore is obviously aiming at the Hong Kong crowd with all the reds and oriental styling.

thanks for all the input on this thread. i'm going to stay at the venetian for the first time next trip in feb. and will keep all of these comments in mind while i'm there.

tripadvisor.com has great traveller reviews. Keep in mind that travel reviews are inherently biased towards being negative. People like to complain.

Some people are saying that the financial woes of the company are to blame for poor service. Both the Venetian and the Wynn properties are owned by companies who have properties in Macau, which is doing extremely well. Las Vegas Sands recorded an operating income of $62.4 million which is up 121% from the same quarter the previous year. But the Venetian/Palazzo operations ended up with a loss of 28.9 million, down from an operating income of $6.1 million in the same period last year. Slot hold is 7.8% and table games win was 12.2%. Average hotel rate is down 17.4% at the Venetian and 24.7% at the Palazzo. I think it would be short-sighted to the Venetian to cut back significantly on services.

The Wynn's profile is similar.

I will be making a trip to Las Vegas shortly and wanted to get some additional feedback on the Venetian vs Palazzo hotels/casinos. Any comments as to which one you prefer? Are they about the same in terms of quality?

I've been fortunate enough to stay at both. I would have no problem staying at either. However, my preference would be the Palazzo. The room sizes are similar to the Venetian, but newer. The self parking at the Palazzo is much more accommodating. In the casino, the tables seem to not be as congested at the Palazzo. Though by staying at either you could use either Spa, the Spa at the Venetian is larger. The poker room is in the Venetian casino.
Have a good trip.

Quote: bowlerguy

I've been fortunate enough to stay at both. I would have no problem staying at either. However, my preference would be the Palazzo. The room sizes are similar to the Venetian, but newer. The self parking at the Palazzo is much more accommodating. In the casino, the tables seem to not be as congested at the Palazzo. Though by staying at either you could use either Spa, the Spa at the Venetian is larger. The poker room is in the Venetian casino.
Have a good trip.

I agree with bowlerguy: both are excellent properties but my wife and I have been leaning towards Palazzo of late. If you're driving a car the Palazzo underground parking garage is exceptionally easy to navigate and much more conventient than Venetian's structure. If you're a BJ player though, Venetian offers slightly better odds (see the Wizard's BJ chart). Of course you can walk between properties: they're connected (between V's resteraunt row and P's casino).

Wife and I stayed at Palazzo Aug. 8-13 (4 comped nights, 1 casino rate night). Played the "$20 trick" for the first time at checkin and was successful: previous comped rooms were on low floors with no view but this time we got a high floor (38) with a view. Minor maintenance issues noted in previous posts seem to have been taken care of: the room & property seemed to be in top-notch shape. Employees seemed a bit more "upbeat" on this trip. I was able to get a deferred checkout (Noon vs. 11am) without problem. The "resort charge" is now mandatory (I was able to opt-out on previous trips but not this time).

Maybe it was my imagination but I thought the scent at the Venetian public areas (which I thought was more subtle than other postings discussed) was significantly lower this trip than previous trips. I didn't notice anything at Palazzo.

I have just returned from Vegas (last night actually) after a 5 night stay. I am from Hawaii and travel to Vegas 4-5 times a year. My Vegas traveling friends always go together. We have stayed at the Venetian/Palazzo since 2006, but now exclusively stay at the Palazzo since it opened. We usually get 4 nights comped at the upgraded suites (Rialto for Venetian and Fortuna for Palazzo). While I got the Foruna upgrade one of my friends did not, so we got adjoining rooms instead. This trip was basically a bachelor party for one of our common friends. He is not well off financially but he has a tremendous heart so we chipped in and brought him over with us on our dime.

The smell that seems to turn some people off doesn't bother me. I prefer the smell to that of smoke. The pool is really nothing to write home to considering the $1 Billion+ price tag for the resort. Eh! I don't go to Vegas to swim or lounge. The public parking for the Palazzo is the best. The parking can either put you right where the hotel elevators are located or right in the middle of the casino. This is the only place we do not valet. I just love the fact the Walgreens in right in the same area. I have not compared prices to other surrounding Walgreens, but I am going to assume it is more due to the location. It still beats the "convenience store" in the hotel.

We ate at B&B, Carnevino, Grand LUX, Asia Noodle (Sp?), & Morrels. All were excellent to fucking excellent. We had about $400 total in dining comps, but it didn't cover the Grand LUX or Asia Noodle restaurants just the expensive places so we ended up paying quite a bit of the overages come checkout time. Of the steaks we ate I would say B&B was the best of the three "fine" dining restaurants we ate at. Not many places at $50+ per entree will let you wear shorts and a T-shirt to dine.

We played craps pretty much the whole time except for the slot credits that we played from our offer. I played my $650 in slot credits on $5 VP and cashed out $600 even. At least that was more than my plane ticket. We play $25 pass line w/max odds and two come bets w/max odds (we drop $2500). Every once in a while (when the gut says so) we play the line ($260 or $270 across). Our line radar was off because I recall a lot of two shaking when we put up the line. However, overall our session record at the Palazzo was an awesome 9-1. The Venetian was 0-3 so we did not play there much after the second night. Outside of Venetian and Palazzo we had a good record (3-3 at Paris, 3-3 at Planet Hollywood, 4-0 at Bellagio, 2-0 Ceasars, 2-0 Mandalay Bay, 1-1 New York, 1-0 MGM, 1-0 Mirage, 2-2 Rio, 1-1 Aria). We never did hit a really good hand to make a killing all of our wins were in the $600-1500 range. We have very specific criteria for leaving. When we get a roll that hits 7 numbers (pass/come) we leave, even if we are still down. Otherwise we play to the bitter depressing end biding our time till that one roll comes along. For this trip when things looked bleak and had all the familiar symptoms of washing out, a savior comes along and pulls us out of the shit. I have had other trips where we just get kicked in the nuts from the start.

We are planing our next trip during the first weekend of December. I hope the LV marathon doesn't fall on that weekend. Last year we had to deal with that traffic mess.

Great story and great system! Sounds like you guys do pretty well with the comps, too. Glad to hear you had a good trip. That is quite the craps odyssey up and down the Strip.

Got a basic suite at the Palazzo comped for 3 nights.

The room was stunning. Spacious, well-lit, clean and comfortable. Everything was in great condition and I would not have been disappointed if I had paid for the room myself.

For those who care: shower pressure was decent, and toilet paper quality was excellent.

The room was on the 38th floor overlooking the Wynn golf course. Would definitely recommend and stay there again.

edit. The fitness center has basically everything except for a squat rack. I was very impressed by it and was there everyday.