The Hyatt-M life launch event I attended July 18 included two complimentary room nights at the MGM Grand Las Vegas. The interesting aspect of the hotel room to me is I thought the room was smaller than the 446 square feet listed on the website for a MGM Las Vegas Grand King room.
The Grand King room at 446 square feet did not seem that spacious to me. I guess that was my downsized perception from staying in a 750 square feet one bedroom suite at THEhotel the night before. It has been several years since I stayed in a Las Vegas hotel room under 700 square feet at one of the Strip resorts.
Looking at my photos two days later, I see the furnishings look nice in the MGM Grand Las Vegas Grand King room and there are more details in the room design than I recognized at the time during the hotel stay.
The 108 F temperature outside on Las Vegas Boulevard and the move from THEhotel suite to the MGM Grand Resort in peak heat made the room details a blur. I was outside walking for 30 minutes to get some cash for a bell service tip before calling down to have our luggage delivered to the room.
While there are plenty of ATM machines in the MGM Resort for dispensing cash, there are no places to make a purchase and get cash back inside the resort stores. Walgreen’s, a couple blocks north on Las Vegas Boulevard, is the nearest location where a person can buy an item and get a maximum $20 cash back on a debit card purchase. We needed some fluids anyway.
King Bed. Kelley and I both hit our shins on the hard, square corner bed frame.
Flat screen TV was good size, however, the first remote control was faulty and then the replacement remote control would skip over channels when flipping through stations.
The mini-bar was locked with an electronic keypad.
During our entire stay I was referred to by Kelley’s last name. I was never called Mr. Garrido by any of the staff after we checked into the hotel. She was highly amused by that situation.
The Desk.
Two cushion chairs in the room.
The blinds work by electronic control. The west facing room took all the afternoon sun and heated the room up. The blackout blind and shade work independently, but I was unable to stop them midway. Each was either all the way open or all the way closed.
Bathroom vanity. The MGM Grand website shows the smallest room as a Petite King at 350 sq. ft. with a TV embedded in bathroom mirror. Our room was apparently larger than 350 sq. ft., however there was no bathroom TV in mirror.
Dual tub/shower.
Room view from 21st floor looking west to New York-New York casino resort.
The Necessity of Air Conditioning
The biggest issue we had with the MGM Grand is our room never cooled below 73 degrees and the sun shining in the room made it feel hotter when it was 108F outside.
I understand that 73 degrees is probably a comfortable temperature for most hotel guests. However, Kelley and I live in Monterey, California on the central California coast where the indoor temperature as I write this post in our house is naturally air conditioned by the summer fog outside and sits at 67 F inside. The air temperature is lower than that outside on this Sunday morning at 9am.
Yesterday we drove five hours across California with the temperature for 200 miles from Bakersfield to Monterey County around 100 F. Twenty miles from our Monterey home the air conditioner in the car was turned off and the windows rolled down for the refreshing breeze. Ten miles from our home the air temperature was too chilly blowing in the car and the windows needed to be rolled up. At our home the foggy skies held the outside temperature at 61 F at 3pm in the afternoon on a July summer day.
In ten years living in Monterey we have never turned on the heat and we do not have air conditioning. Mostly our house maintains a naturally cool temperature of 63 to 68 F all year around simply regulated by how wide open we have the windows. I put on a sweatshirt and we turned on the fireplace inside as the cool fog-soaked air blew into the house through the open patio door.
I considered asking to switch rooms at the MGM Grand for our second night and try to get a cooler room, but since we had to pack up anyway to change rooms, we decided to head home to Monterey.
Las Vegas is truly hot and insufferable in July.
I’ll be checking in and checking out the MGM Resorts over the next year as I explore the Hyatt Gold Passport-M life partnership and the benefits of M life Noir status. That travel will happen once the temperature drops to a bearable environment for walking Las Vegas Boulevard to travel between the casino resorts. Sometime after September.
MGM Grand hotel special summer rates available today through October 2, 2013 are as low as $75 per night on a 2-night stay with two free buffet meals included. Book by August 26.
Book now and receive:
* Rooms from $75
* Two Complimentary Buffets per Stay
BEST RATES GUARANTEED
Promotion Runs: July 21, 2013 – October 2, 2013
Offer Expires: August 26, 2013
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