StarwoodGuy: September 2016

For Labor Day this year I headed to the SLS Las Vegas. A quick stop at the American Express Centurion Studio in Seattle and an easy flight on Alaska Airlines found us in Las Vegas by midday on Saturday. We took a quick Uber ride to the SLS Las Vegas at the north end of the strip. The hotel is a modern hotel, previously the Sahara, with three towers, a small lobby and lobby bar with large concierge area. It is slightly out of the way up at the North End of the Strip, but the Monorail goes right into the hotel making it easy to connect to the main areas on the Strip and other hotels. There are two pools, one that gets quite busy and which is open to the public, and one that is just for hotel guests. The service was quite good, but we had problems at check in when we were given a room instead of a suite even after having used Starwood Suite upgrades. Once we did get an upgrade it was to a great suite in the Lux tower with a large living area and a separate bedroom, along with a small guest bathroom at the entry, and spacious master bathroom. The mirror over the bed is a very Vegas touch. The views out are not as good as those farther into the main strip but it was still quite nice.

The food at Northside for breakfast and dinner at Cleo were both excellent, just two of the restaurants on offer at the hotel. We wanted to have spa treatments at Aria which were excellent, and dinner at Mon Ami Gabi at Paris to overlook the Bellagio Fountains, so we missed some of the other offerings at the SLS. Overall it was quite a good stay, the casino is on the quiet side and not too large which I preferred and the gym is a bit small for Vegas Hotels. Of the 3 towers, the Lux Tower we were in seemed the best, but this will soon become the W Hotel tower as Starwood was taking just this tower over directly on the day that we were leaving. As with most of Vegas, there is a lot of smoke around, and even in the non-smoking rooms some smoke manages to seep in through the bathroom vents but this was solved by keeping the bathroom doors closed.

A good property with helpful staff, especially the concierge team, great food, just a little out of the way but much more exciting then the Westin which is really just a business hotel and very quiet.