Aria Resort and Casino

Went for Christmas 2024. I'd been to the Aria before with friends and had a great trip, so decided to go back to the same hotel as a solo traveller. The room was a standard king room, had a lovely view of the Cosmopolitan pool deck from my bedroom window. The weather seemed unseasonably warm for December at 22C so it was pleasant. This is a very large hotel with 4000 rooms, so walking distances are long (from room to lobby was 1km). I mistakenly thought that Christmas would be a quiet time to go to Las Vegas, boy was I wrong! Everywhere in the hotel and out on the Strip was so crowded 24/7 for the whole week I was there. Apparently, only New Year's Eve is even more crowded. This meant queues for absolutely everything, check in, all restaurants, coffee shops, everything. It was literally like Grand Central Station at rush hour. Very uncomfortable in the casino too, with both slot machines and tables with crowds around them. My previous visit had been in April, still busy but with an air of quiet luxury and sophistication. With regards to eating in the hotel, apparently it has some of the best restaurants in Vegas but the only good meal I got was a room service club sandwich. I tried the Proper Eats food hall for a pepperoni pizza, it was so greasy I couldn't eat it; each slice of pepperoni had curled up at the edges, creating a little saucer of grease, disgusting. I had booked the Bardot Brasserie way in advance for Christmas day (I booked at the beginning of September), so I was surprised when I turned up at the restaurant and still had to wait in a queue. Eventually I was seated and told that 3 items on the menu had sold out. I ordered from what was left, and when the food arrived it was inedible. I ordered a "Charcuterie Plate" ($27) as a starter. It consisted of 2 squares of cheese, a slice of spam rolled in herbs, 2 slices of cheap processed ham, some pickled gherkins from a jar and various blobs of mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise. There were 2 triangles of fried bread which had dried out to the point of crumbling into dust. My main course of half a roast chicken came on a bed of green beans but with no potatoes or anything else ($65). The chicken had obviously been cooked earlier in the day and kept warm. It was like eating cotton wool, it was so dried out. It was the most disappointing meal I've ever had and I couldn't wait to get out of there. The Patisserie in the lobby area is good though, it is open 24 hours a day and I highly recommend the Almond Croissants for breakfast. Again though, queues to get served at all hours, queue time averaged 25 minutes. Same at Starbucks upstairs. And this is not a cheap hotel to stay at: aforementioned Almond Croissant was $7, coffee $6 (all PLUS sales tax) Mini bar can of Coke $15, bottled water 750ml $26. Anywhere on the Strip is expensive but the Aria, being a 5 star property is even more so. Stock up on water from CVS or Walgreens and bring back to your room. There is an Uber pick up point on the lower level of the hotel which is very handy for getting around more cheaply and from a location point of view, the Aria is in a perfect spot to explore the Strip on foot. The staff are all brilliant, courteous and efficient. I came back to my room at midnight on Christmas eve and the smoke alarm was beeping like it needed a new battery. I rang down to the lobby with little hope of getting it sorted until the next day, but I was told someone would be with me to fix it asap. Within 4 minutes, a man had come with a ladder and a new battery and had it sorted. That is AMAZING service, it took me longer than 4 minutes to walk from the lift to my room, so I don't know how he got there so quick! In conclusion, I love the hotel and would go back, but not at Christmas. And I'd eat elsewhere. Read less

Although there is a refrigerator in the room, it is stocked with their items for sale that you cannot even touch, otherwise it will defect a weight difference and will charge you. I had nowhere to store my meds and had to continuously refill the ice bucket during our stay and hope it didn’t freeze my medicine. That was ridiculous. We were running late for dinner one night and didn’t have time to put away my valuables. I left the “privacy” light on but housekeeping came into the room regardless. We were packed for a Hawaiian trip afterwards, which we are currently in, so still don’t know if anything is missing. I complained to the front desk that night and am still awaiting a call back from housekeeping management which i don’t think will ever come. What’s the point of the privacy button and light?!!! Read less