A stay at the new HRH Tower, through the eyes of ‘Belinda’

By John Katsilometes

Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009 | 4:26 p.m.

Wednesday afternoon, a few of us took a tour of the new HRH Tower, the under-construction, 359-suite boutique luxury hotel being finished on the south side of the Hard Rock Hotel on the southwest corner of Paradise Road and Harmon Avenue.

Like the original Hard Rock Hotel and newer Paradise Tower, Morgans Hotel Group owns the resort, meaning all these hotel towers and amenities are to complement each other as a single massive resort experience. Sometimes during these “hard hat” tours, we are permitted to shoot photos as a service to you, the reader, to best reflect what these new resorts look like.

But in this instance, the HRH Tower (set to open Dec. 28) is not quite photo ready. Better to have an artist’s rendering of one of the standard suites as they would appear upon completion than photos of the still-under-construction penthouses, which on Wednesday were strewn with power tools, blueprints, long power cords and tool-belt-strapped construction workers.

Even so, the tower’s offerings would have been visually impressive. It’s a lavish and chic project. You can take my word on that.

Or, you can study this rendering of one of the standard suites at HRH Tower. See, all 359 standard “rooms” are in fact “suites” at the HRH Tower. Fantastic. I have been gazing at this photo we were provided after the tour, and I see some personal affects placed thoughtfully about the room.

A guest, a woman, seems to have checked into this 700-square-foot room.

We’ll call her “Belinda.”

She seems like a Belinda, anyway. Mature, yet always equipped to go-go. Belinda’s favorite color is the rock-ish purple, fashioned by Hendrix and Prince, and she loves the purple flowers and matching candle on the end table next to the big sectional sofa. She has no use for that purple fruit in the bowl on the coffee table, though. Are those rare apples, maybe? What is this purple fruit? Pomegranates? Maybe this purple fruit is not a foodstuff, but rather decorative purple orbs. Whatever, Belinda treats them as decor rather than snacks. Don’t eat the purple food.

At the moment, Belinda is probably bathing in one of the cast-iron tubs offered in every one of the standard suites. We know this because she’s left the candles lit -- the one at the end table and the one we see glowing from the nightstand. The lights are still on, too. No one as attentive and tidy as Belinda would carelessly leave the room with the candles still lit. As she bathes, we see Belinda’s purple-ish shoes -- and they seem to be Manolos that Carrie Bradshaw herself might own -- under the compact black dresser at the foot of the bed. Awash in scented body oils, Belinda is going to come out of this as fragrant as those purple roses.

Belinda is between stops on this three-day, two-night Hard Rock tour. She’s spent much of the day in the new 30,000-square-foot HRH Tower casino, playing roulette and blackjack and maybe even Pai Gow. She’s tossed her handbag -- purple -- and silver bracelet on the wooden desk at the side of the room. She’s caught up on Facebook there, too, on the trusty MacBook Pro, updated her status as: “Belinda is rockin’ out in Las Vegas at the HRH!”

She’s not much of a reader, this Belinda. Who has the time? She’s left all those gloss magazines on the coffee table, including our sister pub Vegas magazine, untouched. She’ll catch up online. The two Sony 40-inch flat screen TVs, one of which faces out toward the living area and the other toward the bed, have not been powered on. Later, Belinda might owe to one of her secret guilty pleasures -- Nancy Grace -- but she’s in a big-bad hurry. It’s already nightfall. Where has the time gone?

Belinda has not even had a chance to slip her iPod into the Sound Matters Sound Bar music system, where guests can dial up more than 2,000 songs and even plug into the hotel’s own collection of sounds playing throughout the resort. In fact, Belinda has not yet even had a chance to visit Reliquary, the 25,000-foot spa she’s heard so much about from other guests down on the casino floor, at the new Lux Bar that mimics the center bar at the old Hard Rock.

Roman baths, more than 20 treatment rooms, a dozen semi-private cabana-type alcoves and a drink menu at the indoor pool -- this is Belinda’s style. Maybe tomorrow. She has looked up “Reliquary” online and found it means “a container or shrine in which sacred relics are kept.” Kind of interesting, Belinda feels, sort of like an ancient storage pod.

But tonight, Belinda is heading out to Vanity, the new 14,000-square-foot nightclub, meeting a friend who works in casino marketing at the hotel. There are two marble bars, a dug-in dance floor, 50 VIP booths, an outside terrace with five cabanas and even a fire pit. The women’s restroom -- or “lounge” -- features a floor-to-ceiling, three-way mirror and employees on hand to tend to all spruce-up needs: nails, hair, makeup -- a total makeover is possible here. Belinda is vain, so Vanity is perfect. She’s also expecting to be dazzled by the club’s vast, undulating chandelier, laden with thousands of small LED lights that can flash with assorted colors and designs. It’s a more rocked-out version of the Fremont Street Experience canopy effect, Belinda has heard. Not that she’s ever been to Fremont Street.

Afterward, it will be time to slide out of the Manolos and maybe dial up the flat screen. Or read a magazine, because it isn’t all hard rock at the new Hard Rock Hotel. Believe Belinda on that.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.