Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleTHE STRIP:
CityCenter hotels’ features at your fingertips
Aria, Mandarin Oriental boast the latest and great room technology in Las Vegas
John Bollen, Aria’s vice president of information technology, displays departures from McCarran International Airport on the TV in a room at Aria on Friday, March 12, 2010.
Monday, April 5, 2010 | 1:30 a.m.
Aria's In-Room Technology
Viewing video requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player
del.icio.usFrom the moment a guest walks into an Aria room and the curtains glide open, the new standard of hotel room technology becomes apparent.
Map of CityCenter - Aria Resort & Casino
CityCenter - Aria Resort & Casino
3730 Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas
Not so long ago, the quintessential Strip hotel room was an exercise in minimalism.
After all, it was more important to be on the casino floor than in the room. So the electronic options included a television with limited channels, a clock radio, maybe a “Magic Fingers” vibrating bed.
In recent years, rooms have gotten more channels, pay-per-view and Internet access. The Strip’s newest accommodations, at CityCenter’s Aria and Mandarin Oriental, are the iPad generation of rooms. The two resorts boast they have the most technologically advanced rooms in Las Vegas, and from the smallest room to the priciest suite, all guests get to experience the new gadgets.
Aria and Mandarin Oriental collaborated with home automation and control company Control4 to bring the next generation of in-room technology to Las Vegas. The system has eliminated most of the clunky functions of standard hotel rooms. There’s no need to get up in the night to change the temperature and there’s no roaring, three-setting heating and air conditioning unit next to the bed.
Need to sleep late into the afternoon after a long night-into-morning on the Strip? No need to stumble to the door to hang the “do not disturb” card. It can be done remotely.
“They’re not just high-tech rooms. Above all, they’re high-convenience rooms,” said John Bollen, Aria’s vice president of information technology.
The guest experience begins with the wave of a keycard in front of the sensor of the hotel room door. As the guest enters the room, the system initiates a welcome sequence -- the curtains open, the lights slowly come to full brightness and the 42-inch HD TV turns on, where guests will find their name in the top-left corner and a set of automated controls to personalize.
The 42-inch TV is the central hub of the room. Options that appear on the TV screen are selected through a remote, operating the lighting, temperature, draperies and video-audio settings, all of which are remembered when guests enter the room each time. In addition to using the remote through the TV, guests can control the room’s environment from a 7-inch touch-screen on the nightstand.
Aside from controlling the room’s environment, the TV also allows guests to check what has been charged to the room and use it like an in-room concierge. The push of a button can get your car pulled to valet or pancakes delivered to your room. For now, all of the system’s features are available only in English, but Bollen said the resorts are looking into adding other languages.
Guests can also check the McCarran International Airport flight board from the TV, which has become one of the rooms’ most popular features, Bollen said.
The automation system and 7-inch touch-screen replaced the traditional alarm clock with a series of wake-up settings that let guests choose drapery, lighting, TV and music options. Want to wake up to Michael Buble and soft room lights? Or Metallica and a sudden blast of sunlight? The touch-screen can set the music, lights, drapes, temperature changes and the TV as wake-up “calls.”
“There’s no snooze alarm on this,” Bollen said. “Once you’re up, you’re up.”
Bollen said the technology isn’t as intimidating as it might seem at first glance, but for those who find it complicated, each device can also be controlled manually.
John Bollen, Aria's vice president of information technology, shows how the remote control options display on the TV in a room at Aria on the Las Vegas Strip on Friday, March 12, 2010.
The in-room technology doesn’t end with Control4’s Suite System. The high-definition TV features standard pay-per-view – $13 per new release — but takes it a step further, allowing international travelers to order channels in their native language for the day. The resorts integrated a DVR system for guests to pause and come back to programs at a later time.
Each room also features a panel of ports so users can hook up their iPod, iPhone, laptop computer and other portable media devices to play music and movies through the 42-inch TV.
If you didn’t bring cords to hook up your gadgets, a pack that includes an Ethernet cable, iPod cord and universal phone charger is available to purchase from the minibar for $20. Bollen said cords are supplied in some of Aria and Mandarin Oriental’s high-end suites.
Planet Hollywood and Golden Nugget both have some facets of Control4’s Suite System technology, but the two CityCenter resorts have the most integrated form of the system. The resorts are networked so, in some cases, the hotel staff knows what a room needs before guests even realize it, Bollen said. A guest attendant might show up with new batteries for the remote without the guest knowing they were low.
“They’re small things,” Bollen said. “But they’re things that make the guest experience better.”
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- Superstar Whitney Houston dies at 48
- Two dead after accident in downtown Las Vegas
- Instant Analysis: Debating whether UNLV should continue series with San Diego State
- UNLV can move forward without the burden of losing streak to San Diego State
- A wife’s wisdom shows birth control issue needn’t be divisive
- Vegas oddsmaker expects Adele to have a great night at Grammys
- UNLV makes key plays down stretch to hold off San Diego State 65-63
- Utah welcomes competing Lake Tahoe bid for 2022 Olympics
- Hope and change and … what’s missing?
- Mitt Romney wins Maine caucuses, CPAC straw poll
Blogs
The Kats Report
Color from scene at Thomas & Mack: We have a wire job! Rebels win, and Louie Armstrong sings!
South Point owner Michael Gaughan's take on 'Vegas Stripped': 'I'll give it an 8' (4 Comments)
Author relishes writing the life story of ‘larger-than-life’ Oscar Goodman (3 Comments)
Elsewhere
Landowner: All roads could lead to Uxbridge casino
Revel reveals smoke-free casino opening
Cirque du Soleil show in Sands China casino to close this month
Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
i just stayed at the aria for the first (and last) time 2 weeks ago. im not technology driven so i wasnt too impressed with the 'remote everything.' for me,it took to long to figure out how everything worked. i could of open & closed the curtains much faster on my own. the first night i set the automatic wake-up to 'music & curtains opening' but they closed after 2 minutes. the next 2 nights i just used the hotel operator. the problem was that the curtain & music kept coming on the next 2 days. i also wasnt aware of the 'valet' option or i would of used it as i always rent a car when there.
the room was on the small side (1 king) & i had trouble turning my scooter around. there was also NO electrical outlets on any of the walls. (they were only on the desk across from the bed) this made it real difficult to plug in my CPAP (sleeping) machine.
the casino is to dark though the staff is friendly. it took too long for anybody to answer the phone. i really liked the back entrance on harmon. it saved alot of time.
This looks great, I love technology, plus tthe goodnight button will be a sleep saver, no more waking up fully dressed and all the lights and TV on, just hit the goodnight button....well passing out with my cloths on will still happen...
Comment removed by moderator. Not related to story.
The burning question here is why do you come to Las Vegas? to sit in your room and watch TV , play with your gadgets? I mean Las Vegas brand is (used to be anyway) gambling. You spent the majority of your time in the casino, the room is merely a cool dark place with a bed to sleep in when your not prowling the green felt jungle. If you want to go somewhere to enjoy exotic hotel rooms, you can get that most anywhere. If you like to gamble come to Las Vegas. As the great Bob Stupak once said " Everything here, the shows, the rides, the entertainment is all ancillary to one thing GAMBLING. If you want rides and cotton candy go to Disneyland, If you want to gamble come to Las Vegas" The problem with Las Vegas now days is that tourists are encouraged to do all these other other things instead of feeding the city's lifeblood THE CASINO! The corporate idiots who run the hotels have made the gambling experience less attractive with tight machines, and lousy table odds because they think that they can make more money in other areas THEY ARE WRONG!!!
I come to Vegas 4 to 6 times a year. I first obtain a rental car at a very good price. I then book an off-strip casino hotel room at a price well below (at least 50% below) the strip hotels. I require a clean room a comfortable bed and a good shower. For the price of one night at one of these remote room paradises, I have transportation a good comfortable room and flexibility to go anywhere I want in Vegas. I also have the ability to avoid loud noisy crowds on the strip. Stupak was right the purppose of one going to Vegas is to gamble not spend time in a room. Most people that go to Vegas have no clue of what it's all about. But hey!!!! Barnum said it right years ago.
Envioron. I agree about the tight machines and poor odds.Thats why we often go off strip to gamble.I disagree with the jailcell room theory unless youre a guy alone .Couples like a nice room,restaurants ,entertainment etc. all part of a vacation.My theory on travelling is that if We cant live at least as well as we do here ,why go?
We can gamble close by here all we want,we go away to LV to gamble of course but love to see the desert,canyons etc.I guess my point here is that LV no longer has a monopoly on gaming so they have to have other things to draw people.
BundyS :
Absolutely, I agree that couples like a nice room, restaurants , and entertainment etc. all part of a great vacation, but because most people around the country now do have the option to gamble closer to home at the indian casinos, Las Vegas must step up to the plate and outdo the indian Casinos and make sure that room offers, generous comps, slot paybacks and table odds are at least as good as it used to be , if not better and more competitive in Las Vegas to get you in your car or board a plane to come here!! The days of the Las Vegas Hotel/Casino executives thinking that they are not having to compete with the indian casinos around the country are OVER! they really need to come out of their denial and act decisively to bring back the good times to Las Vegas!!
I find the constant argument between the "it's the gambling, stupid" and the full-scale resort destination factions on here very intriguing, and not as cut and dry as everyone seems to think. I am 38 years old and have been coming to Vegas regularly since I was a child in the 70's. As the child of a high-roller, even back then, the trips, at least for me & my family, were two-fold: It was all about the gambling for my dad, but it was all about the luxury & pampering we got for my mother, sister & I. My dad used to play at the Desert Inn, and they would put us up in one of those huge duplex suites with the private pools out back by the golf course in what they sed to call the "Wimbledon" building. They would fly us out first class (back when flying first class was still an enjoyable experience vs. the larger seat and little else it has become today), pick us up at McCarran in a limo, provide us with a brown Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow sedan to use as our family rental car while we were there, and our casino host and his wife used to eat dinner with us at least once each trip. Sometimes, they would even arrange for a celebrity or headliner to eat dinner with our family as well. Anything we wanted or needed, they would get for us. They always wanted to know what could be done to make our trip more enjoyable. Hell, they even used to let my sister & I play slots as young as 12; a security guard would watch over us and make sure noone bothered us. As an adult, I still come to Vegas, and now I play at the Wynn. While the luxury quotient has been upped, it is the service and hospitality that just isn't the same. I'm still considered a high roller, but I doubt anyone cares how good of a time my wife is having, or knows my preferences. I'm usually handled by a "team" of rotating hosts instead of one dedicated one who knows me. And that's the big shame. I still love Vegas and always will, but I highly doubt it will ever measure up to the experiences we had when I was growing up. Whether you're catering to the big player who demands luxury, or the middle-class American who just wants a fun, "Vegas" experience, the personal touch was what made Vegas great. The corporations might not have completely killed Vegas, but they've come close. I've noticed an upturn in my friends visiting Vegas this year, so I think the tide is starting to turn again as we slowly pull out of the recession. Vegas will always be iconic, and it will always draw us to it, but it will never again be the place I remember it, and that's just sad.
Sorry, I got away from my point there...the point is, it's okay to up the luxury quotient, at least at the top tier properties, but what Vegas has gotten wrong over the last decade or two is that they ratchedted up the luxury, but at the same time, lost the personal touch, which is truly the greatest luxury of them all.
bigdaddyj :
Doesn't have to stay this way. If you and your high roller friends put more pressure on the owners to improve their level of service to you at the possible expense of losing your loyalty and patronage, they might just come around. It's really a matter of survival of the fittest these days, and these places are going to go out of business if they don't turn things around for themselves and do what they know they have to do to stay afloat.
Foreign visitors want the luxury room experience especially after a 17 hour transit. I think our domestic visitors (with/without family) do also just to feel like the room-price is worth it.If you plan on charging $100 + per night, you simply have to add some bells and whistles to keep peeps coming back -
In this World of competition, casinos have to be creative and room-bling is the last frontier to gain property advantage over the next big-box casino across the street.
In terms of ROI -- it probably costs the owners an additional $3 grand per room to add these features and that can be recovered in 2 years easy.
Gotta love Vegas. Thru thick and thin, the town is action!
Nothing like a warm summer evening watching the Fountains at Bellagio, catching a little roulette action, having a gelato, driving the convertible down the strip at 2am when the temperature is a lovely 90 degrees.
Gotta love Vegas. No where do you get the thrill except here
I think all these modern features will make the guest want to stay longer at their own hotel - rather than hit the Strip for hours and then come back to sleep.
I've seen nothing but bad reviews for the technology at City Center, but I'm curious as to how having a big screen tv that automatically turns on every time you enter the room leads to being certified "green". I never turn on the tv when I'm in Vegas.
Wow! I'd love to experience this.
LOL!!!!
What we have here is a desparate attempt to vitalize City Center. Nothing more than a paid advertisement to boost City Center. Not since the opening week have we heard anything about the projects financial impact. Every other resort opening has come with positive opening numbers. No such announcement by City Center. I have heard from several employees that the joint is dead midweek.
Amanda Finnegan is to be congratulated for this trenchant expose: investigative journalism lives!
environprotector: I hear what your staying, and to a certain extent, that is why I stay at the Wynn, as it comes the closest to treating it's customer's with at least a modicum of high-quality customer service (forget about any of the MGM or Harrah's properties, they totally treat you like nothing but a number); Wynn used to do a better job back before the MGM buyout, I used to patronize the Mirage & the Golden Nugget, and both places still had that old-Vegas attitude towards their high rollers, but it seems like the combination of the super-sizing of the hotels (not that places like the D.I. were small, we're still talking an 800+ room hotel, which is nothing to sneeze at in most cities and was still pretty big by Vegas standards even 20-30 years ago), and the rise of the Asian billionair baccarat player, has eroded that service level from where it once was even at the Wynn. To doubledown_deadender's point, that is where I disagree; If I could find a place that still provided that old Vegas level of customer service and personalization, I would gladly take a clean, luxurious room with a (horror of horrors) Tube TV over a sterile, beautiful one loaded with flat-screens that treats me like a number, of course with the caveat that the place would still have to have great dining, etc...I've heard the Las Vegas Hilton still knows how to treat its High Rollers, but my wife was totally unimpressed with the facilities when we went to see Barry Manilow there a few years back, so I never looked into it any further because she thought it seemed "dingy"; I'm leaning towards on my next visit trying out Red Rocks or Green Valley Ranch, as I've heard the "locals" casinos are much better at catering to repeat guests by their very nature, especially if you're a premium player coming from out of town, anyone have any thoughts on that?
The Aria is hot. I went there last month and impressed.
The Aria is a great addition to Las Vegas.
It's AMAZING to me that they dont treat premium players better,how many of them are there that they can take them for granted? But nowadays its cut,cut,cut,services,people,quality.
bigdaddyj :
I will privately send you the name of my Host at The Orleans. Tell him I referred you. He knows how to take care of high rollers, and will NOT let you down..
I rent a room, gamble and receive many comps. downtown. I enjoy waking up in the morning and going downstairs where all the action is. I feel the odds Downtown are the best in Las Vegas.
Bigdaddyj -
I'm a high roller as well, okay, maybe a medium/high roller and as far as the customer service goes it really depends on the host, and the casino. My preference is Wynn. I have 1 host, not a handful, and he does a great job. Maybe not to the point you experienced in the 70's, but he's aware of my preferences, and takes care of anything that's requested. I'd go to the high roller slot area and ask for 1 specific host to be assigned to your account. If you don't like that host, ask for another. Trust me, they'll take care of it right away. They want to keep their high rollers, and they'll make sure you find someone you "click" with.
As for the local casinos like Red Rock and GVR, they used to be great. That was initially where I stayed for years, but with the economy tanking, they've laid off a ton of the good hosts, and of course with less staff the experience starts to become lacking.
Wynn has provided the best comps so far. I gamble at Harrah's as well since one of my GVR hosts moved there, but I'll tell you there is no room for personalization at these places, it's all standard comps and the host has NO leeway. None. So, I'm back at Wynn.
Hope that helps.
eve,
" but I'll tell you there is no room for personalization at these places, it's all standard comps and the host has NO leeway. None"
Another ludicrous statement
If you are big enough of a whale,you will recieve "personalization"
the reason a "whale is wooed here is to personalize his/her experience,and a reputable host has the nod to provide whatever is asked!
maybe thats why your host is no longer at GVR
peace out
and save any condencending blowback,because if you are not getting preferentail treatment,Im really not that impressed
peace out
You can gamble from your room. Heck I can stay home and gamble on many online sites.
Thanks environ, got your e-mail.
bldblu, your attack on eve not withstanding, I think you missed the point I was trying to make. I get everything I want (for example at the Wynn, my fairway apartment with the plunge pool, smoking, my 1st class airfare from Philly & back, the Phantom that picks me up & drops me off at the airport, all my food & bev comped with no limits on how much I can spend or where, etc etc). What I'm talking about is the personalization that goes beyond just giving you the best. I get priority reservations at any restaurant at the Wynn, & I always get a good table, but nowadays, it's expected that I will call & make the reservation myself; the automated phone/computer system lets them know how important I am, where to seat me, etc...but back in the day, your host used to make the reservations for you, they used to know which restaurant you liked because they stopped by & discussed your nightly dinner plans with you every day and even knew what your favorite dishes were, which liquor you drank, what cigarette brand you smoked, what acts you liked that might be playing at other hotels, etc. etc. Back then, your host seemed to be lurking around every corner, trying to have as much interaction as possible; now, if your host isn't working, someone else in the office is happy to assist you, but they don't know you. Now, they just seem to be concerned with making sure everything gets taken off your bill, and that's it. True, in one way, it's more efficient then the old days, but it's just colder, less personalized that's all. It's not that I'm "wanting" for anything, except the feeling that I'm wanted to be there as a person, a personality, not just a calculation of how much I will potentially lose and what level of comps that entitles me to. Hopefully that will clarify what I mean about the difference between today and two or three decades ago...