On the surface, Aria looks good, but underneath that, it's not so great. Here are the issues I had:
-When I arrived at the hotel, the MGM app said my room was not ready. So I checked my luggage (you have to go outside to do this) and tried to find somewhere to eat lunch. After killing a couple hours, my app still said the room wasn't ready. I decided to check with a human so I waited in the check-in line. The man who helped me said, "We can get you into your room" and promptly did. So I'm not sure why I had to wait in the first place and go through the luggage checking process. Speaking of that, you can't just go pick up your luggage -- they have to deliver it. So you go up to your room with none of your stuff... and wait. The front desk person, who was nice, said, "If you have any issues, just pick up your phone and call guest services."
-When I got to the room, I looked around while waiting for the luggage to arrive. There's an iPad-type thing that is supposed to control the lights, shades, etc. Less than half of the lights worked, though, and the shade control was iffy. In the bathroom I noticed that the bathtub that's behind the shower was leaking. Not just a drip -- water was slowly running and I couldn't get it to stop. So I tried calling someone. I hit the guest services button on the phone and it just rang and rang. I called back and hit Housekeeping and was immediately disconnected. I called back and tried another option and the line just kinda went dead. So I gave up. Later in the evening, I tried again to call someone and the results were the same. The next morning, I tried calling again and could not reach a human. So I emailed guest services, explaining the bathtub situation, saying I didn't need housekeeping during my stay, and saying I'd be out of my room most of the day. When I came back to the room about eight hours later, housekeeping had cleaned the room, but the bathtub was still leaking profusely. I picked up the phone again and no one answered at Guest Services so I hit the button for the concierge. I got a nice person on the line who offered to connect me to a manager. It took about 10 minutes of holding but eventually someone named Liz got on the line. I explained the issue and she said she'd send someone up. I told her I was going to be relaxing in the room for a bit but someone could come up when I left again for dinner at 5:30ish. She said she'd send them at 6:00. Great. I laid down for a nap and 15 minutes later, the room phone rings and a woman said, "Maintenance is outside your room but your 'Privacy' light is on." I told her they weren't supposed to come for hours and she said, "I don't see that on the order." I wasn't thrilled about being woken up like this on my vacation, but what are you gonna do. On the way out to dinner, I stopped by the front desk and asked for Liz. I explained what happened and she apologized and said she'd have them fix the bathtub while I was out. When I came back several hours later, still running. I called down and someone actually answered. After I explained the issue, she said, "Maintenance was there but they needed your permission to turn off the water." ??? I still don't understand this one. Anyway, the next morning, I stopped by the front desk again to explain the ongoing saga and they said it would be taken care of. Fast-forward to me coming back to a room that had been cleaned again despite the no-housekeeping request and an unfixed tub. Really long story short, no one ever fixed the tub. If you're in room 27-158, I'm sure you'll see it.
-One other little issue: I decided to hit the pool one day because the weather was sunny and hot. When I got down to the pool area, I saw one of the three pools was closed. So I went to the next one only to be curtly told that it was reserved for the guests who have suites. So I went to the last option, which was of course very crowded.
In summary, most of my "guest service" interactions were bad and it doesn't seem like anyone actually cares. It's a shame, because the bones of the hotel are nice and I really wanted to like it.
