Recent Planet Hollywood Experiences

I am looking to book an annual conference in Vegas for the 6th straight year. Over the years, I've held the conference at Paris, TI, Mirage, and last year at the TI.

This year, I've gotten some good pricing from Planet Hollywood and MGM. Out of the two, I am most intrigued by Planet Hollywood. I stayed there when it was the Aladdin, but that's been about 10 years ago, and spent about an hour at the casino 3 months ago. However, I would like to get a better feel on the rooms and overall customer experience from any of you who have stayed their recently.


Thanks in advance!

 

Planned a meeting

I planned a conference there a few years ago. They did a nice job with meeting the group's needs, but the nickel and dime-ing was a lot more than other sites where I planned meetings. I did feel they were responsive to our requests, and completely understanding when we didn't pay to rent screens from them for several hundred dollars. Back-end billing was a little sloppy and required a few phone calls to get things sorted. The attendees were pleased with their room, and enjoyed that the casino wasn't gigantic so they could find other attendees. The meeting hosts each got a diamond membership for the remainder of the calendar year as well.

I was disappointed they did not tell us that there was a major radio festival the weekend immediately following our event, which hurt our attendance A LOT. I felt like had they been proactive in sharing this, it would have won us in Vegas for a long time to come. We've since moved the meeting to a different location (different city) that has a lot lower overhead.

 

I stayed there when it was the Aladdin, as well as recently. I think it is vastly improved from the Aladdin days in all areas.

 

Staying there in a few weeks. My favorite place on the strip. Im only 24 if that matters though lol.

 

CET group sales has not been so stellar. As an conference attendee and frequent Vegas visitor, I can tell you that PHo is not stellar by any means. They cater to a different client
and its self evident in the service from their staff.

Caesars Palace on the other hand, has felt the pinch of losing group sales and convention booking of recent years, and is really making an effort to compete against Venetian and Palazzo.

Personally having attended 2 tech conferences last year where my company was sponsoring, and having attended multiple trade shows, here how I would rank them.

1) Caesars Palace - Great new facilities, meeting rooms, and service staff. Attendees were happy with rooms and ammenities.

2) Mandalay Bay - They can nickle you here and there, but facilities are still good, I have attended larger events here and the support staff (waiters, group sales, technical people on site, floor prep) all very good.

3) MGM can be hit or miss. Rooms and group sales booking staff good. Onsite facilities support were hit or miss. Stupid stuff like power, table dressing, wifi access were problematic last stay. They did make a good effort to make up for it.

4) Venetian - Great staff and facilities, but in the time of tight budgets they were not so willing to compete on pricing, except at really low booking times. I like the place, but not at the prices.

5) Cosmopolitian - We had an onsite sales team meeting here for two days, and staff was good. The only downside is we caught an early weekend crowd during the summer so we did not like some of the people staying at the hotel. Facilities were very nice.

 

I have to counter one of Funkhouser's points. We had a trade show at Mandalay this past summer and had an AWFUL time getting things we needed. They eventually made the problem right, but it was quite stressful, and we missed out on some business because things weren't completed in a timely manner. Of course, everyone said that it was "someone else" who was responsible, but some of the things we needed (and had paid for) should have been remedied ASAP.

Just another data point for your consideration.

 

Thanks for the feedback. My day job is not event planning, but I do organize this annual conference. Because I am the organizer, I never give any locations other than Vegas any consideration. I appreciate the feedback from people who have actually put together events at the places I am considering.

Last year, I waited to wait to plan, and was limited to NY NY and Monte Carlo as the only viable options. I went w/ NY NY, and was extremely disappointed. I did not even submit an RFP request to them.

I have held this conference at Paris on 2 separate occasions. Year 1 was great. Staff very attentive. Bills given to me after every meal or break. Year 2 was not so good. Staff was non-existent. Took forever to get my questions answered or to have water put out to the attendees in a timely fashion. Paris also responded to me w/ an above average RFP response. However, I am hesitant to put them at the top of my wish list because of my year 2 experience, but my wife, who also attends, loves the hotel. Paris is her 1st choice followed behind The Mirage.

Due to my budget (room rate and catering costs), I am not considering Caesars, Venetian, Wynn, Aria, Cosmo or Bellagio. However, I would like to get the nicest property I can. To expand upon my original question, here are my top five choices:

1) PH - Fun atmosphere, good separation from the casino
2) MGM - Good Pricing, Size of the property and distance from room elevator to conference center concerns me
3) Paris - Love the property as a visitor, however, previous experience concerns me
4) Mirage - At the top end of my budget, but one of my favorite properties
5) Monte Carlo - At the low end of my budget, concerned about meetings there, but my favorite place to gamble.


(Outside of the PH) Could anyone comment on these properties in terms of any conferences or meetings attended there.

Thanks

 

There is massive amount of fanny in that joint. Not sure if that makes it conference worthy???????

 

Personally I would go with MGM especially since they did room renovations. Our support issues were minor. If your attendee base is younger than I might consider PHo, but its not really a convention hotel. Btw Paris and PHP share some group sales support.

My brother had an annual conference there and was on the planning staff and said Paris was good.

 

Stayed at PH for the first time back in Sept.
Holding a conference at PH gives you more options for places to eat and if PH isn't enough you are close enough to other places.

 

PH is just a big pain to me.. everytime I've stayed it was a hassle. The parking situation is the worst, and it's so big!! Having the mall and everything. Seems unnecessary for a conference.

I work at a fairly large retail company in their corporate headquarters and they had a large conference at Mandalay Bay earlier in the year.. not that I got to go haha. But, just from visiting all these places in Vegas that is where I'd most like to have a conference. Pretty positive my company does all their Vegas business, and conferences at Mandalay Bay.