What Happened to Aladdin?
 

I have been reading the postings lately and see no or very few references to the Aladdin hotel in Las Vegas. My family and I have reservations there next week. Is there bad news about that hotel and few people stay there? I know it is too late to change but forewarned is forearmed. Thank you for any information.

Aladdin has been in Chapter 11 restructuring for some time, and was recently sold. It looks like it will be rebranded as a Planet Hollywood Resort, heaven help us all. Starwood Hotels will actually manage the property.

Being that it's in the midst of a reorganization, there's no telling what your experience will be like. I've never stayed there, but friends who have say that it's good-- not among the very best, but not down in the Westward Ho or Western dumps.

my sister just stayed there last week - no complaints at all.

Great place. Nice rooms, amazing buffet, good restaurants/shops, etc.

Worth a visit.

You'll be fine, jobesa.
But as noted above, the Aladdin has been shackled by their reorganization for more than a year, and now will be re-born as a Planet Hollywood hotel.
The rooms, casino and buffet and all are no different than they were last year. Service has always been hit and miss. But they won't be closing the hotel for its transformation for quite awhile yet.

I live in Las Vegas and go to the Aladdin frequently. The shops in Desert Passage are pricey but fun - especially if you're only window shopping. There are lots of different restaurants in the Passage too, plus in the hotel. While you're there, don't miss the Society of Seven show in the Center Stage Theater. For either $35 or $45 per person (drinks extra) you can't beat it. SOS (nickname for them) hails from the Waikiki Outrigger Hotel and have been together for years - they are Hawaii's premiere show group and are all talented and excellent showmen. You won't be disappointed -their show is better than most on the strip.

I actually had reservations at the Aladdin for Sept. I heard bad things about it such as the rooms being dirty and the comps not being very good so I switched to the Paris for the same price.

I just made reservations for Christmas Day through New Years (pre) weekend-i hope it's good!

The Aladdin is great. Maybe it's not perfect, but neither is the Venetian or Bellagio for that matter. And the Aladdin's standard room bathrooms make Bellagio's look like something out of a third world country by the way!

you will have a great time. no need to worry, and by the way the shampoo is the best i've ever had in a hotel. eucalyptus. don't miss the buffet, but also the paris buffet for breakfast is IMHO much better.

Just returned from Las Vegas last week. We stayed at the Paris and spent a fair amount of time at the Aladdin. I always managed (on my small daily gambling budget) to win money whenever I played the Aladdin slots. We ate a wonderful meal at their cafe late one night. Good meal and a good value. I asked our waiter how such a beautiful new property could be in financial trouble already. I was curious as to whether it was due to poor marketing or pricing, etc. Anyway, he told me that the group which built the hotel could not recover from cost overruns during construction. So it was in financial trouble before it opened. I think I read somewhere that the cost to build was around $1.3 billion and it was just sold to Planet Hollywood for somewhere around $650-$680 million. What a shame. I hate to think about the beautiful decor being changed now. It is very tastefully done. Within 6 months to 1 year they will begin reconstruction to change the theme. Our waiter told us that a separate company owned the Dessert Passage Shops, which may not be updated to match the Planet Hollywood theme. I can't vouch for the accuracy of what I was told, but I hope I have given you the correct information. I think it would be a great place to stay.

With Starwood at the helm, it's a winner!

Pat: the people who came up with the Aladdin concept set out to enter the same market as Bellagio and Venetian. They wanted to compete for the luxury travel and high roller $$$.
They started off with room rates matching Bellagio but quickly found that the Bellagio-Venetian market wasn't opening up.
There have been many guesses as to what the reasons are or were. My opinion is that the quality of Aladdin is well below that of B and V. It was built quickly and materials quality was similar to that of places like Treasure Island. Nice enough to be attractive but not enough to wow people into spending big $$$ to stay there.

George, you're right about the Aladdin's original market expectation. Having stayed in their suites once, when the Bellagio was full, I can understand why they could never really compete.

While the room was large in terms of square feet, it actually felt small because of a curved layout and a support pole right in the middle of the floor. There a good 6 or 7 feet between the bed and the window, with no furniture, like a small table and chairs to enjoy the view, otherwise it was dead space.

They clearly didn't think through the small details and therefore, the room had all these annoying little quirks like no door to the bathroom. While there is a separate commode area, it uses the same light switch. Which means at 4 a.m if your spouse wake up to pee, the bed gets fully illuminated by the bathroom. My wife also hated the fact that the dressing table in the bathroom had a cutout for a chair. But, the mirrors were each about 5 feet away from the only place the chair would fit. While it may seem picky, it's the small stuff that helps justify premium room rates.

BTW, Starwood is only putting in about $90 million in cash. Most of the purchase price is assumed debt. Given the bankruptcy, the debt is probably very low coupon or convertible to equity at a future date. $90mm is a great deal for a prime strip location casino, even with the hotel's problems.