Ahh, Las Vegas. A place that sells hopes and dreams, but in actuality has the deck statistically stacked against you. I’ve found that for some reason I end up in Las Vegas when I’ve been losing for a bit, and so likely I am trying to make it up by trying to win it back by random guessing. Jk, the most I do in Vegas is watching shows (shoutout to Shin Lim and Criss Angel Mindfreak, and I prefer the latter) and eating food (shoutout to the Bacchanal and Wicked Spoon). Bellagio and Aria are two of the strip’s most prominent resorts, and are actually owned by the same parent company: MGM Resorts International. The early company was actually related to MGM Studios, but was sold off to pay off debts.

Background

The Bellagio was opened in 1998, and claims to be inspired by “the villages of Europe”, though I really think they don’t look alike. According to MGM’s 2021 10K, it is comprised of 3,933 guest rooms attached to a 152,000 sqft casino. Interestingly enough, the Bellagio is majority owned by the Blackstone Group, with MGM only having a 5% stake (and retaining revenues from operating the casino).

Aria was opening a bit later in 2009, and calls itself the “epitome of luxury casino resorts” while maintaining an environmentally friendly angle. It has a few more rooms than Bellagio with 5,497 rooms attached to a 142,000 sq ft casino. This hotel was also sold to the Blackstone Group in 2021, and I think this was because MGM wants to become more of a pure-player hotel operator as opposed to a real estate owner. While Aria has more rooms, Bellagio’s Fountain gives it the edge in overall size, with Bellagio being 75 acres while Aria is 64 acres.

Bearing in mind how massive the hotels are, I will review the room and select amenities, as the casinos are similar between the two - you can lose money easily at both.

Location

Both hotels are in prime locations on the strip, and are connected to each other via a cute tram that goes through the Cosmopolitan (which will also become an MGM property in 2023).

Winner: Tie

Bellagio Check In:

Bellagio has a grand lobby that invokes it’s theme quite well: one could easily walk about the hotel, and feel transported to an Americanized version of Europe.

Given it was Christmastime / the Holidays, there were substantial decorations in the lobby of both hotels. I think Bellagio’s decorations were much better, but note that you can walk into the casino to experience them for free.

Check in was smooth, and as an MGM Gold Member I was upgraded from a Resort 2 Queen Bed to a Newly Renovated Premier Two Queen. There was also a quieter check in lounge area with water and snacks, which was much smaller than the Aria Skysuites lounge (more on that later).

The price difference between the two rooms is minimal at ~$20, but the main reason I suspect the difference exists is so hotels can claim that they have “upgraded” you. In fairness, Aria and plenty of other hotels have same issue. My friend who booked through the AMEX Fine Hotels and Resorts also got upgraded to this room. I did appreciated that the Bellagio gave us a 1PM late checkout upon asking, which was perfect as we were planning to hit the Wicked Spoon Buffet.

The décor at the Bellagio, for a hotel built before the turn of the millennia, was quite tasteful, mixing in darker colors with the slightly ostentatious gold.

Bellagio Room:

Our Newly Renovated Premier Two Queen room was 510 sq ft, which was slightly smaller than the 520 sq ft room we got at Aria. Bless the engineers at Apple for integrating a wide angle cameras, with which I was able to capture this picture of the main room. The overall room reminded me of a slightly modern Ritz Carlton Cancun in that while the hotel was old soul that managed maintain it’s elegance on the inside.

Taking a look at the components of the room, there was a minibar with extremely overpriced items. Hint: tell your friends to not touch things at the minibar, as everything is motion triggered.

One day I will be rich enough for minibar items, but today is not the day: prices were more than double what they were on the strip, with a water bottle going for more than $20.

In the corner of the room, there was a seat facing towards the bed, and away from the view…not sure why it was designed that way.

There was also a small coffee table, which was impractical for working on (my consultant friend tried). That being said, 99.9% of people visiting Las Vegas who are not powerpoint monkeys knowledge workers will typically be here to have fun, so the setting is understandable. The next part of the room was the double bed, and this is where I think Bellagio wins: I felt that the bed was a tad more comfortable here than at Aria.

For the room ambiance, I will say I liked Bellagio less for two reasons: firstly, being an almost 25 year old hotel, there is a smoke smell that has seeped into the air, which makes it a bit hard to breath. Secondly, the natural room temperature was just a bit hot, which was funny given this was ~10C in Las Vegas.

Moving onto the bathroom, I think that the one at the Bellagio was quite grand, but it lacked a bathtub. It did however provide great amenities, including body lotion, mouthwash and dental kits.

Overall, I liked the Bellagio room, but would not consider it the best value as it costed around ~$250 all in, 20% more than the comparable Aria.

Aria Check In:

After taking the cute but slow tram over to Aria, we checked in at the front desk. The front desk is located a bit further way from the rooms, mainly so patrons have a change to peruse be lured by the casino before entering into their rooms.

While I didn’t get the resort fee waived (long story), the associate did note that we were upgraded from a Deluxe Two Queen Room over to a room in the Sky Suites Tower. Beyond being a bit quieter and more exclusive, we were given access to the Sky Suites lounge.

Both hotels had the ability to check in online; I would suggest doing so only if you are not trying to finesse a room upgrade. That being said, I do think the MGM mobile app is quite well thought out, and let’s you do almost everything you need to do without talking to a human (#millenial). We walked across the casino to a grand…wait well a soon to be grand entrance into the Sky Suite Tower.

We knew we were in a baller place when we walked pasted the high roller lounge, although during the daytime there were only a few people playing.

On the left, there is the entrance to the Sky Suites Lounge, which we will elaborate on later. Up the elevators we go to the 30th floor!

While both Bellagio and Aria have tasteful décor, one could argue that Aria more muted one could be considered boring. It all depends on personal preference (and how much gold you want in your bathtub / private jet).

Aria Room:

Upon entering the 520 sqft Sky Suite Tower Deluxe Two Queen Room, we were greeted by…a rather large closet.

And much like the Bellagio, the main section of the room was 2 queen beds, a more functional desk and floor to ceiling windows + extremely strong blackout curtains. This room reminded me of a mix between a business focused hotel like the Westin Wall Centre and a casino like the DOUGLAS.

The table was significantly more functional than the ones at Bellagio, and I spent time practicing consulting cases to ensure I will not be unemployed.

Alas, we could not escape the minibar. For some reason, there was one Fiji water bottle missing - the front desk tried to charge me $25 for it! Those bottles of water better cure cancer.

The two double beds were fairly middle of the pack in terms of comfortableness (as opposed to the very soft bed at the Bellagio).

What was cool about the beds was the remote control tablet: it controlled all aspects of the room and beyond, including temperature, blinds, room service, do not disturb, and even reservations!

The bathroom was simultaneously more and less impressive than Bellagio. I felt that the sink was underwhelming (but there was at least a few amenities in the black box), but upon turning around I could see the reason for that.

There was a large bathtub and shower combo, which fit this 6ft 5’10 person in easily.

Finally, there was also a separate toilet with frosted glass - this is definitely something the W Toronto could learn about for privacy.

One great thing was that the air in the room was substantially better! And I felt that the temperature controls actually worked (cough Bellagio).

Winner: Aria for the room. Bellagio was better on overall design / décor, check in and bed quality, yet Aria won due to its smoke free status, technological superiority and massive bathtub.

Amenities - Gym

The fitness center at Bellagio was one of the best hotel gyms I have ever seen, with the only issue of it being further away from the main buildings and tucked away on the 2nd floor with the spa.

You did have to walk through the spa to get to the gym - I am not sure this was purposefully designed this way to tempt people to book a treatment.

Open from 6:00AM - 6:00PM, the gym was quite sizable, and had basically every machine / tool / weight anyone could want. There were additional group and individual fitness classes, with the individual fitness classes requiring advanced booking. Those classes were quite affordable for $35 a session, but I would spend my time elsewhere in Las Vegas. As for group classes, there were several different types of yoga and Pilates offered on a fixed schedule.

The Fitness Centre at Aria was similar on the surface, but less comprehensive. It was also a bit of a hassle to get to, but there was plenty of signage.

The gym was also required one to walk through a spa room, and was also open from 6:00AM - 6:00PM.

The gym was slightly smaller than Bellagio’s gym; however, the main issue was that there were many more “Technogym” machines standing in the way. While these may be technologically more advanced, nothing beats good old free weights.

The one fun redeeming fact of the Aria gym was that there was a rock climbing wall.

Winner: Bellagio, although both are more than sufficient for a quick workout.

Amenities - Business Center and Lounge

For those of us privileged enough to work from home / anywhere, it is definitely possible to spend the week in Vegas working during the day. For this purpose, I would consider Aria the better place to work, especially if one gets Skysuites.

The Bellagio and Aria both have a near infinite number of meetings rooms, ball rooms and convention centers, which were deserted in the December that I went to. You can issue an Request for Proposal on how much it would cost through the Bellagio (link) or Aria (link) websites.

I found Bellagio to be less of a “business” focused hotel, and the smaller size of the business center shows.

That being said, I did spy the Cirque du Soleil’s board meeting.

Aria, while still a Vegas hotel, was a bit better in providing working spaces.

Note that it costs $70 to rent a room for a day, so definitely just work in your room if needed. Another thing was that Aria had more random desks / sofas with charging ports dotted around the hotel, and in December had almost no one using them.

Another area one could work or take calls is the Skysuites lounge. Everyone who gets placed into the Skysuites towers gets access to the lounge. No, this isn’t the level of the world’s best, but it is a nice, tucked away place that to be honest looks amazing for a hotel lounge.

There were soft drinks, water and fancy coffees, and as Vegas rooms typically don’t come with coffee makers the coffee was much appreciated. The appetizers were also quite tasty, but were clearly not intended to replace a full meal.

The front desk noted it was “Wine O’Clock” (e.g. they served wine) from 4 - 9PM - one of the attendants kindly brought over several bottle to our table for us to choose for.

Winner: Aria, but note most people don’t get access to this.

The Point

So, who wins? Aria given it’s price point. I would say that each of these icons have their strengths: for Bellagio it is it’s decor, gym and bed, while for Aria it is it’s air, hotel room and Sky Suites lounge. While I didn’t interact with team members too often, I think Bellagio’s team members were a bit more charming / welcoming than Aria’s. Given that the Bellagio is pricier than Aria, I would say hands down Aria offers the most value. Aria is also a newer hotel, and so that may appeal to people as well. That being said, it was tremendous fun to enjoy both of these hotels. Both are massive, luxury complexes that make it so travelers do not have to leave the hotel, and are indeed more similar than different. My friend and I did find $15 blackjack at Bellagio, and only $25 at Aria, so take that as you will. Good luck!