There are different sort of reviews here, but let me tell this, short and sweet: this is the first time I was able to enjoy a true 5-star hotel for a 3-star hotel price. $85 a night during the week, and $139 on a weekend is cheaper than most MGM rooms I've ever reserved in my 8 trips to Vegas. Here are the pros and cons (cons are easily avoidable with some inventivness):

Pros:

1) Awesome soft beds with PLENTY of pillows, that can satisfy even the pickiest traveler.
2) Two A/C units - one in bedroom, one in living room - so you don't have to listen to your significant other's whining when he/she goes to bed and you still watch the TV
3) 42" Plasma - YEAH BABY!
4) Leave decent tip to housekeeping and your room will have PLENTY of everything you need - $3/day would do it

Cons:

1) Very expensive hotel - you won't find a McDonald or cheaper food places here, a sandwich at Starbucks is $8.50. Just eat elsewhere if you try to save money.

2) DVD player (Philips) Does not play Divx and you cannot plug in the cables to your own DVD players/game system. Live with it. Enjoy Vegas.

3) Mandalay Beach - have to go early and they often don't give more than 1 towel a person. Solution - bring an extra towel and if you can't find a chair, lie on the sand.

4) The only serious flaw - you can hear music from the Mix club in some rooms after 11pm. You'll get used to it after a day or two.

Overall - definitely a 5-star. Wonderful quality, total luxury (even bathrobes and sleepers), that's the hotel to stay if you can get a great deal.

Finally - Mandalay's buffet is one of the best in Vegas. Actually, if you want to taste Vegas and do it with decent food, you gotta try Mandalay Bay, Wynn, Rio, and Paris buffets. Avoid 3-star hotel buffets like a plague.

Thursday June 4, 2009 I left Brussels for a quick visit to Las Vegas. Wanting to enjoy the trip to the fullest I decided to go for it and upgraded my flights to business class to make it a real Vegas Experience. The flight from Brussels to Washington by UA went very smooth and staff was great! After boarding the connecting flight to LAS we received notice that there were some issues with some fuelindicators leaving the plane grounded untill repaired. After about 4 hours of waiting the replacement aircraft arrived to take of to LAS. Since I didn't wanted to take a risk I called ahead to THEhotel mentioning that my plane was grounded and that I'll be checking in after midnight. This wasn't a problem and the remarks were noted in the system so that I wouldn't lose my room. After arrival in LAS I took a cab to THEhotel and enjoyed the time talking with the driver. It was a couple of years since being in Vegas but people are still friendly. The entrance of THEhotel is located inside Mandalay Bay or inside the parking space. A bit strange but no problem for me. Due the late arrival there weren't any lines at check-in and a room was issued very quick. I requested a room with some view on the airfield and got a room on the 17th floor from where I could see planes taking off. The room was a pleasant surprise. While some hotels make extremely good pictures and deliver extremely poor rooms THEhotel delivered the room (a suite) just like in the pictures. I was a very nice and spacious room with a large bathroom containing a huge bathtub and a nice shower. I loved it on first sight! The 42" Philips tv in the living room was actually a bit to big to be enjoyable from the couch. It would be better in the bedroom were you are a bit farther from the tv (which is a regular CRT screen). Also the tv in the bathroom is a nice addition. Small but enjoyable. I spend a lot of time on the desk writing some reports, surfing on the internet (expensive, it would be better if compimentary but faster then many other hotels) or doing some research. It was enjoyable to have a nice desk to work from.

Although the bed was very nice and big I actually didn't sleep well in it. I'm used to sleep on a hard bed instead of a soft one and this bed was one of the softest In ever slept in. Enjoyable to relax a bit but I couldn't get any sleep, due this I only slept about 3 hours a night at most. Not the fault of the hotel since probably there aren't to much customers who enjoy a hard bed but it kept me awake ;)

One smaller issue is the airconditiong, there are actually 2 units in the room which can probably cool to a freezing point. Although they AC unit could be set on a specific temperature it seemed to cool when it was not necessary, especially during the night. But this could be fixed by turning them off ;)

I've ordered a couple of times through roomservice and although not cheap the food was actually very good! Never had an issue that it was allready cold or something, everything was just fine and the portions are huge (at least to European standards).

Check out went also very fine, due the fact I was on irregular hours on my room the minibar was never checked upon so I gave them a list with everything I took from the minibar and they thanked me for my honesty (since I didn't leave a credit card they wouldn't be able to charge it afterwards). Lovely and friendly service!

After a quick cabride to the airport I could take my flight back home to Belgium. Leaving with a loss of only a couple of hundreds of dollars (far below the max. loss I calculated) I enjoyed myself again to upgrade the flight to business class (IAD-BRU route). After a quick and delicous meal on the plane (I loved the food which was actually good and that something for a man who hated airline food) I slept for several hours and woke up an hour prior to landing in Brussels on Tuesday, June 9, 2009. After collecting my car from the car hotel it was a short ride to home to grab a quick shower and heading to my office to start a new working day.

It was a very nice stay at THEhotel and I certainly will stay there again in the future, maybe in one of the more expensive suites.

Stayed at the Hotel June 8th-11th. The lobby was very clean and check-in was a breeze. I was able to get into a room at 11:30 am. Rooms are huge and clean with a very nice bathroom. My only complaint would be the bed. The mattress was pretty lumpy and worn. We also only had two pillows for a king size bed and both pillows were old and worn. If staying at this hotel you will be sharing the pool area with guest of Mandalay Bay. While the pool area is huge it is not relaxing at all. There are alot of people and many young partiers who are very disrespectful to the people around them. We had massages at the spa which I felt were below average for the price. I would recommend this hotel if the price is right but when rates go back up you may want to consider another location.

We stayed our first 2 nights at MGM Grand and our last 2 nights at TheHotel. What a difference! Upon entering TheHotel you smell these wonderful white flowers, the lights are soft and soothing, and it is very easy to navigate. Pretty much the opposite of MGM, which I think is constructed as a large smoke-filled maze to disorient the drunk people. TheHotel was a much classier experience and much more relaxing. Reaching our suite was quick and easy, and the room was very nice. Our room was very clean, unlike some of the other reviews I have read, so I can't comment on that. I even took a bath in the giant tub after shopping in the Mandalay Place shops and buying a bath bomb -- it was great!

My only disappointment was with the pool area. The entire reason I wanted to stay at Mandalay Bay was because the pool looked so fantastic. However, for being such a classy hotel, I was surprised that they had no umbrellas at all, basically forcing you to rent a cabana -- which I couldn't afford. So your only option is to enjoy the pool for as long as you can endure the Vegas sunshine, which isn't very long. I think that this is their way to getting people to leave the pool area so more people can visit. The pool area wasn't as big as I thought it would be and the lawn chairs were just stacked upon each other -- it wasn't a very relaxing experience to be crammed in with everyone else. The one benefit of MGM was the large pool structure -- you didn't feel so crowded there. I am very glad that I did NOT rent a cabana, even though I had a cabana credit -- they were not 1/2 as nice as they looked in the picture.

As to location, it wasn't as far away as people have said -- it was about a 10-15 minute walk to get to MGM, and everything else is about a 10-15 minute walk from there. We rented a car which was very helpful, so we could get to wherever we wanted easily.

Overall, I would recommend TheHotel if you want a break from the madness that is the rest of the Vegas strip. The casino was very nice and their drink service was top notch -- my friend ordered a jack and coke and they definitely didn't skimp on the jack -- in fact, I think that's all it was! They were also extremely prompt, and apologized if they took more than 10 minutes to get back to you, which is virtually unheard of anywhere else. I'm still not sure how I feel about the pool situation -- I might try staying elsewhere to find a more relaxing pool scene with umbrellas for shade.