The beautiful boutique hotel at The Hotel, Mandalay Bay is sublime if you want to get away from the cheesey themed hotels on the Strip. You really feel special - staff are welcoming and not stuck up, and had amazing service and food at the Fleur de Lys restaurant. The beach & wavepool are great for kids. It's not cheap on the weekends but you can score a bargain during the week - would definately come back.

First, let me say that this review is of theHotel at Mandalay bay. There seem to be a LOT of reviews of Mandalay Bay Proper being attributed to theHotel and there is an important difference between the two. It is a silly name though and even our cab driver ended up taking us to Mandalay instead of theHotel. C'est la vie

This was our second trip staying at TheHotel and it met our expectations again. We got a great room on the 21st floor on the corner, in a v suite with a super view. Always ask for a room ending in 815 if you want the best views. A higher floor would have been nicer, but were told nothing was available on that corner higher up. Check in by the way was a breeze at 3:00 on a Sunday. Line was non existent, David was pleasent and helpful. I think those people dealing with long check in lines are checking in during some peak times. Not sure what else you would expect. We arrived on Suday in order to avoid the crowds. If I had flown in Friday afternoon or evening, I would have expected a line. Anyway, David said he could give us the room I wanted, above the 20th floor ending in 815, but that housekeeping was currently in it. No worries. We dropped our bags, tipped the maid and grabbed some drinks. Room was immaculate on our return a few hours later.
Housekeeping went above and beyond each day we were there (find my trip report in LV forum for more detals). A few bucks goes a long way. It was excellent service.

The BathHouse Spa was a pleasure for my wife. She loved every minute of it. She spent HOURS there every day and would probably be happy to have spent her whole vacation there.

The lighting IS low. It's a nice ambience, and matches the subtle and dark decor. Bright lighting would ruin that view. The only real complaint I have about the room is that if you are going to have three high end plasma tv's in it, you should A: have a decent selection of stations and B: have a clear picture. I'm not a TV guy so I don't care that much, but I did note that it's a pitiful selection and nothing is High Def. (I watched the All Star game in the room while my wife was napping, would have been nice to see that in HD). I just think that if you spend a gazillion dollars to buid that place you could hook it up decent picture quality.

Had room service once, it was excellent, both service and food.
Cab stand was friendly and effcient.
All staff we encountered was great. Every single one we encountered, even if it was randomly in the hall asked us if we were enjoying our stay.

We did not visit the mandalay pools complex, but I'm sure it was busy and full of drunk adults. It's vegas!

In Room check out did not work when we were ready to leave, the system was down (it was a breeze last time we were here) but a quick call to the desk and it was done, never had to wait in line, which was really great and they are mailing a copy of the final bill.

We had a great special rate for our trip this time, but I would have paid double. theHotel was every bit as good as it should have been.

Just got back from an annual trip to Vegas with friends. We like to stay at different properties and thought we would check out The Hotel.
We like to stay at upscale proerties and since we stayed at Bellagio last year, we felt we should giveThe Hotel a try.
We reserved our rooms 4 months in advance and called to confirm a couple of days prior to check in. When we all arrived we got two different front desk agents.My husband and I got our non smoking king suite on 22nd floor but our friends could only get a smoking room with 2 queens on the 5th floor. They said they were in a sold out situation and could not guarantee the requests for our friends. They did move them the next day, but was a bad way to begin.
When we arrived in our room it was lovely. Very large, nice bathroom and TV in bath was a nice touch. We had two lamps not working and when I called down to front desk they had it fixed quickly. Which brings me to my next comments. When staying in this level resort you expect housekeeping to be more attentive to detail. They don't notice 2 lamps not working? We tipped them daily and not once did they replenish our toiletries, she also never left us any hand towels at counter. Only bath towels. I know they have them because we got 1 on our check in day. I know this seems trivial, but we have stayed in many hotels where those little niceties were done daily.
Now for the pool. Great pool area with wave pool and lazy river and LOTS of kids. (infants to 20 somethings) so be aware that if you are travelling with kids it will be great, if not you will have to head to South Lagoon pool or private topless pool, or be willing to sit among wall to wall bodies with chairs lined up so closely you have to crawl down to end to get on and off. Oh yeah, pool opens at 8:00 AM and people start lining up at gate at 7:00 AM. Not fun. You can rent a cabana like we did for $300.00 - $400.00 a day (rent a week in advance) and that will afford you some space and get you out of the line but the service at our cabana was to say the least, sketchy. First day at cabana the attendent asked if I knew how to get to my cabana, (I did because we had requested one we saw the night we got in) so I found my way and he told me he would be around at 1:00 PM with bill. He was not kidding, we did not see him again for quite a while. We finally managed to flag down our cocktail server an hour and 1/2 later for ice, towels, cups etc. For those of you not familiar with the cabana scene, those things come std. as do sodas, water, fridge etc. You should have them in your cabana at time of rental or shortly there after. Not an 1 and 1/2 hours later. We stayed all day, got our floats and tubes for lazy river ourselves. ( they bring your floats to you at Bellagio when renting a cabana.)
I had one too many Pina Coladas, WAY too much heat and sun and became ill. To the point where they called a medic to check on me. While in cabana with heat stroke and nasuea we used up the water that came in our fridge. When my husband tried to get a couple of more bottles the elusive cabana attendent informed us we would have to be charged for them! Now you have to know that all day we had invited our servers in out of the heat and even offered them a bottle of water. I am not blaming them because it was not there call. It's just unbelievable that when someone is as ill as I was that they would have the audacity to charge us for a couple of bottles water.
Next day my friends went down to rent same cabana and got much better service upon arrival. They were shown to their cabana , stocked up with towels and water I might add. Dave was off that day and Dave needs a lesson in customer service.
Food was great at all restaurants and service was also good.
All in all it was a nice stay, but if I go again, I will go back to Bellagio. The poo lis lovely, but I don't have to line up at 7:00 AM for a chair and I am not touching the chair next to me while sunbathing. The housekeeping is more attentive also and over all service is a step above The Hotel.
Oh before I forget, they also don't have security at elevators checking for your key like they do at Bellagio. I find it odd that MGM owns both of these properties and they can be so different.They tout The Hotel as such an upscale property and all.
If you are travelling with kids, don't mind waiting in line for an hour at pool then go for it. But if you are looking for a grown up time away in an upscale property stick with the Bellagio.

we stayed at The Hotel for a week in July, it didnt live up to the hyde.
The biggest problem was the pool , its a 15min walk from your room and when you get there, they play crap RnB music the whole day, we paid extra to go into the exclusive beach area where they played hard house music all day , we couldnt relax at all during the day

2 days out of the 7 days there were no towels and when the tempurature is over 100degrees its not comfortbale to sit on beds in the heat

apart from this , the hotel is very nice , but i wouldnt stay again..plus we lost at the casino!