Home » VT News » The Answer To Aria: Strategically Placed Shrubbery
The Answer To Aria: Strategically Placed Shrubbery
Today, the fine folks over at the Las Vegas Sun (Hi Liz.. mwah love you!) have taken our last 12 months of ARIA kvetching - busted technology, bad service, check in disasters, untrained or ornery employees, our extended tirade against their truly pathetic Remember To Breathe and "Words Will Fail You" advertising campaign and recent recounting of Aria's recent clobberings at the hands of Yelp and Trip Advisor users - and codified it into a big wet kiss from MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren right directly to you.
His answer to the extended clubbing we and everyone else has levied upon ARIA, his beloved baby seal?
I think it was a training issue and an educational issue. We are understanding the building more and understanding where we need to train more and add new staff. They weren't in the building long before it opened.
You think? You THINK it was a training and an educational issue? THINK? Isn't training education? After seven months, and tens of thousands of non-failing words posted here and everywhere else on the internet, you should KNOW what the problem is.
And how do they plan on getting us to give Aria another shot? Unleashing a second television campaign with a less artsy fartsy message, adding some lighting to the casino, putting benches in The Crystals, hosting a weekly farmers market for hotel guests and residents, building a fucking 'ARIA Art Walk' iPhone app, redesigning the plastique castle that housed the high limit slots, making the signage bigger and.... drum roll please... softening the vibe by strategically placing shrubbery.
Tilting at windmills will fail you.
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Comments & Discussion:
Maybe they should add a multi-million dollar douchebag beach club to the strip side of the resort
Well deserved recognition of VegasTripping's importance to Las Vegas.
Every new property needs some minor tweaking after it opens, but this is ridiculous. How can the CEO say he "thinks" it's a training/education issue? MGM operates at least 20 properties with 14 in Vegas (including sub-properties like The Hotel, Signature, etc). You'd think they'd know how to open a new flagship resort by now.
Murren doesn't understand the business as demonstrated by past comments about not spending time in competitors' properties. Will Jim Murren still be at MGM Resorts International beyond the end of this year? I doubt it.
They do operate a number of properties but they have little recent experience in opening a property. The construction itself was/still is an adventure that suggests they were in over their head but then training the required staff, putting people in place to troubleshoot the inevitable problems, and in general living up to expectations that were only heightened by MGM themselves is a difficult task that it appears MGM leadership was not quite ready for.
I almost wonder if the best MGM employees didn't see this coming and decline job offers at City Center.
All this window dressing is great but Aria's future success will be limted if they don't make major changes to the other components of City Center. I would like to hear what they are going to do for the long-term success of City Center. The original vision needs a dramatic makeover. E.g. how are they going to make Veer a viable residential property, Vdara a viable hotel and what about the Harmon?
Am I the only person to immediately think of the Knights Who Say Ni when I saw the topic of this piece?
Sometimes all you need is some strategically placed bush.
Seems like Mr. MGM CEO doesn't understand how far Aria needs to go to play with the big boys. It isn't just staff, the facility itself needs work. I hated that damn walk every time I headed for the strip., buffet was terrible, staff cranky, parking silly, etc. Aria won't get a second chance from me.
My idea for a new Aria ad campaign is real simple:
"Aria is fun because _________." And then they fill in the blank with an enumeration of all the ways that Aria is fun. Because frankly, since day one, they've been more concerned about convincing the Vegas-going public that City Center/Aria is the greenest, most architeckiest gosh darn property ever built in the desert, while turning up their glass paneled noses at the concept of having a good time. As if having fun were somehow gauche.
Yes, Strategically placed shrubberies, terraced on different levels so you get a two layer effect with a little path running down the middle.
I can confirm (although can't cite my sources) that MGM/Mirage employees including upper management declined moving from the resorts they were at to Aria.
I'm in my 16'th year (in some for or another) at having close and deep contact with Vegas visitors and hearing what the rank-and-file visitor thinks. I've heard just about everything over that time, but never heard a desire for a green hotel, nor one that was on the architectural cutting edge. People who care about that aren't the kind of people who repeat visit Vegas.
I still like staring at the Jenny Holzer.
i find it hard to understand why there are still bugs in a hotel that has been open this long and dont think that a few well placed ferns are going to make the place better.
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