Oh Las Vegas! What have you become. I booked two queen bed rooms for a few months ago through the MGM Rewards App. To say the App has its challenges is to be kind. It's quirky at best, completely unreliable at its worst. Because all of our family members were traveling from different places at different times, I realized I needed to add their names to the reservation so they could check in. I add my borther-in-law and nephew's name online, then recalled that my father was arriving first. When I went back to add him, I wasn't allowed, nor could find where that was even available as a choice anymore. So, I called the hotel an added my father to the reservation. Remember, this was for two queen beds. I had given them 3 additional names. Upon landing I was alerted by my nephew that his name and his father's names were not on the reservation, and though my father's name was there, the room they had designated for us on the 31st floor had only one King-sized bed in it. So I called the hotel from my Uber, and was able to get us shifted to a new room. However, the rooms would be nowhere near one another (not that they were anyway despite the fact they were booked together at the same time and same type of room). Seems fine - mine ours on 27, their's was on 51--- Oh except it turns out that means we can't even use the same elevator bank to get to each other's room - we have to return all the way to the lobby, switch elevator banks, and then go up to the other room. Wow, that's not quite how we saw this going, but ok, it's not huge. After dinner with my father and nephew, I arrive and wait in the check-in line to make sure that we get all keys and that all the rooms are finally correct. We get my nephew his key (his father will be arriving closer to 11:30) and the Hotel Registration gives us a key for our now old room on floor 31 that they say will last for 30 minutes so my father can remove his things, and we both can shift down to 27. We arrive at the room on 31, only to find out the key doesn't work. So back down I go again. Thankfully., there was no line anymore, and a gentlement remagnetizes the key. This time it works, and we go down to our room on 27. It is a two queen bed room and my nephew confirms his is also correct. However, he's going to have to come down to let his father in because they won't let him up to the floor without a key, meaning he has to check in, or someone has to allow him upstairs. Fine, that's security for you, though no one during our entire stay manning the security area EVER ASKED TO SEE OUR KEY. Not at night, not in the daytime. They did absolutely nothing. In the interim, Vdara's registration folks put a 'trace' on finding a room so we could be closer together. By Sunday, the best they could do was move us up onto the 55th floor, while my brother-in-law and nephew remained on 51. Give them some credit for trying - take away credit for the fact it was still three floors away and didn't really solve the issue. For you MGM credit card holders by the way, your Pearl Status has been demoted to mean almost nothing now. What used to get you line privilege and some comps garners you a look akin to being a first time visitor. The rooms are indeed beautiful and spacious, reflecting the new attitude of America - my bed sagged a little but was comfortable overall. The people who serve the rooms are very helpful. In fact, the one morning we left a $5 tip on our pillow, the staff was so honest and didn't want to presume we were tipping, she left the bill back on our nighttable. That type of honesty is hard to find. Vdara has few amenities - the pool appeared closed, which was fine - the temps barely eclipsed 70. Vdara has a downstairs bar, a Starbucks and a little snack shop. On sunday morning we were going kayaking so we went into the snack shop to get a little food. One orange juice, one bottled water, one croissant and one yogurt parfait and it tallied $38+ Remember, this isn't even a meal and the two of us paid $19. Gambling takes place at Aria only and the base table prices are $25/bet. You can not expect to play any table game with a human being (their are machine versions) without betting $25. Also, any machine game of lesser value gets you ZERO MGM REWARDS POINTS. When your bill comes, you'll find all the hidden fees you could ever want. Resort fees that tally hundreds of dollars more than what you thought you reservation was, taxes and other fees. Why there are resort fees for a place that is really hardly a resort, or in this case, a resort without a pool, is beyond justification. Using MGM Rewards for reservations will alert you to the extra $150 in resort fee charges ahead of time. Our average room fee was supposed to sit at $283 (with the $50 resort fee) for our three nights. That meant $849 per room for three nights. The total of the two rooms after all those fees was approximately $2200. One of the guests had food and parking, for which there's the parking fee of $40 per night and they tip the valet for you. How nice. The truth is the outrageous costs aren't just at Vdara alone. The days of Vegas wanting to appeal to you to come gamble are over. Each nice restaurant where we ate was at least 30%-50% more because it was in Las Vegas. It used to be just the opposite. But if money means anything to you, the service, or lack thereof, along with all the taxes and hidden fees make Vdara, even with its prime ocation and views, a taxing experience (pardon the pun) to say the least. None of the hotels seem the least bit interested in catering to anyone under a certain status level., and like I said, being a Pearl cardholder means zero now. Only Gold Platinum or the new NOIR mean anything. And even though my family does very well, their is a certain amount of discomfort at tossing money around so casually as if it grows on trees when you consider how many needy homeless sit along the same strip just outside the hotel. This was an important trip for the guys of my family, and starting it off having our rooms incorrect and placed at such distance without anything really being done to correct it started it off on a sour foot. And since I handled the reservations, it was my screw-up. I think we'll be choosing a new location next time.…