Rankings matter to Vegas' upper crust

North America's most popular guidebooks — Mobil and AAA — rank up to three levels on their respective star or diamond charts with in-person, unannounced inspections. A rank of four or the highest, five, requires an incognito stay.

As a result, property managers encourage their employees to be on the ball — all the time.

"After the first six months, they really realized there's no point in trying to find out who the shopper is," said the Venetian's Dimond.

Cleanliness, safety and reliability are the base standards for obtaining a listing in the guides and the lowest one star or diamond rating. From there, standards diverge slightly.

At the highest levels of service, Mobil rates only 37 hotels and 16 restaurants as five-star in North America; while AAA gives its top designation to 100 hotels and 60 restaurants in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Michelin, known more as a restaurant guide, gave its top three stars to 68 restaurants in 22 countries, but it's unclear how many hotels got the top honor of five red pavilions.

Because of differing standards, it's difficult to say which rankings are more exacting. Some operators said Mobil's targets are tougher than AAA's to meet, since they cover more areas of service, such as at poolside or in the casino. Michelin, operating in North America since 2005, is a more unknown quantity on the hotel side.

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Whatever the standard, more Las Vegas resort developers are getting in on the upscale act with billion-dollar developments.

Las Vegas Sands' $2.6 billion Palazzo is set to open its doors by the end of the year, while Wynn's $2.2 billion Encore property opens in early 2009. The $2.8 billion Fontainebleau, along with MGM Mirage's $7.8 billion CityCenter are to open later that year. Boyd Gaming Corp.'s $4.4 billion complex, Echelon, is scheduled to open in 2010 and developer Elad IDB plans to spend more than $5 billion to open The Plaza hotel and casino on the Strip in 2011.

When Wynn won his coveted Mobil five stars last year, he said he spent millions advertising it, not only to flaunt the distinction, but to egg on his competitors.

"Since I made a fuss about our five stars, that will inspire other people in town to be jealous and to upgrade," Wynn said. "The more that Las Vegas is perceived to be a really high-class destination, the bigger the market gets. That's a good thing for all of us."

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