A Wynn-ing experience in Macau

It isn’t too of-ten that a hotel really impresses me. This is especially true when we are talking about hotels where the rooms are priced in the mid-200s (US dollars) as opposed to the mid-800s. Most so-called five-star hotels are very good and are far more than adequate. But somehow, the vast majority of them are just not outstanding. Nothing distinguishes them from the pack of other five-star hotels. Recently however, a business trip quite fortunately brought me to discover the Wynn Macau.

Needless to say the Wynn Macau — like many of the new Las Vegas-molded hotel resorts coming up in the gambling capital of Asia — is very impressive. With an almost identical façade, the Wynn Macau looks like a miniature version of its big brother in Las Vegas (Macau has a relatively modest 600 rooms whereas Las Vegas has over 2,700). Entering the hotel’s main entrance leads you into a relatively small lobby with a panoramic view of the centrally located swimming pool and garden. Opulent décor lines a hallway that cuts across the lobby and serves as the hotel’s shopping arcade.

The hotel is not huge by Macau’s standards. But I actually prefer hotels where it doesn’t take me 20 minutes just to walk back to my room… if I can find my room at all. And although the hotel does have its share of “free shows” like the dancing fountains of the Performance Lake and the Tree of Prosperity at the Rotunda, given the hotel’s choice of stores (see below), restaurants (but they still have a Starbucks!) and general ambience (just a nice resort atmosphere with no real themed concepts), I get the impression that the Wynn is very specific in the kinds of clientele they are trying to attract.

With These Stores, ‘Shop Till You Drop’ Won’t Take Very Long

Hermes. Chanel. Ferrari. Giorgio Armani. Fendi. Vertu. Gucci. Louis Vuitton. Van Cleef & Arpels. And the list goes on.

There is nothing middle market about the stores in the Wynn Macau.  When the cheapest T-shirt you can find is red, says “599 GTB Fiorano” and is displayed next to a Formula One car, you know you are not in a cheap place. Normally, a hotel would carry a few of the top brands. But the ability of the Wynn Macau to attract practically all the top names was quite impressive to me. And quite possibly the best part about this one-stop high-end shop is that you can go shopping even late at night.

Just think about it… it’s 11:30 p.m., you’re leaving first thing in the morning and you need a shopping fix. Maybe a snakeskin Spy bag for the wife? No problem, I saw one in the window. A Ferrari onesie for the little guy? You can choose your color — as long as it is red.  Vertu Signature cellphone for the boss? What? You’re buying a Vertu and you’re not the boss??? Alligator Birkin or stainless Daytona?  Well, maybe if you’re a high roller.

Where Did I Put My Keys?

It has been a while since the last time a hotel room actually “wowed” me. Maybe the suite we were upgraded to at the Hotel Hassler? Or the room with two balconies — yes, another upgrade — at Villa d’Este? In spite of the fact that my view from the Wynn Macau may not have been the Spanish Steps or Lake Como, the room was definitely not short on the “wow” factor.

Part of the hotel’s “Wynn Club” wing, you immediately realize that the room is special when you walk in. The first thing you will see is the huge living room framed by floor-to-ceiling windows offering a panoramic view of Macau that makes the 50-inch plasma TV look like a computer monitor. Standing in the foyer, to your left are the guest bathroom, a complete bar and the bedroom while to your right are the dining area and something I have never seen in a hotel room before — a massage room!!! No need to go to the spa, I guess.  The panoramic window continues into the bedroom which is appointed with another plasma TV (looks like just 42 inches this time) and probably the largest bathroom I have ever seen in a hotel room.

Highlighted by the shocking red couches, some people might find the room too loud. Although it is not something I would do at home or would want to live in for a long time, I actually liked the color scheme because it is something different from the usual conservative (a.k.a. dull) earth tones you see in many of today’s hotels. I would describe the room as “tastefully over the top.” Just enough to make you feel like a rock star, but not so overdone that you feel like you are sleeping with Liberace.

There is only one problem with this room. If you happen to forget where you put down your keys or your phone, it will probably take you a good couple of minutes to physically walk around just to locate them. Not a good thing if you are in a rush as I found out. My suggestion is to make it a habit to keep the “stuff from your pockets” together and always leave them in the same place. Alas, the perils of an upgrade.

Exceptional Service

Even with all the good things about the Wynn Macau, the area where I thought they distinguished themselves best was with their excellent service — something increasingly difficult to find, especially in large hotels that do not charge $1,000 a night for their standard rooms.

Note that what I consider outstanding service is not someone offering to carry your bags for you everywhere you go or one of the hotel staff running to buy you aspirin because you asked them to. It is not even finding you tickets to tonight’s sold-out play or having a 24-hour butler at your beck and call. That’s just standard stuff for high-end hotels.

Outstanding service means the staff proactively going the extra mile for you and not because you asked them to do anything. It means truly anticipating what you want (even if you don’t know you want it yet) or doing something for you that you never thought was possible. An example might be the Chateau les Crayeres in France where guests do not have to sign for anything in the hotel presumably because the entire staff recognizes all their guests. Or once when I was having lunch at Campton Place in San Francisco (I wasn’t even a guest), I was working on some notes for my afternoon meeting. One of the staff actually brought me a couple of extra notepads and left them on the table beside me. To me, that’s outstanding service. But when you consider that I was only at the Wynn for a total of 12 hours with relatively minimal contact with the staff, I think two instances of outstanding service qualifies as exceptional.

I was sitting in the Café Esplanada waiting for my breakfast meeting and I had finished my meal and was just deleting old messages from my phone. I guess it must have looked like I was just sitting there waiting for some people and that’s why one of the staff approached me to give me a newspaper. I didn’t see any newspapers coming in so I’m not sure where she got it. But service like that rarely happens even in the top hotels, especially in big ones like the Wynn.

The other exemplary bit of service took place as I was checking out.  The receptionist at the front desk asked me if I needed transportation and I told her that I was just going to take the free shuttle to the ferry station. Just as she gave me directions on how to get to the shuttle stop — “Shuttle leaves every five or 10 minutes, go out the door and to the left” — she said something like “Wait, let me call them and just get the bus to pick you up here at the lobby.” I don’t know whether that bus really stops in front of the lobby regularly or not. But it was certainly impressive that she picked up the phone to make sure the bus would stop at the front door to pick me up. I have a feeling the shuttle stop is somewhere just off the entrance to the lobby and what she did was asked the driver to bring the bus around to pick me up at the door to save me the one-minute walk. Quite impressive.

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For comments, email me at omniumg@yahoo.com. The Wynn Macau can be reached at (853) 2888-9966, fax (853) 2832-9966 or visit wynnmacau.com.