Wynn Takes Top Honors in Travel + Leisure Inaugural Las Vegas List

Posted on: July 8, 2020, 12:31h. 

Last updated on: July 8, 2020, 01:43h.

Todd Shriber @etfgodfather Read More
Expertise: Financial, Gaming Business, Mergers and Acquisitions.

Wynn Las Vegas is the highest-ranking integrated resort on Travel + Leisure’s first list dedicated to hotels in Sin City.

Wynn Las Vegas Wins Travel + Leisure Poll
Wynn Las Vegas stands tall in Travel + Leisure’s first Vegas list, and Encore makes the cut, too. (Image: Business Insider)

The magazine has published its “World’s Best” list, including companies, hotels, and travel spots, for 25 years. But 2020 is the first time the publication broke out a separate ranking of accommodations in the largest US gaming destination.

The top property this year drew praise as lavish as its own setting, with one superfan enthusing that the hotel has the ability to ‘envelop you in the best of Las Vegas,'”?reports Travel + Leisure.

Wynn Las Vegas scored 87.80 points out of a possible 100, nudging Hilton’s Waldorf Astoria for top honors among Sin City hotels. Once the Mandarin Oriental, the non-gaming venue took the Waldorf Astoria name in August 2018.

Readers evaluated properties based on rooms and facilities, location, service, food, and value.

Wracking Up Accolades

Taking the number one ranking on Travel + Leisure’s inaugural Las Vegas list is the latest in a series of comparable accolades for Wynn Resorts.

Last year, Wynn Las Vegas and the neighboring Encore took the top two spots on TripAdvisors grouping of the top 50 domestic casino resorts. In February, the two Nevada venues earned five-star ratings from Forbes Travel Guide (FTG), becoming the largest and second-largest properties to win that prestigious status.

Wynn’s Macau properties –- Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace –- also carry FTG five-star ratings. On the 2020 Travel + Leisure list, Encore placed fifth behind Wynn Las Vegas, the Waldorf Astoria, the Four Seasons Hotel located in MGM’s Mandalay Bay, and the Venetian. Wynn owns the two Macau venues and three domestic integrated resorts — the pair in Las Vegas and Encore Boston Harbor.

Travel + Leisure’s ranking of the top 100 hotels worldwide contains plenty of US properties, but no Las Vegas venues. In fact, no casino resorts anywhere in the world made that cut. Likewise, the top 15 resorts in the US, according to the publication’s readers, contain no Las Vegas hotels.

Other Familiar Faces

As for Travel + Leisure’s Sin City rankings, the sixth through tenth spots are occupied by some of the Strip’s most famous venues.

Two properties owned by private equity firm Blackstone — The Cosmopolitan and Bellagio — occupy the number six and seven rankings. MGM Resorts International operates Bellagio, while Blackstone owns the real estate.

ARIA and Vdara are the next integrated resorts on the list, giving MGM four venues in the group –- more than any other operator.

The Cromwell, not Caesars Palace, is the lone Caesars Entertainment venue that made the cut with Travel + Leisure readers. That property will become part of the Eldorado Resorts portfolio, assuming that the company can finalize its $17.3 billion acquisition of Caesars. MGM and Caesars the two largest operators on the Strip.