Before and After: Planet Hollywood’s Renovated Resort Room with Comparison to the Original

Gennadius shows us “before and after” of Planet Hollywood’s Resort Room Renovations 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Click an image to view the galleries, you’ll be able to see the captions showing before and after.

After staying in a regular renovated room last November, and writing about the changes in the overall floor back at the beginning of March, on my most recent trip for March Madness, I was able to stay in a newly renovated Resort Room. The changes were quite impressive to me, as someone who had been staying in the Resort Room for years, and I will describe and show with images, some of the major differences that I saw.

After almost a year and a half of renovations, floors down to 19 have been renovated, and as of late March, it seemed that 18 and 17 were almost done, and 15 and 16 had work starting on them. For the floors above 23, the majority of the renovated rooms were the standard “Hollywood Hip” rooms, since that is mostly what those floors contain. Once they got to the 23^rd floor, there were Resort Rooms, Strip View Suites, and Resort View Suites that got added to the renovated mix.

The Resort Rooms are about 155 square feet larger than the regular rooms, clocking in at 585 sq. ft. on average. There is a bit of this additional space that is taken up in the bathroom since there are two sinks instead of just one, but there is a large portion of the extra square footage which is out in the actual room proper. Most of what has been changed is handled in the same way as the regular rooms. The carpet is brighter, the walls have been repainted in lighter colors, and all the movie memorabilia has been removed and replaced by some modern themed art.

One big difference in the renovation of the Resort Rooms compared to that of the regular rooms is in the change to the layout. The regular rooms didn’t have things moved around too much. The large combination armoire, dressers, and TV space were basically replaced in-place by new items that did their same job. For the Resort Rooms, these same items were not simply replaced; they were re-arranged in a fashion that actually makes much better usage of the space, making it feel much bigger than it used to be.

The far wall, which used to be occupied almost entirely past the bed by the combined armoire, TV, and dressers, has been freed up, and in their place is a small table and two chairs, making a nice little seating area near one of the windows. There are a couple of new lamps with a modern look, one on each side of the room, by the windows.

The old seating area, which included a large display case/table that highlighted props and pictures from the movie that was the theme for the room, as well as two large chairs, has been removed. In their place is a TV stand with three built in drawers and the TV, which is now centrally located in the room. Another big change is with the curtains that are used to cover the windows. In the original room, they split in the middle and were bunched up to the left and right of each window. This caused the curtains to cover up some of the windows, even when completely opened. The renovated room has changed it so that the curtains open up into the middle from both windows. This allows the windows to be fully un-covered when the curtains are pulled back and ensures that the entire viewable space for both windows can be used. This makes that entire wall a focus of the room, both during the day and at night, and it also adds to the feeling of the room being much bigger.

Since there is now much more free space available, they have added additional seating in the form of padded benches at the foot of each bed. They can be moved around, but in their default position they act as couches, with the bed as backing, and they reinforce the new central focus of the room by facing the TV and the windows.

The beds have been updated, just like in the regular rooms. New pillows, bedding, and the removal of the dark headboards. They have also added more color to the beds and to the room overall, with the accent pillow and the art. The center console before was largely just decorative, providing no real storage other than the table space. Even the mess of plugs underneath was of limited utility. The new console is very sleek, blending in seamlessly with the beds, and provides a lot of functionality. The lamp provides two USB ports as well as two outlets, there is a big drawer, and underneath, a cubby space that contains an ice bucket and glasses if you need to use them. The alarm clock is new but isn’t as fancy as the one that was in the regular renovated room that I stayed in back in November.

Continuing the trend of upgrading elements and making more efficient use of the space, the old desk that was nothing really more than a surface to put things on has been replaced. In its place is a combined desk and drawer setup that is about twice as big as the original desk. The first storage area contains the concealed refrigerator, and the second storage area is split into three large drawers that are as large as or larger than the drawers that were part of the old armoire. The updated desk has the coffee maker, as well as an updated lamp that includes one USB port and one outlet.

The new layout gains some of its space by moving the armoire to an area that was largely empty in the past. The entry way space was bigger than in regular rooms, but it had nothing in it except a mirror directly opposite of the bathroom doors before. Now, the new armoire is located there, which actually makes more sense functionally, allowing someone to go right from their clothes and mirror to the bathroom, instead of having to go from one end of the room to the other previously. Just like in the regularly renovated rooms, the armoire is about 50% larger than the previous one, still includes an iron, ironing board, and luggage rack, and has a new version of the in-room safe that is located at the bottom of the armoire now, instead of near the top.

The bathroom has undergone the same updates as the regular renovated rooms. Since it is a little larger due to the second sink, they seem to have also added some tile accents to the floor, as well as to the wall next to the hot tub. The fixtures are all updated, and the lights around the mirrors are a bit different than the bulb-style lighting that I have seen in the regular renovated rooms up until now. Previously there was nothing but the floor under the sinks, but now there is some usable space that is used to hold the hairdryer and extra towels. The overall feel for the changes to the bathroom are the same as for the changes to the room, much brighter, more efficient use of space, and much more modern.

In addition to comparing the room to its previous incarnation, I took some pictures so that the differences in the hallway and elevator bank are much more obvious. The renovations are generally the same in the hall as on the other floors that only contain regular rooms. This mirrors how the renovations are done in the rooms as well; there is a lot of consistency across the product. Just like with the Resort Room itself, there are some slight differences with the floors that have resort rooms.

The floors with resort rooms have an intersection with a hallway that leads to all of the resort rooms. This intersection has been brightened up, just like the rest of the hallways, and has new carpeting, fixtures, and walls. The lighting is a bit different, not as bright white, and more on the yellowish side it seemed. This is most apparent when one looks at the new resort hall, and the intersection lighting in the foreground gives way to the more standard renovated hallway lighting in the background.

From the comparison photos of the pre-renovated hallways, it should be quite apparent how much darker that environment was. I think this is one of the biggest improvements in terms of the renovations. Everything is generally lighter and brighter, and thus feels much airier and spacious, even if the actual space is the same or just being utilized more efficiently. Even the old elevator bank, which was brighter than the halls due to the additional lights, still comes off as dull and dim compared to the renovated elevator bank space.

Overall, the renovations made to the Planet Hollywood Resort Rooms are very well done. I am especially pleased with how they not only upgraded and updated everything but went out of their way to update the layout to make it feel more spacious, as well as to make more efficient use of the space and fixtures. They have changed the central focus of the room to be the main differences from the regular rooms, which include the two great windows that have a view of the Strip, as well as the extra storage, seating, and usable space that the larger square footage allows the room to have. I highly recommend that you stay in these rooms if you get a chance.

[Photos: Gennadius]

gennadius

A former VegasChatter contributor, gennadius is a regular visitor to the Las Vegas area. Some areas of interest include aviation, sports (gambling, watching, participating), blackjack, craps, and science fiction.

When in Vegas, gennadius can be found looking for good food, spending time at the clubs, hanging out at the tables, and watching games with friends.