Vegas Resorts Place on Travel + Leisure World’s Best List

Travel + Leisure Magazine released their 2007 “World’s Best Lists” this week and there’s good news and bad news for Las Vegas.

The good is that the city had three resorts place on the lists, which were determined by surveys mailed to subscribers of the upscale travel publication. The subscribers were asked to name and rate destinations and properties that they had visited and the results were tabulated and scores averaged for a rating out of 100 percent.

The Bellagio was the highest rated Las Vegas resort, with an 86.31 score. This placed the resort at #35 on the “Top 100 Hotels in Continental U.S. and Canada” list, up from last year’s #48 perch. The score was also good enough to land the resort the #12 spot on the magazine’s “Top 15 Hotels for $250 or less” list.

The Four Seasons Hotel was the second Vegas property to appear on the “Top 100 Hotels in Continental U.S. and Canada” list, with an 85.86 score. This placed the hotel at #46 on the Top 100, up from last year’s #58 spot.

The final Vegas resort to appear on the “Top 100 Hotels in Continental U.S. and Canada” list was the Wynn, which scored an 84.97. It made its first appearance on the list, ranking at #72.

As for the bad news, I find it a bit surprising that with all of the city’s megaresorts and luxury properties, only three made it onto the Top 100. And the city itself was nowhere to be found on the magazine’s “Top 10 Cities U.S. and Canada” list.

I think it’ll be interesting to see if the huge number of luxury property developments in the works up and down the Strip have any effect on Vegas representation on these lists in two or three years when they’re open and operational. Or maybe Vegas just isn’t a big draw to the readers who filled out the survey.

Do you feel readers of Travel + Leisure were too harsh on the Vegas luxury resorts in operation now, or do you feel that Vegas’ luxury resorts do need to step up their level of service and other amenities in order to rank higher? Or do you just feel lists like this have no other purpose other than selling issues?