Wynn and Encore lose the AAA Five Diamond award in 2013
From QOD Las Vegas Advisor http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/qod.cfm
Q:
Why did Wynn and Encore lose the AAA Five Diamond award in 2013? This is extremely surprising!
A:
Accounts vary somewhat. According to a Wynn Resorts spokeswoman, "It’s an advertising program that we’ve opted not to participate in." More detail was said to be forthcoming but that was the last we heard from Wynn.
AAA’s lead spokeswoman for the Northern California territory, Cynthia Harris, gives an oh-so-slightly different version. "A hotel may be unrated for a variety of reasons," she wrote, "however, in this case, the management of Encore did not fulfill business obligations and therefore does not meet our requirements for an AAA Diamond Rating."
Harris prefaced that by noting that Wynn Las Vegas and Encore are still listed in AAA guides and at AAA.com, albeit with a ‘FYI’ designation. It’s an "unrated category … reserved for hotels and restaurants that are not AAA/CAA Approved and Diamond Rated but are considered a valuable travel option for members."
We pursued our query to AAA’s national headquarters but ran into a barricade of corporate lingo. "There are certain requirements" and "We don’t get into specifics" were among the elliptical phrases employed. We were referred to AAA’s Five Diamond Rating official guidelines, some of which are as innocuous as requiring "A bath towel, hand towel, face cloth, and cup/glass for each guest." Others are AAA-specific, such as: "Accommodate unannounced AAA property evaluations within 20 minutes of notice"; "Assist AAA in the resolution of member complaints"; and "Property management will not: Use AAA trademarks – including but not limited, the AAA logo and Diamond Rating – without AAA’s prior written consent, including, but not limited to, the Lodging Official Appointment Agreement." Judging by the carefully hedged verbiage of both Wynn Resorts and AAA, the cause of the rupture between the two would appear to lie in clauses such as these.
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