Mandalay bay sister hotel

Background

Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, promotes itself as a 39-story luxury hotel offering unmatched luxury, fine dining, renowned entertainment, and personal service. The main hotel boasts over 3,300 rooms, a 135,000-square-foot casino, a variety of water attractions, including a wave pool and a lazy river, nongaming entertainment options such as the House of Blues, and 24 restaurants and cafes. Mandalay Bay is owned by MGM Mirage and is connected by a free tram service to its sister properties, Excalibur and Luxor. Professor Taylor (ironically, a services marketing professor) and his wife were looking forward to spending four nights at the resort and casino and spending some time with his sister and brother and their respective spouses who live across the country—a mini-family reunion was the purpose of the trip.

Professor Taylor’s brother, Ted, had received a direct mail piece from Mandalay Bay months earlier that offered a promotional rate of $69.99 a night (a discount of $30 a night off the regular room rate). After contacting his siblings and agreeing on a date, Ted immediately booked three rooms for each of the three couples, and the mini-family reunion was set.

Upon checking into the hotel in August, Ted and his brother-in-law, Bill, renegotiated all three couples’ accommodations. The deal resulted in a double upgraded room for each couple consisting of a 765-square-foot mini-suite, a Jacuzzi bathtub, and views of the Vegas strip. The additional cost for these upgrades was $25 a night—a price everyone agreed was a very good deal.

Professor Taylor and his wife arrived at the hotel a day later than the other two couples who had rooms on the 10th floor. Due to availability constraints, the professor and his wife were given a room on the penthouse level (floors 35–39) of the hotel that are uniquely numbered as floors 60–64. This room was the same size as the other two couples’ rooms; however, the penthouse floors came with the added advantages of an express elevator and enhanced views of the Vegas strip due to being placed at a higher elevation.

Everyone was very pleased with their rooms and all the accommodations available at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. The couples attended shows, took advantage of the hotel’s swimming pools, walked the strip, enjoyed dining together, and dabbled in the various hotels’ casinos—many of which are owned by the MGM Mirage. The days passed quickly, and the couples often found themselves returning to their hotel rooms around 3:00 a.m. each night.

The Situation

On the second night of their stay at Mandalay Bay, the professor and his wife returned to their room, 60201, and noticed a slightly foul smell present in their room that had not been there earlier in the day. The couple went to sleep that night and never thought about it the next day because the smell was no longer present in the morning. Upon returning to their room at around 3:00 a.m. on the third night, the foul smell had returned. By 3:30 a.m. the smell had so greatly intensified, the couple was nearly over- come with nausea and called security to investigate. A young security employee noted that the smell was not present anywhere else in the hallway except for directly outside of Room 60201. Not sure what to do, the young security employee, covering her nose (the smell was really bad), called her manager to help investigate further.