Skylofts at MGM Grand: A pictorial

By M. Scott Smith

Let's face it: most hotel bathrooms really aren't worth writing home about, let alone taking extensive photos of. But the master bath at Skylofts stands in a class of its own.

Bvlgari bath products. A selection of Bvlgari bath products was available, including very large bars of soap (bath and hand); generous bottles of body lotion, shampoo and shower gel, plain shampoo, hair conditioner; and "tea bags" for the bath, all part of the Eau Parfumée au thé blanc collection. I certainly didn't know what that was before my visit (I can settle for Dial soap, after all), but if I had known the retail prices of these fine bath products, I might have tried to stash away some bottles.

 

The bathroom mirror. Have I mentioned how many flat panel televisions there were in this loft? There were two in the master bathroom alone -- including an LCD TV hiding behind the bathroom mirror. The master bath had very good lighting. To the right side (out of frame) was a heated towel rack to hold the bath towels.

 

The second master bath flat-panel TV. This plasma television was above the bathtub. Just below and to the right is the timer control panel for the steam shower.

 

Filling the bath tub... But what kind of bath tub is this, you ask?

 

A very nice bath tub. It's a Kohler sok bath with effervescence and chromatherapy, or as Skylofts calls it, an Infinity Edge Spa Tub with Champagne Bubbles. These tubs start around $8,000. The tub itself is huge and deep, but you can fill it all the way to the top, practically turning it into a lap pool. Once full, it recycles the water back into the tub (through jets) as it spills over the side, keeping the tub full and generating a soothing waterfall sound, with thousands of tiny air bubbles percolating through the water. I normally wouldn't jump at the chance to use a bath tub in a dingy hotel room, but you can't stay at Skylofts and not take a relaxing bath is this bath tub. (And Skylofts is anything but dingy.)

 

Another shot of the tub.

 

Effervescence in action.

 

Peaceful lighting. The tiled display behind the tub is gently illuminated from behind. The tub also features a chromatherapy function, with lights in the tub cycling gently between several colors (or staying statically on a single color, if you prefer.)

 

Chromatherapy. Here the tub is glowing blue. From the touch-screen panel in the bathroom, you can instantly pull up peaceful music or sound effects (such as waves crashing on a beach). Yes, this is a good way to relieve stress. But hold on a second, the bath tub is great and all, but what about the shower?

 

Yeah, there's a nice shower too. And it doesn't all fit in one picture. The walk-in shower features frosted glass looking outwards towards the front of the loft. There's a bench against the far side containing the bath products and washcloths. And then, there's a (large) number of showerheads. Here you can see four body-level nozzles, and another showerhead that can be handheld. In theory, the vertical shower head can slide up and down, but it had loosened to the point where there wasn't enough friction to hold it in place -- so it could only be in the lower position.

 

Close-up. Here's a closer shot of some of the showerheads. The different sets of heads could be turned on and off individually. And the four shower heads you see in the center could be adjusted, both in terms of direction and water pressure.

 

Rainfall. At the top of the ceiling is a rainfall shower head. Turn that on, and a drenching rain falls down. I don't think these shower heads were low-flow shower heads, but even if they were, when you have all six going at once, you're talking about a serious shower. It was very difficult to return home to my low-water-pressure, average shower. But wait, you don't just get water in this shower, you get steam too...

 

The steam vents. Steam is provided courtesy of the two vents you see towards the bottom of the shower. (You can set the temperature using the control panel on the left side.) Once you turn the steam on, it takes a few minutes to get going. But suddenly, the steam comes billowing out of the vents. It can be overwhelming! With the shower door shut, it does not take long before the shower area is filled with scalding-hot steam. But here's the trick. With hot steam billowing out, blast all the six showerheads with cold water. Weather fronts form right in front of you. It is a very soothing effect.