Question of the Day - 12 December 2008

We don't know if all the ongoing construction has made Las Vegas dirtier, but this is the second time this year this question has been posed to us. Here's what we were able to report last time (in January), with the odd extra tidbit added from our more recent inquiries. As expected, however, no one was prepared to discuss the costs involved (casinos tend to be very guarded about any financial data that they're not obliged to disclose, even when it comes to something as mundane and necessary as window cleaning).

We didn't call every single casino, but we did call a number of those we figured would potentially have a decent view, all of whom were pretty helpful, with one strange exception.

• The Rio has its 8,000-10,000 windows (they're not sure exactly how many they have) cleaned by a local company, which alternates every other month among the towers.
• The Stratosphere's windows are cleaned twice a year.
• It takes a few weeks to clean all the windows at Paris, a process that takes place once every quarter.
• Wynn has around 50,000 windows, which are in a continuous state of being cleaned.
• The person we spoke with at Planet Hollywood had no idea how many windows the property has, but did tell us that they're cleaned once a month, rotating between different areas. She also made the point that, for liability reasons, like most other properties they employ an outside company to do the job, which can involve rickety scaffolding at dangerous heights.
• A helpful lady in the purchasing department at MGM Grand explained that she pays a company to clean the windows every month, so she assumes that's how often they're cleaned, although as she never actually sees them doing the cleaning, so she's not sure whether the windows are really clean or if her casino company being ripped off!
• The Venetian informed us that they have their own staff that cleans the windows every day. Wow. That seems excessive. We would conjecture that, like the Wynn, it's actually an ongoing process, so that there's always some window being cleaned, but not necessarily the same ones every day.
• Now to the mystery of the Luxor, which we figured would be interesting since those sloping sides must pose a challenge to any window cleaner. How the windows are cleaned and how often seemed like a fairly innocuous question, but we found ourselves treated with some suspicion and not much feedback was forthcoming. However, here at QoD we don't pride ourselves on being a crack team of researchers for nothing, so we initiated Plan B, namely a call to the nice folks at Skytag.

  Skytag's the company that puts those huge advertising wraps on the façades of buildings and was in fact the subject of the QoD for 2/11/07. Once the sticky "spectaculars," as they dub them, come down, a cleaning process is necessary to remove any adhesive residue and they were more than happy to reveal all they knew.

  Apparently, Luxor's windows are cleaned using a giant mop that comes out from the vents at the top of the pyramid. They spray water down the side and the mop, which operates on a cable system, washes up and down until the whole side's been cleaned.

While we're on the subject of windows, here's one last interesting tidbit. If you visit vegastodayandtomorrow.com, which we do with some regularity, since it's a very interesting site, you'll find information about the "window trick." When you're building a hotel with thousands of rooms, if you give each of those rooms its own separate window, the building's façade starts to look very cluttered and congested, like a battery chicken factory. So, some smart architect came up with the idea of sharing one window among four rooms, which gives an altogether more spacious impression.

Reader comment: "Hi. I submitted the window question for your first listing. It is nice to see I wasn't the only one that was curious. A number of the answers (especially the one from the Venetian) make me wonder if they are talking about cleaning the inside or the outside. The response from the Wynn is even a little suspect, but I have seen the standard scaffolding hanging from the roof a number of times, so it is more believable. I can believe the Rio's schedule since, even though I have never had a truly clean window there, I have been able to find areas with few or no spots when taking pictures through them."