Before she works her housekeeping shift at Resorts World Las Vegas, housekeeper Yuritzi Chavez rises at 5 a.m. to clean her home, walk her two huskies, make breakfast for her kids, and ready them for school. When she arrives at work, she’s already put in the equivalent of most people’s day.
Only Chavez then works an eight-hour shift, cheery and energetic, devoted to making everything just right, ensuring rooms are fit for royalty. Or her family.
“I like when the room is very organized,” Chavez says. “I like looking back on your work and saying that looks good. I would live here.”
Chavez is part of a cadre of team members without whom the resort and hotel could not function. They do the smallest tasks that go unnoticed – picking up a drink glass left in an elevator, wiping off a just-used slot machine – that burnish Resorts World’s reputation for cleanliness.
“Our guests may never see most of the work these team members do, but they feel it in every part of their stay,” says Resorts World Senior Vice President of Operations Josef Wagner. “A flawless guest experience often begins long before check-in and continues long after guests leave the resort.
“Whether it’s a front desk agent at Conrad greeting someone after a long flight, a housekeeper making a room spotless, or our EVS team keeping the resort polished around the clock, they set the standard for Resorts World Las Vegas. Our service expectations are exceptionally high and that’s only possible because of the pride these team members bring to their work every single day.”
Taylor Long has to be in a good mood every single day. It’s a job requirement. As a receptionist at the front desk, she’s one of the first Resorts World representatives guests encounter. Issues with check-in or reservations, questions about a bill, requests for extra towels – just ask her.
“Since you’re at the front desk, whatever happens around the hotel, it’s our problem to address,” said Long, who started at Resorts World in 2025. “We’re the first one you see, besides valet, when you get here. I just try to make sure I’m always in a positive mood.
“I let things roll off (my back). I don’t take anything personally, because it can get tough. You have to have thick skin to work here at front desk.”
Long says her day, usually noon to 8 p.m., starts at home. She says her positive attitude begins long before she arrives at the resort. “Honestly, when you get here, you see all the casino lights, all the people, and you’re meeting new people every day. It’s easy to engage and have a good time here.”
Long says most encounters with guests are positive. “I assist the guests to the best of my ability. If I need help, my managers are always willing to come in and help us and deflect a situation. They’re always a call away.”
Jean-Michel Dinh, Resorts World senior hotel operations manager, notes that Long exemplifies the type of employee he and Resorts World seek.
“We can train you, we can teach you,” Dinh says. “Something I can’t teach you is how you are emotionally and your personality. That’s something I look for when I go to hiring events. … What catches my eye is are you brave enough to come up and talk to me and be able to have that conversation.
“Because at the front desk, you have to build a conversation, that genuine sense of interest. And once we saw Taylor, she’s fantastic. A year in and she’s doing an amazing job.”
Watching Irene Cortez clean an escalator is like watching Cirque du Soleil perform household duties. She glides up the escalator steps, dust mop in hand, sliding it on the rails, removing dust and dirt from one side. She glides down, the same look of concentration on her face, as she repeats the process.
Cortez has been at Resorts World since it opened. She used to be a housekeeper at another property, but she was a bit tired of constantly making beds and sought a change in her workday. Not that she works any less; she averages 18,000 steps per day working in environmental services, cleaning floors, dusting paintings in the lobby, doing anything she can to make Resorts World shine.
“I like to maintain all this property, especially in my area,” Cortez say. “You have to be on top of it. Your area has to be clean.”
After a 10-hour shift, Cortez goes home and works more. She cleans her home, cooks, and wash clothes. Sometimes, she has to watch her grandchildren. It’s hard work, but she has no complaints. “It’s a lot easier than being a housekeeper.”
Yuritzi Chavez and her fellow housekeeper, Nora Uribe-Robles, attack a room as if their lives depend on it. The beds are made with a military-like precision. The bathroom fixtures are scrubbed and sanitized. Rugs are vacuumed and the trash is emptied.
“A good housekeeper at Resorts World has the passion, goes the extra mile to create memories for guests,” says Jerry Medina, manager, training division – housekeeping. “Something that I’ve always said to our team is we’re the ones that intimately get to know what the guests are doing here. They’re here for vacationing, for birthdays, and all these things, and then try to find that extra oomph that we can do for the guests to create those memories.”
That might include folding towels into the shape of an elephant to celebrate a child’s birthday or making allowances for pets.
“I always say this: that we’re the heart of the hotel,” Medina says. “It’s a huge department, but at the same time, it’s a department that’s so important that if we don’t give you a clean room, how do you check in a guest?”
From the moment construction began on Resorts World, Chavez was determined to work there. She knew about the chain’s reputation, that they paid excellent benefits and were good to employees. She also knew that she would have to be at her best every day.
“I came from a previous housekeeping job, so I knew that it was a challenge,” Chavez says. “Every day is a different challenge, because you don’t know you’re going to have a lot of occupieds, if you’re going to have checkouts, the kids, what to expect when you go to the room, if it’s going to be very messy or clean. But I knew physically the Monday (she started), I knew already. You have to move around all the time.”
