Joël Robuchon at the MGM Grand cracked AAA's Five-Diamond list for the first time, one of three MGM Mirage restaurants to be so honored. Photo by Craig L. Moran.

A major national travel club has given a big nod to upscale resort development in Las Vegas.

When AAA released its 2007 list of Five-Diamond hotel and restaurant awards Monday, Las Vegas was the only city in North America that could claim three new winners of the group's highest honor.

MGM Grand's Skylofts, a 51-suite boutique hotel atop the megaresort, and the property's Joël Robuchon restaurant at The Mansion both won top AAA honors for their superior customer experiences.

And the 2,714-room Wynn Las Vegas also made its Five-Diamond debut on the 2007 list.

AAA added just 10 hotels and six restaurants across North America to the list this year.

Gamal Aziz, president of the MGM Grand, said the resort's Skylofts garnered the award by anticipating guests' needs and focusing on small details.

"We wanted to deliver a service that is not parallel to anything Las Vegas has ever seen," Aziz said. "We wanted to have a sophisticated and elegant hotel, but we also wanted to have respect for our guests' intellect and intelligence. We wanted service that is confident and competent. We wanted to speak of luxury, but in a whisper rather than in a shout. It's what guests on that level expect."

Wynn executives did not comment by press time.

AAA named 80 U.S. hotels to its 2007 Five-Diamond roster, while 48 restaurants made the cut.

Las Vegas visitors have equated Wynn Las Vegas with luxury from the day it opened in April 2005.

For MGM Grand, however, the Five-Diamond entree is a departure from its beginnings in the early 1990s, when its theme park and affordable restaurants catered to midmarket families.

Aziz said the hotel's executives decided five years ago to upgrade the resort because they saw the overall Las Vegas market going upscale. The property has doubled its profit margins since it began its enhancements in 2001.

"We kept pace with the market, and we were fortunate to be proven right by the level of support and success MGM Grand had," Aziz said. "The hotel's extraordinary success has been a result of being able to study and understand the market and to deliver a product and services the market has accepted, celebrated and rewarded."

David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said the MGM Grand proves that the biggest resorts can offer niche services.

"They're showing you don't have to be a boutique hotel to offer boutique-hotel amenities," Schwartz said. "You can have a 5,000-room hotel, but you can have elements targeted toward a specific audience."

Michael Geeser, a spokesman for AAA Nevada, said local casino executives have helped boost expectations among the city's visitors.

"Las Vegas has upped the ante on what tourists expect when they travel," Geeser said. "Just a decade ago, Las Vegas was thought of as a really cheap getaway for people from around the country, and now it's become a Five-Diamond destination where people expect the best. Property owners in Las Vegas have heard (consumers) loud and clear and have built that type of property for them."

Snagging the Five-Diamond designation requires a thorough inspection by an AAA evaluator. Inspectors judge hotels based on exteriors, public areas, guest rooms, amenities and bathrooms. They rank restaurants based on food, service, decor and ambience.

All of the Silver State's Five-Diamond hotel and restaurant honorees are in Southern Nevada.

With five resorts on the list, the Las Vegas Valley claims more Five-Diamond winners than Washington, D.C., which had three winners; San Francisco, which had one winner; Chicago, which had three winners; and Boston, which had one winner.

The valley's Five-Diamond hotel count is tied with New York City's five-property total.

Nevada also outperformed several larger states. In Texas, four hotels won Five-Diamond honors. Massachusetts had one Five-Diamond property, and Illinois had three. Arizona, New York and Georgia tied Nevada in the number of hotel winners.

California was No. 1 in Five-Diamond resorts, with 15.

In addition, California and Nevada were the only states to gain Five-Diamond properties in both the lodging and restaurant categories.

In the restaurant category, Joël Robuchon received its first Five-Diamond award.

Aziz had the expected reaction to Robuchon's honor.

"Naturally, we're delighted," he said. "It's always been a goal of ours (for this) to be the best restaurant in the United States. It's a testament to the extraordinary work that Joël and his team have done."

Aziz credits Robuchon's frequent -- almost monthly -- journeys to Las Vegas from his home in Paris, and the level of attention to detail those visits connote.

"I've seen him more than anybody else I have a partnership with," Aziz said, noting that Robuchon often brings his chefs with him on his visits.

"It doesn't hurt that he's constantly innovating and adding new items and bringing some new ideas, just delivering a memorable experience every single time," he added.

Of the four Five-Diamond restaurant winners in Las Vegas, three are at MGM Mirage resorts.

"What it tells us," Aziz said, "is the quality of the people that the restaurant is associated with -- Julian Serrano with Picasso ... Sirio Maccioni at Le Cirque, the Chef of the Century Joël Robuchon. I attribute the great success to all three of these great restaurateurs."

With four Five-Diamond restaurants, Las Vegas fared better than New York City, which had three top-ranked eateries, and San Francisco and Boston, which had two restaurants each on the list. Los Angeles had no Five-Diamond restaurants, though Beverly Hills had one. Las Vegas had as many Five-Diamond restaurants as the state of Florida.

Schwartz said the Five-Diamond awards that local properties netted show that the trend toward high-end attractions in Las Vegas is continuing unabated.

"The future of Las Vegas is really going to be high-end dining and accommodations," he said. "But a lot of that will be layered on top of what's already here. A lot of older properties will still cater to the old market, and bringing in this new market is good, too. The more diverse the appeal of Las Vegas is, the more people it will draw."

Review-Journal writer Heidi Knapp Rinella contributed to this report.