MGM Rewards

Review by eFreeware

A resort trip involves a lot of moving parts. You pick dates, compare room options, reserve a table for dinner, find seats for a show, and then handle the small logistics of arriving and leaving. Doing all of that across separate websites and phone calls is the kind of friction that makes a vacation feel like admin work.

MGM Rewards is MGM Resorts International's official app for its own properties, and it gathers those tasks into one place. It is free, it sits in the Travel & Local category, and it has been available since October 29, 2015, with an update in October 2026. More than a million people have installed it, and it holds a 4.1 average across 31,325 ratings.

What interests me is the scope. This is not a general travel tool that happens to list a few hotels. It is built around one company's resorts, from the Las Vegas Strip to regional destinations, and every feature points back to staying, dining or being entertained at those properties.

Built for guests inside the MGM world

The clearest fit is someone who already books MGM Resorts properties, or plans to. If your trip revolves around the Las Vegas Strip, the app covers a long list of resorts there, including Bellagio, ARIA, Vdara, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Park MGM, New York-New York, Luxor and Excalibur, among others. Outside Nevada, it reaches Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Borgata in Atlantic City, Empire City Casino in Yonkers, MGM Grand Detroit, MGM National Harbor and MGM Springfield.

MGM Rewards loyalty members get the most out of it, because account details and progress live in the app alongside the booking tools. That said, you do not need to hold status to search rates or reserve a restaurant. The app is open to anyone planning a visit, and the membership layer sits on top for people who want their points and tier visible while they travel.

The practical audience is a traveler who wants the trip handled before arrival and during the stay, rather than someone collecting options across many hotel brands. I would also expect it to appeal to people who visit the same MGM property more than once and want a consistent way to manage each visit.

Age rules apply throughout: joining MGM Rewards, checking in at MGM hotels and gambling in Las Vegas and elsewhere all require you to be 21 or older. That is a legal requirement rather than an app restriction, but it shapes who can use the core features.

Booking rooms and running the stay

The booking side is straightforward in concept. The app handles searching and booking of room rates across MGM Resorts destinations, which the developer calls the lowest available. Because the app belongs to the resort company, the inventory and the rate you see come from the source rather than a third-party reseller, which is the main reason to keep it on your phone if you stay at these properties often.

For members, the arrival process is the standout feature. Check-in opens 24 hours before you arrive, so you can handle it while you are still packing or in transit. Checking out takes only a few clicks, so the front desk can be skipped at the end of a stay. The Digital Key then gives you room access from your phone, subject to identity verification requirements.

Room upgrades are handled in the app as well, for travelers who want to improve their accommodation without a conversation at the desk. If you opt in to push notifications, the app can send a room-ready alert as part of mobile check-in. Enabling location services lets the property prioritize an available room for you and suggest nearby dining. Both are optional, and the app works for booking without them.

I would treat the mobile features as convenience rather than a guarantee. Availability of app features can vary by property, so a tool that works smoothly at one resort may not be offered at another. Checking what your specific destination supports before you rely on it is the sensible approach.

Dining, shows and things to do

Beyond the room, the app covers the parts of a trip that usually require separate bookings. You can make dining reservations using search filters designed to narrow down the right restaurant, which matters at large resorts where the options run from quick meals to fine dining. Having that in the same place as your reservation saves jumping between apps.

Entertainment booking is broad. The app sells tickets to shows, concerts, sports and immersive experiences, and the lineup the developer highlights includes Cirque du Soleil's "O", Brad Garrett's Comedy Club, and hockey, basketball and other sporting events. Attractions like Shark Reef Aquarium and PLAY Playground also get a mention. The range suggests you can build an itinerary around a stay rather than treating the room as the whole trip.

The Trips Tab is the planning layer that ties this together. It is where you organize a visit to any MGM Resorts destination, keeping the pieces of a trip in one view. For anyone juggling a room booking, a dinner reservation and show tickets across a few days, that structure is more useful than a pile of confirmation emails.

For questions along the way, a Digital Concierge is available to chat 24/7. That covers the gap between planning and being on site, when you need an answer about your stay without hunting for a phone number.

What the app costs

The app is free to download and carries no ads or in-app purchases. That is a clean arrangement: nothing in the app's own monetization sits between you and the booking tools, and there is no paid tier to unlock features.

The money side of a trip lives elsewhere. Hotel rooms, dining, show tickets and upgrades are purchases you make through the app as part of your stay, and those are the real costs to plan for. The app is the channel, not the expense.

That distinction is worth keeping in mind if you are comparing this with a general travel app. There is no charge for using MGM Rewards, but the value depends on whether you are actually booking MGM Resorts stays, dining and entertainment. For a traveler whose plans center on those properties, the app adds a booking and management layer at no cost.

Where a general travel app still fits

The obvious alternative is a broad travel platform or a hotel search site that aggregates many brands. Those make sense when you are comparing destinations, weighing an MGM property against a competitor, or building a trip that mixes several hotel groups. MGM Rewards is not built for that comparison, and it does not try to be.

A dedicated airline or ride-booking app covers the parts of a journey that happen outside the resort. MGM Rewards handles the stay and the entertainment around it, so for most trips you will still use something else to get there.

The choice comes down to how you travel. If MGM Resorts is where you stay, the official app keeps your reservation, your rewards account and your plans in one place, which an aggregator cannot match. If you shop across brands each time, a general travel app will serve you better, and this one becomes a tool you open only for specific trips.

A practical companion for MGM stays

MGM Rewards does one job well: it manages a visit to an MGM Resorts property from booking through checkout. Mobile check-in, the Digital Key, dining and entertainment reservations, the Trips Tab and round-the-clock chat cover the arc of a stay, and the loyalty account view keeps members oriented. A 4.1 average from a large base of ratings suggests the app generally meets expectations, though feature availability varies by property and the 21-and-over rules apply to check-in, the rewards program and gambling.

It is free, carries no ads and no in-app purchases, so the only cost is the trip itself. That makes it easy to recommend to anyone who stays at these resorts, whether on the Strip or at a regional property, and to loyalty members who want their account and their plans in the same place. If your travel takes you across many hotel brands, a general booking platform will do more for you, and this app will sit unused between MGM trips.

What's new in version 26.19.1

Get the most out of every stay with the official MGM Resorts app. Check in, unlock your room (at supported properties), and discover breathtaking shows, amazing restaurants and great nightclubs, all at your fingertips.