Business Hotels Tap Into Las Vegas Market
Themed mega-resorts are not the only game in town for Las Vegas. There's also a quieter development boom going on, this one among non-gaming, business-oriented hotels bearing international brands well known in the corporate market.
Hyatt, Four Seasons and Residence Inn by Marriott are among the newcomers getting ready to make a low-profile debut among the neon and glitter. Rumors also are flying that discussions are under way between MGM Grand and Ritz-Carlton to develop a 400-room, luxury non-gaming hotel on land now occupied by the MGM Grand theme park on the Las Vegas Strip.
According to hotel industry analyst Bruce Bolton, senior vice president for PKF Consulting in Los Angeles, a growing number of international hotel companies, including many that have shied away from Las Vegas in the past, are now eager to tap into this desert city.
"Las Vegas is evolving as an international destination and it's now being taken seriously," said Bolton.
At the same time, these new international players are gambling on hotels where gambling is not the primary focus or, in some cases, even allowed on property. It's a strategy that has a good chance of paying off, according to Rob Powers, spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. "Non-gaming hotels such as the Alexis Park and St. Tropez have already proven that there is a strong market here for quieter properties which cater to business travelers," Powers said.
Bolton agreed. "Las Vegas has been making a big push for different kinds of business, and corporate-oriented hotels there have been doing well," he said. "As the themed resorts get even bigger, more business travelers are turned off by them and want an alternative."
Four Seasons will make its Las Vegas debut in 1998 with a 400-room luxury hotel that will be part of Circus Circus Enterprises' Masterplan Mile project now under development on the Las Vegas Strip. The property, which will not feature a casino, will be part of a huge development that will include other hotels and an entertainment complex.
According to Kathleen Taylor, vice president of corporate planning and development for Four Seasons Regent Hotels in Toronto, the new hotel will offer more than 20,000 square feet of meeting space and target the same kind of upscale corporate meetings and incentive business drawn to other Four Seasons hotels.
"Some of our customers already bring groups to Las Vegas, so we know we have a ready market for a hotel there," she said.
Hyatt Hotels Corp. also is coming to town in 1998. The hotel chain will open a 500-room property at Lake Las Vegas, a $4 billion resort complex called Monte Lago-which, after several phases of development are completed, will include other resort hotels, golf courses, casinos, sports facilities and a shopping village.
The new Hyatt, which will include an as-yet-unspecified amount of meeting space, will feature a Mediterranean design and a lakeside setting adjacent to a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course.
Meanwhile, Residence Inn by Marriott will open an extended stay property at the Howard Hughes Center, a business park located a block off the Strip on Paradise Road. Set to open late next year, the 255-suite hotel will include three meeting rooms, a pool and fitness room.
According to Kathy Williams, spokeswoman for the Hughes Center, Las Vegas' growing business community is sparking more demand for extended-stays properties.
Whether Ritz-Carlton will become the next international hotel company to join the crowd here is anyone's guess. "I don't know what's in store for us in Las Vegas," said Ritz-Carlton spokeswoman Vivian Dueschl. "But I do know we're looking at lots of potential sites-Las Vegas could well be one of them.