New Las Vegas Resorts Take A Gamble On Corp. Groups
<B>New Las Vegas Resorts Take A Gamble On Corp. Groups</B>
By Judy Jacobs
The transformation of Las Vegas continues. From a gaming destination for conventions and trade shows to an entertainment mecca, which also attracts corporate meetings and incentives, the city dramatically has changed its profile over the past several years. And with the addition of three new upscale resorts, Las Vegas is determined to become an even more serious contender for corporate groups.
"Las Vegas is more appealing because of the changes here over the past three or four years," said Constance Jalet, sales executive of the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. "We're seeing a very high level of interest from the insurance and finance industries, for example, which have never paid much attention to Las Vegas in the past."
These changes include the addition of more upscale hotels to the Strip--Four Seasons, Mandalay Bay, Bellagio, Venetian and Paris-Las Vegas. And there's one more to come. The $1.3 billion Aladdin Resort & Casino will open Aug. 17 on the site of the previous Aladdin, which was imploded in April 1998. The new Aladdin will be very different from the old and is well positioned to compete for corporate meetings and incentives.
"Because of our price range, we're mostly going after corporate meetings and incentives," said Patti Tripp, the hotel's national sales manager. "This hotel will raise the bar and set a new standard for Las Vegas." The 2,567-room hotel will have 100,000 square feet of meeting space and a 37,000-sq.-ft. ballroom, but it also will have a smaller "meeting center" with two boardrooms seating 12 to 20 people and two small meeting rooms accommodating 25 to 30 each. The meetings facilities will be easily accessible from the guest rooms.
"We did focus groups before construction began and asked planners what they wanted. One of the things was convenience of meeting space to the sleeping rooms. At the Aladdin, you can get to the conference area directly from your room. Other hotels make you go through the casino," Tripp said.
Adding to the Aladdin's appeal will be Desert Passage, a 500,000-sq.-ft. destination shopping mall, which will bring the trading routes and marketplaces of Tangier, Bombay and Marrakech to Las Vegas. Mosaic tiles, Moorish archways and patterned iron grills have been integrated into the design, and musicians, singers and puppeteers will entertain in the courtyards interspersed among the 130 planned shops and restaurants.
While Aladdin is the only new hotel on the Strip, two new Las Vegas area destination resorts have been created with the meeting and incentive markets in mind. The first of these to open, the Regent Las Vegas, consists of two hotels, the Grand Spa and the Palms. When the resort first opened in July 1999 at Summerlin 11 miles north of the Strip, it was known as the Resort at Summerlin, but the name was changed with the opening of the second hotel early this year. Although attracting corporate meetings and incentives was part of the sales strategy, the hotel has been more successful in this market than it expected.
"We're doing double what we thought we would," said Alison Kneubuhl, director of sales and marketing. "We wanted to keep FITs at 65 percent, with the remaining groups, but the past couple of months groups have been much heavier than that. We're an alternative for groups that want a luxury spa and golf resort, which also has gaming. We're attracting lots of incentives, lots of pharmaceutical groups, company merger meetings, executive retreats and board meetings."
The hotel includes 541 guest rooms and 50,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 14,000-sq.-ft. ballroom, 10 breakout rooms and three boardrooms seating up to 24 people. The typical meeting books between 100 and 150 rooms, according to Kneubuhl.
The hotel also includes the 40,000-sq.-ft. Aqua Sulis Spa, which has 36 treatment rooms and offers the usual massage and facial treatments, along with color therapy and aura imaging, negative ionization and siddha vaidya, an ancient form of massage using herbal oils. There are several golf courses in the area and the Regent has arrangement for tee times at the TPC Canyon golf course located across the street.
The second new resort, Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas, in December opened on Lake Las Vegas just 10 minutes from Hoover Dam. "It's different from anything else here," said Robert Purdy, the resort's director of sales. "You look through the lobby at the lake and surrounding mountains. You wouldn't know you were in Las Vegas, but at the same time Las Vegas and all it has to offer is nearby."
The hotel was designed with meetings in mind, and during its first year 65 percent of the business is expected to be meetings and incentives, Purdy said. "We booked 9,000 group room nights for February alone," he said. "As for size, we'll take groups of up to 475 rooms Sunday through Thursday and a maximum of 400 rooms on the weekend."
The resort has 496 rooms including 47 suites. The meeting space totals 40,000 square feet, with a 21,330-sq.-ft. ballroom, seven breakout rooms and three boardrooms. All the meeting rooms have T-1 capability, a feature that is helping to attract the high tech market. Insurance and pharmaceutical companies also are planning meetings at the resort.
Among attractions are the 328-acre, three-mile long, one-mile wide lake, which is stocked with bass and trout for fishing and kayaks and canoes for boating. Tee times are available at the nearby Reflection Bay Golf Club, home of the Wendy's Three Tour Challenge, a PGA event. The hotel's Spa Moulay includes nine treatment rooms, and a European-style boutique casino is hidden away for those who want to gamble.