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Rate Las Vegas Las Vegas travel deals |
What Does This All Mean? As of 21 June, 2009 by Paul S. Felix The Harrah’s
has moved the “Legends in Concert” show from The Hooters has
missed enough debt payments they’re on the verge of bankruptcy. Greek Isles
has filed bankruptcy. Binion’s is apparently in
financial trouble and is being sued for missing payments and rumor says the
Four Queens may be following the same path. Herbst
Gaming, most notable for their “Terrible’s” casino
(but who have fingers in a lot of casino related pies across the nation), filed
for Chap-11 on March 23rd. They will apparently keep their The Station
Casino group filed for bankruptcy on June 1st, a prepackaged affair they first
contemplated as far back as mid-February. MGM, with
the noted exception of their new What a
tangled web we weave… Information on most of these issues can best be found
with the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. Just do a site search for up-to-date info. Other
interesting information can also be found at Las Vegas
Casino Death Watch. As
mentioned in last quarter’s report, legalized casino gambling was a big item in
Also, mention
must be made of the death of Danny Ganz. The complete
surprise shocked everyone. Ganz’s show was a good one
and Though
improved somewhat from last quarter, we continue to see depressed tourism. The
last two quarter’s numbers are some of the smallest I’ve seen since I began
this column. This continued slip further underscores how bad the national
economic outlook is, and how bleak
One
disturbing bit of information must also be noted – Las Vegas is suffering
heavily in the home foreclosure area. All those high-priced properties are
falling apart as the real estate market follows the rest of the economy into
the tank. But, real estate prices are not depressing at a commensurate rate,
primarily because the banks foreclosing on all those homes are not putting them
all back on the market for resale; they’re holding a significant percentage of
them aside, maintaining an artificial scarcity to keep prices as elevated as
possible. With the long-term economic outlook still rather bleak, one can only
wonder how long this can be maintained and how bad the additional fallout will
be when these banks are forced to finally put these pieces out for sale – to
help support their own flagging bottom lines – and the All that
said, this quarter (27) new reviews and ratings were received on the 33 properties
examined. Legend:
RATE: How many visitors have they had
this month? How popular are they? Average 70
WINNERS:
When Aladdin’s was in the process of transitioning to Planet Hollywood, I
commented that only time would show us if the new ownership and management
could maintain the level of performance established by Aladdin’s and the
dignity and class with which employees at every level were comporting
themselves during the transition. To their credit they have maintained
essentially the same performance levels since the changeover and therefore
everyone at the property can be given kudos for actually caring. Thanks to all
of them; owners, management, staff… all the way down to the “lowliest” for
their professionalism. It is appreciated. AVERAGE: Average
properties are just that, average; not outstanding for either good or bad
performance. Depending on the category this can be a property asset or
liability. For most, though, it makes them seem a bit boring. Truth to tell
they come across like psychic null points; if one is considering a particular
category in relation to deciding where to stay/play when visiting LV, these
places just aren’t part of the mix as often as the winners are. LOSERS: Losing
a popularity contest is never fun. Though every one of these joints is theoretically
still profitable enough to keep going, some of them are on the borderline and
the current rough economic climate could play the role of straw to their camel.
Increasing profitability is their number one challenge and finding a way to
bump their popularity could go a long way towards achieving that goal. How does
one increase popularity?... let me count the ways. To
be frank, they’re too numerous to address here in any depth; marketing pros could
write books on the subject (and probably have). Further
down (with the exception of Trust), I’ve placed a red asterisk (*) next to the properties that
sit in the Winners column here. I’m hoping this will help highlight how some of
these properties achieved their current popularity level. * *
* * *
* * OVERALL: Who’s the best of the best?
Average = 6.98
WINNERS: Mirage’s
jump over Bellagio to take the #4 slot is only a small surprise. As tightly
packed as these places are from #2 to #6, it doesn’t take much in the way of a
numbers change to cause a shift in position. Staying in the top 5 is the real
key. As long as that happens anything else is gravy. PH’s change in status is a
rare anomaly. They didn’t get any reviews this last quarter, so how could their
numbers change? The answer is correction of previous numbers; most likely one
or more reviews got posted multiple times and once the error is spotted and
fixed, the numbers shifted to show what they really should have shown
previously. AVERAGE: Only
two properties had declining overall scores this quarter and only one of them
outside of Losers. Golden Nugget’s slow climb towards Winners continues. It’s
been an on-again/off-again thing with them for some time, but the general trend
– long term – is still there. With Gold Coast on a seeming decline trend, GN’s job is just that much easier. LOSERS: The
* *
* * *
* * ROOM: Size, comfort, amenities, quality,
etc. Average=7.18
WINNERS:
Many people believe that the summer is Vegas’ most active period. Not true. The
summer season is actually one of Vegas’ slower times because of the heat. This
usually makes spring a more active time, more often the period between “spring
break” and Memorial Day comprising the lion’s share of that action. With
economic troubles everywhere, the suppressed trade is evident here. AVERAGE: No
action of any note or concern. Average is as average does. LOSERS: The
real surprise here is that most changes are to the good. The shifts were small
but definite, concentrated mostly in the “better” of these places. IP’s dip
only adds additional insult to the terminally injured. If Harrah’s does
actually close IP’s doors, I am convinced we’ll never see it reopen, at least
not without a gross remodel, a complete change of management, a shiny new ad
campaign and business focus, etc. In other words, as whole new property – which amounts to the same thing as a permanent closure.
Maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree, but IP is seriously flawed (read old and
nasty) and needs serious changes to keep it going. As mentioned above, This
category is not one of the “critical” ones; identified as vitally important to
business operation. Not everyone who interacts with a property gets a room, so
this category is a little specialized, and not as seminally important to
operations as the others (highlighted in blue below). The red asterisks above
say something to me about what kind of impression visitors get concerning the
way these properties use their rooms to affect tourist impression of their
enterprise; how much emphasis they put in keeping a nice, clean, comfortable
house. * *
* * *
* * SERVICE: How were you treated? Average=6.92
WINNERS: We
begin seeing some of the true tale of what’s been going on for the last three
months. These properties have been concentrating on drumming up business among
their financially strapped bread and butter tourists. To entice people back for
another round of money dropping, they’ve gone and done what I predicted they
would have to do well over a year ago… they’re reverting to older, proven
methods and treating people well. Wow… what innovation. The size of the number
changes show how strongly the properties are emphasizing and executing this
strategy, or at least how much notice their customers are taking of those
efforts. AVERAGE: The
Nugget hovers on the edge of “Winnerness”. With only
a small slip of concentration, Paris and/or PH (tied score) could fall back to
the middle column and catapult GN into the rarified ground. Or…
GN can earn it all by themselves and pass the other two. Everyone else in this
column continues struggling with Intermittent Success Syndrome, too well
planned and executed for spectacular failure, but unable to maintain a winning
behavior long enough to really cash in. LOSERS: I’m
not even going to bother. Loser Service chases people off and makes them not
want to come back. Casinos, like any business, are essentially predators, with
people being their prey and money their food. They can’t track and hunt their
prey; it has to come to them. Treating that prey badly enough to drive it off is
a fast track to the bone yard. * *
* * *
* * CASINO: Atmosphere, selection, odds,
comps, etc. Average=6.49
WINNERS: According
to a lot of other people, these are all good places to gamble. The rules are
good, game variety appealing, ambiance and atmosphere pleasant, etc. Though
heavily weighted towards the upper-middle to upper scale properties the
inclusion of bits like 4Q, Gold Coast and AVERAGE: Those
who frequent the Winners column usually have more money than the rest of us.
This central column, though considered “Average” or mundane, provides a much
more broad selection of cost and quality. There are six Rate Winners here. The
more amenable casino interaction of these places makes them a more frequent
selection. LOSERS: Oddly
enough three properties on this list are also Rate Winners. IP, Excalibur and
Flamingo have varied reasons for their popularity, certainly, but a “good”
casino obviously isn’t one of them. This begs
the question of how important the gambling atmosphere really is to customer
selection. If places like IP and Excalibur, with such poorly rated casinos, can
still score high in a popularity contest it makes one wonder if the gambling is
all that important. It certainly is, but perhaps in a way most might not
consider at first. Yes, the casino is the primary income generator for any
property but apparently it doesn’t have to be all glittery and super-spiffy to
get people in. Exactly what these might be I’ll not attempt to explore here,
but it might be an interesting exercise in some future piece. * *
* * *
* * VALUE: Was it worth what you paid?
Average=7.01
WINNERS:
Who would go to a property if they felt they were getting ripped off? These
places provide good enough “bang for the buck” that visitors are very
satisfied. The consistent upward trend in the category, especially in this
column, shows which properties are making the extra effort to keep customers feeling
good about their expenses during strapped economic times. AVERAGE: All
but one of these places are above the Average split
line. Count in the Winners, that makes nine out of the eleven most popular
properties on our list are judged above average in Value. That cannot be
coincidence. Glancing back at Casino, we see that Excalibur and and IP both sit above this average Value split and Flamingo
is below it, just barely; only 6/100ths of a percentile point away from a tie.
There is a big clue as to why people go to those properties. Despite less than
optimum conditions otherwise, they feel very good about what they’re spending. LOSERS: Heavily
weighted towards good Value, we see how important this category is to tourist
selection. Above all other considerations this category is probably the most
important one. * *
* * *
* * LOCATION: Is it close to other attractions
you want to experience? Average=7.31
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