Originally Posted by
craigthemif
Sounds like the Excalibur, but with free breakfast and suite upgrades. I'm in!
I know the owners of the Rio will feel that they have to try something, but if the failed experiment of the W / SLS shows anything, it's that chain brands are irrelevant unless you have a prime location on the Strip or are close to the convention centre...
The Palms (just down the street) is
still closed, and Stations has other off-Strip properties open (and the Palms
just got a pretty nice refurb in 2019), which just says a lot about the environment in Vegas when you're willing to let your pretty new four star property stay closed after you dropped a billion to
buy and
refurbish it.
Originally Posted by
writerguyfl
If the Hyatt National Sales Team is aggressive in promoting this new venture, they might be able to book several large groups annually. Many professional organizations will rotate their national meetings through high-profile locations. Being able to add Las Vegas into the mix while still dealing with Hyatt might be appealing.
Or, this venture could be a disaster like the Sahara. The devil's in the details.
Caesars used the Rio as a dumping ground for World Series of Poker participants for years, and just never kept the place up (it was getting long in the tooth when they got it). I would think they're going to have to do root and branch kind of stuff like they did at Virgin Las Vegas when they took over from Hard Rock (and Hard Rock didn't let things go to seed the way Caesars did).
I'd hope the new ownership has a clue, and the partnership with Hyatt is... something? But the examples of SLS/Sahara + Palms don't exactly inspire confidence that you can just have a nice property with some good restaurants and decor and boom, you make a ton of cash. And there's going to be Virgin Las Vegas + Resorts World on the Hilton side soon...