Specialists see optimism in Virgin Inns opening in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (AP) – Opening a new casino resort during a pandemic isn’t ideal, but Virgin Hotels Las Vegas may have found a sweet spot by the time it launched.

After delaying opening twice, the off-strip property opened on Thursday.

Industry watchers say Las Vegas casino operators are still facing pandemic-related challenges, but the operating environment is much better today than it was in Las Vegas a few weeks ago.

“The outlook for summer is getting brighter – with vaccination levels rising and demand for pent-up people looking to leave the pandemic behind,” Jonathan Day, associate professor of hotel and tourism management at Purdue University, told Las Vegas Review -Journal. “It is a sign of optimism about the recovery Virgin is committed to opening.”

Virgin Hotels Las Vegas was originally slated to open in the fall after the former Hard Rock Hotel was renovated for $ 200 million. The plans were postponed to January and postponed again before the opening date was announced on Thursday.

Now Las Vegas is showing clear signs of recovery.

In recent profit calls, casino managers Caesars Entertainment Inc. and MGM Resorts International showed that bookings were increasing. Pedestrian traffic on the Strip is increasing. Casino floor operators can now be at 50% capacity for the first time in months. And various surveys show that Americans are eager to go on vacation again as COVID-19 case numbers fall and vaccines are introduced.

“Given that we had openings planned for late 2020 and early 2021, we are ultimately feeling good about our official March 25 opening,” said Richard “Boz” Bosworth, President and CEO of JC Hospitality, owner of Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

“There are positive signs of another great comeback in Las Vegas,” he said. “No city does better than Las Vegas and we look forward to reopening our doors to our team members and welcoming locals and tourists back to the city.” . ”

Industry watchers expect Las Vegas tourism to pick up again this summer after more than a year of lockdowns and severe operating restrictions.

“I think we’re going to have a killer summer. There is a pent-up demand for travel, especially domestically, ”said Finley Cotrone, assistant professor in residence at UNLV’s College of Hospitality. She called the opening of Virgin Hotels “really good timing”.

Amanda Belarmino, assistant professor of hospitality at UNLV, said it made no sense to open a new property this fall. At that time, operators closed the facilities and some properties closed during the week due to lack of demand. These properties have just started returning to full week operation.

“There is still a lot of uncertainty, but we are in the most optimistic place we have been since the beginning. So it makes sense to open now, ”said Belarmino.

She added that the timeline for the reopening was good for both the city and the property. A new property going online is set to help boost pedestrian traffic and bring back hundreds of workers.

Virgin Hotels is bringing about 2,000 local hospitality workers back to work, according to Bosworth. Some used to work on hard rock.

Day believes March will still be a challenging month for a hotel to open, but timing will allow Virgin Hotels to prepare for an influx of summer travelers.

“The opening now offers the opportunity to update yourself as demand increases,” he said in an email.

David Givens, vice president of hotel operations at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, said he was looking forward to the opening.

“Everyone just wants to open,” he said, citing the busy weekends on the strip. “It makes sense to open it up, and then when the restrictions wear off I think we’ll do fine.”

There are downsides to the property’s opening date, industry experts say.

For one, the doors of Virgin Hotels opened a week after the first weekend of this year’s NCAA tournament, one of the largest annual events in Las Vegas.

“I would have opened at the beginning of March. I would have wanted to fix all of these issues in the first week of March, ”said Debi Nutton, a games consultant and former executive of Wynn Resorts Ltd. “The demand for this week is going to be huge, and this amount of March Madness suits Virgin exactly.”

While the increase in foot traffic on the first Madness weekend in March may have been a boon to Virgin Hotels, it’s unclear how many travelers would have stopped at the off-strip property.

Sports betting partner Betfred is not yet licensed in Nevada, and the property’s sports betting won’t open until the summer, subject to government approval.

Cotrone also pointed out that despite falling case numbers, Virgin Hotels is still opening in the middle of a global pandemic. She expressed concern about some frontline workers, particularly knowing that some travelers will be flown in from states that have dropped mask mandates.

“I worry about our frontline workers as our guests come from different states (and some are convinced) that the pandemic is over,” she said. “We still have to take these precautions with masks. Our frontline people are shouldering the brunt of this challenge. “

Bosworth told the Review Journal that the safety of Virgin Hotels employees, partners and guests is a top property.

“We would have loved to bring all of our team members back earlier, but given the surge in COVID-19 cases and the restrictions in place, it just wasn’t safe or profitable for us to open the doors on these earlier dates,” he said.

“After everything was said and done, everything worked out as it should,” he said. “The resort is well prepared and ready to kickstart the Las Vegas economic recovery.”