The newest integrated resort in the Las Vegas Valley still lacks a pool, beach club, several scheduled restaurants, active sports betting, and average hotel occupancy.
Everything as expected, Virgin Hotels Las Vegas executives said Friday. But this situation will soon change.
These features are on the way and are expected to be available in the coming weeks and months, said Richard “Boz” Bosworth, president and CEO of the resort’s group of owners.
The Off-Strip Hotel – formerly the Hard Rock Hotel – at 4455 Paradise Road opened on March 25th. The redesigned resort was the Hard Rock Hotel for maybe 25 years, but Virgin Hotels Las Vegas is still establishing itself in a market recovering from COVID-19 and with just a month under a new name and group of owners, said he.
The Virgin Hotel is not yet filling its rooms with the average occupancy across the valley, Bosworth said on Friday. The hotel hovers below 30 percent of its weekday rooms and 70 to 80 percent of its weekend rooms, he said.
“That’s because we’re brand new, and that’s to be expected,” said Bosworth, “because we started literally without reservation.” So we’re building and the market is booking a lot for the next 30, 60 and 90 days. “
Bosworth doesn’t look at the situation for long. Bookings over the past two weeks have been “like a light switch turned off,” he said, adding that as of June, the property booked tens of thousands of room nights and leisure bookings increased twenty-fold.
Expecting the property to reach average occupancy by June, he pointed to continued vaccination efforts, the facility opened in May, and a natural “build time” with a new resort opening. The pool is slated to open on May 21, and the Elia Beach Club will follow suit in early June, Bosworth said.
“(We haven’t) waited for entertainment, we haven’t waited for events to come back. We didn’t even wait for market occupancy and prices to rise again, ”Bosworth said on Friday. “We wanted to open because we felt safe, because we knew it was going to be an opening that would last over a period of months, as we opened our swimming pools, as we opened more restaurants and nightlife, it will take time. “
“So that’s exactly what we expected as we would open up to a market that would grow and that would grow with the market.”
An “exciting” start
The casino’s capacity limits rose from 50 to 80 percent of a building’s fire code on Saturday. Social distancing requirements also dropped from 6 feet to 3 feet when the state turned the decision to restrict COVID-19 to local jurisdictions and the Gaming Control Board.
Those loose restrictions will especially help Virgin Hotels Las Vegas towards the end of May as additional restaurants and the pool are open, Bosworth said. They will also help the property’s bars and restaurants manage capacity, noted Joe Hasson, general manager of Mohegan Sun Casino at the hotel.
Restaurants and venues like Kassi Beach House, Todd Englishs Olives, Money, Baby! and Afters Ice Cream are expected to open in May.
The property’s sports betting operator, Betfred of the UK, has not yet received regulatory approval to operate sports betting, Hasson said. Sports betting should open earlier in June. It is now slated to open sometime in the third fiscal quarter (July, August or September), Hasson said.
Despite the currently limited facilities, it’s been an exciting first month on the property, said Bosworth. The property’s restaurants, including One Steakhouse, Night + Market, Casa Calavera and Nobu, have already drawn foodies to the property, he said.
The casino’s customer base so far consisted of around 50 percent locals and 50 percent regional or national visitors, said Hasson. Mohegan’s Momentum loyalty rewards program has attracted “thousands upon thousands upon thousands” of new signups, Hasson said, noting that this is the standard for a new resort.
“I’m going to tell you that for every casino manager, for every casino operator, you always want that number to be higher,” he said. “There is never a time when you are satisfied. But what I’m particularly excited about is that I can see momentum maps from afar. “
It is not surprising that many of the regional customers are from Arizona, California or Utah. National customers came from other parts of the country with a Mohegan Sun gaming presence, including New Jersey, Connecticut, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Washington, he said.
These national customers are typically part of Mohegan’s Momentum loyalty rewards program and now have a place in Las Vegas to redeem their points, Hasson said.
‘There is more to come’
Being a new brand in Vegas like Virgin Hotels and showing off your property during a pandemic is “not an easy task,” notes Brendan Bussmann, partner at Global Market Advisors. There will always be “increasing pain as you figure out your role in the market”.
The former Hard Rock Hotel was closed in February last year. Virgin Hotels Las Vegas’ original opening date has been postponed from Fall 2020 to January 15th and finally to March 25th. That March date gave the hotel time to open the rest of the amenities before summer, he said.
“The race will always win slowly and steadily. But it is a challenging time to open the property, ”said Bussmann.
The return of group business with the potential to impose restrictions on further lifting in June corresponds to the high booking volume in June, Bussmann said. Another boon to the resort is the integration of the hotel’s Curio Collection and the accompanying Hilton customer database.
“I think when you get that summer crowd you will do great,” said Bussmann.
In March, records were posted for monthly gaming victories across the Las Vegas Valley. The “off-the-hook-good” month shows that there is a pent-up demand for what Las Vegas has to offer, said Hasson, the casino’s general manager.
“This resort is still building everything from swimming pools to first-class hotel rooms to several restaurants that are still in the pipeline,” said Hasson. “So, although it’s still in its infancy, there is more to come.”
Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. consequences @mike_shoro on twitter.
