Only in Vegas will new hotel towers continue to open during the severe recession.
Two casino buildings will open new hotel towers on Monday, less than two weeks after introducing the mammoth aria to the city center. The new hotel tower will add 1,575 rooms to a market that is already nervous about filling the rooms it has.
PH Tower with 1,201 rooms at Planet Hollywood Resort and HRH Tower with 374 rooms at Hard Rock Hotel open to the market with mid-80% hotel occupancy and a drop in room rates.
But the tower’s owners see it as an investment in Las Vegas’ future when the economy picks up.
The 52-story blue and red tower rooms are sold for travelers, like citywide conventiongoers who want to stay in Las Vegas for a long time. Built as a time-sharing arrangement, the rooms feature an entire kitchen, washing machines and dryers, as well as cutting-edge electronics and bedroom functions.
“The tower is for high-end customers who want to enjoy all-suite products,” said Bill Feather, president of Planet Hollywood Resort. 슬롯머신
The tower is a joint venture between Planet Hollywood Resort and Florida-based timeshare company Westgate. Approximately 200 are sold timeshare, with the rest used for hotel rooms.
The tower opened smoothly on Dec. 18, when nearly 20 people used a time share.
Feather said the tower will open with 330 rooms on Monday and will increase to 500 by New Year’s Eve.
Nearly 200 rooms will be added in time for the International Consumer Electronics Show, which starts on Jan. 7. The entire tower will be open for the Miss America pageant on Jan. 30. Planet Hollywood will open the tower’s grand opening on the same weekend.
Feather said the rooms are selling for $229 during the week and $349 over the weekend.
The top four floors are 16 condominiums ranging from 6,000 square feet to 18,000 square feet.
The new tower features a pool to open in the summer. The lobby bar is scheduled to open on Monday and plans are being developed for two restaurants away from the lobby.
The tower’s 100-foot entrance just passes through the closed Steve Wyrick Theater at the Miracle Mile Shops. The casino is located nearly 150 yards from the entrance to the PH tower, Feather said.
The new tower brings the number of rooms at Planet Hollywood Resort to 3,697.
The all-suite HRH Tower along Harmon Avenue is part of a large $750 million expansion that has been phased out since early spring and will be completed in April.
The tower’s 374 rooms have seven penthouse suites and eight spa villas.
Opening with the tower is a 25,000-square-foot L’Equiri spa, a new parking lot with portecosier and 40,000-square-foot new casino space.
A new nightclub, 14,000 square feet of Vanity, will open on Dec. 31. It will be the last night of the old nightclub, Body English.
Hard Rock Hotel President and Chief Operating Officer Randy Kasiniewski said the expansion is selling more to casino players who so far don’t have all the amenities available at other resorts in the Hard Rock Hotel.
“It’s for a high-end customer to assume that we’re looking for a boutique experience,” Kwasniewski said. “It’s got all the amenities you need. It’s a slightly different design for that customer.”
HRH Tower offers a different market than the 450-room Paradise Tower, which opened in July.
Paradise Tower is designed for corporate conference and convention visitors as well as group customers. The tower is convenient for conference spaces and a new joint concert hall.
The property is planning a large opening celebration in April, when the pool expansion is completed. Three restaurants are also planned for the new casino, an area where the former apartment house was located, in the second quarter of 2010.
With this expansion, the casino space in the accommodation has become 70,000 square feet supported by 1,506 rooms.