Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

April 25, 2009 11:13 AM Posted by Carl

Your discussion regarding the location of Fontainebleau misses important points. Fontainebleau is a very short walk from Sky Las Vegas, Hilton Grand vacations, and Turnberry Towers. None of which have casino's. Moreover, if you were staying at Riviera, Circus Circus, Sahara or Stratosphere where would you go to gamble? Fontainebleau has little competition at my end of the strip where I paid $1.4 million for a condo unit which is an average price for this building.

April 25, 2009 4:50 PM Posted by parchedearth

Kudos on another interesting and informing discussion. I think changes/rumors in property ownership will probably be a constant (and worthwhile) topic for months to come.

As to potential topics, maybe you can discuss (the design/quality/food of) some of the recent restaurant and clubs. Vegastripping has discussed/reviewed some of them but the turnover is so fast many have not been discussed. I have not seen a good discussion of the new Palazzo eateries (which are many and of high quality).

Perhaps a new angle would be to discuss how various restaurants and clubs work to attract different clientele to a property. For example, I end up visiting MC quite frequently simply because of Andre's. This could also work against a property. For example, does Rehab cause a problem for HR by bringing in too many college students who don't have money to gamble or does the publicity outweigh any downside?

Luxor has a number of new restaurant/bars which I have mixed views on. I wonder how others feel about Company (+), Cathouse (-), Liquidity (+), Aurora (-), steakhouse (+), high limit room (-), LAX (?), etc... This type of review can be done/updated for most properties (HR, Palms, Rio). You could do a quick up or down review as opposed to a very detailed review.

Maybe a review of high limit rooms, adult pools (Wet Republic is in deep trouble), spas, boutique hotels w/i hotels (i.e. MGM sky suites, TheHotel, Four Seasons, Tower suites, etc..) would be good. What about the tradeoffs between a casino's hotel rooms vs a condo (e.g. Signature has nice rooms but they are too far/isolated from the casino; also Palm place, PH condos)

Other topics might include taxi lines, hotel limos, room service, hotel cable lineups, strip club developments, law enforcement initiatives, free drinks while playing VP at the bar, comparison of player's clubs.

April 27, 2009 12:58 PM Posted by David McKee

Carl, I think you've put your finger on *the* central problem facing F'bleau: With so many bargain-niche properties (and, as you point out, timeshares) in the vicinity, will it be able to fill its rooms? Even 'Wynncore' can't do it, and that's in a better 'neighborhood,' has fewer rooms and a more powerful brand name.