A Look At Latest Las Vegas Resort

It’s been more than a dozen years since the City Center opened in Las Vegas with the Aria Resort as its cornerstone property. Since that time, properties have added towers and expanded their footprints, but no one has ventured to effectively start from scratch with another landmark development. That is until the Genting Group’s opening of its latest Resorts World Las Vegas (RWLV).

With over 3,500 hotel rooms covering three brands, 250,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, a 5,000-capacity theatre, massive gaming and over 40 restaurants, RWLV planted itself effectively at the northern edge of the luxury-infused, mega-property strand that defines The Strip. With a self-proclaimed investment of $4.3 billion, this is no small venture. Ownership gained its initial domestic foothold with a Resorts World in the Catskills just outside of New York City, but the name is where the comparison between these two locations ends. Everything about RWLV exudes class and quality as well as a keen understanding of the luxury gaming business.

As a hotelier, you owe it to schedule a post-pandemic pilgrimage to Las Vegas while the room rates remain in what could be considered as ‘trial’ territory. As a checklist to your visit, here are four items that you need to experience yourself.

1. Three entrance lobbies, three different experiences. RWLV employs three separate Hilton brands—Las Vegas Hilton, Conrad Las Vegas and Crockfords Las Vegas, with the latter being part of Hilton’s LXR collection. While each lobby is probably better than the expected average, moving up the luxury ladder in this set adds enhancements and touches that personify the brand ethos. The lobby at Crockfords Las Vegas, while large and airy in size, feels intimate and almost like a private club. Interestingly, this intimacy links to the Crockfords Casino which never once says ‘high limit’ as the differentiator like at other casinos (and yes, it has minimum bets well above my pay grade).
2. Technology meets the food court. The RWLV area is called Famous Foods Street Eats. Here, there are 16 food stalls all linked to a centralized booking system. You can select just one vendor, but that would take the fun out of it. Just step up to a kiosk and you can order from multiple vendors simultaneously, then sync everything to your mobile number. Prepaid, you will be notified when they are ready. Alternately, order from a mobile app or the website, and Grubhub will deliver the entire order to your guestroom or poolside.
3. More (and smaller) pools mean more poolside chaise lounges. Finding that perfect chaise poolside reaches strategy (and a bit of luck) for the typical crowded resort. Simple geometry means that only a few folks get the advantage of a perfect location. Seating aside, pools these days in party towns like Las Vegas are more about ‘show’ than ‘go.’ Today’s pool action takes place around the edges where folks congregate. Having multiple pools also means the family can be put to one pool without displacing a more libationary and financially profitable young adult crowd. RWLV goes one step further through a pool called Infinity—one that rolls right off the edge of the building to appear as wholly contiguous with The Strip—which differentiates itself with a private bar, separate facilities, and music.
4. Gaming technology. While I am not professing to be an expert in this field, spend a few minutes at a table-stakes game and ask the dealer about the chips that utilize RFID tags to eliminate counting errors. There are a bevy of other enhancements under the hood for the keen observer or inquisitive asker. The added sophistication did not in any way improve my success, though, where I ‘donated’ about $100 to the property through some unimpressive slot machine play.

There is much more here, particularly for F&B, given the game-changing broad stroke of partnering with Grubhub as its main delivery engine. Each of the outlets sampled provided outstanding quality with multiple options to meet most every requirement. At the time of our inspection, several of the outlets had not yet opened, so a further visit is warranted, but nevertheless tons of learning to be had at this latest Las Vegas entrant.

Credit

Larry and Adam Mogelonsky

Together, Adam and Larry Mogelonsky represent one of the world’s most published writing teams in hospitality, with over a decade’s worth of material online. As the partners of Hotel Mogel Consulting Ltd., a Toronto-based consulting practice, Larry focuses on asset management, sales and operations while Adam specializes in hotel technology and marketing. Their experience encompasses properties around the world, both branded and independent, and ranging from luxury and boutique to select-service. Their work includes seven books: “In Vino Veritas: A Guide for Hoteliers and Restaurateurs to Sell More Wine” (2022), “More Hotel Mogel” (2020), “The Hotel Mogel” (2018), “The Llama is Inn” (2017), “Hotel Llama” (2015), “Llamas Rule” (2013) and “Are You an Ostrich or a Llama?” (2012). You can reach them at adam@hotelmogel.com to discuss hotel business challenges or to book speaking engagements.