[jfkIII]

Originally Posted by las vegas drunk

I was just reading about AC on a gambling forum I frequent, and everyone here said it was dead and gone. This is current too.

Gambler's Glen Message Boards : General Discussion : Will bare breasts save A.C.?

Right. This is the type of thing that I've been reading, too. But to my own first hand knowledge...this past weekend....it just didn't seem to be true. Perhaps, the holiday created an anomaly to what is being written. That's why I'd rather get the local's perspective vs. the media's.

[MomMom]

[quote=jfkIII;11831347]I'm looking for the true picture, MomMom...on a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best)...how would you rate the current Las Vegas economy? From my vantage point, I only hear and see what the media portrays...but I'm very skeptical of media accuracy...as they want to paint it as worse as it could be.

My wife and I were just in Atlantic City for the Thanksgiving Day weekend...and the casinos were surprisingly crowded. Honestly, I expected more of a lull.[/QUOTE

The economy here is bad, but I've seen it worse, especially during the recession of 70's. Most people (including most on these forums) were not here in Las Vegas during that time, so they believe these are the worst of times in this city.

Granted, there weren't as many hotels or people here in town during that time..but it was bad.

On your scale, I rate the current economy at a 4 or 5. In the 70's, it was the gasoline and cost of living that kept tourists away, but this recession is more wide spread, with the over spending by many and the housing market crisis. While I don't think the Las Vegas economy is at a 1 (maybe to some who can't get a job) I really wouldn't be honest to say that its above a 6, per se.

But then again jfk, the sis back in NY is totally gloom and doom and would rate Nassau-Suffolk economy at a -1, LOL.

And you were in AC, and saw pretty crowded casinos? We see the same here, especially on weekends, so who knows?

I know more people personally, that got laid off right after 9-11, with a lot of restaurants and stores cutting hours, but that stopped after a few months and the frenzy began again when the tourists came back. This time though, it's a more slow process and that's how it's going to come to an eventual end, a very slow process. And probably NEVER the way it was before. Everybody is going to have to get used to living, spending and operating in a "ordinary" economy, as opposed to a EXTRAordinary one.


You know the old saying "it gets worse before it gets better"

[dynimagelv]

I can only speak for the two [now one] casino/hotels for which I work.

Occupancy rates are...acceptable considering the condition of the economy. Room rates are NOT acceptable....rooms that we were selling for $79 S-T two years ago are selling now for $29. Our weekends are running much higher [still not acceptable] and occupancy is near 100%.

The casino remains near full on weekends but the gamblers are not playing AS much.

Our reservations telephones are down by about 25% but more people are 'shopping'

Because the industry is hurting, the customers that used to come to our hotel and pay $79 are paying the same amount BUT are now staying at a top line strip resort....the customers WE get used to sleep in their car.

As a result, room damage is on the upswing.

NOW.....to what do we blame all this doom and gloom..... The economy sucks. The tour and travel industry is having a field day [like sharks in a feeding frenzy] in their attempt to appear as if they have something important to say.

The travel chanel runs continual programming concerning [essentially] how to rip off hoteliers. Complain and scream in front of other customers and they will give ou something free to shut you up.

Saturday, I received a complaint from a 'guest'. ONE of the lamps in their room had a bulb out... it had gone out while they were standing in the room. They DEMANDED a complimentary night for the 'inconvenience' and they demanded it LOUDLY at the front desk. [they had not bothered to call asking for a replacement by housekeeping or by engineering.]

As to our sister property.....Yes, we WILL absorb as many of the laid off employees as possible but that isnt many. We have run at minimum staffing for a good long time in an attempt to ride this out.

MUCH of the problem can be placed squarely in the lap of the former owners who [as an example] had not washed the windows in the rooms in over 20 years.

The hotel portion is in such condition that we can NOT command high enough room rates to cover our operating costs. The tower will re-open as the economy eases and we have remodeled the rooms.

The employees being laid off are apparantely covered by the Warren Act which dictates a 60 day severance package and of course will be the first brought back to fill other openings.....

[Golfinnova]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

I can only speak for the two [now one] casino/hotels for which I work.

Occupancy rates are...acceptable considering the condition of the economy. Room rates are NOT acceptable....rooms that we were selling for $79 S-T two years ago are selling now for $29. Our weekends are running much higher [still not acceptable] and occupancy is near 100%.

The casino remains near full on weekends but the gamblers are not playing AS much.

Our reservations telephones are down by about 25% but more people are 'shopping'

Because the industry is hurting, the customers that used to come to our hotel and pay $79 are paying the same amount BUT are now staying at a top line strip resort....the customers WE get used to sleep in their car.

As a result, room damage is on the upswing.

NOW.....to what do we blame all this doom and gloom..... The economy sucks. The tour and travel industry is having a field day [like sharks in a feeding frenzy] in their attempt to appear as if they have something important to say.

The travel chanel runs continual programming concerning [essentially] how to rip off hoteliers. Complain and scream in front of other customers and they will give ou something free to shut you up.

Saturday, I received a complaint from a 'guest'. ONE of the lamps in their room had a bulb out... it had gone out while they were standing in the room. They DEMANDED a complimentary night for the 'inconvenience' and they demanded it LOUDLY at the front desk. [they had not bothered to call asking for a replacement by housekeeping or by engineering.]

As to our sister property.....Yes, we WILL absorb as many of the laid off employees as possible but that isnt many. We have run at minimum staffing for a good long time in an attempt to ride this out.

MUCH of the problem can be placed squarely in the lap of the former owners who [as an example] had not washed the windows in the rooms in over 20 years.

The hotel portion is in such condition that we can NOT command high enough room rates to cover our operating costs. The tower will re-open as the economy eases and we have remodeled the rooms.

The employees being laid off are apparantely covered by the Warren Act which dictates a 60 day severance package and of course will be the first brought back to fill other openings.....

Sad, but very spot on

Both are clients of mine and I was sad to hear about the hotel stopping operations and the impending layoffs this morning. I've gotten to know the manager very well, he was very much a class act.

I'll share an interesting story about the clientele. Over the weekend, a guest bought 2 of our cookies (probably the same ones who complained about the light bulb), they ate half of one before returning it for a refund complaining that it was "stale" because the cookie would bend. Of course, we have a no questions asked policy about our products so we gave credit to the hotel; however, my thought was WTF? A freshly made cookie will have some flexibility in it compared to a stale cookie that will crumble.

I do hope that everyone affected will get job offers soon.

[MediocreButArrogant]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

The employees being laid off are apparantely covered by the Warren Act which dictates a 60 day severance package and of course will be the first brought back to fill other openings.....

That's "WARN" Act, not "Warren". It stands for "Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification".

[tony soprano]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

The employees being laid off are apparantely covered by the Warren Act which dictates a 60 day severance package and of course will be the first brought back to fill other openings.....

FWIW, it's the WARN act - Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification.

<on edit> MBA beat me to it.

[dynimagelv]

I stand corrected my fongers got the hest of me

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

I stand corrected my fongers got the hest of me

You are NOT the first person to call it the Warren Act. Several people in the press have done it on more than one occasion.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

The travel chanel runs continual programming concerning [essentially] how to rip off hoteliers. Complain and scream in front of other customers and they will give you something free to shut you up.

Saturday, I received a complaint from a 'guest'. ONE of the lamps in their room had a bulb out... it had gone out while they were standing in the room. They DEMANDED a complimentary night for the 'inconvenience' and they demanded it LOUDLY at the front desk. [they had not bothered to call asking for a replacement by housekeeping or by engineering.] .

I agree with you to a point.

Last week, I stayed at one of the "better" off-Strip (not downtown) property. Two out of three lamps had burnt-out bulbs. Rooms were stripped of many of the amenities. The room was clean but the windows hadn't been touched in years.

Deferred maintenance was evident in the public areas. The escalator to the parking garage was out the entire weekend.

I am not a shouter but with 20 minutes of checking in, I was kicking myself for not staying elsewhere.

Personally, when City Center opens, there will probably be another round of room rate cuts, especially in the older Strip properties and the "locals" places around town.

[JohnG72]

Just an FYI, the OUTRAGEOUS room rates experienced 3-5 years ago were not the norm, and in fact were only supported due to an inflated economic bubble. This is particularly true for the rundown basic rooms in hotels like Bally's and Flamingo(notice an ownership trend there?) that were fetching $70-130 on weeknights and $100-220 on weekends.

Harrahs can suck on it frankly and so can their employees. I laugh now that after several years of a strip near monopoly that Harrahs is practically begging people to stay at those properties at $35 a night plus free food/slots. No thank you. I'll take a one bedroom suite at The Hotel for under $100 a night or a room at Venetian for $69. Karmic retribution stinks, don't it?

As an aside, the rooms at Binions and 4 Queens were NEVER worth $80 a night. Golden Nugget...even the South Tower rooms are much nicer....and were generally just $10-20 more a night. Main Street Station rooms were also much nicer and generally the same price as 4 Queens.

While I actually do like Terry Caudill's properties, it made little sense to stay there when Boyd offered a better place for the same price, and GN offered a much nicer place for only a bit more.

To put it in perspective, I've made appx 90 trips to Vegas this decade. I've stayed downtown on appx 30 of those trips. I've stayed at GN about 10 of those times, LV Club(ugh....I won't even stay for free anymore) about 10 times, Boyd properties 9 times, and 4 Queens on one and only occasion.