\nBy John Katsilometes<\/p>\n
\tScott Kreeger, president and COO of SLS Las Vegas, said the resort has an 18-month to two-year period to \u201cramp up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSLS Las Vegas just turned a year old in August, but the hotel\u2019s ownership and image have morphed considerably.<\/p>\n
\tNow, the $800 million resort is about to undergo further construction after announcing a partnership with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. Officials plan to turn the SLS Lux tower into W Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
\tA quick refresher on SLS Las Vegas: Gone is the original visionary behind the hotel, Sam Nazarian, and his company SBE Entertainment. Beset by personal and professional concerns after an investigation by the state Gaming Control Board, Nazarian sold his minority interest in the hotel to Stockbridge Capital Partners, which today is the sole owner of SLS Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
\tThis month, hotel officials disclosed a new partnership, which will result in the 289-room tower closest to Paradise Road serving as the first W hotel in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
\tSLS President Scott Kreeger outlined the next phase for the hotel he took over in September 2014:<\/p>\n
\tSell me on why this partnership is good for SLS.<\/p>\n
\tIt\u2019s based on the international brand strength, recognition and alignment of W. We think we make a great location for the first W in town. It continues to bolster our lifestyle positioning that garners the highest average daily rate and occupancy. Because of our location next to the convention center, we want to focus in 2016 on the convention and business traveler.<\/p>\n
\tWhen you look at the Starwood Preferred Guest network and the strength of that network and the strength of its international sales force and the fact that the company doesn\u2019t have a relatively large footprint in town, we think we\u2019re going to become the pre-eminent destination for the SPG customer.<\/p>\n
\tWill the property still be called SLS Las Vegas?<\/p>\n
\tThe property itself is SLS Las Vegas. And at SLS Las Vegas, there will be a W. Those 289 rooms in what is now the Lux tower will be accessed on the back entry through the porte cochere, with a separate pool, spa, fitness center and lobby. It\u2019s a major commitment. They believe in it, and I believe in it.<\/p>\n
\tSo there will be more construction? The hotel just finished a major renovation in August 2014. What\u2019s the timeline?<\/p>\n
\tWe hope to have it completely up and operational around the end of the third quarter of 2016. So, say September of next year.<\/p>\n
\tIn the meantime, the entire property will go under what is called the Tribute Collection, the company\u2019s online booking platform of independently operated hotels, and in the next 30 to 45 days, completely integrate with the Starwood system.<\/p>\n
\tThis sounds like the partnerships between Nobu tower and Caesars Palace or Delano and Four Seasons and Mandalay Bay.<\/p>\n
\tYou could use any of those as examples, yes. But the distinction between that and this is, we\u2019re a fully integrated Starwood hotel now. It won\u2019t be just the W. It will be all of the towers that enjoy the support of the Starwood systems. We\u2019ll manage the restaurants still and the remainder of the retail. They will have a spa and their own pool. The W will benefit from the overall amenities of the rest of the property.<\/p>\n
\tThis is clearly a move directed at convention and business travelers. What\u2019s happening for locals at SLS?<\/p>\n
\tA lot of our offerings for locals that make this a great place to play are working, and we continue to see month-over-month increases in local gaming. We\u2019ve had great giveaways, where we offer to pay your bills for a year or make $50,000 in improvements to your house. The big thing now is we\u2019re giving away a $250,000 house at the end of the year.<\/p>\n
\tSo this is where the house actually gives away a house?<\/p>\n
\tYes, that\u2019s exactly right.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By John Katsilometes Scott Kreeger, president and COO of SLS Las Vegas, said the resort has an 18-month to two-year period to \u201cramp up.\u201d SLS Las Vegas just turned a year old in August, but the hotel\u2019s ownership and image…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}