Meeting News - December 15, 2008 - (Page 34)

Insider Report: Affordable Las Vegas MeetingNews Q&A: Riviera’s Convention Sales VP: Hotel Is A Well-Kept, Mid-Priced Secret But new rooms and reduced rates promise to spread the word The first high-rise and glitziest hotel in Las Vegas when it opened in 1955, the Riviera Hotel & Casino had gotten, well, a little tired over the decades. But a recent $23 million renovation has put the hotel back on track. Then, in a November press release, William L. Westerman, chief executive officer of Riviera Holdings Corp., said, “As a result of strong competitive pressure and weak customer demand, we lowered our Las Vegas hotel room rates in order to increase hotel occupancy and overall property revenues.” We spoke with Ed Coffey, the hotel’s vice president of convention sales, about what planners can expect. ing and potential customers, and are redoing our website. We don’t currently have any packages out per se, but we’re flexible, and know that as we get the word out, we’ll be considered even more. Q A What part of your business do meetings currently make up? Q A How has the renovation changed the Riviera Hotel & Casino? We’ve redone roughly 1,800 of our 2,100 guest rooms. They’ve all been remodeled with new European beds, a business work area, MP3 clock radios, flat-panel televisions, wireless connectivity, laptop safes, and more. In the Monaco Tower, where we house most meeting and convention groups, we’ve gone a step farther with the 900 guest rooms, which are now called “Signature Rooms.” They have all the amenities of the other guest rooms, plus all-new mahogany furniture and a complete renovation of the bathrooms, with new showers and sinks, granite accent pieces, and marble floors. All the rooms in that tower are also non-smoking. We’ve also redone the casino, remodeled the front desk, and enhanced our self-check-in kiosks—we now have 12. All the public areas except the meeting rooms have been redone. We have 16,000 sf of meeting space, and we’ve done some normal repairs and maintenance. It is our intention to remodel those rooms going forward, most likely in 2010. Q A Q A Q A Are the meeting rooms on tap for renovation work? A little over 45 percent of our business is the meetings and convention business, so that’s a real focus for this hotel. Our president has called us a convention hotel first and a casino second. We give those guests our most serious focus. In some hotels, for example, they keep the top suites for gamblers, while we keep those suites available for our meetings guests. We currently host over 350 meetings a year, averaging out to about 200 peak-night rooms, but we can handle up to 1,400 guest rooms for a group. —Interview conducted by Irene Korn What about the 300 rooms that haven’t yet been redone? They were supposed to be redone in early 2009, but that’s been pushed back to the latter part of 2009. How does the Riviera compare to other properties on the Strip? ConExpo was held at the Riviera this year. We’re a three-diamond hotel, so we’re on par with other mid-level hotels. Other hotels in our competitive set for meetings and conventions include MGM, the Rio, the Las Vegas Hilton, and Bally’s, although we may be a little more affordable than some of those properties. Some of those properties have a little more name recognition, so we’re a well-kept secret—which I wish was not the case! We’re increasing our advertising, have developed some better collateral, produced a new conventions and meetings brochure in print and disk versions, started some direct-mail to exist- QHow A do you plan to get the word out? continued from page 30 tion to Cannery Casino Resorts and the newest casino in the Boulder Highway gaming corridor. The property features a 16-story tower of 307 guest rooms and suites with views of the mountains or the Strip through floor-to-ceiling windows. For meetings, Eastside Cannery has 20,000 sf of function space that includes a 17,000-sf ballroom (divisible by five), two smaller meeting rooms, and two boardrooms. Along with 65,000 sf of gaming space, Eastside Cannery offers dining options from the prime rib served at Carve, to seafood ceviche at Casa Cocina and One Six. South Point Hotel & Casino opened its third (and final) tower this past summer, with 830 guest rooms that bring the total at the property to 2,163. “Our rooms are big at 500 square feet and now are larger than some suites in town,” said Michael Gaughan, owner. “By adding these new rooms, we are able to accommodate larger conventions.” The $100 million, 25-story tower has 10,000 sf of meeting space, for a total of 160,000 sf on property at South Point. Plans are now in the works for a spa expansion, which is scheduled to be completed by early summer. —Heidi Waldrop Bay 34 MeetingNews December 15, 2008 www.meetingnews.com http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - December 15, 2008

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