Luxury Hotels and Timeshare Resorts in Las Vegas Are the Trend
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
With changes in ownership, will Las Vegas’ historic cornerstone, Harrah’s Entertainment, hold its course or will it give in to new trends in hotel and resort development?
The recent trend in Las Vegas has been toward luxurious, uber-elegant hotels and resorts. The Wynn Resort and the Bellagio Las Vegas, along with other properties like the Planet Hollywood Towers currently under construction by Westgate Timeshare, give evidence to the fact that developers believe visitors are willing to pay more for a high-end vacation experience. With boutique properties gaining ground all the time as the latest trend in hotel accommodations, much of the industry seems to be betting their money on the idea that “more is more” when it comes to distinction, elegance, and a unique hotel or timeshare resort property.
Which leaves the legendary Harrah’s — the world’s largest gaming company — trying to decide whether to follow the pack or continue doing what it has done so well over the years. Harrah’s carved out its place in the resort and gaming market by catering to the needs of a middle income client who came to Vegas (or other destinations like Reno, Atlantic City, and Biloxi) to gamble, not to shop and not to spend time in his or her hotel room.
Harrah’s hotels along the Las Vegas strip include Harrah’s, the Rio, the Imperial Palace and the Flamingo. All are very nice but none are true ultra luxury properties. Instead, they afford Las Vegas visitors a pleasant place to sleep and shower before returning to the buffet lines, the shows, and most importantly, the gaming tables, which for many visitors are the sole reason they came to Las Vegas. None of the Harrah’s properties are timeshare resorts, nor are any of them particularly geared to the family vacation.
But Harrah’s is now facing new ownership. The private equity firms of Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group are about to become equity partners in Harrah’s Entertainment. And while word on the street is that the investors will leave current management in place and let them continue to call the shots, who really knows what will happen in the months and years to come?
Harrah’s board of directors initially approved a buyout offer by the two investment companies in April 2007, and late last month Nevada regulators gave their approval. Some sources have claimed that the purchase of Harrah’s Entertainment is one of the largest leveraged buyouts in history. Apollo and Texas Pacific currently manage the investment monies, (around $70 billion) of endowments, charities, and pension funds.
The history of Harrah’s Entertainment goes back to an inauspicious origin as a bingo parlor in Reno in 1937. Currently Harrah’s has some $4 billion slated for new projects, but not all of it will go to the company’s Las Vegas properties. Many brands in many locations are part of Harrah’s Entertainment including some of the Bally Casinos, Caesars, Grand Casinos, Horseshoe, Paris Las Vegas, Showboat, and the World Series of Poker.
It will be interesting to observe the changes made by Harrah’s in the days and weeks to come. With the soft economy overall, will people who travel to Las Vegas be looking for better deals in hotel and timeshare accommodations? Or will the middle-income buyer curtail his trips to Vegas, leaving the demand primarily among the high rollers who are willing to pay the higher prices for plush accommodations? And how will all of this affect timeshares resorts in destinations with Harrah’s owned and managed properties – which are not limited to Las Vegas, Reno, and Atlantic City? Harrah’s Entertainment has resorts and or casinos in: Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Iowa, Arizona, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Ontario, and Pennsylvania.
In the end, only time will tell. But current Las Vegas timeshare owners, looking to sell Las Vegas timeshare or use it as a timeshare rental, have plenty of reasons to remain optimistic about the Las Vegas timeshare resales market. Likewise, those of you who are ready to buy timeshare in Las Vegas should expect to find excellent deals on timeshare resales in the inventory of Sell My Timeshare NOW.
Here’s an amazing Royal Flush at World Series of Poker 2007, courtesy of YouTube: