Originally Posted by MisterV View Post
Maybe have the free airport shuttle bus be a "Party Bus:" free alcohol for those riding to the hotel; lively music; bikini-clad driver.

At the hotel: cater to the Sin City reputation with a floor or two of rooms with "custom" features most of us cannot find locally, e.g. one of those swinging baskets with a hole in the bottom; chains on the posters of the bed; plus any other sex-related toys or implements that those into the scene can suggest.
You're on the right track. The sexual stuff can present some problems (you don't want your property developing the reputation as the place that the pervs and deviants choose), but I like the party bus idea, and I like your general mindset of being different.

That was my point in some of my tweets, in fact. "When you're #2, you try harder."

If you're some mediocre off-strip property, you can't just expect to succeed because you're the new owner and ran some ads on TV. If people don't have a reason to leave the strip and come to your place, they won't.

If you're a new property which is too far south or north on LV Blvd, again, you need to give people a reason to show up. Many of these properties (SLS/Sahara, Resorts World, Fontainebleau, Rio) just assume people will want to come because the property is new/renovated, and therefore "high end". Doesn't work that way. You don't get people to your property simply by being new or high end. You need to provide some appeal beyond what they already find at their normal destinations.

In the '90s, these new resorts understood it. Mirage had the volcano and the tiger displays. MGM had the lions and the nice pool. Luxor had the pyramid. NY NY had the city gimmick and the rollercoaster. Treasure Island had the pirate show. Bellagio had the chandelier and conservatory. These were destinations. Some others did well enough because they were sandwiched in between all the other hotels everyone wanted to visit, such as Monte Carlo (now Park MGM).

Anyway, I think Wynn kinda broke that thinking. They didn't have a gimmick. When they opened in 2005, the only gimmick was, "I'm Steve Wynn, I'm a fucking Vegas hotel legend, and this is my new luxury hotel with my actual signature on the front of it." And it worked. But that made everyone else think that if you just open a nice hotel and charge a lot of money, they'll come. Yeah, if the location is desirable, sure. That's why Aria, Cosmo, and Venetian were slam dunks to succeed. But if you're away from center strip, good luck.