We've commented before -- as have you! (see LVA Reader Poll 6/25/2013) -- on the new trend of casinos opting for initials over names: M Resort, the D, LVH, etc. While the latter invokes the property's history as the Las Vegas Hilton (a name-franchising license that was lost), the D represents the name of owner Derek Stevens, his hometown of Detroit, and the property's downtown location, and M Resort is named for its founder Tony Marnell, "SLS" is somewhat more enigmatic.
In its new hip incarnation, the 1,600-room former Sahara is the property of lifestyle entrepreneur Sam Nazarian, and will join two existing same-branded sister hotels in Beverly Hills and South Beach (with another on the way in New York). To quote the official blurb on the SLS website, "SLS Hotels has created a new paradigm in the luxury hotel experience that speaks to a global, sophisticated audience. Taking service and luxury standards from traditional 5-star hotels and injecting elements of creativity and community, SLS delivers a guest experience that seamlessly delivers service, style and fun."
And therein lie some clues...
While we understand that the check-in area at the Beverly Hills property displays a tablet proclaiming that "SLS" stands for whatever you want it to stand for, ranging from "Soft Like Silk" to "Sam Loves Starck," (as in, Philippe Starck, the designer of everything from chandeliers to travel passes, chairs to entire hotels, whose collaborative Katsuya by Starck sushi-restaurant brand will be among the high-end eateries at the new hotel when it debuts in 2014), we happen to have heard it from the horse's mouth that Sam Nazarian's "SLS" brand stands for... Wait! Let's take another look at that blurb:
"Taking service and luxury standards from traditional 5-star hotels and injecting elements of creativity and community, SLS delivers a guest experience that seamlessly delivers service, style and fun.
Except, when he answered that question at a media event we attended earlier this year, (the very engaging and down-to-earth) Nazarian stated expressly that -- to him at least -- the initials stand, in this order, for "Style, Luxury, Service." A noble trilogy for his industry, we would concur.
Image appears courtesy of Fox5VEGAS, ©Carter Addy.
