First of all yes, as of Oct. 30 what is currently the Quad is going to become The LINQ "The Quad," a name which landed with a thud, has been a real flop as a hotel moniker. It also evokes the numeral 4, which sounds very much like the Mandarin Chinese word for "death." Given the importance of Chinese business to Las Vegas (and the size of the local Chinese-American community), creating morbid associations is not good for business.
But it’s a lot more than a mere name change that's underway; it's a complete conceptual reinvention. On the practical front, beginning back in March Caesars Entertainment began redoing the hotel rooms, half of which are expected to be available in their new, highly colorful form in October. Work will then commence on the remainder. The lobby bar and front desk are slated to be re-redone, according to TravelWeekly. The former will evolve into something called The Living Room, featuring electronic table games (no live dealers at all let alone "dealertainers". "Guests at The Hotel will have their choice of 2,256 rooms, including 204 suites and 29 cabana suites with private access to the pool area," TravelWeekly.com reports.
Both the hotel and the LINQ mall are slated to offer free Wi-Fi as part of the plan to offer a "highly connected environment ... and lifestyle experience" for the "socially engaged traveler." In plainer English, the grand scheme is to create a social hub for tourists, business travelers, and locals alike, although we note with slight irony the widespread replacement of human staff not only in the casino, but also with a promised "automated check-in process, and a concierge touchscreen option."
If you’ve been experiencing distress over the blandness of the Quad facade, rest assured that as we write, the exterior is being repainted in a rainbow of colors (a lesson, perhaps, in "Be careful what you wish for") and the old retail walk is giving way to a new one, albeit in the same location. Fat Tuesday daiquiri bar has closed but a new lounge is being built for Diamond-level Total Rewards members. For dog lovers, the "pet relief area" has been relocated, at least temporarily, to a spot inside the hotel garage. For anyone missing the days when the Quad/LINQ was Imperial Palace, a few tacky elements momentarily remain, like the Japanese-style frames around the elevators and some pagoda-esque flourishes on the rear exterior, but enjoy the memories while you can, as apparently all vestiges of any Asian theming will have been expunged with the completion of this latest reincarnation.
One thing which we have been guaranteed will not be changing, however, is the O'Sheas casino-within-a-casino, which brings a different flavor of "social" to the mix with its cheap booze and beer pong and, according to the results of all previous inquiries, will remain as an even more striking, if popular, anomaly than it is currently.
The pool, we regret to inform you however, will be closed by October 10 and will remain so until the 2015 pool season, which will see the debut of a "reimagined pool deck offering two pools and dayclub experience, a new 15, 000-square foot spa and fitness center, and the Vortex Roof Deck."
To conclude, an official CET spokesperson explains the somewhat bewildering Quad-into-LINQ morphing thusly: "It’s mostly driven by the $223 million investment in the property. There’s been such great feedback from the LINQ, the High Roller [Ferris wheel], and the shopping area, that it was a great opportunity to use the LINQ as the name of the hotel ... and obviously connected a lot of our resorts on the east side" of the Strip. We'll keep our personal observations under our hat, rather than suggest that the Quad concept (or the lack thereof) seemed like a not-thought-through and tangential misstep from the start and that CET has seemingly been making it up as it went along for some time when it comes to this problematic center-Strip property, waiting for a better idea to come along. Whether or not it did will presumably all become clear come Halloween.
