As erratically as it has been run since the departure of Phil Satre, they still get some things right at Harrah’s Entertainment … and not in the sense that a stopped watch is correct twice a day. For instance, Harrah’s was ahead of the curve (showing good business sense) in marketing to the LGBT crowd and took a lead role in pushing for domestic-partnership legislation in Nevada last year. That took both enlightenment and huevos.
In a similar vein, Harrah’s has done a clutch of things lately that may just be enlightened pragmatism but which are still worthy of mention. Restarting on-property sales of the Las Vegas Review-Journal is just good customer service. After all, why incentivize your guests to go somewhere else to get the local paper? I just hope that Harrah’s fatwa against the R-J was rescinded either A) due to customer pressure or B) because corporate leadership realized how petty it was and not C) because R-J Publisher Sherman”Facts Optional” Frederick hypothetically groveled at the feet of Gary Loveman.
While eschewing “resort fees” may not count as doing something, it’s laudable of Harrah’s to resist this odious trend and eminently sensible of them to publicize the fact. Considering that J.P. Morgan‘s data-crunching shows Harrah’s Strip ADRs locked in “dive” while everyone else’s level out (and the picture gets worse if you lump Planet Hollywood with the Harrah’s portfolio), it also must have taken some stones to resist the siren song of add-on fees.
Besides, they’re a chiseling irritation that customers are neither quick to forget or forgive. Station Casinos has become particularly despised for the practice and its fees have been documented as some of the most onerous in Vegas. If you want to see mild-mannered UNLV Institute for Gaming Research Director David G. Schwartz get good and angry, ask him about the time he was jammed up with a mandatory resort fee at Green Valley Ranch. Harrah’s has had customer-relations problems of its own and this is one way to rebuild good will.
Lastly, Harrah’s is making a big deal about an iPhone/GPS application that will — theoretically — allow the company to zap customers with marketing messages related to where they are on-property at any given point. Another feature would simplify the check-in process and enable one to circumvent the scrum at the front desk (although it requires jumping through a few preliminary hoops).
The tech-savvy community is less than orgasmic about this, especially since Harrah’s appears to have gone off half-cocked. “[C]ount me underwhelmed,” writes Vegas Mate inventor Hunter Hillegas. In Harrah’s defense, if this is really the first such Strip-specific iPhone application, that reinforces just how slow and lumbering the entire casino industry has been in taking advantage of the messaging and wireless-communication marketing opportunities available to it. In the land of the blind, Harrah’s is king.
Stupid lawsuit tricks. Considering that Mystic Lake Casino Hotel is the de facto entertainment capital of the Twin Cities area, it must be really hard up for publicity if it needs stoop to suing lowly Mystic Lodge Casino in Henderson (and shame on Lionel Sawyer Collins for whoring itself out to Mystic Lake). This is, if possible, even more of stretch than when Treasure Island Resort & Casino, also in Minnesota, sued MGM Mirage‘s Treasure Island for trademark infringement … and never you mind that both resorts owed their name to a book by Robert Louis Stevenson. The only tangible outcome of that litigation was that Las Vegas’ Treasure Island became T&A, er, “T.I.” (with busty “pirates” to match). Thanks a lot.
Not a comment, but a question about resort names lawsuits:
If I remember right, Downtown’s Plaza Hotel/Casino lost its “exclusive use” suit against the planned Plaza on the Strip.
If that’s right, what’s the situation now, with the Strip Plaza on hold, or dead?
Elad Properties says its plans for a seven-tower Plaza-branded development are still “on” but development of the area appears to be on an indefinite hold. In the meantime, Steve Wynn has tried to camouflage the empty land with a line of trees and shot down a proposal to use some of the acreage for midair dining.
I live in the Twin Cities, and believe me, Mystic Lake is far from being “the de facto entertainment capital of the Twin Cities area”. They do have a very nice new showroom, but they are at best a small part of the overall entertainment venues here. Personally, I think their lawsuit is ludicrous. And their video poker is as hideous as the VP in Harrah’s casinos in Vegas.
I almost fell off my chair when I read you had something (anything) good to say about Harrahs…kudus for reporting something positive, though I’m sure you anguished over it. However, this comment is about the Resort Fees. I am surprised, if not shocked, that some aggressive lawyer hasn’t picked up on this and run with it as a class action lawsuit. When a hotel widely advertises one price and charges the customer another price upon arrival simply stinks of False Advertising. I believe there’s a case here, if nothing else, to force the hotels to not bury any resort fees in small print so the readers will look over it.
Sadly, a lot of top acts (Tony Bennett, for instance) stopped playing downtown Minneapolis — back when I still lived there — in favor of Mystic Lake. Whether it was the venue or the fees, it sucked a lot of business away from the Orpheum, Orchestra Hall, etc.