Like I’ve been saying …

… strength in hotel rates is a top-down proposition, with such “recovery” as we’re seeing being driven by high-end product. The renewed strength in the business-travel sector also jibes with reports we’ve been getting from Las Vegas Sands and MGM Resorts International of increased convention business in late 2010, extending into next year. However, this phenomenon is being seen mainly on the coasts and looks as though it will take its time trickling down to the Strip.

Nice try but … there’s little wrong with Gov. Chris Christie‘s rescue plan for Atlantic City — other than its timing, for which one can’t blame Christie. He’s been in office fewer than seven months, after all.

However, Moody’s bond analyst Margaret Holloway suggests that Christie is racing the clock and Time is winning. She faults Harrah’s Entertainment for being so levered up that major capex investments are off the table. (Another triumph for CEO Gary Loveman, who’s going to see 90% of pre-tax profits go straight into debt service.) Overall, Holloway reports, the market is plagued by years of “underinvested” ownership, a state of affairs whose chickens have come home to roost.

Moody’s was particularly harsh on Harrah’s, though, characterizing it as a company merely delaying the inevitable. Although a partial IPO was mooted after John Paulson bought a 10% stake in Harrah’s for $710 million, Moody’s would have Harrah’s and its owners go whole-hog … provided the money raised thereby is used to de-lever the company. That’s expecting a level of fiscal responsibility that neither Harrah’s ownership nor its executive branch have shown to date. Hand that lot a fistful of IPO cash and they’ll go on a shopping spree, if history is a reliable guide.