SLS makes a believer

It took a while but SLS Las Vegas has made a believer of me. The hotel crossed the Rubicon this past Tuesday when it began taking reservations. It also trotted out a handsome new Web site, one which gives an idea of the market positioning SBE is going to attempt: stressing newness while drenching the customer in nostalgic mentions of the Rat Pack, Judy Garland and The Beatles. August 25 is the day when the rubber meets the road at SLS and rooms are priced to move ($109 midweek and $139 on weekends, subject to certain conditions). It’s nice to know that the SLS folks haven’t drunk their own bathwater. They’ve targeted the Vegas tourist’s weakest spot: His wallet.

To say SLS offers variety is something of an understatment: There are 25 different iterations of hotel room (all looking very plush) and 15 varieties of suite. Two of eight marketing offers are locals-only and, between seven restaurants and five nightspots, it’s easy to see why gambling is an afterthought in SLS’ business plan, intended to account for only 30% of revenue. (The casino pages are so bland and generic, it makes you realize that it’s the one place where SLS will be really hard-pressed to differentiate itself from the herd.)

Remember,  a full reinvention of the Sahara was budgeted at $750 million and Sam Nazarian only borrowed $415 million, so it remains to be seen what has been left out. (President Rob Oseland ducked this question when I put it to him recently.). God bless the SLS powers that be, anyway, for including a gallery of pictures of the old Sahara on their media pages, which also include some amazingly over-the top gush. It’s almost enough to make me forgive The Naz for running the Sahara into the ground, ripping up House of Lords and destroying the most beautiful casino floor in Las Vegas. Almost.

Can a new, Art Deco look and 151-proof daiquiris make the difference for small Reno casino? Let’s hope so.