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Apr. 20, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Gone are the days of the cheap buffet

City continues to push for luxury in hotels, restaurants, entertainment

By JENNIFER ROBISON
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Joël Robuchon at the MGM Grand is considered the most expensive restaurant in Las Vegas, at $360 per person.
Photo by Craig L. Moran



Caesars Palace was the first resort to promote an "immersive" tourism experience.
Photo by Craig L. Moran

If you're looking to drop $360 per person on dinner, Joël Robuchon at the MGM Grand has you covered.

Caesars Palace can satisfy your urge to spend $250 per ticket on a show; that's the going rate for extravaganzas featuring Elton John and Bette Midler.

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    • And if a Big Mac is too down-market for you, then head over to Daniel Boulud Brasserie inside the Wynn Las Vegas for a $120 double-truffle burger.

    What we can't help you track down, though, is a $6.99 steak or a $2.99 buffet.

    That's because those Vegas inventions have gone the way of the Dunes and the Desert Inn. In their place are five-star and five-diamond restaurants, hotel rooms that'll cost you a mortgage payment and Broadway-level show prices.

    The move toward luxury in Las Vegas isn't merely a cynical ploy to shake down tourists for ever-more dollars, experts say. The upscaling of Las Vegas is also about survival.

    As video poker and slot machines proliferated in racetracks and casinos around the country in the 1980s and 1990s, resorts on the Strip needed to add something new to their offerings, said David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

    "No one will fly for four hours to play a slot machine anymore," says Schwartz, "but they will fly four hours to stay in a luxury hotel."

    So when did Las Vegas begin its march toward luxury?

    Anthony Curtis, president of tourist-advice center LasVegasAdvisor.com, pegs the evolution's start to the opening of The Mirage in 1989.

    The hotel's developer, Steve Wynn, built a resort that emphasized fine dining, high-end hotel rooms and nongaming attractions such as animal habitats to move the property away from a heavy reliance on gambling win. Legend had it The Mirage would need to take in $1 million a day to profit -- and it did so "with ease," Curtis says. Other local resort operators took notice.

    "They saw little price resistance from consumers at The Mirage," Curtis says. "These corporations and people who run the big casinos, it's their job to extract money from tourists. They looked at The Mirage and said, 'Wow, we don't just have to get gamblers in the casino to make a profit.' The upscaling of Las Vegas was really about making money in other departments -- dining, shopping, entertainment and rooms."

    Thus did a spate of higher-end casinos come online beginning in the late 1990s. Among the luxe new properties were Mandalay Bay and Wynn's Bellagio in 1998, and The Venetian in 2000. Out went $59-a-night Strip rooms, and in came $200- and $300-a-night suites.

    Schwartz believes Las Vegas' luxury beginnings actually were forged in 1966, when Caesars Palace opened. Caesars Palace was the first resort to ditch the standard casino-nightclub amenity package and go instead for an "immersive" tourism experience.

    Caesars Palace today continues to typify luxury in Las Vegas. Its Forum Shops is the nation's highest-grossing shopping center. It continues to add posh hotel rooms; the 648-square-foot deluxe accommodations in its two-year-old Augustus tower come with multiple flat-screen televisions, spa tubs and high-speed Internet access. The cost: anywhere from $300 to $780 a night on weekends.

    But Caesars Palace and its high-end confreres are hardly the last word in local luxury.

    A coming wave of megaresorts promises to push the city to new high-end heights. The Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, MGM Mirage's CityCenter, and Boyd Gaming Corp.'s Echelon all promise costly rooms, boutique shops and fine restaurants.

    If budget offerings on the Strip are an endangered species, that's not necessarily a bad thing, industry watchers say.

    Las Vegas has thrived by evolving with consumers' tastes, Curtis says, and what many consumers want today is a luxury experience.

    Besides, think about what Las Vegas would be today if it hadn't gone high-end.

    "It would be a bigger version of Laughlin," Schwartz says.

    The upscaling of the Strip also could benefit the rest of Las Vegas. Consumers in search of cheaper hotel rooms already are heading downtown and to locals casinos outside the resort corridor, giving those areas a boost, Schwartz says.

    Nor is it altogether accurate to say that Las Vegas has completely surrendered its status as a good vacation value, Curtis says. A consumer who has $5,000 to drop on a trip will find that her dollar goes a lot farther in Las Vegas than it would go in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tokyo or London, among other world destinations, he says.

    And a quick search of travel sites on the Internet will show that packages combining air travel and hotel rooms can offer similar price ranges at properties as disparate as the Excalibur and Bellagio, Schwartz says. Vacationers just need to be savvy in their research, and they might need flexibility in their travel dates as well.

    In the long run, where there's demand in a segment, there'll be options, Schwartz says. If local resort operators sense a large, untapped market of budget travelers looking for deals, they'll build to accommodate them.

    "Letting the market meet consumers' needs has really been the formula for Las Vegas' success," Schwartz says.

    Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.



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    mark kassuba wrote on April 22, 2008 11:11 AM: Try going to Ellis Island Casino, which is behind the Paris and Bally's casino on Koval Lane. Also, get a block or two off the main strip and things get much cheaper, several places downtown to go cheaply.


    David wrote on April 21, 2008 10:16 PM: The days of the $4.99 buffet may be over but there are still ways to save a lot of money on meals during your next Vegas vacation. The easiest and best way to start saving is using coupons! Vegas is a coupon wonderland and just about every casino has coupons to give away. Never pay full price!

    You can read my tips on how to eat cheap in Vegas and how to get valuable coupons that will help save you money.

    Visit Big Vegas Buffet
    http://www.bigvegasbuffet.com


    ET wrote on April 21, 2008 12:02 AM: The vote is in, LV is trying something new,It's a flop tax revenue is down ,why,cause the idiots running the show raised prices and ?,gone are the affordable drinks ,meals and rooms . LV is falling,nobody comes to Vegas.$ 10.00 drinks have replaced $ 1.00 drinks ,$ 300.00 rooms have replaced $ 30.00 rooms, Vegas is falling apart due to GREED,so throw our the GREEEDY punks and lets get back to business as usual.


    Noel wrote on April 20, 2008 07:20 PM: Nobody is forcing you guys to stay in Wynn's 1000ft luxury suites or eat at Joel's restaurant, you do have multiple choices........

    there is still $50 rooms at the orleans or the South Point. You can stay in the Flamingo for less than $100 a night and eat lunch buffet in gold coast for $7.50 or $10 in the rio with the coupon available everywhere.

    las vegas like curtis says is still a hell of alot cheaper than the likes of New York or London where you will pay $200 a night for a run-down hotel room that you can't even swing a cat in


    urnuts wrote on April 20, 2008 06:38 PM: We have to face the facts that as locals living in town; we are being pushed out by the big corporations that are only looking for the mighty dollar. Fools and their money are soon parted. WELOCOME TO HELL!!!!!!!!


    Frank wrote on April 20, 2008 04:34 PM: Having read all about the consumer not flying 4 hours to gamble, but rathr spend their money in renting a room, dining, shopping, etc., does not make any sense. Las Vegas is so over valued and priced why not travel to Mississippi and other states where prices and quality last a lot longer.


    walt wrote on April 20, 2008 11:56 AM: SOME HIGH ROLLERS WILL SIMPLY TRY MACUA.U.S. MID ROLLERS WILL UTILIZE THEIR LOCAL GAMBLING OPTIONS AROUND THE COUNTRY.


    Scotto97 wrote on April 20, 2008 10:45 AM: Reality - You're 100% dead on. I fear Vegas is really overpricing itself out of the market. You've got to ask yourself if they're going to run out of stupid millionaires (or people that think they are).

    I was at the LAX nightclub last night - what a sham, doormen wanted a $200 tip to let a bachelor party of 12 in - plus a cover of $30 apiece. That's just nuts. The place had no atmosphere - just everyone standing around. No place to dance because the "VIP" areas took up all the space.


    GOD wrote on April 20, 2008 09:03 AM: A suffering economy plus casinos and restaurants (and most aren't even that good) fleecing patrons equals bad news for ALL.


    BuffaloBob wrote on April 20, 2008 08:48 AM: I agree with Randy and Reality. Why the hell would you fly into the desert to pay $400 a nite for a room and $300 pp for food. Hell I can do this here in Chicago! The reason I used to coem the Vegas was because it was "reasonable" and I could gamble! Indian Casinos, and discounted air/stay packages for other places make Vegas too costly for me. I nor anyone I have talked to lately say, with costs at these levels, they are not goting to fly all the way there to be drained dry for food and rooms with little left for gaming! I attended the World of Concrete Covention in 2008. There were plenty of complaints about the costs from conventioneers! I know my outfit and two others are saying to the organization, let's go someplace else, the town too expensive and too much of a pain in the ass to get to for us to pay these prices!


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