Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s Venetian and Palazzo casino resorts in Las Vegas will join InterContinental Hotels Group Plc’s database and loyalty program, gaining access to travelers who can help fill the properties’ 7,000 suites.
The 10-year accord adds the Las Vegas Strip resorts to InterContinental’s reservation portfolio of about 4,500 hotels, and allows the U.K.-based hotelier’s 52 million Priority Club Rewards and Ambassador members to earn and redeem points when staying there, the companies said today in e-mailed statements.
Las Vegas Sands’ billionaire founder and Chief Executive Officer Sheldon Adelson is seeking to attract new customers to his Vegas resorts as new properties, including CityCenter and Cosmopolitan, add to a glut of luxury rooms. The biggest U.S. casino city is emerging from a record gambling and convention slump that hurt room rates for more than two years.
Las Vegas is the “most requested destination” for InterContinental’s rewards cardholders, the Denham, U.K.-based lodging company said. InterContinental, the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms, also owns Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Hotel Indigo.
The deal gives InterContinental its first Strip casino accommodations and the ability to market the resorts’ convention facilities, Jim Abrahamson, InterContinental’s Americas president, said in a phone interview.
“The group meeting and convention facilities here are without peer,” Abrahamson said. “Vegas is right at the top of the list” for the company’s members, he said.
Boost to Rates
Adding InterContinental’s marketing and booking channels will help Las Vegas Sands boost room rates by increasing demand, Chief Operating Officer Mike Leven said in a phone interview. Capital investment is limited to some information systems, he said.
“This is really a bet on the fact that the right system can produce a lot of business,” Leven said. “Business for Vegas is better, but room rate is not very much better.”
Las Vegas room rates tumbled 29 percent to average $94.02 this year through August from 2007’s peak of $132.09, according to the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. Recent data suggest a recovery has begun.
Las Vegas Strip gambling revenue jumped 21 percent in August. About 25.1 million people visited the Nevada city in the eight months through August, a 2.5 percent increase from a year earlier. Convention attendance is up 2.2 percent and average daily rates at Vegas hotels have gained 1.3 percent this year.
“Our group business bookings are up for 2011, but rate is difficult to get because of the competitive situation,” Leven said. “There’s an awful lot of rooms in Vegas. Visitation is up about 4 percent, but room supply is up 5 percent, and it’s particularly up in our luxury category.”
Las Vegas Sands rose 67 cents to $39.45 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have more than doubled this year. Intercontinental gained 12 pence to 1,225 pence in London and is ahead 37 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Beth Jinks in New York at bjinks1@bloomberg.net
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