FORUM CHALLENGE: What would YOU do differently?

[Andrew@LasVegasNightclubs]

Completely as expected, Tropicana is taking a bit of a sarcastic beating in the media for rotating through three nightlife brands in a handful of months. Now, as with the Nikki and RPM, the general attitude of locals and the press alike is "how long will this one last?"

While I appreciate what they've done with the property itself, I strongly believe that not all resorts on The Strip can competitively support nightlife. As an example, I would eat my left shoe if a nightclub were successful at Flamingo, Excalibur, LVH, or The Stratosphere. It isn't that those are bad properties, it is that they are each iconically branded, older, and have long catered to a specific clientele.

Unfortunately, much like a CEO of a plumbing company saying "whats this twitter thing? we need to get on that," it seems like hotel management is stuck on the idea that because nightlife is the big thing on the strip, they need to have it too.

This brings us to our FORUM MEMBER CHALLENGE!

Rather than sit on the sidelines and throw eggs at other people's efforts, let's sit on the sidelines and contemplate what we would do differently!

If you were suddenly in charge of nightlife at each of the below properties, what would YOU do to make a venue successful? You've got a decent budget, the support of the hotel, and can do whatever you want so long as it is 1) legal and 2) doesn't hurt gaming revenues.


Excalibur:

Stratosphere:

Flamingo:

LVH (The Hilton):

Hooters:

Tropicana:

Plaza (Downtown):

[Chuck]

I think any of those properties could pull off a nightclub in training pants. At the end of the day, they're never going to compete with the Tier 1 clubs. They are budget minded hotels and should have nightlife options to match.

There are probably a LOT of people that come to Vegas that fall into one of these groups:

1. Can't drop the coin for BS or $20 drinks at a Tier 1 club
2. Are intimidated by the Tier 1 club
3. Are uneasy about whether or not they are too old for a Tier 1 club

I think all of these groups have the desire to go hard in Vegas but end up doing it in their room, at a Penny Slot, or (as I've done before) off strip with some nice locals. One of my best Vegas trips by the way.

Look to The Nugget downtown...I think they opened up a nightlife spot that fits my thinking. Have some nice digs, a little flash and dash, find a DJ willing to play some tunes from the 90's, and offer a $100 bottle special. Promote with the discount Vegas sites and watch the money roll in.

[presto]

IMO all those places are better suited for ultralounges and bars. Less uptight about dress code, more laidback environment, no insane crowds inside or out. more of a place to just hang out, drink with friends, and enjoy the night.. instead of your typical rage and black out scene at the tier 1's.

[WiscoBrad]

I think that with the amount of old f$%kers like me that still enjoy partying that an 80's club would go good. There seems to be an 80's resurgence lately.

A club that appeals specifically to people over 30 would do well... it's nice to party with you young pups, but it might be cool to party with the 30-40 crowd sometimes as well, without having to sit at a boring assed 'Ultra' lounge. Ultra lounges remind me of retirement home cafeterias that serve booze.

[IRockNvegas]

Simple free admission and drinks for girls all night. Oh and maybe pass out free girls gone wild t-shirts lol.

Reem the crap our of guys with cover and bs.

[MangoPort]

Excalibur:

Stratosphere:

Flamingo:

LVH (The Hilton):

Hooters:

Tropicana:

Plaza (Downtown):

Sometimes you can't truly rebrand a hotel - Treasure Island somewhat tried by changing it from a "campy family hotel" to 'Slutty Pirates', but revenues are still down.

Here's what I would do:
Excalibur - their market is family friendly, so you've gotta keep any nightlife activities for the older crowd that has kids. Mid-30s - late 40's. I think they've done a decent job with the Lynard Skynard BBQ joint.

Flamingo - can't compete with high end places but it's location is killer. Aim to keep it "best value" on the strip. Large nightclub with friendly bouncers and $150 / bottles and I think it could be a very fun place to go. Has to keep costs down, so don't expect a $50 million nightclub venture.

Tropicana - Same with flamingo except it needs a LOT more marketing and the hotel venue has to entirely cater to early 20 somethings / college kids. Again, you won't get the high end crowd so you need to go younger and cheaper, as well as have enough venues on the property that people will actually stay here; this means a new burger joint, a better buffet and a bar with 100+ kinds of beer. Trying to make it the latest high end club is retarded; go for cheaper and bigger.


Stratosphere - I think it's goal should be to try and keep costs low and turn a steady profit until it's torn down. Everything needs to be changed.

[redbullvodka]

For the trop it's easy... I said this before too. Go hip hop. Not my thing but theres definately a market for hip hop. Every other day theres someone on here asking for hip hop. Crown is making money and selling out. Nothing in the strip though.

Revive the poetry brand and people will come.

[timbuck2]

I would turn the entire casino floor into a dance party from 9 pm until midnight.
Keep the gaming tables open but make it a full blown party. No cover. Free drinks if you are gambling. A few dance floors / stripper poles.
Don't need a "Big Name" DJ but need to play some current dance tracks and some old school stuff.
Relax the dress code but don't let the "Gangster's or Hillbilly's" on the dance floor.

[Chuck]

I think that with the amount of old f$%kers like me that still enjoy partying that an 80's club would go good. There seems to be an 80's resurgence lately.

A club that appeals specifically to people over 30 would do well... it's nice to party with you young pups, but it might be cool to party with the 30-40 crowd sometimes as well, without having to sit at a boring assed 'Ultra' lounge. Ultra lounges remind me of retirement home cafeterias that serve booze.

Word...call it Nostalgia

[It was all a dream]

Yeah, I definately think less for bottles will attract more of a 20 something crowd. Its stupid that I can go to marquee or any tier 1 in vegas and pay the same amount for a bottle as i do in a tier 2/3. Supply and demand. I thought RPM was really nice inside. I didnt see anything wrong with the brand. I just think the crowd kind of sucked. I think having a place were my generation can party like gods is a huge draw. It's like the techno clubs that are 17/18 and up. They are killing it every weekend because there isnt anywhere else to go. The 30 year old people who are established and can afford to pay 500$ a bottle are not going to want to go to trop and do so. They want to go to marquee/xs ect. I also think the free/cheep drinks and admission for girls is a good idea. As well as changing over to a rap/hip hop format or a techno/house format would be good. You can go anywhere on the strip and find top 40. The smaller/off-brand places should not be trying to compete with marquee or xs because you will never win. They are to new and "in" and have to much money backing them. I think thursday 80's, friday hip hop, saturday techno would be really good. Offer everything that the mega clubs dont.

[Andrew@LasVegasNightclubs]

As kind of a mass reply to the above posts...

- I think Coyote Ugly and Rockhouse should serve as an example of what places like Excalibur and Flamingo could pull off.

- Stratosphere and Hilton / LVH can't support anything that isn't a glorified hotel bar, because they don't have the foot traffic, and not too many people are going to make the effort to go there for nightlife. Certainly not a line of table service customers.

- Wisco: Stratosphere opened a 70's / 80's / 90's themed club several years ago, Pollyesthers. They even had an OJ Simpson themed Bronco for bottle service. Venue was constantly dead and closed fairly quickly.

- Tropicana is one of those places that I've really been wanting to believe nightlife can work at, in spite of knowing better. Club Nikki had about a 30% chance of making it - even had one of the coolest grand openings I've ever seen, but was a ghost town a week later. The only thing RPM had going for it was a very talented hosting team, but that wasn't enough to meet the hotel's goals. Now they are making a huge mistake in rushing the Bagatelle brand in before they actually redo that portion of the hotel. I would have 110%, without question, let RPM / SPF run it's course throughout this year (I mentioned this to them, actually). Instead of building hype about Bagatelle coming in, they allowed the tone of the conversation to be "how long until this one fails." I have nothing but respect for the people they've brought in for that one, but I'm giving it a 1/5 chance.

- As far as low minimums, the problem with this is that as the popular clubs age a bit amongst new competition, it is easier and easier for people to get great deals at places that are already well branded. There are plenty of examples of this, but Eye Candy at Mandalay Bay is a great one. Is a SICK center bar, high-tech tables, no stress dress code, low minimums, marketing support from the hotel, etc.....flopped. Venus, Ace of Spades, Fever (ha!), Pollyesthers, Club Nikki....all similar stories. The only place that has done a good job focusing on low minimums is Rok at NY NY.

- Hip Hop is a tricky one. There is absolutely no question that there is a massive, eager, and ready to party market within the hip hop community. When managed correctly, it can work. One of our forum members, DJ Masterweb, is easily the most successful hip hop promoter in Las Vegas, and turned a struggling venue into one that had lines of people hundreds deep. Even still, and I'm sure he would agree, having hip hop in the Las Vegas hotels faces numerous hurdles. Some legitimate, others falsely based on racism.

- The other elephant in the room is that many of these hotels cater to a middle aged, middle america clientele. If they try and push too hard towards nightlife, the sentiment from the old fogies is "well, it sounds like they don't want us there any more."

[YellowandNavy]

All of those locations should consider hiring a team or company who does great demographic analysis for their hotel clientele. And after these analysis they should shape their nightlife options to cater to these specific clientele type who chooses their property for stay. I am pretty sure it is clear that far as nightlife goes to these places not going to attract people who stays at Cosmopolitan, Wynncore, Venetian/Palazzo etc.

Most of these locations usually serves to either people who has low budget, people who passed the certain age limit, people of simple life from their small midwest towns, just there for being the typical ''tourist'' who doesn't care about clubs, nightlife etc.. (wakes up at 8, goes to sight seeings and goes back to bed around 10 type of people)

On one my of my recent trips I was dragged to Toby Keith's bar in Harrah's by my country lover friends and it was jam packed in there with people who either loved Toby Keith or who passionately loved country music and that lifestyle, same property Harrah's also has Carnival Court which is focused on flair bartenders, live music, karaoke which attracts people and I see that place being pretty busy all the time.

So those places should look into spending their resources on places with themes that can attract those certain demographics (country bar/club or latina bar/club etc.) or look into franchises like in Toby Keith's bar example or as suggested above stick with your typical hip-hop club. And with your nighlife joints make sure that you have a laidback dress code !! For older crowds piano bars, jazz/blues bars can be considered.

Now if you want to still compete with other nightlife giants out there you have to do something really extraordinary that will truly ''wow'' people.

[Andrew@LasVegasNightclubs]

Yellowandnavy: I fully agree with everything you said. Nightlife doesn't have to mean bottle service and deadmau5, and many of the hotel operators can't get past that idea.

I personally think the Tropicana would have been well-suited to go after the gay market.

[WiscoBrad]

Ahh, didn't know about Pollyesters. Only been coming to Vegas for like 5 years =(

I always though it would be cool to have a club that was done up like a cold-war bunker. Hot waitresses in skimpy Russian militray uniforms serving drinks while 80's music plays... Then I realized that the only draw would be the ambiance, and once you've seen it, there would be nothing additional to bring you back in =( This is why I work with computers instead of design mega clubs =)

[KP3]

For the trop it's easy... I said this before too. Go hip hop. Not my thing but theres definately a market for hip hop. Every other day theres someone on here asking for hip hop. Crown is making money and selling out. Nothing in the strip though.

Revive the poetry brand and people will come.

Sounds like a good idea to me....