The first of these brands appeared in February in an updated tower in Caesars Palace: the 181-room Nobu Hotel, which has the world’s largest Nobu Restaurant and Lounge and was created by the chef Nobu Matsuhisa and Nobu Hospitality, with Caesars Entertainment.
Caesars is also working with the Gansevoort Hotel Group to update another older property. Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon, in the heart of the Strip, will be transformed into the 188-room Gansevoort Las Vegas, with clubs run by the club owner Victor Drai and a small 40,000-square-foot casino. The hotel is expected to open in early 2014.
Two other Las Vegas hotels will open under well-known boutique brands, although they will have thousands of rooms in more typical Vegas fashion. MGM Resorts International and Morgans Hotel Group will open the Delano Las Vegas late this year in an existing property owned by MGM: THEhotel at the Mandalay Bay resort. And in 2014, under its SLS brand, the hospitality company SBE will open a mixed-use resort and casino at the former Sahara Hotel and Casino on the northern end of the Strip.
Developers have turned their sights toward boutique hotels for several reasons. The convention business, which demands big-box hotels, has fallen off since the 2008 economic downturn, and smaller hotels have become a logical alternative. At the same time, the changing demographics of visitors to Las Vegas have made fine dining — a crucial component in most boutique hotels — a more important part of the Las Vegas travel experience.
Las Vegas visitors seem to have taken well to the boutique aesthetic. At Nobu, rates start at $249 a night, though they fluctuate depending on hotel occupancy. Occupancy has been in the low- to mid-90 percent level since its soft opening in February, said Gary Selesner, a regional president for Caesars Palace. In general in Las Vegas, which has added about 17,500 hotel rooms since the financial crisis of 2008, citywide occupancy has dropped to 84 percent, while rates have plunged even further, from $132.09 a night at their height in 2007 to $108.08 a night in 2012.
Several branded boutique hotels were planned even before the recession, though those projects succumbed to the economic malaise and were stalled, said Thomas P. McConnell, an executive managing director of the global hospitality group at Cushman Wakefield Equity, Debt and Structured Finance.
Elsewhere in the country, boutique hotels have been opening in the central business districts of larger cities, but Las Vegas may be particularly ripe for them as food and beverages have become more important to the way visitors — especially younger visitors — experience the city.
“Going back 20 years, for a long time, Vegas was all about the gaming floor,” said Scott Berman, the United States hospitality and leisure practice leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers. “The majority of revenues came from the gaming floor, but over time, you’ve seen retail, and food and beverage, and obviously hotels become more important to the overall economic equation.”
With megaclubs like Hakkasan Las Vegas and Light opening this month, the city’s club scene has also grown exponentially. And boutique hotels are part and parcel of that type of social scene, Mr. Selesner said.
“The demographics in Las Vegas continue to change,” he said. “There are more younger people coming for other than the traditional reason to come to Las Vegas, which used to be gambling. They’re coming for nightclubs, restaurants, and bar and pool experiences, and when they travel, they tend to stay in these boutique hotels.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 16, 2013
An earlier version of this article misstated the name of the chef who created the Nobu Hotel. It is Nobu Matsuhisa, not Bobu.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/realestate/commercial/as-las-vegas-evolves-boutique-hotels-gain-status.html?partner=rss&emc=rss