Paul Szydelko
Countering the perception that Las Vegas is losing its image as a value destination, Downtown Grand is touting several opportunities for guests to get a good deal.
The 1,124-room property's "Welcome Back to the Downtown Deal" includes free parking for hotel guests, gaming customers and dining customers; a Nathan's Famous hot dog and draft Pabst Blue Ribbon for $2; a PBR and a shot of Evan Williams bourbon for $3.50; and a three-course lunch special at the Triple George Grill for just $20.
In stark contrast to the Strip and even some other downtown properties, the casino offers low table minimums for blackjack, roulette and craps. There's even a $25 buy-in blackjack tournament at 3 p.m. every Thursday. Winners get a minimum of $250 for first place, $150 for second and $100 for third; payouts increase based on the number of players.
Many elements were already in place but weren't being promoted, said Andrew Economon, general manager at the Downtown Grand, who noted the casino doesn't make a penny off the blackjack tournament.
"The lower limits for play on the casino floor were kind of a big deal, and no one was paying attention to it," Economon said. "So I started bundling all these things together. And I said this is great; we need to add a couple more things to this to really round it out."
The hot dog and beer special is a throwback to a Strip property that once offered a half-pound, 99-cent hot dog, Economon said. Loss leaders that were once commonplace have become increasingly rare in Las Vegas during the last decade -- what he calls the "accountant era of the Strip," when pricing systems began to reflect finance department imperatives more than the guest experience.
"Everyone started squeezing everything and trying to get the most out of it," he said, noting the onset of parking fees on the Strip in 2016. "Then we started seeing how drinks were being comped, especially at bars where you had video poker and a bartender there. All of a sudden, there are meters on the machines that are indicating that you have to have max play for x number of minutes before you'll get a green light to where you can give someone a drink."
So what is 'value' in Vegas?
There's no question that Las Vegas, the Strip in particular, has become more expensive with high-end food and drink choices, resort fees, parking fees and higher table minimums. "Las Vegas is no longer a 'value destination.' But visitors keep coming," read one recent headline in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "Why You're Losing More to Casinos on the Strip" in the Wall Street Journal also weighed in on the longer odds currently found on many table games.
Nonetheless, "There is value everywhere, even on the Strip. … It's just at a different price point," Economon said. "You're paying something very different to be in Circa [downtown, or a Strip resort], whether it's the cost of your room, the cost of your parking or the betting units that you've got on the table. You're paying for that experience. And that is a value. But that's the value that they created."
Prices and the perceived values are different on the Strip, downtown and off-Strip in neighborhood casinos, noted Anthony F. Lucas, a professor at the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
"Value is such a subjective notion. If you're at the lower end of the market, then those types of value propositions like $5 craps with 10 times odds, $2 hot dogs and stuff like that could be enticing. But if you're in the middle or upper echelon, then that's not going to be valuable to you," Lucas said.
In broader terms for Las Vegas, Lucas said some hotel-casino operators may be girding for a national economic downturn.
"If you're in the camp [with] the idea that we're headed for a recession, then I think you might launch value propositions at any point in the market, whether you're on the Strip, off-Strip or downtown, because discretionary spending is likely to tighten. There may be some casinos that are trying to get ahead of the game a bit."
Economon and Lucas agree that travelers are savvier about prices and can be patient to find perceived value.
"The traveler has become smarter, and they know when our when our rates are going to be down," Economon said. "They plan their trips accordingly. We're coming into the slowest months of the year, which are June, July and August. And that's the same for everybody. We will see an influx of a customer that is a little more value-centric."
Lucas said it's more difficult for customers to assess value on the Strip than other places in the Las Vegas valley because the Strip's prices tend to fluctuate more widely.
"The same hotel room on a holiday weekend is three times what it is on a slow-season weekend," Lucas said. "Because [of] demand; just jack up the price. It's the same room. They do it on table games, too, On the weekend, blackjack is minimum $15 bet, but midweek Tuesday afternoon it's $5. We move the price around all the time. So it makes [determining] the value proposition challenging because now people say, 'Well, I don't know what the "normal price" is.' And I think it's easier to do off-Strip because there's less moving around of those price points. But on the Strip, it's really tough."