Las Vegas Value Strategy: How Virgin Keeps Pricing Clear

Glenn: [00:00:00] Hey, everybody, it’s your hospitality friend Glen here at the incredible Virgin Hotel Las Vegas. My friend Nick gold, executive director of Marketing. First, I want to thank our friends over at Actabl, Actabl, they give you the power to profit. Please check them out at actabl.com. Great to see you.

Nick: [00:00:16] Welcome back. Good to have you again.

Glenn: [00:00:17] It’s great to be here. I’m having fun being here when it’s warm out, but not too darn warm for today. Yeah. And I will say, Nick, it’s great because I haven’t really had a chance to actually experience a lot of what you have to offer besides the restaurants and the casino floor, getting to go out there to the pool area, which is really highly designed to look like a beach. It was absolutely incredible and really started getting me thinking about the overall value proposition of what’s going on here in Las Las Vegas. How are you feeling and competing out there when there’s a lot of negative scrutiny going on in this market?

Nick: [00:00:50] You know, there’s been a lot of negative press about Vegas. Vegas is dead, and we’ve been hearing it now for a while.

Glenn: [00:00:57] And I think they’ve been saying that since 1994.

Nick: [00:01:01] They probably have. But look, you’ve experienced it yourself this weekend. Vegas is not dead. It is anything but dead. You You’ve got sold out shows at spheres, sold out shows at Allegiant. You know, we were sold out this weekend. It’s anything but dead. That is for sure.

Glenn: [00:01:18] I was at the sold out shows at sphere, and I can attest to the amount of crowds that were absolutely all over this town. And you guys. I will say they sold out here on Saturday night. So I’m trying to filter through what the reality is here in Vegas. My sense is that there’s probably more going on at the strip that’s negative than over here. And I think that you guys are seeing what the prices were like at the pool. And the overall experience is you’re really focusing on creating value, not cheap value for what people are experiencing 100%.

Nick: [00:01:54] And, you know, look, people are still coming to Vegas. They’re just not willing to be ripped off anymore, right? You know, they want value for their stake, right?

Glenn: [00:02:02] Because we’re kind of past that. Oh, it’s all right. But I haven’t been out in a while. I got to do this now. It’s just kind of like economic realities are hitting. Exactly.

Nick: [00:02:10] Yeah. And it’s, you know, they want bang for their buck. And that’s what we’re trying to deliver with reasonably priced food and beverage offerings, our cabana prices, you know, during the week at $75 for a local $99 for a non-local.

Glenn: [00:02:26] Seriously.

Nick: [00:02:26] Yeah. It’s, you know, and then you just pay for your food and beverage on top. Everything is very transparent. As always. We’re still free parking, free valet. You know, that’s a rarity now in this town. And something that’s so simple means a lot to people. And we see it time and time again in our reviews. You know great that we have that amenity.

Glenn: [00:02:49] Yeah. And I’ll tell you, you could charge what you want for the rooms, but when you start to add on those other fees, I think it just, it just sucks the life force out of people. And I think it negatively affects their willingness to want to spend while on property and then return.

Nick: [00:03:06] Definitely. And look, you know, resort fees are here to stay. We all have our resort fees, but, you know, we do wonderful flash sales. We’re actually smack bang in the middle of a three day flash sale right now, which is up to 50% off rooms and no resort fee. You know, you take 50% off no resort fee. That makes it incredibly reasonable. Plus the other amenities with the free parking. That’s a bargain.

Glenn: [00:03:32] Yeah, and then people are spending money here on the casino floor and all of the restaurants. Sunday afternoon. It’s usually a getaway time for a lot of the traffic here. But Cassie Beach was pretty packed. And the restaurant was was doing really, really well. So that’s, that’s really nice. How are you thinking about keeping ahead of the trends here? Since the last time I was here in December, I’ve noticed some specific changes, including new restaurant coming and all of that kind of stuff.

Nick: [00:03:57] So we have a couple of new fab concepts coming to light later this year. So you’ll have to come back and check those out.

Glenn: [00:04:04] So that means he’s too polite to tell me to f off. He’s not telling me.

Nick: [00:04:09] Can’t say anything too much right now. But you know, on the casino side and the gaming side, it’s, you know, constantly having those promotions that are going to keep our local casino guests coming in, you know, having those competitive edge edges, you know, with the $5 blackjack, the craps, you know, those are things that your consumer is expecting.

Glenn: [00:04:31] $5 blackjack three two, not six. Five. Correct. Big difference there for people who know, they know. And I’ll say one of the things and one of the negative stories you keep hearing all about that, but one of the positive stories is the local focus. Casinos are breaking records. A couple of the other companies in town are doing that. And that’s because of that value proposition and knowing how to take care of customers and make them feel the love that some other places may not have focused on as much 100%.

Nick: [00:05:03] Vegas used to be very good at looking after their locals, and that kind of died out during the pandemic and didn’t necessarily come back to the full extent that it was before. And it’s something that we’re trying to bring back. And, you know, look at those special deals for locals. And as I said, $75 cabanas during the locals only you know, great room rates, discounts on spas. And, you know, we’ve got more exciting updates specifically for locals to come later this year.

Glenn: [00:05:33] That’s terrific. Because, you know, if you’re industry, you’re working all weekend and stuff. You might have a Tuesday or Wednesday off. You just go chill out by by the pool and at a reasonable price and have a great experience. I love that you’re connecting with locals. It reminds me of back in the day when the nightclub scene was exploding in the late 90s. And every club would have like that locals focused night, for example.

Nick: [00:05:52] Good times.

Glenn: [00:05:52] Yeah. It’s shocking. I still remember those, those times. Anything else that you want to share?

Nick: [00:05:59] No, I think we’re good.

Glenn: [00:06:00] All right. Awesome. Hey, guys, come check this place out. I’m telling you, it’s great. Stay over in the Ruby Tower. That’d be my suggestion. I know this is a business podcast, but I’m focused on chilling and relaxing and great value. When you’re thinking about your businesses, remember what Nick is doing. He’s focused on creating reasons for people to want to coming back, not extracting every single penny for them. And in a world that we’re talking about, total revenue per customer and getting away from the rev par mindset, get into that head, create those great relationships with them like Nick is doing. You’re going to have Saturday nights sold out like they did. It’s very inconvenient for me, but great for them. Thanks so much for tuning in. Check out. Love you guys. Be safe. See you later.