Las Vegas Review-Journal

You don’t have to play to stay like a high roller

Caesars adds 10 villas as it courts high-end, nongaming clients

- By Todd Prince Las Vegas Review-journal

Caesars Palace is going for gold with its latest renovation.

The 51-year-old hotel-casino has upgraded 10 suites on the 29th floor of the Palace Tower — where Hillary and Bill Clinton stayed last year — to lavish villas to snatch a larger share of the high-end market.

The 10 villas, ranging from 2,750 to 4,085 square feet, have been equipped with $1 million in furnishing­s and decor, including 24-karat gold-plated faucets, gold-leafed designs, $20,000 television sets that slowly open like a curtain and stone bathrooms.

A night at the freshly renovated pads would start at $3,100.

The renovation­s takes the number of villas offered to Caesars’ top gaming clients, celebrity guests and wealthy visitors to 24.

Such rooms have historical­ly been reserved for top gamblers and resident performers, but Caesars is opening them to non-gaming clients to better monetize the property.

“Part of the reason we needed additional product like this is because we made more available to non-gaming customers,” said Caesars Palace General Manager

CAESARS

Sean Mcburney.

Choosing whom to book requires a delicate balancing act, he added.

High rollers would normally generate more for the casino than a wealthy non-gaming guest. But that math can change if the guest is hosting a company meeting or expo that brings hundreds or thousands of people to the property, Mcburney said.

“While the mix is still predominan­tly

gaming guests who occupy theses villas, we have become more sophistica­ted in how we yield this type of product,” he said.

The 10 new villas are smaller than the original 14, which have gained wide popular recognitio­n through movies like the Golden Globe-winning comedy “The Hangover.”

Potential non-gaming clients could include a wealthy individual celebratin­g his bachelor party or a company chief executive seeking to host meetings or a reception during a city convention.

Visitors staying on the 29th floor

have their own private elevator. The hallway entrance has two desks for security guards, though their deployment is discretion­ary. Security cameras are installed in ceiling corners for additional protection.

Guests are ferried to their villas from the airport in a Rolls Royce, Cadillac Escalade or limousine and serviced round-the-clock by a butler team of 65 people that includes staff speaking Arabic, French, Mandarin and Russian, among other languages.

The rooms have been designed to feel like residences rather than hotel

rooms, Mcburney said. Food is a key element of that “at-home” sensation, and orders for ethnic foods from one’s home country are common.

The rooms have been upgraded in lighter and brighter colors, which are particular­ly appealing to Asian visitors, Mcburney said.

The villas were designed by KNA Design and are part of a $100 million renovation of the Palace Tower’s 1,181 rooms.

Contact Todd Prince at tprince@ reviewjour­nal.com or 702-383-0386. Follow @toddprince­tv on Twitte

 ?? Chitose Suzuki ?? Caesars Palace General Manager Sean Mcburney in Room 2900, one of 10 new villas in the the hotel-casino’s Palace Tower. Las Vegas Review-journal
Chitose Suzuki Caesars Palace General Manager Sean Mcburney in Room 2900, one of 10 new villas in the the hotel-casino’s Palace Tower. Las Vegas Review-journal

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