Vegas hotels make presence known on the web

Monday, Dec. 1, 1997 | 9:39 a.m.

Paul Abbo was surfing the World Wide Web one night when he stumbled upon the home page of a Las Vegas resort where he once stayed.

Staring at him from his computer monitor was the image of the Imperial Palace, residing at www2.imperial-palace.com/vegas.index.html on the Web.

On one of the subsequent Web pages, visitors are invited to fill out a form to enter a drawing for a three-day, two-night stay at the resort, a buffet meal, a trip to the resort's car collection and tickets to the IP's "Legends in Concert" show.

Within a few weeks, Abbo had his name placed on the Web page and was congratulated by the resort for winning.

When contacted about the win, Abbo, an attorney from suburban Detroit, just chuckled.

"I thought it was pretty good that I won, but I thought I had actually won something," Abbo said. "When I got the paperwork, it said that I was going to get all these things for $79. I guess that's still a pretty good deal, but I just threw it away."

Although Abbo ultimately didn't take the Imperial Palace up on its offer, the company connected with him in his own home. Unlike junk mail, a website offers information consumers seek out and has become a powerful medium for local resorts competing for visitors.

Las Vegas' resort community is riding the same wave as millions of Web surfers and is using a variety of high-tech tricks to entice visitors to take a glimpse at the site, work with some of the interactive features and, in some cases, book reservations.

"The Internet adds a whole new dimension to tour and travel marketing," said Brad Gardner, managing editor of telecommunications for the National Association of Webmasters, a nonprofit organization that assists site developers with technology and content.

Although he hasn't seen every Las Vegas website, he said it appears many companies are using state-of-the-art technology in their presentations.

Gardner said the technology has advanced for content producers to film their own video and plug it directly onto their pages without a lot of coding. Video clips and online reservation forms are among the most popular features on many tourism-related pages, he said.

One of the appeals of the Internet is that it is society's great equalizer. Anyone with access to it can speak out on the issues of the day on the same stage as the world's policy-makers. Similarly in the corporate world, any company with the resources can establish a Web presence for a global audience.

In Southern Nevada, 39 properties maintain sites, from relatively small operations like the Westward Ho and the Maxim to megaresorts such as Caesars Palace, The Mirage and Circus Circus.

Websites vary

Although the Internet is an equalizer, it's clear that all Las Vegas websites are not created equally.

Circus Circus maintains the largest presence, primarily because each of its properties has its own site. That means Circus Circus-Las Vegas, Luxor, Excalibur and Monte Carlo are present as well as Railroad Pass and Jean's Nevada Landing and the Gold Strike, all under one Circus tent.

Mirage Resorts Inc.'s three Las Vegas properties sparkle in cyberspace as does Caesars Palace, which offers Caesars Interactive Empire.

Hilton and Harrah's have sites for their Southern Nevada properties, but their Web presence is one component in a much larger site that extends beyond the state's borders.

While many of the smaller properties offer basic information on their sites, some of the larger operations have greater resources and produce more gadgets -- dancing three-dimensional logos, video clips and online reservation systems.

Circus Circus even gives a discount to guests who book reservations on the Internet.

"We set it up for the convenience of our guests," said Lori Friel, administrator of Internet services for Circus Circus Enterprises. "A lot of people who come to Las Vegas do their travel planning with their computers, usually from work. I do all my travel booking and banking online."

Circus Circus, which went online about a year ago, has developed one of the most sophisticated reservation systems among Southern Nevada properties, duplicating its program to all of the company's properties. Reservations are collected on a secure server and the encrypted information is e-mailed to a central depository in Los Angeles. From there, information is e-mailed back to the individual properties, which respond to the customer within two days of the request.

Friel said Circus is working toward developing a direct connection reservation system to replace the existing set-up. The company confirms 1,200 to 1,500 online reservations per month.

Flagship Circus Circus-Las Vegas gets the bulk of the online reservations, probably because it offers the lowest rates.

"Much of the traffic we're seeing are Web surfers who are comparison shopping between properties," said Friel. "They're looking for the best rack rate."

And it's hard to beat Circus' best deal for Internet users: $12.50 a night for a room, based on at least a two-night stay. The deal is good through December with a few blackout dates.

Most of the special Internet rates at the other properties are around $10 cheaper than standard rates and the calendar listing blackout dates is posted well into 1998 for travelers making plans for next summer.

Friel said the site, for which she develops content, gets between 350,000 and 400,000 page views per month. Although Circus Circus is the flagship site, Friel said it isn't the best site among the company properties. The Excalibur site, she said, contains the most information while the Monte Carlo -- a property Circus built in a partnership with Mirage Resorts -- is the most artistic site.

Using "surround video" technology, Friel said visitors can take a 360-degree look at the casino, the exterior of the property and the onsite brewery at Monte Carlo.

Retail marketing

Friel said the company is looking into marketing retail products within the sites, but that "retail is a lot more quirky -- sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."

Retail marketing is working for Mirage and Caesars Palace, which are selling logo products to customers from their websites.

"Our purpose initially was to make it a tool for customers to make travel plans," said Michael Wilkins, senior vice president of merchandising and market development at Caesars. "Now, it's a reservation center and we can book show tickets."

The 2 1/2-year-old site is about 200 pages deep and gets "tens of thousands of unique visits per month," according to Wilkins.

Caesars also is using its website to develop a data base of potential customers. On one of the company's Web pages is a questionnaire asking for demographic information. Visitors filling out the form are eligible for a quarterly drawing for a free stay at a Caesars property in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Atlantic City or the Poconos.

Customers also have the ability to "ask the emperor" questions about the property.

"We used to get a lot of questions about room availability and online ticketing, the we've answered most of those questions on the site," said Wilkins. "The amount of e-mail we get now is very limited. We're always looking to improve the site and gather information from our customers. There's a webmaster at each property that can personally add to each of their sites. It can get very static if you don't keep it alive."

While Mirage doesn't have an online reservation system in place, it's on the horizon for the company in 1998.

Jenn Michaels, director of public relations for Mirage Resorts Inc., said the site now steers potential guests to a company that puts together vacation packages for Mirage's three Las Vegas properties, each of which has its own website. Plans are in the works to build pages for Mirage's two newest additions,the Strip's Bellagio and Beau Rivage in Mississippi.

Michaels said Mirage pages get 1.6 million hits per month and the company uses the high visibility to market its signature gear. It, too, has a free-stay giveaway for visitors who sign the Web page guest book.

Mirage is one of the few resort websites to produce video clips that can be downloaded by Internet surfers. The Mirage site offers video of its volcano erupting while the Treasure Island site has a portion of the battle between pirates and the British from Buccaneer Bay. Each clip lasts about 20 seconds. The downside of the clips: Internet users who don't have top-notch equipment have to wait 20 minutes or more to download the video file.

Down the road

Maintaining the presence with new content is the challenge of the marketing tactic.

In the future, Michaels said Mirage plans to develop a site that offers investor information about the company. Circus Circus is also considering additional corporate information on its site and is planning to develop video of one of its circus acts. Unlike Mirage, Circus is planning to use streaming video, which plays the clip as it's downloaded, saving the viewer time.

Friel said Circus may use streaming video for company executives to issue statements on the company's financial status.

Other Las Vegas resort websites have some other unique qualities:

* The MGM Grand's site has an elaborate description of every type of room offered, including the luxury suites.

* The Hard Rock hotel-casino site has a link to TicketMaster's online sale location so that concert-goers can purchase tickets to shows online before they arrive.

* The Westward Ho has a Java applet operating a "Cyber Slot Tournament." Slot tournament winners are eligible for prizes. A Java applet is a piece of software that runs on most personal computers and adds interactivity to the website.

* The Primadonna pages have spectacular photographs of the Desperado roller coaster in action at Buffalo Bill's hotel-casino.

* The Lady Luck posts names of big winners in the casino and how much they won.

* The Tropicana devotes space to its famous swim-up blackjack table. At one time, the property operated a blackjack tournament in cyberspace.

* Visitors to the Boulder Station website can download a coupon for a free trip to its lunch buffet as part of its Boarding Pass slot club promotion.

* Harrah's site offers the "Gaming Tip of the Month," free advice to gamblers.

* New York-New York has a "Catch the Cab" game. It also offers a video clip of its Manhattan Express roller coaster.

* Several websites that promote destinations and activities for Southern Nevada link directly to the resorts or offer their own assessments of the properties. Some stick just to facts while others post opinions from people who have visited. Among the sites: Vegas Deluxe, at http://www.lasvegassun.com, the SUN's website, which offers the largest collection of original content on Las Vegas; and http://www.lasvegas24hours.com, the site of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which also posts links to resort properties.

* Several sites have links to the Weather Channel Online, a site that offers forecasts for visitors who need to know how to dress before they arrive.

* Many sites either have their own gaming instruction or links to sites that offer tips on how to play table games.

The administrators of Las Vegas' resort websites know that the number of surfers is growing and many of them will be like Paul Abbo, the Michigan attorney who just happened to link up with the Imperial Palace while taking a leisurely cruise across cyberspace.

"I've only been doing this for about four months," said Abbo. "But from what I've seen, there are some good deals out there."

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