Aladdin, like the Venetian, likely to overcome initial problems

David Strow

Monday, Aug. 21, 2000 | 11:19 a.m.

It was a scene the Las Vegas Strip had seen just 15 months before -- the newest hotel-casino opening hours behind schedule as last-minute fire and safety tests held up its scheduled soft opening.

Though the Aladdin was far later in its opening than the Venetian -- 16 hours late, compared to the Venetian's three -- Aladdin officials and Wall Street observers expect the Aladdin to overcome its opening night stumble as the Venetian has done over the last 18 months.

"The Venetian proved to us that a difficult start out of the gate doesn't necessarily effect the long-term performance of a property," said Andrew Zarnett, gaming analyst with Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. "These glitches can be overcome.

"The hurdle the Aladdin faces is not necessarily a fire-testing delay, but the ability to compete on the Strip against such heavyweights as MGM MIRAGE and Caesars Palace."

"Why would it have an impact?" said Eric Matejevich, who attended the Thursday night opening. "It was a few hours' delay. I certainly understand a few people would be upset, but ultimately, given new visitation to Las Vegas and the number of folks who don't go to openings ... ultimately the (Aladdin) will do great.

"Every property has some kinks in it when it first opens, and the Aladdin's no exception."

Though later in opening, the Aladdin is in some respects further ahead of the curve than the Venetian was in May 1999. When the Venetian opened, just 320 of its 3,000 rooms were available to the public. Construction and leasing of the Venetian's palatial Grand Canal Shoppes continued for months.

Despite that halting start -- and a subsequent torrent of bad press across the country as a result -- the Venetian regained its footing, recording its first profitable quarter this year, and posting Las Vegas records for average daily room rates.

In contrast to the Venetian's early days, Aladdin officials say they've received approvals for all but 27 suites on the top two floors of the new property. Demand was heavy for these rooms this weekend -- 1,600 of the resort's 2,567 rooms were booked on Friday night. By Saturday and Sunday, this rose to 2,200 booked rooms, 200 more than Aladdin officials initially planned for.

An estimated 30,000 people went through the casino on both Saturday and Sunday. And the Aladdin's 7,000-seat Center for the Performing Arts opened on schedule Saturday, hosting a sold-out concert by Enrique Iglesias.

"Few people realized we have effectively opened in the last 24 hours the equivalent of Caesars (Palace) and Forum (Shops) all at once," said Bill Timmins, the Aladdin's president and chief operating officer.

The 27 high-rollers' suites should come on-line by Labor Day. Restaurant P.F. Chang's is scheduled to open Oct. 16, while the hotel's 1,200-seat showroom should open by year's end. The final element of the Aladdin to open will be the spa, which is planned for completion in early 2001.

Though officials say they warned its opening night guests that some delays could be possible -- and had taken out reservations at nearby hotels, just in case -- they moved to do some damage control with guests. Some guests were able to get into their rooms after midnight Thursday, while the hotel-casino sent out limousines Friday to pick up guests at other properties.

Timmins said the situation on Thursday night was worsened by the difficulty of communicating with the thousands of people that were waiting to get into the Aladdin.

"I think people will forgive us," Timmins said. "We've worked to make it a very safe building. We've tested each system three times over."

Timmins said the Aladdin will make a strong push for invited guests at an official grand opening weekend in mid-October.

Richard Goeglein, chief executive of the Aladdin, said employees were as eager to open as anyone.

"When we told them we would open at 10 a.m. (Friday), they cheered like kids at a football game," Goeglein said. "I've never seen a group of people any more (excited) about what we're doing."

One part of the Aladdin that stood to be hurt the most by angry high-rollers was the London Club, a high-end European gaming salon within the hotel-casino. Alan Goodenough, executive chairman of London Clubs International, said the company had "a number of our good players in town" for the opening -- but said most arrived on Friday, after the property opened.

"We have a long-standing, very personal relationship with these people," Goodenough said. "We've had to make sure our service skills have been brought to bear."

Though confident neither the London Club nor the Aladdin would be hurt by the late opening, Goodenough acknowledged there was some frustration among executives.

"In an ideal world, you want everything to run like clockwork, but life isn't like that, is it?" Goodenough said. "We'd tested these systems up and down ad nauseum ... and for this to happen and give us problems at the last minute was very frustrating and unexpected."

Ironically, that battery of testing continued to cause delays, even after its completion Friday morning. The rescheduled opening at 10 a.m. Friday was delayed yet another hour after an electrical box shorted after repeated testing, Chief Financial Tom Lettero said. This knocked out power to some parts of the casino, including surveillance coverage of part of the casino floor. Without this coverage, the property couldn't open.

Still, several opening day players got an early jump at the property, playing slots at the resort 45 minutes before the 11 a.m. opening. These players were waiting at the hotel lobby entrance to the casino, and had been accidentally let in at 10 a.m., spokesman Fred Lewis said.

Several players played slot machines for a few minutes before being asked to stop, but Lewis said surveillance cameras in the area they were playing were still working.

"Nobody wanted to throw them out, so we let them stay. We just asked them to stop playing," Lewis said.