Casinos license website to sell rooms

Wednesday, March 13, 2002 | 10:58 a.m.

Two major casino-resort companies have signed a licensing agreement allowing them to control the LasVegas.com Internet website and to use the site to sell hotel rooms and other travel products.

Mandalay Resort Group and Park Place Entertainment Corp., which between them operate nine Las Vegas hotel-casinos, signed the agreement with Stephens Media Group, Little Rock, Ark., owner of LasVegas.com and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Internet site is being reconfigured and the new design controlled by the casino giants is expected to be unveiled by the end of the year.

Under the agreement, Park Place and Mandalay have an equal stake in a newly formed company, LasVegas.com LLC, to license the site from Stephens. The Review-Journal will be linked from the LasVegas.com site.

"Online marketing opportunities will be designed to attract the widest range of Las Vegas hotel room and travel providers, including those that are independent of the Mandalay and Park Place organizations," Stephens said in a statement.

Park Place and Mandalay already sell rooms on other Internet sites, including VEGAS.com, which is owned by the Greenspun family, owner of the Las Vegas Sun.

Just as LasVegas.com has been a portal linking to the Review-Joural, VEGAS.com is a portal providing tourism and local information and linking to the Sun and other Greenspun publications.

Howard Lefkowitz, president of VEGAS.com, said the LasVegas.com deal validates the use of the Internet to book hotel rooms.

"A rising tide brings up all boats," Lefkowitz said. "We're thrilled to see this kind of acceptance of the Internet in the community."

He said Park Place and Mandalay properties would continue to sell their rooms on VEGAS.com and other Internet sites.

"Competition is a good thing," Lefkowitz said. "It makes everybody sharper. You play your best tennis when you're going up against better players."

Mandalay Resort Group operates Circus Circus, Excalibur, Luxor and the Mandalay Bay hotel-casinos and has a half interest in the Monte Carlo. Park Place runs the Las Vegas Hilton, the Flamingo, Caesars Palace, Bally's and the Paris Las Vegas hotel-casinos.

Park Place and Mandalay are two of the city's three largest owners of hotel rooms. The third -- a company not involved in this deal -- is MGM MIRAGE.

MGM MIRAGE spokesman Alan Feldman didn't comment on whether MGM MIRAGE had discussions with Stephens Media. But he said MGM MIRAGE had a different Internet marketing strategy in mind than competitors Park Place and Mandalay.

"On balance, our brands are stronger in the marketplace than those of our colleagues at other companies," Feldman said. "We know for a fact people seek out the Bellagio, Mirage, New York-New York, while they're in Las Vegas, as opposed to a purchase cycle that says, 'I want to go to Vegas, where's a room that fits my budget needs?"'

"Our Internet marketing strategy is less based on inventory than reinforcing the brand," he said. "Simply assigning inventory to another seller doesn't necessarily reinforce the brand."

MGM MIRAGE properties are currently advertised on both VEGAS.com and LasVegas.com.