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Monday, Nov. 9, 2009 | 10:38 a.m.
The owner of the Riviera hotel-casino in Las Vegas today said it continues to work on restructuring its $281 million debt in hopes of avoiding a Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring.
Riviera Holdings Corp., however, said there's no assurance a bankruptcy filing can be avoided as it remains in default on loans and as it reported dismal third-quarter financial results for its 2,075-room Las Vegas property on the Strip.
The Las Vegas Riviera was pounded by the recession, with quarterly revenue falling from $30.2 million in 2008 to $22.6 million this year.
Occupancy at its Las Vegas hotel fell from 87.1 percent to 76.7 percent, while average room rates tumbled 20.8 percent to $59.51.
Riviera Holdings also owns a casino in Black Hawk, Colo., with 750 slot machines and nine table games. Revenue there was up from $10 million in 2008's third quarter to $12 million in the 2009 quarter.
Overall, Riviera Holdings in the quarter lost $4.67 million or 38 cents per share vs. a loss in the year-ago quarter of $3.46 million or 28 cents per share, as net revenue of $34.6 million was down from $40.2 million.
"We believe that due to a number of factors affecting consumers, including but not limited to a slowdown in global economies, contracting credit markets and reduced consumer spending, the outlook for the gaming and hospitality industries remains highly uncertain. Based on these adverse circumstances, we believe that the company will continue to experience lower than expected hotel occupancy rates and casino volumes," Riviera Holdings said in its quarterly financial report.
"As a result of the economic factors and the defaults on the credit facility, there is substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern," the company said.
With its glass, star-lit exterior, visitors can't miss the Riviera when driving down the Strip. As the first high-rise to open on the Las Vegas Strip, featuring a nine-story hotel, the Riviera has seen more than 50 years as an entertainment destination in Las Vegas. Top bill acts like Liberace, Dean Martin and the long-running Splash revue (closed in 2006) have graced its showrooms over time.
The Riviera still offers its share of entertainment options with topless revue "Crazy Girls," a comedy club and "Illusions," starring Jan Rouven.
The 100,000-square foot casino has been featured in many films like "Casino," "Austin Powers" and "21." Although the hotel has passed through a long list of owners over the years it has always held on to it's unique theme (for Las Vegas) in that it lacks any particular theme. It also features a William Hill Race & Sports Book walk-up betting window right off the sidewalk on the Strip.
The Riviera has dining options well covered, from seafood and steaks at R Steak and Seafood, a variety of breakfast, lunch and dinner fare at Banana Leaf Café to an international cuisine at the R Buffet.
I got a simple idea. Maybe you should sell Coronoa. It is only a very popular drink in Vegas. How can a Vegas casino not sell it. Also, maybe you should either raise the odds on your craps, from 2x, our lower your limits. I could go across the street to Slots of Fun and get the same odds, but 2 dollar limit.Robert Vannucci your charging a ten dollar min for 2x odds!!! Across the street is 2 dollar limit and same odds. Even circus circus has 3x4x5 with 5 min. Riviera, as a stock holder I am very disappointed with the operations that my girlfriend and I see. How about the booths in the cafe? Lets change those. Those booths remind me of a circus. I would sell my stock, but it's delisted. Sorry for your investment, Mr. Stevens.
Casino smells like a wet street cat; rooms appear that a blind grandmother decorated them; restaurant selection is rivaled only by a rundown strip mall - I just don't understand how a gem like this is losing money. Oh yes, because time and customers have passed it by.
i own stock in this company and even i think it's a dump.
First I must agree with stratboy all so true. I have been a very loyal patron of the Riviera for at least 20 years. I sure would hate to see her go. Such a small part of the old Vegas Strip is left, how sad! Yes Mr. CEO, Mr.CFO, and board lets get back to the good old days. Lower your limits, change your odds,un tighten the slots and see people flock back too you.
I ended up at a conference at the Riveria about a year ago and wondered how the heck it hadn't gone under already. The place was awful - "wet street car" barely begins to describe the smells I felt emanated from the casino floor. The thing was though that the conference facilities themselves were by comparison not that bad. It was a shame to have the experience ruined each day by having to walk down a hall with people trying to sell items like they are in a middle eastern market every afternoon.
Blow it up - build another - let it go the Vegas way. Vegas icons are nice to have but not when you let them go into disrepair like the Riviera has.
Riviera should go after Latin Market...Hispanic Market...shows, restaurants, bi-lingual staff...no one pays any attention to this market segment.
Rooms are surprisingly nice, at least the tower that I was in. The casino interior needs some reworking. The parking situation is not the best. What is strange that they offer zero deals, discounts, nothing when you stay there.
I wish them luck as they are in a good location and their prices are reasonable.
"Riviera should go after Latin Market...Hispanic Market...shows, restaurants, bi-lingual staff...no one pays any attention to this market segment."
New name - "Mayan Riveria"? Tony Orlando performing nightly...
$281 million? From what?!? They obviously haven't been remodeling this place! In fact, the only thing I've read about is some automated "gravy" machine they were touting that allowed them to fire their sauciers.
Riviera: It's the "Moulin Rouge" of the Strip!
If you can find a table game there that is worth playing, and play more than chump change, you get two suits staring you down like they don't want the business. I guess maybe they really don't want the business. The rude, hostile employees need to be fired and this dump needs to be imploded.
And so it begins. The main casino/hotels is getting the lion-share of the visitors that remain. The second-tier players that competed on inexpensive room rates are having to lower their rates even further. Now they are sucking wind. They do need to look at other ways to compete other than by room rates.
The Riviera is so ugly that even Dan Tanna never goes anywhere near it in the "Vegas" dvd box set.
It will all be better when City opens. right?
Yes it will. You are slowly seeing the light.
Rude, hostile employees are standard operating procedure for Las Vegas.
I watched it being built in the middle 1950's.
The Strip's first high rise.
If the McDonald's inside returns to 80s price levels it might be worth a check-for-a-quick-bite. The Poker Room needs to spread 1-4-8-8 hold'em with a 3 dollar max rake (5 per cent increments 1 at 20- 2nd at 40 , 3rd at 60 and cap) and there must be some Optimum Play Videopoker machines and full pay machines with progressives. 3-4-5x odds on craps and multi-deck b-j with 3-to-2 payouts on the b-j, 5 dollar minimum, 10 dollar minimum in the swing shift. Buffet costs 6.99 for breakfast, 9.99 for lunch and 12.99 for dinner plus room rates at 39.99 during the week and 59.99 on the weekend. Vending machines on the hotel floors with softdrinks available at 1.25 per bottle and I guess that's about it to make the games go on and the people walk in again.
If you need somebody to run the casino floor, please call me.
From Switzerland
summary: A hotel that never tried to follow the time change needs to freeze the price level at the decade it was at its peak, leave everything as it was by then and try to keep the clients that once were loyal to the Riviera. Lounge music needs to be brought back the same singers and people should feel that something's going on there. Rivera was once a super hotel. Let's bring back the good old times....
From Switzerland
i've posted this same rant many times, but you want to see in 20 seconds why this place is in such trouble?
go there at 12:09 on a saturday morning and look at how long the line is to check in. there's 4 kiosks...for 100 people...that nobody over the age of 50 knows how to use.
stevem, I'm 50, and as you noted, I despise kiosks. Then again, the check-in line at 10:00 on a Friday night at Imperial Palace is unbearable too. Made me realize why I ususlly drive in Sunday evening (While 99% of the traffic on the 15 is headed the opposite direction) and go home to Calif. on Wednesday.
I used to like gambling at the Riviera. Never won big, but usually won something.
Are there any old style Las Vegas lounges left, with a classic lounge singer, or do they all have these "exclusive" trendy clubs now?
The Riviera is one of the last true strip casinos left and they need to market it that way but at the same time create a welcome attitude and become more consumer friendly.A few upgrades could definately be done.Bring back the old school Vegas to the Riviera and market the heck out of it.But most importantly change the sorry I hate my job attitudes.
Times are tough and it is obviously time to look back at what made Vegas.You can be corperate but Treat your employees with respect and call them by their name instead of looking at them as they are a number.
You need a good customer service advisor I could use a job.First I would hire people to be guest and have them grade all aspects of their visit look at it and adjust.
Nevertheless, we must be realistic: In the 80s, it was simple to be more successful than today. it's because competition was much smaller. Casinos like the Wynn, Palazzo, MGM Grand, etc, they're so big , they could be 5 casinos in one of the size they built casinos in the early 80s or before that. Therefore, Vegas has about 30-40x more gaming facilities today than it used to have in those days, making it MUCH HARDER for the companies to compete against each other.
This plus the fact that world wide gaming has increased and been legalized in many countries since then , not mentioning the indian reservations casinos and other states that have legalized gaming since, competition has become so big now that simply putting up a table and a few slots plus offering some sun at at pool side is probably not enough to get the players in town anymore.
Sadly the Riv is going to suffer the same fate as its counterparts next door and across the street. This end of the strip was dealt it's death blow by the loss of the Stardust, Frontier, Algiers, and motels across the street. It's a graveyard now, hard to believe they could destroy the once beating heart of the strip..
The greed is slowly getting to all.
Does anyone know when the last time the rooftop pool was in use?
Stop by and get some chips before it goes under!
LVfor life, I bought chips at Sands, Stardust, Frontier, etc. before they closed.
u do have an IDEAL location -----------on the strip.
make better use of it!
Bakersfield-
Yeah, the "old school lounges" have been gone for some time... But The Palms is trying to rework it with Matt Goss' show. Still, it's more of a show than a "lounge act" with set ticket prices and a theater setting.
And btw, another thing you might like at The Palms is their video poker. Their machines really are the loosest in town with 99% payback. The Palms overall is an oddity (not in a bad way, just odd) with older locals hogging the machines while the New York/LA celebrity jet set dominates the hotel and restaurants.
Boris & environ-
That's just it. This isn't the 1980s any more, but The Riviera never figured that out. The ONLY reason why The Sahara survives today is because the (then) new owner retooled the place a few years ago to appeal to Nascar fans and cheapo families.
The Riv can't keep denying reality IMHO. Vegas has changed. The Strip has changed. And if they want to survive, they'll need to change.
I was there Saturday, all the employees are over 50. I'm over 50, but I know that old a work force leads to a mentality that doesn't want to do anything new.
I love this stuff. You know not everyone survives. When your debt is heavy and the revenues are down then either fold or re-invent.
Vegas is such a .........dying city. Give up people.
Trump had a 5% stake in the Riv years ago, so he could have a gaming license. But he chose to sell it and give up said license to get away from that thing. Last time I went there (six months ago), they had a hiring freeze. The Riv and Downtown properties should do is appeal to the cynics that want to flee from the glitz of Vegas and find a place that treats him/her special.Quality Hotel rates, Quality food rates, Quality minimums on table games (lower prices but high spirits). Why do people go to penny slots? Because it look like a deal to gamble on. The same would go to table games even if you placed a $1 Minimum on tables. They only start a $1 but go higher when they think they are doing better. Some of my best games were the Quarter Craps tables at the Plaza & El Cortez, I started low buy ended up spending high in the long run. I felt I got every pennies worth during that time.
Here's a word of advice for the marketing folks at the hotel: change the name to Buick Riviera and then hire a bunch of guys from General Motors to help run it. That will expedite the bankruptcy process and the sooner this thing gets put out of its misery, the better.
Unless of course the government decides to pump a billion dollars in to it to help keep it going.
I used to have many a great times at the Riv, They threw a great New Year's Eve bash also! The comedy club upstairs was tops, and the gambling wasn't bad either. I especially liked staying in the South Tower (original tower from the fifties) as some of the Riv's rich history could rub off on you a little. This place has gone on a steady decline sine the demise of the other great properties here on the northern end of the Strip, I remember fondly the Algiers, La Concha, Travel Inn, Stardust, Frontier, Desert Inn, and just being able to walk from each property to property on warm desert nights aglow with a drink or two, and gambling winnings! ahh those were the days...
It was a GREAT place when George Maxson ran the Riv.The Riv.was the most thriving place on the strip.All the HI roller and celebrity would stay at the Riv.WHAT HAPPEN?
With tight money miracles won't happen.
Thank you Veterans for your sacrafices on this day. I also am a Vet.
All the comments on how the Riv smells and it should be torn down asap are just ignorant.(everytime Iv'e been there I didnt smell anything) Yes the Riv is an older casino but it is still a nice casino. I am not saying that it is marketed the best but people need their jobs and to say it should be torn down is saying "who cares about the people that work there". You have to remember they are not the Bellagio or Wynn. Your not going to find extravagant restaurants and real marble floors. That is not what vegas used to be. And I agree,alot of the staff is of the older generation, but there is nothing wrong with longevity is there? The economy has affected the Riv the worst but I think they can be a good place again if they start marketing themselves to a younger generation too. But hey they have great shows!!!!!