SLS gets new patron; Mixed quarter at Caesars

Revolving doors continue to spin, metaphorically, at SLS Las Vegas. No sooner had Hilton Worldwide dropped the property from its Curio brand but Starwood Resorts Worldwide picked up part of the property and slapped its W hotel escutcheon on it. The northeast tower — the only one with “a dedicated entry and reception area for W Hotel guests” will fly the W flag and be managed by Starwood, while SLS Las Vegas President Scott Kreeger rides herd on the other two towers. (Throw in SLS‘ continuing role in running its restaurants and you have a stateroom scene as crowded as in a Marx Brothers movie.)

While owner Stockbridge Capital Partners yields the cream of SLS’ business to Starwood, it gets juiced into Starwood’s Tribute Portfolio, replacing the recently lost HHonors Hilton loyalty program. Starwood’s Las Vegas investments have generally been cagey ones, so it must see something in SLS that the marketplace in general has not. Whether you call it W, SLS or Curio, one thing remains the same: the “Happy Blob” (an abstract representation of Sam Nazarian) will still be out front to greet you.

* Caesars Entertainment had a better third quarter — if by “better” you mean it only lost three-quarters of a billion dollars instead of $980 million. Revenue also improved, although when CEO Mark Frissora drilled into the details, the extra money came from things like having a full quarter of business at Horseshoe Baltimore and from increasing those damned resort fees. Net revenue was up 12%, driven mostly by “good Caesars” (the few casinos not in Chapter 11), a number that dwindled to 5% when “bad Caesars” was factored into the equation.

The improved quarter was also attributed to Frissora’s trademark cost-cutting, which included things like moving to paperless marketing. Rooms are being renovated at most of the company’s Las Vegas Strip hotels, in order to justify higher prices on them. “Since the financial crisis, we have underinvested in our room product relative to our competitors,” said Frissora, in an oblique criticism of predecessor Gary Loveman. Frissora is bullish on new, skill-based slots, a field in which he intends for Caesars to take the initiative. As though to prove his point, Caesars Interactive was one of the the third quarter’s primary revenue drivers.

* It’s hard to see how harping on the criminal activities of Deutsche Bank will get the Culinary Union any closer to unionizing Station Casinos, even though the bank stinks to high heaven and should have no business owning 25% of a Nevada casino company. (The Nevada Gaming Control Board has been totally prostrate in the matter.) By the same token, does Station want to go to the SEC in tandem with a business partner that “paid $258 million to New York State regulators and the Federal Reserve over its dealings with customers in companies that are under sanction by the United States, like Iran and Syria“?

* No gaming concession? No problem! Not for the confident owners of the in-progress Louis XIII casino in Macao, anyway. Here’s a chance for one of the six concessionaires to extend its footprint at relatively little cost.