Vegas FINALLY Becomes Dog-Friendly

[UPDATE: I should note the Westin Casuarina and Trump Las Vegas also allow dogs, although neither have info on their policies easily found on their sites. Here's a link regarding the Trump chain's pet policies, though. Also, Loews Lake LV also does, but I don't count that as part of the Strip or "Vegas" per se. Also, nobody seems to like cats.]

As much as I hate economic downturns, I also love them for what they force Las Vegas to do. It was the recession of 2001-02 that kicked marketing towards gays, Latinos and women into high gear, and this desperate go-around they'll take absolutely, positively anyone.

Except, as Miles and I learned recently as we scouted out places for staycations, your dogs. The only place to go with Black and Jack would have been the Four Seasons, so we had someone watch our little guys and tested out the MGM Signature. (Our review and experience is at the top of this week's episode of The Strip.) It was very nice, but it would have been even nicer and more relaxing if I didn't have to worry that the animals were going to be freaked out by the strange lady who came by to walk and feed them. (Not even the Mandarin Oriental in Vegas permits pets despite the fact that, nationally, the chain is known for doing so. Surprising.)

Finally, though, Harrah's is changing all that. Starting today, Caesars Palace, Rio and the Imperial Palace have some pet-friendly accommodations. For $25 a night at Caesars and $20 a night at the Rio and IP -- extraordinarily good deals for anyone who has ever boarded an animal -- you can bring dogs under 50 pounds. They allow two per guest and you can walk your dogs through "designated common areas" on a leash.

What a terrific idea at a sensible price. And, according to the site, they even provide a mat, food and water dishes, disposable waste bags and dog treats as well as information about where the outdoor "relief areas" are and information on nearby vets and groomers.

Had Caesars had this two weeks ago, we almost certainly would have stayed there. As you can see, we are very attached.

Frank Marino To Reopen @ IP

This is the sort of thing I'd normally just Tweet, but with Twitter all funkied up, I'm going Old School and blogging. (BTW, that Tao Tweasure Hunt was reskedded for next week and this is a funny bit called "When Twitter Is Down.")

While Erich Bergen and I were at Vegas.Com today for a meeting about our big "Las Vegas Celebrates The Music of Michael Jackson" fundraiser at the Palms later this month, Frank Marino was there filming a TV spot for their site. I sensed the Marino aura when I spotted a rather plain Caddy out front with the La Cage license plate. It surprised me, actually, because the last time I saw Marino's car it looked like this:


Anyhow, I caught Frank in full drag and asked him when he'll be back on stage. He said he opens Labor Day Weekend at the Imperial Palace. "We're going to teach those Human Nature boys a thing or two," he said. The show features the cast of the 25-year Riviera production that was shut down suddenly earlier this year. Norbert Aleman, the longtime producer, will not be involved, Marino pointedly said.

I mentioned to him the kerfluffle I got into with Aleman's peeps when I Tweeted that I had heard Crazy Girls would be shutting down soon and that it had just 80 people in attendance, mostly comps. Aleman's folks sent a statement insisting they were NOT shutting down but never suggested the attendance figures were incorrect or explained the financial math of having a show running with that large a cast and that little revenue.

"You ought to have said that what you meant to say is that the show should close," Marino said drily.

Meow!

The Strip is LIVE tonight w/Smokey Robinson!

What's Smokey Robinson, the legend of Motown, doing as the chief backer of a Vegas production featuring a white former boy band from Australia? Robinson explains that and talks about all things Smokey on this week's show. Also, Andrew Tierney of that very band, Human Nature, talks about the group's transition from top-of-the-heap in Oz to newbies in Vegas.

Plus, news from Vegas, a new trivia question, the poll, listener feedback and, as always, the Top Secret Tourist Tip of the Week.

Join us tonight at 7-8 p.m. for the live show and chat at LVRocks.Com. Hopefully the chat room will be working this go-around! Or just wait for the podcast version and subscribe (it's free!) via this iTunes link or via this Zune link. Your call.

Harrah's Embraces The Mid-Market

Liz Benston of the Las Vegas Sun has a terrific piece in today's newspaper breaking news about Harrah's new plans for the Strip. It's as though someone over there finally realized that (a) there are already enough hotel rooms and that the high-end of the market doesn't need any more options and (b) Harrah's knows mid-market best and there's nothing shameful about admitting that.

The Harrah's solution is something called Project Link, a rendering of which is above courtesy of Harrah's Entertainment. Basically, instead of imploding the Imperial Palace, Harrah's and Flamingo, they want to enhance that section of the Strip as the center of gravity for the mid-market tourist who wants reasonable accommodations and a safe, fun place to drink, party and hookup. (It's fascinating, really, how the east side of the Boulevard from Harrah's to Bally's is for one tier and the west side of the same street from Caesars to Aria, is intended for an entirely different clientele, but I digress.)

As Benston explains it, Project Link would be a pedestrian mall area between the IP and the Flamingo from the Strip to Koval punctuated on the eastern end with a mammoth ferris wheel. Along the way, they envision a corridor of as many as 20 restaurants and bars opening out to the pedestrian area.

There are several reasons why this is a brilliant idea. For one, it just sounds like fun and a space where critical mass can build among those priced out or turned off by the posh nightclub scene. For another, from what I can tell it wouldn't create any new traffic problems and, in fact, could give new relevance to the Las Vegas Monorail, should it still be in business by then. And also, it wouldn't add any new gaming or hotel capacity.

The big loser could be Fremont Street because the ideas and target audiences are similar. But both have their own thing, and Project Link -- they'll have to have a better name for it, of course -- could never pretend to recreate an Old Vegas feel. So there's that.

Seems like a great idea. Too bad debt-overwhelmed Harrah's has no money to get going on it for quite a while and by then, God knows, they'll be on to another Big Idea. And none of this resolves the question of what Harrah's plans to do with its extensive land holdings east of the Strip. You might recall their last Big Idea was to build an unnecessary traffic-disaster of a sports arena behind Bally's.

Clarifying the Record on Harrah's

The item in the Review-Journal this weekend about the IP being integrated into Harrah's Total Rewards Program raised questions regarding what Harrah's VP Jan Jones had told me in late June about the future of the property. At that time, she said that it would be expensive and laborious to integrate the hotel.

That's why I called her today. The R-J item was unsourced, so it was unclear whether it was even true. I wanted to ask Jones myself.

In the process, Jones became aware of my June 28 post, which she had not read. She was concerned about the passage in that report that suggested the company might take Harrah's flagship hotel off-line at some point whenever the massive mid-Strip redevelopment plan is undertaken. That was an impression I had gotten from our discussion, and she says that it is incorrect, that there is no plan to close that property.

She then said she'd check on the IP-Total Rewards tidbit from the R-J and get back to me. Minutes later, she did, to confirm that it's true. She had said earlier that if it were true, it would be because the property was profitable enough for the expense of the integration.

There is still no plan to integrate Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon, the former Barbary Coast, or even acknowledge they own it on the Harrah's Web site, fyi.

Imperial Palace Forever!

Despite the fact that Harrah's VP Jan Jones told me just a few weeks ago that the Imperial Palace is doomed and that it wouldn't be worthwhile to integrate it into their Total Rewards program, the Review-Journal's Inside Gaming column had an unsourced item yesterday stating that it's being integrated and getting room upgrades by the end of the year.

I can't be sure how to know who's right here, but I'm working on reaching Jones for comment.

The last time I asked, you might recall, she pricelessly stated:

"If you owned Imperial Palace, would you want it in your rewards club?"

Stay tuned...

The Bastard Children of Harrah's

(UPDATE, 8/7/07: See this post for a clarification of a portion of this post disputed by Ms. Jones.)

So I'm working on a feed to an immigration-bill story for Saturday's New York Times and was interviewing Harrah's VP Jan Jones on their company's reaction to the legislation's failure. While I had her on the line, I asked why the Imperial Palace and Bill's Gamblin' Hall and Saloon (nee Barbary Coast) are not present on the Harrah's website or integrated into the Total Rewards program, the company's groundbreaking frequent-players club.

Jones was surprisingly frank: "If you owned Imperial Palace, would you want it in your rewards club?"

Ouch.

She told me that they bought both properties for their land -- no surprise there -- and that the two bastard properties will limp along in their purgatory status for at least another year before, more likely than not, perishing from this earth. For one thing, she said, the cost of integrating those properties into the system would be too much to bother. And the company is likely to announce whatever its Big Idea is for all of that property from Bill's to Harrah's next summer, after the LBO is completed.

One challenge, she said, is how to do something ambitious while taking properties -- the IP, and Bill's -- off-line. It sounds like Flamingo Las Vegas is less likely to meet an implosion rig. Consider this exchange:

Friess: You've been putting a lot of money into the Flamingo lately, so it's unlikely you'd knock that down, right?
Jones: Yes.

She said the IP and Bill's do produce modest profits for the company. But I suspect that it's shutting down Harrah's (if they ever do; see clarifying post here) that would be the bigger cash-flow problem. Should be interesting since, despite their enormous status in Vegas, Harrah's has never built a single building in Las Vegas. Everything they have has been acquired.

BILL'S PHOTO COURTESY OF RATEVEGAS.COM.

A Real and Fake Liza Sunday

Hope you're all having a nice holiday weekend!

Miles and I were out yesterday spending money like drunken gay sailors, refurnishing our bedroom, kitchen and living room, plus replacing my dying iPod and picking up a fancy camcorder so we can start doing more video editions of "The Strip."

Meanwhile, after all the hullabaloo surrounding the Mel Brooks stuff, I've been busy finishing a few uninspiring but well-paying assignments to pay for all that loot.

More interestingly, though, I'm off tonight to the Imperial Hellhole, err, Palace to cover the 16th annual "Reel Awards," an awards show for the celebrity impersonators industry, for The New York Times. Should be a trip. And as of now I'm still debating whether to attend Liza Minnelli's "gypsy" show at 1 am at the Luxor, a free show for her fellow Strip performers, which she calls "my kids." I hate being out that late, but it's Liza and it's a raw retro Vegas throwback to the Rat Pack era when such shows were common. Also, it'll be fun to see if I can tell the difference between the real Liza and all the fakes I'm bound to encounter!

It'll also be interesting since Liza herself got surprisingly rankled last summer when I interviewed her for "The Strip" and asked her about all the impersonators who make a living doing her. You can hear that off-the-wall chat here or right-click to download it and hear it whenever you wish.