What will Las Vegas casinos look like after the Coronavirus? Las Vegas’ reopening will be slow and phased, we’ll see temperature checks, more physical distancing, more self service, and shows & nightclubs will likely be some of the last things to come back online. But if you are one of the first to visit the reopened Las Vegas you’ll likely experience good deals as the casinos try to get more customers in the door.
1 – Slow Reopening
2 – Good Deals
3 – Temperature Checks
4 – Physical Distancing
5 – More Self Service:
6 – Cleaning:
7 – Restaurants:
8 – Shows & Night Clubs
9 – Cancelled Projects
Transcript:
Nine ways the Las Vegas Strip will be changing, once it reopens. I’m Chris, this is Yellow Productions. I do travel guides that are fun, informative, entertaining, and at the time I’m making this video, the Las Vegas Strip has been closed for just about a month. It closed on March 25th, due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the current Nevada governor’s stay at home order is set to expire at the end of April. So many people are wondering when is the Las Vegas Strip going to reopen, and what will it look like when it does reopen, so I’m gonna answer those two questions in this video, talking about nine different ways that it’s gonna change when it does reopen.
The first thing that’ll be different when the Las Vegas Strip reopens is it won’t be open all at once. It’ll be a slow and phased reopening. May 1st, when the stay at home order expires, well, it’s unrealistic for the big casinos to open right away then. We might see some of the smaller and more local casinos open on May 1st. The bigger casinos, like MGM properties, and Caesars properties, they’re targeting June 1st for the value properties, things like the New York-New York, the Luxor, and the Excalibur, and they’re currently targeting August for the higher end properties, like Bellagio, ARIA, and the Vdara. Why are they planning this phased reopening? Because demand won’t be back instantaneously. There will still be many flight restrictions, and lots of people will still be worried about traveling, due to the coronavirus, they won’t wanna be around lots of people, and so they’re gonna ramp up the properties that are open, the shops that are open, the restaurants that are open, as people start to come back to Vegas. We can get a little bit of a glimpse at how Las Vegas is gonna look, by how Macau looks currently. Macau, in China, it closed for two weeks on February 19th, due to the coronavirus, and when Macau reopened, their visitors are down about 92%.
The second that’ll be different is there’s gonna be some really good deals, when the Las Vegas Strip reopens. The casinos and the hotels, they’re gonna wanna get people in as quick as possible, and what’s gonna make people worry a little less about a virus? Well, good prices and good deals. So expect really inexpensive rates on hotels, particularly because there’s no big conferences that are gonna be drawing lots of people there. The room rates at properties that might be three or $400, you might find great packages of $100 or less. Now a lotta people have been asking if I think that resort fees and parking fees will go away? The parking fees, may be waived, or may be included in the hotel package. I don’t think they’ll be going away entirely, because I think the Las Vegas properties spent so much effort trying to get them there. But I do expect a lot lower rates. Now, if there’s any Las Vegas executives listening, please do away with the resort fees and the parking fees, none of the visitors to Vegas like them. Actually we all hate them.
Number three, temperature checks. The big Las Vegas casinos have been talking about mandatory temperature checks for employees, as they’re coming to work. But there’s also been a discussion about conducting temperature checks on customers and guests, when they enter the casinos. They’ve been using words about non-obtrusive, or passive temperature checks, so it’s not entirely clear what that means. Does that mean there’s gonna be somebody with a gun, that they point it at our head? Not a real gun, but a temperature gun, or will we walk by an infrared camera? If we wanna look at how Macau has done it, Macau, they are taking temperature checks of all guests entering the casinos, and they’re also asking guests some questions about their travel history, before they enter the casino. In Macau, they’ve also limited the number of entrances to the casino, so that they can do these temperature checks. I think we can expect something similar in Las Vegas, with less or limited entries to the casinos.
Number four, physical distancing. We’re gonna see more physical distancing of guests in the casino. Right before the Las Vegas Strip was shut down, many big casinos were already turning off every other slot machine, so that guests would have more elbow room to pull down the arm on the one arm bandit. But I think when the casinos do reopen, we’re gonna see them move the slot machines further apart, so that people aren’t right next to each other. Also, at the gambling tables, we’re gonna see people spread apart, say skip at seat at the baccarat table. Poker is probably gonna take a long time to come back, because poker requires a lotta people close together. Taking a look at what Macau has done here, they’ve definitely limited the gamblers at a table, for example, a baccarat table used to allow seven gamblers, now it only allows four. In Macau, they also don’t allow people to congregate around the tables anymore, so there’s no more onlookers, so people have to keep moving on the casino floor. Something else we might see, we might see more capacity restrictions in the casinos. This is something that in Asia they do a lot, in buildings, for example, at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, they have these signs that tell you at any given time how many people are in the museum. I think we’ll see things like that in the Las Vegas casinos, to say the casino floor is limited to this many people, and that’s just measured as people come in and out. Now I have been asked a number of times whether I think the slot machine odds’ll be better, or whether the slot machines will be looser. I think the odds are gonna be just the same as they were before, that is not very good.
Number five, we’re gonna see more self service. I talked about this in my What’s New in Las Vegas for 2020 video, where I talked about how many hotels and casinos will be rolling out automated drink machines, to replace bartenders, but I think we’re gonna see a lot more self service options. For example, many hotels in Las Vegas are already doing self check in kiosks. I think we’re gonna see that rolled out more, because people would rather check in now with a computer, rather than with a person, ’cause they don’t know whether that person’s gonna get sick, or give them something. I think we’ll also see the players clubs desk, where you had to go to a physical person to get a players club card, replaced by automated kiosks. I’ve certainly been liking the self service kiosks at the grocery store lately. It’s much better than putting my food on one of those conveyor belts, and people touching it. I like just the little computer, getting my stuff done, don’t have to talk to anybody. So I’m sure Vegas guests will appreciate that as well. And particularly, if more automated kiosks mean less lines to check in at hotels, that’s gonna be a big win for all of us.
Number six, there’s gonna be more cleaning of casinos and hotels, not just more cleaning, but we’re gonna see more cleaning, and they’re gonna make it obvious to us, because they’ll want us to know that more things are being disinfected regularly. For example, door handles, elevator buttons, slot machines, bathrooms, those are all things that the Las Vegas hotels and casinos are gonna spend more money and time and effort cleaning. I think we’re gonna see more hand sanitizer stations, as we enter casinos and as we enter hotels. And I think we’re gonna see more protective equipment on Las Vegas hotel employees. For example, the Las Vegas executives have talked about having the dealers wearing gloves, and also wearing face masks. And if you think that’s weird to have casino employees wearing gloves and face masks, look no further than Macau, it is happening there today. In Macau, they went one step further, and not just requiring employees to wear face masks, but they also require casino guests to wear face masks.
Number seven, restaurants. Restaurants are gonna be different when the Las Vegas Strip reopens. The first thing we’re gonna see, we’re gonna see a reduction in capacity at the restaurants, where restaurants are removing tables. I’ve heard restaurants range from removing 25% to 50% of the tables in the restaurant, so that people have more elbow room, and the tables are spaced three to six feet apart. Some of the restaurants that weren’t doing very good, before the closure, they’re probably not gonna reopen at all. One of the things that I hope happens, I hope we can get rid of the cloth napkins, because who knows how well washed that cloth napkin is. Who knows who touched that napkin before you. I’ll all good for some paper napkins. I also really hope the bartenders get the message about being clean, and the bartenders stop touching our straws with their bare hands, when they put that straw in our drink glass. I’ve also got a lot of questions about whether I think the buffets are going to reopen, or whether I think buffets are a thing of the past. And this is maybe where I’ll be a contrarian, with a lot of thinking on this. I’ve heard a lot of people say that the buffets are dead. I do not think buffets are dead, I think buffets will continue on in Las Vegas, but I think buffets will become more full service. I think there will be less of this, you know, grab your own spoon or spatula, and ladle it on your plate. But more you walk up, and there’s somebody behind, who is then serving that to you, on your plate. You only have to look as far as Caesars Palace, their Bacchanal Buffet, they are definitely planning to reopen it. Actually, they’ve been spending money, time and energy remodeling their buffet, while Caesars Palace is closed. Why, because the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars Palace is the number one revenue generating restaurant in North America. The high end buffets make the hotels lots of money, so the high end buffets are gonna continue to operate. The ones that aren’t gonna operate are the low end buffets. Actually the Treasure Island has recently reported that their buffet is not gonna open again. I would imagine places like Circus Circus, Excalibur, we’ll see those buffets closed, because they weren’t all that good to begin with.
Number eight, shows and nightclubs, these are probably gonna be some of the last things to come back, well maybe the last things to come back are gonna be big conferences and sporting events. But speaking of shows and nightclubs, when the shows do come back, I think we’ll also see a seat reduction in the shows, where maybe the skip every other seat, as they’re selling seats, or they skip rows. The nightclubs, I don’t know how you socially distance in a nightclub, because nightclubs that are empty, really aren’t all that interesting. So I think nightclubs, day clubs, pool clubs, those are gonna take at least a year to really come back online. And when the shows do come back, I don’t think there’s gonna be as many shows in Vegas, as they were before. You can imagine, these companies are really struggling, particularly Cirque du Soleil is rumored that they’re near bankruptcy, because if your business is to put on performances, and everything’s closed, and nobody’s there, well that means they’re losing a lot of money.
And the ninth thing that’s gonna be different on the Las Vegas Strip, when it reopens, is some of the construction projects and new casinos are going to be canceled. There’s been one cancellation announced already. It was known as The Drew. Before that, it was known as The Fontainebleau. They halted construction at about the time the Las Vegas Strip closed, and they are not planning to resume construction. They’re laying off their staff, and it’s gonna be someone else that needs to pick up that project. Some projects that are still underway, the new Resorts World Hotel, across from the Wynn, the MSG Sphere, and the Circa Hotel that’s opening downtown, those are all still progressing forward. So I hope those still will, and we’ll see those opening sometime later this year, or next year.
Speaking of what’s new in Las Vegas, you’ll wanna check out my video right here, about What’s New in Las Vegas in 2020. I talk about all the restaurants, hotels and attractions that are new for this year. I did not predict the pandemic, but everything else is pretty accurate in this video, or you can check out my whole Las Vegas series, in this playlist over here. Links are also in the description below. As usual, I won’t say goodbye, ’cause I’ll see you in one of these videos.
