Las Vegas Weekly

December 17, 2008 · 9:38 PM

Exclusive Video Interview: Steve Wynn slashes room rates to stimulate Vegas economy and reveals Sinatra restaurant secrets

By Robin Leach

Steve and Elaine Wynn with granddaughter Marlow.

Photo: Scott Doctor

Just five days before the official opening of his brand new $3 billion Encore resort casino, hotel mogul Steve Wynn has dramatically slashed rates. “I want my hotels full,” he told me. “I’ll do whatever it takes to fill them.”

He admitted in an exclusive video interview that you can watch on Vegas DeLuxe tomorrow (Thursday) that he ordered his executives to do whatever was necessary to stimulate sales during America’s economic crisis.

They trimmed the average room rates to just $149 a night for the Wynn and just $179 a night for the brand new Encore -- and threw in a $50 dining certificate for guests booking two nights or more.

“It’s the first time in my 40 years of being in this business we have done this,” he added. “But it's necessary. The public wants to come here for the best guest experience in the world, so we have to price it to what they can afford. I’d rather not make a profit on my rooms division and fill the hotel’s facilities than have few people staying here and not using the restaurants, bars and gaming tables.”

Incredibly, as you will hear on our video, Steve had an all-time, one-day sales record yesterday, selling 10,400 room nights with the new slashed pricing!

Photo: Wynn Las Vegas

Steve Wynn.

Other highlights of our video conversation:

*Steve reveals how Frank Sinatra’s family will let him display his Oscar statue in the new Sinatra restaurant at Encore and how special editing of never-before-heard Sinatra recorded memories make it possible for “Old Blue Eyes” to act as his own DJ in the restaurant!

*Steve gives a big welcome to new Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin and says that Las Vegas will be much better off when the debt-laden big corporations owning large chunks of the Strip are forced to "unbundle" their holdings and go back to the day of independent “gunslingers.”

*Steve says he also wants the Nevada Gaming commissioners to severely tighten licenses for gaming resorts so they are funded with equity instead of huge bank borrowings and loans.

*Steve says he’s confident he’ll be able to weather the nation’s current economic difficulties even if it lingers on until 2010. He did admit, however, that this is the first time in his legendary career he’s uncertain how the future of Vegas will all shake out. “We’ll get through it. We will survive, and Vegas will win again as the finest resort destination in the world. I just don’t know how long or deep this current slide will last.”

*Steve, who admits to following our Vegas DeLuxe stories, confirmed our recent exclusive story that he’s working with Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees to produce their musical life story at Encore by this time next year!

Now 67, Steve says he’ll be on both 60 Minutes this Sunday and also on Charlie Rose’s interview program on PBS, but you can hear him in advance with us. Click back here tomorrow (Thursday) to view the video interview in full. It’s surprisingly candid and honest! Steve pulls no punches! He says that even with Monday’s official opening of Encore, he hasn’t yet finished his legacy and even now plans one day to build a third resort for Vegas.

“We have that disease in us developers -- and they haven’t found a cure for that yet!” he laughed.

Share This