Dive Brief:
- Marriott International will convert a hotel along the Las Vegas Strip under its W Hotels brand as part of its long-term strategic licensing partnership with MGM Resorts International, the hotel company announced Monday.
- A Marriott spokesperson told Hotel Dive that MGM’s Delano Las Vegas on the Mandalay Bay Campus will join the luxury W Hotels brand later this year. Additional details on the conversion are undisclosed.
- Delano Las Vegas is the latest MGM hotel to convert under the Marriott reservation system as part of the MGM Collection with Marriott Bonvoy loyalty partnership formed in July 2023. The partnership has boosted Marriott’s portfolio in Las Vegas, where the company previously had a limited presence but sees growth potential in the luxury segment.
Dive Insight:
The rebranded W Las Vegas will join the more than 30,000 rooms at MGM properties across Las Vegas that Marriott has converted since the launch of the loyalty partnership.
Through the partnership, Marriott fortifies its portfolio in Las Vegas, particularly along the “legendary” Las Vegas Strip, according to Marriott CFO Leeny Oberg. With the addition of Delano, MGM Collection with Marriott Bonvoy encompasses 12 hotels along the Strip, including Bellagio, ARIA Resort & Casino, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.
Marriott builds its Las Vegas portfolio amid a larger push in luxury. Sin City may be the perfect place to grow in the segment, considering MGM’s luxury resorts drove the company’s performance growth in the second quarter of this year, according to MGM CFO Jonathan Halkyard.
MGM’s Vegas success in Q2 was “underpinned by our luxury resorts, which are responsible for the vast majority of our top-line growth in Las Vegas,” Halkyard said during an earnings call on July 31.
Performance growth is likely for the hotels within MGM Collection with Marriott Bonvoy, since bookings at those properties are “significantly outpacing anticipated projections with hundreds of thousands of room nights booked,” according to Marriott.
During the July call, Halkyard said MGM had seen 410,000 room nights booked year to date through the partnership.
With the latest MGM Collection conversion, Marriott also expands its W Hotels flag, which recently underwent a multiyear brand evolution and opened its West Coast flagship hotel in Hollywood, California, earlier this month.
