Why MGM Resorts is in Trouble in Las Vegas

MGM Resorts is in serious trouble in Las Vegas, and their continuing dwindling market share is causing their investors to seriously worry about the future of the company. Insiders within the industry have pointed out to their inability to attract new customers because their aging executive staff has zero connection to the modern crowd of Instagram following millennials.

A perfect example of their failure, was Level Up, a project done with Hakkasan Group, that failed to ever attract customers. The 12,000-square-foot gaming emporium, find pay-to-play games such as pool, foosball, Jenga and ping pong, as well as QuadAir Hockey, Bubble Hockey, Giant Pac-Man  and mich more, was supposed to be “Millennial Paradise.” Unfortuantely, with all the financial problems that Hakkasan had, they stopped promoting the project according to an insider – and it became considered a joke, and had horrible reviews on yelp.

It isn’t helping that Motley Fool has noticed that MGM is not doing well. “Digging into the numbers, you get a picture of why MGM Resorts had an underwhelming quarter in what seemed to be a favorable operating environment. Revenue per available room was down 4.9% on the Las Vegas Strip, driven by high-end resorts like Bellagio, MGM Grand Las Vegas, and Mandalay Bay all having both lower average daily room rates and lower occupancy versus a year ago.”

Also, the parking fee structure hasn’t made customers happy: The increase is the second in as many years for the chain, which started a trend when it began charging guests and visitors to park in 2016.  Customers have not liked this, and have started to go to other places like The Palazzo which doesn’t charge parking for anyone.

While the $30 extra per night may not seem like a lot, customers complain that the addition on top of the “resort fees” are making their hotels often cost twice as much as they used to.

“MGM is really overplaying their hand with all the fees,” JC Martin of Las Vegas Locally told us. “It’s one of the dumbest ways to increase revenue because it leaves such a bad taste in people’s mouths. They’re losing life-long customers and that will really hurt them when the economy cools off again.”

MGM has tried to blame much of the loss on the October shooting, claiming that since many of their properties are at South Strip, they were affected by the shooting. However, much of the blame is on their PR team including their PR Chief Yvette Monet who quit soon after the shooting after being heavily criticized. According to a staff member, she “just didn’t come back to work one day.”

Is there any hope? Maybe.

They have hired Sean Christie as their “President of Nightlife.” Christie is known as one of the top executives in the club industry, and the creator of clubs such as XS and Encore for Steve Wynn. It’s obvious that MGM is looking to get rid of their relationship with Hakkasan as fast as possible, and replace all their clubs with their own brand clubs.