SLS Las Vegas will become a Starwood Hotel before the year is over. Today SLS Las Vegas announced that they would become a part of the Starwood Tribute Portfolio. A large part of this partnership will be the transformation of the Lux Tower at SLS Las Vegas into W Las Vegas, which will open in the third quarter of 2016. SLS Las Vegas will become part of the Tribute Portfolio in December.
Starwood will take over management of the existing 289-room Lux Tower (review here) after it’s converted to a W Hotel. W Las Vegas will include a W Living Room (hotel lobby), a dedicated entry and reception area for W Hotel guests, an Away Spa, and WET, an outdoor pool and bar.
The remainder of SLS Las Vegas, which includes the other two hotel towers (1,324 rooms), casino, restaurants and nightlife venues, will continue to be managed by Scott Kreeger, the current President and Chief Operating Officer of SLS Las Vegas. It’s been rumored that some dining outlets will be rebranded. The addition of a luxury component to SLS Las Vegas is probably a good sign that high end restaurants like Bazaar Meat will remain.
SLS Las Vegas will become part of Starwood’s Tribute Portfolio. The Tribute Portfolio is similar to the Hilton Curio collection that SLS Las Vegas was a part of until last week. The Tribute Portfolio is one Starwood’s collection of independently operated hotels. Starwood has plans to increase the Tribute Portfolio brand to 100 hotels by 2020, and was launched in April 2015 as the tenth Starwood brand. This deal allows Starwood customers access to a small network of independently operated hotels while allowing the hotel access to Starwood’s global distribution systems, worldwide sales organization, and Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) loyalty program.
SLS Las Vegas will be the only Starwood property on the Vegas Strip. Other Starwood hotels in Las Vegas include The Westin Las Vegas Hotel, Casino & Spa, The Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa, Four Points by Sheraton Las Vegas East Flamingo, and Element Las Vegas Summerlin.
This deal is the largest hotel room deal for Starwood in North America in well over 5 years. SLS Las Vegas has struggled to find its niche in Las Vegas since opening in 2014. Sam Nazarian just received approval to sell SBE’s 10% ownership stake in SLS Las Vegas. There hasn’t been information revealed on the deal points but it will be interesting to see how this will fit into the rumored sale of Starwood to Hyatt or anyone else.
Local Las Vegas media is reporting an unrelated change at SLS Las Vegas. The space formerly occupied by the nightclub LiFE will be renovated to become a live music venue operated by Live Nation.
(Photo credits : Blackjacker1979 @TravelZork )
