Rio teams with Hyatt on renovation, rebrand

The Rio is finding a makeover with enable from Hyatt Lodges Corp.

Dreamscape Providers LLC, which owns the Rio, announced a franchise and rebranding settlement with Hyatt on Thursday.

Dreamscape is set to lead multiphase renovation tasks at the Rio that will deliver “multiple Hyatt total-support choices to Las Vegas,” according to a news release.

The off-Strip property’s identify is not element of the overhaul, nevertheless.

“We will keep the iconic Rio title,” Dreamscape founder and CEO Eric Birnbaum mentioned by means of a spokesperson.

Community areas such as its gaming, retail, food items and beverage, spa and exercise and pool offerings will be redeveloped, and a person of the Rio’s hotel towers will be reworked into a 1,501-place Hyatt Regency Hotel, with guest rooms averaging 580 sq. toes. The remaining visitor rooms — the assets has additional than 2,510 — will be branded or affiliated with a single or more of Hyatt’s other brands following renovations.

The settlement is no diverse than how The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas franchises with Marriott Global, Birnbaum reported.

“Hyatt has long been on the lookout to enter the Las Vegas current market and, alongside one another with Dreamscape, can revitalize this Las Vegas landmark to draw in higher-quality team, business enterprise and leisure tourists in a person of the most-visited leisure, group and conference markets in the planet,” a Hyatt spokesperson said.

Hyatt has two pick out-assistance Hyatt Location attributes in the valley. This would be its initial total-provider lodge in the area.

Both of those Hyatt and Dreamscape declined to share money phrases of the franchise arrangement. A Dreamscape spokeswoman later added: “We would prefer to depart renovation prices out correct now.”

Rio redo

Rio opened in 1990 as the valley’s to start with all-suite vacation resort, complete with the city’s 1st eating area buffet and nightclub.

But the residence in excess of the decades experienced shed its luster as a go-to spot. Founder Tony Marnell, who sold the resort to what is now Caesars Amusement Inc. in 1999, advised the Evaluation-Journal in 2019: “The Rio requirements a tiny TLC and it hasn’t gotten a dime’s truly worth.”

Following years of rumors that the home was up for sale, Caesars sold Rio to Dreamscape in late 2019 for $516.3 million. The arrangement permitted Caesars Amusement Inc. to deal with the off-Strip residence for two many years at an yearly lease of $45 million and an optional 3rd year at $7 million.

Caesars and Dreamscape have considering that prolonged the preliminary lease arrangement an excess calendar year simply because of COVID-19 pandemic troubles, probably pushing again Dreamscape’s entire takeover as late as Dec. 15, 2023.

A Hyatt spokesperson reported Thursday that the Hyatt Regency hotel is expected to open in 2023. When it does, Environment of Hyatt benefits members can generate and redeem points for Rio stays. Associates already can use or gain factors at MGM Resorts Intercontinental houses in Las Vegas, and Las Vegas M existence loyalty users can make factors for staying at Hyatt attributes.

The loyalty application shut 2020 with about 25 million members and represented about 36 p.c of its total area nights in the course of the calendar yr, according to Hyatt’s most latest annual report.

“We know Las Vegas is an important location for our friends, Globe of Hyatt users, and clients, and this task is a substantial action for Hyatt as we carry on to mature our models in markets that make any difference most to our loyal vacationers,” Kimo Bertram, Hyatt’s vice president of genuine estate and progress, stated in the launch.

Dreamscape will use Hyatt’s “massive reservation system to make certain we push the proper targeted visitors to the asset,” which will usually be impartial, Birnbaum claimed.

According to the news launch, the renovated residence will concentration on leisure and small business vacationers and will provide much more than 220,000 sq. feet of function space and assembly amenities.

“At Dreamscape, our purpose is to purchase property that push long-expression economical and cultural value, and we are very energized to staff up with Hyatt on this challenge,” Birnbaum claimed in the launch. “The Rio Las Vegas is the excellent place to develop the greatest multipurpose location in Las Vegas, and we are thrilled to perform with the Hyatt team to revitalize the assets.”

Clever go, industry experts say

Gaming and hospitality experts praised the franchise and rebranding agreement as a wise move that could benefit Rio and its attendees.

Rio is Dreamscape’s first foray in the hospitality company its executives are self-described “real estate men.”

Accordingly, the franchise settlement with Hyatt “absolutely” can make feeling for the resort, mentioned Mehmet Erdem, an affiliate professor of resort functions and technology at UNLV.

“It’s the textbook definition of what somebody who is not in the lodge business enterprise (does when it) acquires a hotel house,” Erdem said.

Company can expect a sure provider conventional with a Hyatt Regency resort, a brand name folks know and have faith in, he explained.

The agreement also expands the purchaser base. Rio would pop up in Hyatt net or cell application search functions, and the loyalty method could draw in Hyatt regulars.

Chad Beynon, gaming analyst with Macquarie Cash Inc., praised the agreement and referred to as Hyatt a “top-five world-wide hospitality model.”

The partnership signifies what he sees as the escalating value of tying in loyalty benefits systems in Las Vegas, citing the soon-to-open Resorts Planet and its 3 Hilton brands.

“This technique has helped other houses on the Strip, just since if somebody desires to use their Hyatt factors, they can use them there,” Beynon said.

A different UNLV hospitality professor, Amanda Belarmino, said the agreement can help Dreamscape create obvious procedures and strategies. It also aids with marketing and differentiating the Rio from other integrated resorts.

“The important factor is to plainly connect how the Rio may well vary from the Hyatt brand benchmarks and to produce real looking expectations for attendees loyal to equally the Rio and Hyatt,” Belarmino said.

Make contact with Mike Shoro at [email protected] or 702-387-5290. Abide by @mike_shoro on Twitter. Get hold of Bailey Schulz at [email protected]. Abide by @bailey_schulz on Twitter.