Imagine sharing yet another story months before it’s officially announced and watching local news lose their minds because their sources suck and you can’t even really brag about it because if you’re known for one thing, it’s modesty.
Anyway, MGM Resorts confirmed Delano, the bastard stepchild of Mandalay Bay, will be converted to W Las Vegas, part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio.
The rebrand is expected to be done by the end of 2024.
Delano was previously named THEhotel, one of the worst hotel names in recorded history, second only to The Quad. (Four is considered bad luck to Asian gamblers. Oopsie.)
Why would MGM Resorts sign over Delano to another hotel chain? (Delano was a Accor Hotel Group brand.) The answer, as always, is money. In this case, in the form of a massive marketing database.
From the official announcement: “Since MGM Collection with Marriott Bonvoy officially launched in March 2024, bookings are significantly outpacing anticipated projections with hundreds of thousands of room nights booked. This collaboration between two trusted hospitality brands means more than 200 million Marriott Bonvoy members can enjoy unique benefits and redeem points at MGM Resorts’ destinations while MGM Rewards members can status match and receive member benefits at Marriott’s global portfolio of approximately 9,000 properties.”
No Delano, now W Las Vegas, has no casino, but please try to care.
Care because: 1) MGM and Marriott are a powerhouse partnership, 2) What part of “We broke this story months ago?” didn’t you get? We first got wind of a rebrand in July 2024.
Delano is being rebranded, so there’s that.
— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) July 4, 2024
In August 2024, we shared the plans to turn Delano (which most people still mispronounce) into W Las Vegas, complete with a Photoshop of a W on the building.
We’re hearing the Delano rebrand will be by W Hotels. W Las Vegas didn’t pan out at SLS, but Las Vegas doesn’t have rearview mirrors! Which might explain some of the terrible driving, come to think of it. https://t.co/jrWtFv7MLv
— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) August 14, 2024
Just more “boom” people take for granted because we make it look easy. If it were easy, the Las Vegas Review-Journal would be doing it.
The MGM Resorts story is surreal because the company doesn’t own casinos anymore. They rent. They operate hotels and casinos, and now, they aren’t even operating their own hotels. They call it an “asset light” strategy.
From the news release, “With the addition of W Las Vegas, MGM Collection with Marriott Bonvoy will encompass 12 destinations on the Las Vegas Strip, including Bellagio, a Luxury Collection Resort & Casino, ARIA Resort & Casino, Autograph Collection, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Autograph Collection and Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, MGM Collection, among others.”
Literally nobody will ever use those names, of course, but MGM Resorts and Marriott seem to think such distinctions add appeal to these resorts for travelers.
No, “bonvoy” isn’t a real word. It resulted from “bon” and “voyage” doing the nasty in a room at Cosmopolitan just before “bon” locked “voyage” out on the balcony and stole his watch but later realized she was pregnant and needed to name the kid something. Bonvoy.
Personally, we love such announcements because of the disclaimers about “Forward Looking Statements.” Public companies do a lot of ass-covering by making sure people know statements in their news releases that aren’t “historical facts” are “forward-looking statements.”
Boilerplate language in news releases says, “Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as ‘believes,’ ‘expects,’ ‘could,’ ‘may,’ ‘will,’ ‘should,’ ‘seeks,’ ‘likely,’ ‘intends,’ ‘plans,’ ‘pro forma,’ ‘projects,’ ‘estimates’ or ‘anticipates’ or the negative of these words and phrases or similar words or phrases that are predictions of or indicate future events or trends and that do not relate solely to historical matters.”
This is what lawyers do all day! They get paid to use words like “herein” and “materially” and whip up things like, “Forward-looking statements depend on assumptions, data or methods that may be incorrect or imprecise, and the Company may not be able to realize them.” It’s like us sharing a rumor: “Sources don’t always get the full story” and “Things can change” and “If you sue us, you’ll end up losing because we have a great lawyer and you’ll end up paying our legal fees.”
Anyway, Delano will continue to operate during the transition to W Las Vegas.
The W brand was at the former SLS for a minute, but like everything at that cursed location, it got a reality check and wisely jumped ship.
Expect more changes at MGM Resorts casinos, including the booting of NoMad from Park MGM. Our aforementioned modesty precludes us from saying we were the first to share the news NoMad was out.
How do these changes affect you? Such cross-pollination means travelers have more ways to earn and spend loyalty club points for rooms and other resort amenities.
The main benefit of the rebrand of Delano to W Las Vegas is now you’ll have it as yet another example of how you knew Vegas things months before everyone else because you have excellent taste in blogs. Ahem.
