Smart Meetings

Coast To Coast

Author: Carla Breer Howard
February 2006

Brand News

Views from two Coasts: Coast Hotels & Resorts and Coast Casinos

Within Smart Meetings’ geographic sphere, two independently-owned hotel companies share the word “Coast” in their names: Coast Hotels & Resorts, based in both Seattle and Vancouver and Coast Casinos, based in Las Vegas.

Referring to each other’s properties as “associate” or “affiliate” hotels—although they share no common history—the two companies cross-promote on each other’s Web sites. Further, Coast Casinos showcases its properties on three pages in Coast Hotels & Resorts’ Hotel Directory. Any confusion out there is understandable.

In search of clarity, we spoke first to Jerry Stotler, director of marketing programs for Coast Hotels & Resorts, and then to David Ross, chief operating officer, Coast Casinos. The two executives described their organizations’ different business models, properties, locations, facilities and ownership. What their companies share is the name, and because of it, both have honored a joint “gentleman’s agreement” that enables them to beneficially co-exist.

Coast Hotels & Resorts

Coast Hotels & Resorts markets 5,187 rooms in 35 hotels in the Western U.S. and Canada. The smallest, at 44 guest rooms, is The West Beach Inn, a 1960s traditional motor inn situated on Santa Barbara’s palm-lined waterfront. The largest is the Coast Edmonton Plaza Hotel with 299 rooms. The Benson, one of Portland’s grande dames, is among the largest of Coast Hotels’ properties, offering
287 guest rooms. The average across the chain is about 160 rooms. “They’re three and four diamond properties,” says Jerry Stotler. “They are truly unique and as varied as the communities in which you find us.”

That’s quite a bit of variety. The company’s diverse locales range from Long Beach, California in the south to Anchorage, Alaska in the north. Maui, Hawaii is the western-most outpost and Calgary, Alberta goes the farthest east. The heaviest concentrations of Coast Hotels & Resorts properties are clustered around Puget Sound.

History
The diversity of the company’s offerings can be explained by its history, according to Stotler. “About 20 years ago it started as West Coast Hotels,” he recalls. “By 1999 it was at its peak with 24 properties.” A subsequent partial sale and two affiliation changes later, Stotler’s group elected to go with Coast Hotels & Resorts of Canada, originally a partner of theirs from the West Coast Hotels era. As part of this renewed relationship, they would carry this brand across the border into the U.S.
“When we started to market the Coast brand in the U.S.,” Stotler relates, “our good friends in Las Vegas, Coast Casinos, sent us a letter saying, in effect ‘We think we own the name Coast.’ So, we met with them and on a gentleman’s handshake it was agreed that Coast Hotels & Resorts would not develop any properties in Nevada, that we would include their Nevada properties in our collateral, and that Coast Casinos would distribute our collateral in their lobbies. That’s our entire relationship,” he concludes. Coast Casinos’ David Ross concurs.

Coast Hotels & Resorts refers to Coast Casinos’ properties as affiliate hotels. “To the consumer, it appears that we have five hotels in Las Vegas,” Stotler says. “But we have separate reservations numbers and personnel. If you call our toll-free number looking for Las Vegas, you are transferred to the Coast Casinos’ reservations office. We don’t even have contact people to send referral leads back and forth.”

Brand philosophy

Coast Hotels & Resorts’ credo is: the people make the place. The company’s tagline ‘real people’ conveys this attitude. As Stotler explains it, “If you look at the comment cards—the ones you take the most pride in—they comment on the people. Also, most of the bad experiences that come up on the cards are from someone who was treated badly by some jerk. Now, if you show up at one o’clock in the morning after being bumped off a flight, you’re not going to be met by a grumpy front desk clerk, but rather by someone who will take care of you.”

Competition
In many of Coast Hotels’ markets, the company competes with regional brands. Stotler cites Kimpton in Seattle and Portland, as well as the Red Lion chain in the Pacific Northwest, as examples. He makes an exception for The Benson in Portland, however, which competes head-to-head with the Hyatt among others. In Canada, Coast’s primary competition is Delta Hotels.

Market niche

“Our niche of sorts is a regional sales meeting, or a board meeting,” says Stotler. “For the most part, we tend to focus on groups of up to 60 people, although The Benson or The Grove (in Boise) can take a nationwide conference or an investment meeting. The Maui Coast is a great incentive property for us.”

Approach to groups

“In selling to a meeting planner,” Stotler says, “we ask ‘Is it an appropriate piece of business for this property?’ We’re trying to make it an efficient sale. It’s easy for me to try to paint a picture for the 15 U.S. hotels and the 47 people I have in those hotels. When you call one of these properties, you’re going to talk to someone you are very likely to have spoken with before. There’s consistency in the person in most cases.”

Loyalty program

Coast Rewards, the company’s loyalty program, grants an automatic upgrade to the company’s Gold Status. This allows members to earn points on an accelerated basis. “You can redeem your points at time of check in; you don’t have to make arrangements 21 days in advance,” he explains. “So you could literally have a last minute speaker come in with no reservation, and you could redeem your points for their accommodations at that time, without having to add it onto your expense.”
Points are earned directly for dollars spent. “I’m pleased to send four different meeting planners to Hawaii,” he remarks, “three over spring break right during our peak season. There are no restrictions at any of our hotels for redeeming them in this program.”

Coast Casinos

Coast Casinos currently has almost 4,000 guest rooms in five hotels, all in the Las Vegas area. By April, with the construction of the second tower at its newest property, the South Coast (renamed the South Point, as of late 2006), the overall room count will exceed 4,500. The five hotels offer an aggregate 250,000 square feet of meeting and convention space. The smallest property, the Barbary Coast, was the company’s first and remains the only one situated in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip. Coast Casinos just opened the South Coast in late December. It epitomizes the company’s unusual approach in offering an array of activities beyond the typical.

“Part of our core business on the gaming side has been to operate for the local market,” David Ross explains. “One of the things we discovered was that these physical plants—with their bowling, movie theaters and headliner showrooms, in addition to the traditional offerings of Vegas—became destinations for locals.”

Consequently, the more recently built hotels have a total of 50 Century Theaters as well as nearly 270 bowling lanes. “People like to come to Vegas for more than just gaming, or the shows,” says Ross. “We provide surroundings they’re familiar with.” However, the Suncoast Hotel & Casino has a Palm Springs feel to it, according to Ross, because it’s flanked by three golf courses. But the real breakout, something truly unique in Las Vegas, is the $600 million South Coast. This property encompasses a world-class equestrian center.

The South Coast’s Equestrian Center has an arena with a 30,000-square-foot show floor along with seating for 4,400 spectators. There are 1,200 climate-controlled stalls. Beyond that, the hotel offers an 80,000-square-foot exhibit hall plus 20,000 square feet of pre-function space. This isn’t counting the 70,000 square feet of additional meeting and banquet space.

History

Coast Casinos was founded by Michael Gaughan. He began in the industry in 1965 and built his first hotel, the Barbary Coast (as of November, 2006, the property of Harrah's Entertainment), on the Las Vegas Strip in 1979. The Gold Coast followed in 1986 and The Orleans in 1996. The Suncoast opened in 2000, and then the South Coast. “Something good happened to us along the way,” says Ross. “In July 2004, we completed a merger with Boyd Gaming Corporation of Las Vegas. When combined, we now have 19 properties, making Boyd the third largest behind MGM and Harrah’s.”

Brand philosophy

“Over the years,” Ross explains, “one of the cornerstones of Coast Casinos has been to exceed the expectations of our customer. A first-time visitor discovers that they get an unbelievable value for the money in terms of food and beverage, rooms and gaming value. The typical guest room is 550 square feet.”

And as the local market is a little more discerning than the tourist market, according to Ross, “We have extremely favorable odds on our slot and video games.”

Competition

“With well over 40 million visitors who come to Las Vegas, this is the fiercest competitive set in the world, 24 hours a day,” he asserts. “We’re not competing with Bellagio or Wynn; we’re catering to middle-class America, to those with a budget.”

Location is a factor in the competition as well. “When you look at Las Vegas, a lot of people regard The Strip and off-Strip as two different markets. Off the strip, Stations Casino would be our primary competitor. But if you’re looking at competing on The Strip, then you have to look at MGM and Harrah’s, as well as Stations.”

Market niche

“You have to give credit to Michael Gaughan,” Ross says. “When he set out to build South Coast, he asked ‘How do I create something really unique?’ Around the country, only Burbank, Del Mar, Fort Worth and Phoenix have comparable equestrian centers but none is associated with a hotel, with restaurants and all the amenities.” Since the South Coast is master-planned for 2,000 rooms, even if there’s a major equestrian event on, the property can accommodate a group in the 100,000-square-foot exhibition hall, and also in the meeting rooms.

Approach to groups

“Each individual property has its own approach because some have smaller meetings and convention setups,” Ross explains. “We certainly emphasize the precon, the follow-up, the individual attention as we have groups on property. Now we are so geared towards repeat business, not only to book the original business, but also to pay the attention to detail while they are on the property.
“We’ve had numerous Fortune 500 companies come through,” he adds. “Likewise for the Russell 2000. Our goal is that we get that business again. They don’t always come back to the same location, but we certainly want to be top of mind when they go to book.”