Virgin Hotels takes a bet on Las Vegas
Virgin Hotels is checking in to Sin City.
Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson plans to ‘paint the town Virgin red’ after a deal was agreed to buy the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
Virgin Hotels has teamed up a group of investors led by Juniper Capital Partners and Fengate Real Asset Investments to purchase the property.
It will be refurbished over the coming months in readiness for a rebrand to Virgin Hotels Las Vegas by 2019.
It will remain open and will continue operating as a Hard Rock Hotel during the transformation.
Virgin Hotels Las Vegas will become Virgin’s largest hotel by far, with more than 1,500 keys.
Virgin Hotels currently has just one hotel open in Chicago with hotels under development in Nashville, Dallas, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, New York, Silicon Valley and Palm Springs.
"Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America have enjoyed flying to Las Vegas for years and I’ve always known that Virgin Hotels could thrive there as well. I’m really looking forward to painting the town Virgin red," Branson said.
He added that the iconic giant guitar out front ‘might not survive’.
Under the Virgin Hotels flag it will have 1,504 rooms, or what Virgin calls Chambers, Grand Chamber Suites and Penthouse Suites, along with a fully revamped casino, multiple swimming pools restaurants, lounges and bars.
New night life venues will be added.
The value of the transaction has not been disclosed.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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