Dear Glenn Straub, Regarding the Revel purchase......

Dear Glenn Straub

Here is how you make the former Revel a success

1) A known, proven, casino operator must be brought in to oversee all gambling operations.
2) The property should rebranded to highlight the awesome shore location, Perhaps something like "The Hard Rock Casino Beach Resort and Wellness Spa." Adjoining land can have exercise trails. Boardwalk bicycle rentals should be available. A beach shack should rent Umbrellas, lounge chairs, floats etc...
3) A beach bar with cocktail service should be provided
4) Parts of the Indoor area must repurposed to provide space for things that draw a lot of families from the tri-state area, for example, Cheer competitions, Karate exhibitions, battle of the high School band competitions etc... This fills your off-season rooms with people that do not necessarily know AC and it gives them a taste of what "The New AC" is like.
5) Work with the CRDA bring in the big stuff to the convention center, like Comic Con, New Car shows, Sports card shows with athletes signing merchandise etc..
6) Support new attractions like the proposed Zip Line.
7) Beach Concerts with A-List bands are always crowd drawers
8) Security is a big concerned for a lot of people. I have walked the boardwalk late at night and saw the predators hiding in the shadows awaiting weak prey. The local police have their hands full with the various pockets of crime in the city, therefore they are reactive not proactive. Visitors must feel safe and criminals must feel scared. An omnipresent security staff is paramount. A competent force of well trained, fairly compensated, PROFESSIONAL security officers should be stationed on the Boardwalk and around the Hotels. I am not talking about the $9 an hour guys. I mean real security, ex- military, off duty officers etc.. A note on this point; do not hire a third party company that will charge you $35 and hour for each guard and then hire some marginal people and pay them $10 pocketing the difference. You want to pay well so there is an incentive to do a good job and retain their employment.
9) The thing that differentiates your new property from the other shore towns, like Cape May, Avalon, Stone Harbor, Seaside etc... is the GAMBLING. You are the only town to offer it. The Casino has to be heavily marketed. To bring in the players the casino should be marketed as "The Smart Players Choice". Pennsylvania has the best BJ rules in the country and they making a killing. Advertise that you have PA rules. Players will flock to the casino for all 3:2, 4 and 6 deck, Blackjack with the dealer standing on soft 17 and surrender. You will have players standing two deep waiting to play. Your Craps tables should have 10X odds, you will have more players then you can handle.
10) Customer service: Training, testing, training and testing keeps the staff professional and courteous. People are coming to your property to be treated better than they are in their usual life. It is the staffs' job to smile and be pleasant to even the most obnoxious jerks.
11) The restaurants: You already have some great high end operations in place to dine. Bring them back! "American Cut" was the best steakhouse in AC. Fine dining brings in the more established discriminating customer.
12) You also have to have a great buffet, not a good buffet, a great buffet. Take a walk to Harrah's or Borgata. People wait in long lines to get into those buffets. They will gladly dole out 35 bucks to sample all the different choices. The buffet brings in the masses. Add a two for one buffet coupon on a Wednesday in February the slots will be humming.
13) Of course you need a club for the 20 and 30 years old E.D.M. lovers. Charging $300 for bottle serve is a license to print money. Have Bachelorette Part incentive, for each young lady you bring in several young males will follow.
14) To round out the demographic mix at the casino you need a Bar or lounge for the 40 and over crowd. Golden Nugget is great and providing entertainment to this demographic. The GN Marina Deck is packed on summer nights and the bartenders can barely keep up.
15) Comps, Comps, Comps, People love a comp. I once watched someone I knew blow $5K at the craps table just to "score" a "free" room. Have a great comp system. With smart hosts that are not slaves to the bean counters. People are going to gamble, no question about it, but a slot machine is a slot machine. To get people to you they have to feel appreciated.
16) Support Legal Sports betting. The cars will be lined up to get into the parking lot during football season.

Quote: Scan

Dear Glenn Straub

Here is how you make the former Revel a success

1) A known, proven, casino operator must be brought in to oversee all gambling operations.
2) The property should rebranded to highlight the awesome shore location, Perhaps something like "The Hard Rock Casino Beach Resort and Wellness Spa." Adjoining land can have exercise trails. Boardwalk bicycle rentals should be available. A beach shack should rent Umbrellas, lounge chairs, floats etc...
3) A beach bar with cocktail service should be provided
4) Parts of the Indoor area must repurposed to provide space for things that draw a lot of families from the tri-state area, for example, Cheer competitions, Karate exhibitions, battle of the high School band competitions etc... This fills your off-season rooms with people that do not necessarily know AC and it gives them a taste of what "The New AC" is like.
5) Work with the CRDA bring in the big stuff to the convention center, like Comic Con, New Car shows, Sports card shows with athletes signing merchandise etc..
6) Support new attractions like the proposed Zip Line.
7) Beach Concerts with A-List bands are always crowd drawers
8) Security is a big concerned for a lot of people. I have walked the boardwalk late at night and saw the predators hiding in the shadows awaiting weak prey. The local police have their hands full with the various pockets of crime in the city, therefore they are reactive not proactive. Visitors must feel safe and criminals must feel scared. An omnipresent security staff is paramount. A competent force of well trained, fairly compensated, PROFESSIONAL security officers should be stationed on the Boardwalk and around the Hotels. I am not talking about the $9 an hour guys. I mean real security, ex- military, off duty officers etc.. A note on this point; do not hire a third party company that will charge you $35 and hour for each guard and then hire some marginal people and pay them $10 pocketing the difference. You want to pay well so there is an incentive to do a good job and retain their employment.
9) The thing that differentiates your new property from the other shore towns, like Cape May, Avalon, Stone Harbor, Seaside etc... is the GAMBLING. You are the only town to offer it. The Casino has to be heavily marketed. To bring in the players the casino should be marketed as "The Smart Players Choice". Pennsylvania has the best BJ rules in the country and they making a killing. Advertise that you have PA rules. Players will flock to the casino for all 3:2, 4 and 6 deck, Blackjack with the dealer standing on soft 17 and surrender. You will have players standing two deep waiting to play. Your Craps tables should have 10X odds, you will have more players then you can handle.
10) Customer service: Training, testing, training and testing keeps the staff professional and courteous. People are coming to your property to be treated better than they are in their usual life. It is the staffs' job to smile and be pleasant to even the most obnoxious jerks.
11) The restaurants: You already have some great high end operations in place to dine. Bring them back! "American Cut" was the best steakhouse in AC. Fine dining brings in the more established discriminating customer.
12) You also have to have a great buffet, not a good buffet, a great buffet. Take a walk to Harrah's or Borgata. People wait in long lines to get into those buffets. They will gladly dole out 35 bucks to sample all the different choices. The buffet brings in the masses. Add a two for one buffet coupon on a Wednesday in February the slots will be humming.
13) Of course you need a club for the 20 and 30 years old E.D.M. lovers. Charging $300 for bottle serve is a license to print money. Have Bachelorette Part incentive, for each young lady you bring in several young males will follow.
14) To round out the demographic mix at the casino you need a Bar or lounge for the 40 and over crowd. Golden Nugget is great and providing entertainment to this demographic. The GN Marina Deck is packed on summer nights and the bartenders can barely keep up.
15) Comps, Comps, Comps, People love a comp. I once watched someone I knew blow $5K at the craps table just to "score" a "free" room. Have a great comp system. With smart hosts that are not slaves to the bean counters. People are going to gamble, no question about it, but a slot machine is a slot machine. To get people to you they have to feel appreciated.
16) Support Legal Sports betting. The cars will be lined up to get into the parking lot during football season.

Wow. You could do $150 at Caesars and get a comped room.

Good suggestions though.

I hate how so many places are killing discretionary comps and, if you're staying there, telling you to bill it to the room and ask on the way out. Cheap gimmes work. My aunt loved Rincon's 15 points for a buffet promo, because "Win or lose, you leave with a full stomach."

Contrast with Palace Station's 'You want 10$ for a sandwich, with 800$ theo? Sorry, you're winning at the moment.' is a great way to drum repeat business.

When I used to ask for a discretionary comp after hours of playing at table....firstly, they say don't do that anymore and secondly I feel like I'm begging for a cup of coffee and some eggs....just hate it. I usually have enough comps to cover meals during my trips but I used get a little somethin', somethin' extra for a wee that morning snack before bed. (that's when things were open 24/7) I remember when Showboat used to have a free continental breakfast buffet for hotel guests, it was the best.

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2) ... Boardwalk bicycle rentals should be available.

I like this, but wouldn't expect Revel's new owners to bother with it. Unless it's changed, city law permits boardwalk bicycling only for limited hours. 6:00am to 10:00am during the summer and 7:30am to noon the rest of the year. Kinda limits the value of such an amenity.


One thing I would have included in the list is to not be as anti-smoking as Revel was.

Sure, no smoking in the public hotel areas and restaurants. But on the outdoor decks? At least have smoking zones!

One thing that always made me shake my head was that there's an area near the hotel front desk that is more-or-less in the middle, but is outdoors. It's an oval area about 20 x 40 yards, with a small bar at one end, small stage at the other, a few fire pits, etc. I.E. It's designed to be a smoking lounge, but Revel kept it non-smoking. Go figure....