The recently opened mega-hotel, Fontainebleau Las Vegas is embarrassing itself and the entire Fontainebleau brand by gouging customers.
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Finally Open
At the end of the Las Vegas strip, across from Resorts World and next to Sahara (which has been revived some) is the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, a new high-rise resort from the infamous Miami brand. Glimmering glass towers more than 700 feet above the 6-acre pool with more than 3,600 guest rooms. Initially, the property faced hardship during its development which began in 2007, falling into bankruptcy after reaching 70% completion. Carl Icahn purchased it but did nothing to advance the project for the better part of a decade before new owners came in ready to name it the Drew and finish the job. COVID delayed progress and allowed the original Fontainebleau owner (Jeff Soffer) to buy it back with the help of the Koch brothers. The entire project is said to have cost $3.7 billion.
The property opened on December 13th, 2023 but its largest hurdle was the Super Bowl, held last weekend in Las Vegas.
Recent Examples Of Excessive Pricing
There’s no question that Fontainebleau is an expensive brand focused on luxury clientele. Prices and quality are intended to be high and not everyone can afford their product.
However, recent examples of price gouging or at minimum laughably expensive prices trickled out on social media. Here’s an example of a $24 plate of nachos with just six(!) chips on it.
Hey @fblasvegas we waited an hour for food in the Sportsbook and this is our nachos???
Come on man pic.twitter.com/eHDV4cyjOK— Mike Herman (@MuTigerMike) January 23, 2024
The rest of Las Vegas wasted no time reminding customers of a better deal. News 3LV, a local NBC affiliate had a roundup of other casinos sharing their nacho pictures and prices which, while still elevated, were far better value than the embarrassing Fontainebleau Las Vegas plate. For what it’s worth, the property revamped its nacho offering to an expected portion for a shared appetizer.
Shots fired. The Great Vegas Nacho Wars of 2024 have begun. https://t.co/SNkmYCf6pD
— Las Vegas Locally (@LasVegasLocally) January 24, 2024
Another example was a $67 bill for two bottles of Fiji water and 1.5 liters of coffee (is this how we measure coffee?) Included in this very, very, very NSFW clip is a shot of the bill. Each bottle of water was $16 and the coffee was another $14. To be clear, this is not the mini bar as the receipt shows a “dining charge” of $9, and a further 18% gratuity before taxes are factored in.
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Rich, Not Stupid
Fontainebleau Las Vegas is making a statement and it’s not that it only wants to attract the wealthiest clients, it’s that it thinks its clientele is stupid. It has made the timeless mistake of confusing price and luxury. But rich consumers, the kind that can afford not to look at a bill for a couple of bottles of water and become incensed by the gall, will not appreciate the property taking advantage of them in such a callous manner.
I work with wealthy clients daily. They can afford nearly anything my company sells without having to think about it, but they remain careful and smart with their money. They look for value, convenience, and product quality before making a decision. They buy brands like Louis Vuitton and Burberry, not only because they like the style but also because of its great quality and how firmly the brand stands behind its products.
What Fontainebleau has done in both of these situations indicates that it does not believe customers will choose their product for any reason other than because it is in front of them and the hotel is flashy. There’s no other reason a nacho plate would sell for $24 with six chips on it than because several layers of management felt they could.
Fontainebleau Las Vegas hurts its premium Miami brand by showcasing to a much wider audience what guests get for their money. Other luxury resorts in the market were quick to pounce on this, as they should. While the Miami product was nearly impenetrable due to its lore, clients who hadn’t looked around for competitors before might do so now.
Conclusion
After a long and arduous battle to create one of the largest resorts in Las Vegas, Fontainebleau finally opened its doors 16 years after it broke ground. Overcharging customers has led to a bad taste in early visitors’ mouths. It isn’t about the price of food and drink in an expensive town that is at issue here as much as it is about how Fontainebleau sees its ability to charge whatever it wants for very little and how it believes customers will respond. I can appreciate that it has an awful lot of investment to recover but maybe it shouldn’t try to do that all on one plate of nachos.
What do you think?
They are in a downward spiral. Multiple management changes in gaming already due to a lack of revenue. Now an ill conceived status match to attract players from other casinos that didn’t go far enough with benefits to get players to give them a chance. But it did work to bring local hustlers in to take advantage of the offers of free food, spa credits and match play to take it and run without spending any of their own money. Most would be shocked at how many locals have higher level players cards to use to match. For a couple this is a free and easy $1000-$2000 with no risk.
As you stated, they opened with an arrogance and are now paying for it. In a city with Cosmo, Wynn and Venetian already dominating the higher end market with established players clubs, they really aren’t offering anything new. It will go through multiple bankruptcies in the near future. And the average tourist isn’t going to give them a chance with all the other options. Legitimate reports of room occupancy in the 20’s or less many nights isn’t going to cut it.
I’m curious what status matching they were doing. I went over there in December with a Caesars Diamond Elite card and they offered me $15 in slots credits, lol.
They are acting like it is Miami Beach, except it isn’t Miami Beach.
Vegas is flash and all that, but it isn’t Miami flash where expensive means good, not quality means good.
I joke all the time that one can make a killing by opening a restaurant in Miami that is very architecturally flashy, with stratospheric prices and mediocre food.
I am not remotely surprised that the Fontainebleau brought Miami to Vegas.
LOL the Miami Fountainbleau hasn’t been a “premium” brand for a very, very long time. If you like frat boys playing football in the pool with pounding club music permeating the whole area, and filthy, cheaply-fitted rooms that only get cleaned every two days at best (they refuse daily cleaning even if you request it), then it’s for you. The Miami Fountainbleau is famous for overcharging and delivering zero luxury benefits. There are 50 properties in Miami that are far more high-end including some nearby, like the Soho House and the Four Seasons Surf Club up the beach.
The Entire Fountainbleau brand is built on gouging people who apparently have enough money to spend on a Four Seasons or Mandarin Oriental, but clearly don’t know those brands exist, and have never experienced their standards. A majority of the Miami clientele are now college kids sharing like 6 to a room. The idea that it’s in any way “high end” is laughable.
Fontainebleau is not a global luxury brand – it’s a beach front brand. No ocean front no value prop.
This seems a larger scale of the SLS that had to eventually go mid market.
Why would anyone want to spend their money in Las Vegas?
That is actually somewhat of a foolish statement, don’t you think?
Perspective is needed here. This is Super Bowl Vegas. A place people go to gamble ridiculous money. Not a tired hotel on a lovely chunk of sand in Miami. I suspect the Vegas property has somewhat of an identity crisis. Casinos want guests out of the rooms spending money. The fools that ordered room service water and coffee and were outraged, have learned a lesson about how the game is played. The Sportsbook nachos appeared to be a chef attempt at glamming up a snack, demonstrating the identity crisis. You need to understand your customer and Las Vegas.
A fool and his money, well, you know.
So, those complaining didn’t check the price before ordering?
Confucius Says: The stupid and their money will soon be separated.
And John Wayne said ” Life is tough, it’s even tougher when you’re stupid “
Kinda seems to me that this is just a keen example of the way Vegas has been moving for quite some time. Ever-higher prices with perpetually lower value has really become a hallmark of the city.
The most spot-on comment here!
The Miami Beach location commands a premium because it’s a short free trolley ride away from Publix Supermarket. Get a 30 cm made to order sandwich for around $10,a whole fried chicken with 2 sides and rolls for $18,a large tres leches cake for $8 and buy one get one free bottles of European wine. Enough said.
The problem is they are saturating the north end of the Strip with luxury properties. Wyncore, Resorts World and Fontainebleau. At least Wynn is an established brand with well-set expectations and experience. The other two need to develop a following and for that they should copy the Wyncore exactly, including offers, layout, experience. Trying to offer something different (and inferior in value) isn’t going to work for this crowd.
I agree. Resorts World doesn’t seem like it’s taking off either, and you feel like the shopping area is a big empty sad mall. The gaming floor in Resorts World is immense, and I saw tables generally full around the perimeter only. They made this resort too big and now it looks empty, and thus not a hotspot. Fontainebleau was a bit of the same, but the gaming area was not as huge, so it seemed fairly busy. Their “mall” area also seemed too big and thus empty feeling. We went to Papi Steak and spent well over 1K for 4 people, very easily, and that was a rarity for us- actually we’ve never done that. It was good, but overpriced so we won’t go again. In general Fontainebleau is temporary flash that will fizzle, and in January when I visited I wouldn’t call it the place to be either.
Gen Z will pay ridiculous prices for perceived luxury on high interest credit cards. This place will be full of influencers living the glamorous life.
A hotel in Vegas, based off a hotel in Miami. Is that double-douchebag, or douchebag squared?
No matter the math, it is not a good pairing I fear.
Anyone who visited Vegas while it was being run by the mob would roll their eyes at what has happened to this town. Back then everything was cheap I mean really cheap and free parking. The mob wanted all the money to go into the casino where they could skim it. Now the big corporations want to show a profit in every single department including the garage.
Yep, good quality and good value belong to the independents in Las Vegas. They are foreign, strange concepts to the soulless corporations that now run Vegas.
AGREED. This is what happens when corporations take over and plug some idiot CEO puppet into the driver’s seat who will do exactly what the shareholders want – not the customers. I have lived her my entire life and once the hotels turned corporate I stopped dealing with them. Covid should have taught them a little something about customer appreciation, but idiot greed will always dull the senses with delusions of grandeur I suppose….
I have been going to Vegas for 35+ years and have yet to set foot in Cosmo, Aria, Vdara, Resorts World, and this gouge machine Fountainblow. Being gouged is not in my DNA.
Louis Vuitton is a trash brand. Truly wealthy people with good taste do not buy it. Nouveau riches uncomfortable with their wealth? That’s what Louis is for these days
Burberry?? Not sure what type of these “wealthy” clients author deals with, but they surely have poor taste. Fakos most likely.
Lol LV and Burb are trash? You guys probably couldn’t even afford a napkin from either. Keyboard warrior clowns ftw
Last week I was on LAS and I walked across the entire strip both ways and looked for a certain slot game I like to play. All I can say$300 put in it went straight down with not even a bonus. Sure you could call it a bad beat on variance but no other single casino out of the 10+ lost like this. I even knew better knowing ahead about the nacho debacle. I wouldn’t be surprised if the RTP on their machines are set at zero
@Kyle: Do your wealthy clients pay for someone who can tell the difference between one half liter of coffee and 1.5 liters of coffee?
Sounds like the perfect place to host F-1.
Enough pretentious attitude to pack them in.
I’ve been living in Vegas since 2001. I can’t wait to get out of here. The special interest groups get their way, while all the necessary tax dollars go to BS A’s stadium, F1 racing. No locals go down to the strip because its worse than LA on a good day, getting around. We out
Vegas is… so not worth even thinking about.