Inside Asian Gaming

O ld Macau bumped up against new Macau in an interesting fashion recently when local businessman David Chow announced plans to spend HK$500 million (US$64.3 million) on The Landmark Macau Hotel. The cash will come from a HK$1.8 billion syndicated loanMr Chow is raising for investments in Macau. The Landmark Macau Hotel is not an old property byWestern standards. It was only opened in 2003. But it had a chequered history during the planning stage. Initially the development was due to be luxury apartments only. Then the hotel concept was introduced as a straight swap, until eventually the developers settled on a mix of hotel and luxury serviced apartments. In the years immediately afterwards, the hotel’s apartment-sized suites and bathrooms and its impressively vast marbled entrance hall made it one of the premier hotels in Macau. It was also one of the first properties in Macau to offer an upscale shopping mall with premium fashion brands (operated by the Rainbow Group). But things change fast in Macau. By autumn 2006 with the first phase opening of Wynn Macau, The Landmark Macau Hotel began to be somewhat overshadowed and ‘out marketed’ by new product from Wynn and the other out of town investors after the casino resort building boom of the mid-2000s. But there’s still an important segment of the Macau market that wants upscale accommodation with a distinctively Chinese management and service style. That’s arguably the selling point of Mr Chow’s hotel. And it’s not always what’s on offer from the new foreign hotel brands in Macau. Inside Asian Gaming has been told by insiders that one of the major foreign-owned hotels in Macau times its check-in desk staff when they speak to an arriving customer. If the conversation goes beyond the allotted minutes, then the staff member is required to close down the interaction. If the staffmember doesn’t do it, a line manager will. Mr Chow—a Hong Kong-born former Macau lawmaker— apparently understands the market he’s serving. It’s a specifically Chinese one where personal attention and even organisational quirks are valued over scripted greetings and a feeling the guest is Full Steam Ahead David Chow’s plan for a super sauna may be a sign that ‘old Macau’ is fighting back The Landmark Macau Hotel and Pharaoh’s Palace Casino