Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING JULY 2018 38 FEATURES Food and beverage offerings are led by none other than legendary French chef Alain Ducasse, who not only provides two restaurants and a bar at Morpheus but has been given the entire third floor to do so. They include Alain Ducasse at Morpheus – the first Alain Ducasse fine dining restaurant in Macau serving French contemporary haute cuisine – and Voyages by Alain Ducasse, a new concept offering a unique take on Asian cuisines inspired by Ducasse’s travels over the past 30 years. Award-winning pastry chef Pierre Hermé will oversee the Pierre Hermé Lounge, specializing in patisserie, while Yí on the 21st floor Sky Bridge is a regional Chinese restaurant serving omakase-style. In each of the property’s 772 hotel rooms, luxury brands include bed linen by Frette and Mühldorfer, bath linen by The Madison Collection, chinaware by Bernardaud, bathroom accessories by Royal Selangor, Hermès and Acqua di Parma toiletries and Alessi tableware. Morpheus opened with around 200 rooms ready, revealing that it will bring another 100 rooms online every fortnight until all are operational in order to ensure service doesn’t suffer. “Morpheus is all about quality service,” Ho explains. “We already have more than 1,000 staff but we are going to release the rooms bit by bit to make sure we are offering top-tier service levels and can troubleshoot everything.” The price range for rooms “will be among the highest in Macau,” Ho says. At 630 square feet, standard rooms will also be among the largest. According to Bernstein’s Vitaly Umansky, Zhen Gong and Kelsey The price range for rooms “will be among the highest in Macau,” Ho says. At 630 square feet, standard rooms will also be among the largest. Legendary French chef Alain Ducasse occupies the entire third floor of Morpheus with two restaurants and a bar. Zhu, the addition of 772 rooms at Morpheus promises to be “a key growth driver for City of Dreams as the property has been running at full capacity and effectively turning away valuable business because of lack of hotel rooms (premium mass in particular). “Although the rooms will be opened in phases, the phasing will be quick and Morpheus should have a strong positive impact on the performance of City of Dreams Macau. “City of Dreams has the highest mass GGR per room (85% above Cotai average for 2018E) and Adjusted Property EBITDA per room (65% above Cotai average for 2018E) among the Cotai properties. With 772 high-end premium mass-focused hotel rooms (increasing room capacity by 56% from an existing 1,387 rooms), Morpheus should significantly enhance City of Dreams’ competitiveness in the premium mass sector in Cotai.” Given recent woes at City of Dreams – which saw net revenue fall 7.6% in 1Q18 due to a fall in rolling chip volume, ultimately leading to the departure of former Property President Gabe Hunterton in favor of former Studio City boss David Sisk – that’s certainly the dream. “Commitment on this scale takes courage on a level rarely seen in this industry but we’ve delivered on our promise to further diversify and we’ve done it on time and on budget,” says Ho. “But Morpheus is not just about opening one hotel, it’s much more important than that for us. It’s the relaunching of City of Dreams Macau. It is in our DNA to want to be continuously evolving and improving, exceeding the expectations of our guests, and that’s what we’re doing in 2018.”