Monte Carlo Fire Displaces Scores of Groups
Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 2/1/2008 2:41:00 PM
In the wake of the Jan. 25 rooftop fire at Monte Carlo Resort & Casino, sales and operations teams of MGM Mirage, the resort’s owner, “relocated more than 100 different events,” according to Gordon Absher, MGM’s vice president of public affairs.
The events in question included everything from parties and weddings to corporate meetings and association conventions, Absher said – “all types.”
The hotel closed completely following the fire, which mainly damaged the roof and exterior of the upper few floors on the western-facing side of the building and was contained within about an hour of starting. It remained closed as of press time.
Absher said MGM staff was relocating meetings primarily to other MGM Mirage facilities, but had also used some non-MGM properties – exactly which ones, he did not know.
“We’ve gotten excellent cooperation from our sister properties and the clients themselves,” he said. “In those instances where we had to go outside our company, those properties were also very, very cooperative. January is such a busy month; we’re putting them wherever we can while still maintaining the type and quality of experience they wanted.”
Absher added that the company was able to fulfill its Monte Carlo price commitment to group business customers.
One of the displaced groups was the Natl. Redesign Institute, which was expecting 40 people at a conference scheduled at the Monte Carlo Jan. 28-30. Conference organizer Victoria Palmer said, “The Monte Carlo bent over backwards to accommodate us, which was no easy feat, because the attendees we had were coming in from all over.”
The group ended up staying at the Signature at MGM Grand and holding conference sessions at the Tropicana Casino & Resort, which Palmer said was just fine with everyone. The only inconvenience, she added, was that they had to take taxis between the two.
James Ruppel, director of corporate marketing for Holbrook, N.Y.-based Four Seasons Solar Products, said that the company’s 200-person sales meeting, scheduled Feb. 19-21 at the Monte Carlo, was expected to take place as planned. Hotel officials had informed Four Seasons that the property would likely be open by then, he said.
However, Absher said it was not clear yet when the hotel would reopen.
“We’re still in the assessment phase,” he added. “We have hundreds of people working on it on a 24-hour basis. Right now, no timeline has been announced.”
An FAQ page on the hotel’s Web site directed convention planners and attendees to phone the reservation call center at (888) 395-0776 to find out the status of their meetings.
The 3,002-room hotel has 24,000 square feet of meeting space spread across eight meeting rooms ranging in size from 1,920 sq. ft. to 3,744 sq. ft., and five conference rooms from 260 sq. ft. to 1,400 sq. ft.
“We have a small convention space, but we do a brisk meetings and conventions business,” Absher said.
