GGRAsia – Raffles Macau soft opens, rooms still unavailable to public

Raffles Macau soft opens, rooms still unavailable to public

Aug 16, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

Wednesday marked a “soft” opening in terms of the public’s access to the new Raffles at Galaxy Macau hotel, which has approximately 450 suites (example pictured). But for now, the hotel accommodation is still only for “invited guests”, and only limited facilities can be used by the public at large, a spokesperson for Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd confirmed to GGRAsia in text messages in response to our enquiry.

The person stated: “We will open [the hotel to the general public] but not at this moment, because we have high demand from invited guests”.

No schedule was provided for the opening of the hotel to bookings from the general public.

The term “invited guests” was used in July when Galaxy Macau staff confirmed to GGRAsia that accommodation there was in use, but not for the general public. Soon after, Galaxy Entertainment said that a “soft opening” of the property to the public would be on July 16.

On Wednesday GGRAsia asked the spokesperson if “invited guests” included gambling customers.

They responded: “The Raffles will certainly be open to both gaming and non-gaming customers. We have to this point opened rooms exclusively to our top customers across various segments including retail – we did host a few Chanel events.” The latter was a reference to the French luxury goods brand.

Pressed by GGRAsia on whether gambling customers were among the invited guests being offered rooms at Raffles at Galaxy Macau, the company spokesperson said “yes”.

The person noted regarding its invited guests: “We have found already that the hotel is extremely popular and running very high occupancy and so limited rooms are available, but we are very pleased with its success so far and that customers seem to like it.”

Asked to clarify exactly what facilities at Raffles at Galaxy Macau are as of Wednesday open to the general public, the person mentioned “Raffles Lounge & Terrace,” offering “all day dining, breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, happy hour and dinner”.

Investment bank Goldman Sachs stated in a July memo that on “recent tours” of the Galaxy Macau casino resort, the institution “noticed” that promoter Galaxy Entertainment had installed gaming tables within the Raffles at Galaxy Macau hotel tower.

A mid-July memo from Citigroup said the gaming area within the new hotel tower – which it described as for “premium mass” customers – was “already raking in some decent volumes”.

Andaz Macau, the second of the two new hotels in Phase 3 of Galaxy Macau, is to launch on September 15, said an August 10 press release from Galaxy Entertainment.