GGRAsia – W Macau hotel Studio City to open Sept: Lawrence Ho

W Macau hotel Studio City to open Sept: Lawrence Ho

May 11, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

The W Macau hotel tower at Studio City Phase 2 (pictured in a rendering) in Macau is due to open in September, says Lawrence Ho Yau Lung, chairman and chief executive of Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd.

He was speaking on Wednesday on the firm’s conference call with analysts, following the group’s first quarter earnings announcement.

“We.. plan to open the W Hotel tower in September, which will round out our hotel portfolio in Macau,” stated Mr Ho. Melco Resorts is the majority owner of Studio City, a casino resort in the Cotai district of the city.

“W Macau – Studio City” has been described by the company as due to have 557 guest rooms, including 127 suites and a spa, a gymnasium and an indoor swimming pool. The new hotel will also offer a total of 1,100 square metres (11,840 sq. feet) of event and meeting space.

Geoff Davis, chief financial officer of Melco Resorts, mentioned on the call that the group intended to “retain at least 20 to 25 percent of the savings we achieved during the Covid period, as permanent savings,” in terms of company operating costs.

“We estimate we will have approximately 2,000 fewer full-time employees compared to 2019 once we are fully ramped up, including the full-time employees needed for the opening of Epic [Tower], the W [hotel] and the water park at Studio City,” added Mr Davis.

In early April, the firm had a soft opening for another new hotel tower at Studio City, called the Epic Tower, and an indoor water park.

David Sisk, Melco Resorts’ chief operating officer – Macau resorts, said on Wednesday’s earnings call that initially the Epic Tower had opened 100 rooms.

“Then at end of the month [of April] right before Golden Week we got it up to 338 rooms and suites,” stated Mr Sisk.

That was a reference to a holiday period on the Chinese mainland running from April 29 to May 3 inclusive, that coincided with a peak demand period for Macau’s gaming and tourism sectors.

Mr Sisk said that since the combination of the start of a series of concert residencies at Studio City, along with the opening in early April of the Epic Tower and an indoor water park, “we have seen our volumes rise by about 40 percent from a [casino] drop standpoint. So we’re quite pleased by the early results.”

The executive also gave some commentary on the staffing situation in the group’s Macau hotel portfolio since the easing of travel movement from early January. In Macau the firm runs hotels at City of Dreams, and Altira Macau, as well as Studio City.

Mr Sisk stated: “When we started off [in the first quarter], we were working to get back to 70, 80 percent of hotel rooms. Some of that was due to [the fact] we lost so much staff during the pandemic, that it took time to hire staff back and get them trained up again.”

He added that Melco Resorts’ Macau hotel room inventory was back to 70 percent in the first quarter, then 80 percent in April, and in “May for Golden Week up to 90 percent”.

He added hotel inventory would be “up to 100 percent by the beginning of June”.

Mr Ho said that while the average spend per customer had been encouraging since the recovery, it was essentially a “premium mass” led recovery in terms of type of customer, as “right now, the cost to travel here is still quite high,” due to factors including the pace at which transport – including flight volume – was ramping up.

“The next key period will be summer – around July-August,” noted Mr Ho.