December 31, 2013/ altair / New Hotels & Resorts

Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is a premier destination entertainment resort. Built in 1995, the property completed its $750 million expansion in early 2010. Hard Rock Hotel & Casino offers an energetic entertainment and gaming experience with the services and amenities associated with a boutique luxury resort hotel.

Everything Started from the Hard Rock Cafe

The world-wide known theme chain of hotels started from Hard Rock Cafe forty years ago, in 1971, when two Americans Peter Morton (born Chicago in 1947) and Isaac Tigrett (born Jackson, Tennessee in 1947) opened the doors of the first Hard Rock Café in London’s fashionable Mayfair district. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll memorabilia. The restaurant combined rock music, memorabilia related to rock ‘n’ roll and American cuisine. The cafe-music-museum concept became very popular. Hard Rock Café was the first theme restaurant chain in the world. The chain began global expansion in 1982 when the two agreed to develop their own cafes across the world. Tigrett bought Morton out, and took on the original Cafe in London along with rights to the name in most of the world including the US States East of the Mississippi; Morton had rights to the name in states West of the Mississippi and in Israel, Colombia and Australia. Morton founded Hard Rocks in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Houston, Las Vegas; San Diego, La Jolla, and Newport Beach, California; Sydney and Melbourne, Australia; Honolulu and Maui, Hawaii; among many others.

Eventually, in 1995 both sold their interests in Hard Rock Café to the Rank Organization (now The Rank Group) for $410 million, but Morton retained the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. In May 2006, Morton sold the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas to New York-based Morgans Hotel Group for $770 million. W. Edward Scheetz, a Morgans’ executive, described the 11-story, 670-room Hard Rock Hotel as a “trophy property” that will never be replicated in Las Vegas because of land values. The Hard Rock pool alone, ranked #1 of the top 10 hotel pools by Travel Channel, occupies land valued at $50 million. Hard Rock is headquartered in Orlando, Florida. Currently, there are 150 Hard Rock locations in 53 countries.

On December 7, 2006, Rank sold its Hard Rock business to the Seminole Tribe of Florida for US$965 million. Included in the deal were 124 Hard Rock Cafes, four Hard Rock Hotels, two Hard Rock Hotels and Casinos, two Hard Rock Live! concert venues, and stakes in three unbranded hotels. The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was not part of the deal, as it was sold by Peter Morton to Morgans Hotel Group in May 2006.

Music memorabilia

Hard Rock is known for its collection of rock and roll memorabilia. The cafes solicit donations of music memorabilia but also purchase a number of items at auctions around the world, including autographed guitars, outfits from world tours and rare photographs are often to be found mounted on cafe walls. Hard Rock’s archive includes over 70,000 items.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino (Las Vegas)

The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is located in Paradise – an unincorporated town in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Paradise contains McCarran International Airport, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and most of the Las Vegas Strip, including other world-famous hotels. Therefore, many tourists visiting the Las Vegas area actually spend most of their time in Paradise, rather than in the City of Las Vegas.

The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is an entertainment resort. The property is located on 16.7 acres (6.8ha) on the corner of Harmon and Paradise Road, inside the Paradise Corridor. Features of the property include the hotel tower, a 30,000-square-foot (2,800m²) casino, Tahitian-style beach and swimming pool, a nightclub, five restaurants, three cocktail lounges, several retail stores, a spa, a poker room, and “The Joint”, a music venue. Hard Rock earns only about 30% of its revenue from gaming, probably the lowest percentage of any major resort in the Las Vegas strip region.

History: The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino was built in 1995 by Peter Morton, co-founder of the Hard Rock Cafe. It was expanded in 1999, and began another expansion in 2007. In June 2002 influential rock bassist John Entwistle of The Who died in one of the hotel’s rooms. The hotel management originally refused to release the room number out of respect, but later reports indicate that Entwistle died in Room 658 (considered a “deluxe suite”). Many fans still pay tribute to Entwistle, by visiting the hotel. In 2006, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino was sold to the Morgans Hotel Group for $770 million. On October 25, 2008, professional wrestling show TNA iMPACT! broadcast their first HD show from the building.

The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is an 11-story tower with 648 guestrooms, 64 suites, designed by Mark Zeff, and penthouses.

Casino – a 30,000-square-foot (2,800m²) casino that includes table games including, blackjack, roulette, and poker, and swim-up blackjack. The casino also features the Fender Room, a high-limit slot machine room and the Peacock Lounge, a high-limit gaming room.

Meeting Space is over 60,000 square feet (5,600m²) area for meetings and an additional 136,000 square feet (12,600m²) of special event space.

Restaurants:

• Nobu – Japanese, Michelin Star Restaurant
• Rare 120 – Modern American Steakhouse
• Ago – Contemporary Italian
• Mr. Lucky’s
• Pink Taco – Mexican

Shops and Boutiques

• Love Jones – boutique
• Brannon Hair Salon

The Joint is a 4,000 seat showroom located inside the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. This is a common venue for classic and modern rock bands. The Joint is a rock club which has featured performances by the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, The Black Crowes, David Bowie, Coldplay, Kenny Chesney, Foo Fighters, Alicia Keys, Nine Inch Nails, and The Killers. The versatility of the venue is demonstrated by its ability to host other events like the World Extreme Cagefighting (was an American mixed martial arts promotion) and TNA Wrestling iMPACT! The Joint tends to book groups who traditionally favor arena types of venues. The original “Joint” closed its doors in February 2009. The new “Joint” opened on April 17, 2009, with The Killers performing the inaugural concert. The opening weekend also included shows by Avenged Sevenfold on April 18 and Paul McCartney on April 19. The new venue is nearly twice the size of the original and features three levels including private skyboxes and VIP table seating.

Vanity is the nightclub at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Originally, it was Body English night club. Its final day of operation was December 31, 2009. Designed by Kelly Wearstler, the space featured two self-contained bars on different levels, a large dance floor, 48 VIP booths, and a vintage $250,000 Baccarat chandelier. Body English was the home of “Sunday Pervert School” and “Indulge Fridays”, mainstays of Las Vegas nightlife. The Godskitchen party was also held at Body English every Wednesday, bringing headline dance music and talent to the venue. Body English was notably the first Las Vegas residency for the late DJ AM. Now the Vanity Nightclub is part of the property expansion and occupies new space. Designed by Mr. Important, the 14,000-square-foot (1,300m²) venue has two bars and 60 VIP booths. The signature feature of the club is the “cyclone” chandelier which sprawls over the dance floor. The chandelier has over 20,000 crystals, each lit with individually controlled full-color LED lights. It is open Thursday through Sunday, with Thursday nights continuing the Godskitchen house music party which was hosted at Body English. The other nights are “open format”; resident DJs Clinton Sparks, Eric D-Lux, DJ Five, and Presto One provide music on the weekends. The venue is co-owned by the hotel and Jason Giambi. The venue opened on December 31, 2009, and its grand opening weekend featured performances by DJ Vice and Bob Sinclar, as well as a party hosted by Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Rehab is the original pool party in Las Vegas. Each Sunday during pool season, the Beach Club at the Hard Rock transforms into a massive outdoor party that runs from 11:00 AM until 8:00 PM. Thousands of people attend each week and party from morning till night. While the resident DJ corps plays a wide variety of music, Rehab has become a noted destination for headline dance music DJs. Guest DJs have included Tiësto, Sharam of Deep Dish, Fedde Le Grand, Bad Boy Bill, BT, Donald Glaude, and Jonathan Peters. It has also become a frequent site for celebrities including Akon, Paris Hilton, Clinton Sparks, DJ Vice, and Sugar Ray. Lady Gaga made her Las Vegas debut at Rehab.

Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is a premier destination entertainment resort. Built in 1995, the property completed its $750 million expansion in early 2010. Hard Rock Hotel & Casino offers an energetic entertainment and gaming experience with the services and amenities associated with a boutique luxury resort hotel.

Book your trip to Las Vegas with Altair Travel!

For reservation and information please contact Altair Travel

Tags Hard Rock Hotels