Beyond Bling

Saturated with “spectacular” baroque-meets-modern flirting with neo-classical décor, the “Villa du Comte” is just one of the 200 lavish suites contained within the blood-red shell of The 13, a MOP10 billion, seven-star hotel scheduled to open in Cotai later this year. Among its amenities, this 200-square-meter “standard accommodation” (yes, standard) will provide its select clientele with a private elevator lobby, butler service, and a marble Roman bath that can accommodate up to eight people. But The 13 is not alone. A series of high-end urban resorts will soon reinvigorate the Cotai scene – obsolescence and renewal seem to be running fast in this business – although opening dates for the strip’s new offspring have been fluctuating together with the market of late. Publicity images promise extraordinary experiences: Wynn Palace and its idyllic garden setting complete with lake, encircled by restaurants and gondolas; The Parisian, equipped with a half-size replica Eiffel Tower and featuring an Avenue des Champs-Élysées retail mall; and City of Dreams’ new hotel tower designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, an almost unrivalled display of sophisticated, innovative architecture. We are in danger of becoming somewhat blasé to all this ostentation. Perhaps we are intrigued that, despite reduced revenues and constant political pressure, Macau’s casino operators seem to be going all-in. Indeed, these soon-to-open Cotai venues are unmatched in many respects – they occupy an increasingly exclusive world of expanding superlatives. In raising the standards for highly ambitious and aggressive marketing and hospitality service strategies, the gambling sector is striving to accommodate new business models to an old formula: high stakes yield even higher returns. The word “luxury” has become inadequate for describing this incredible, exuberant level of excess. Would it sound redundant to call it ultra-excess? Then again, when you have a Roman bath inside your own suite, I suppose that redundancy is precisely the point. There are no limits when your goal is to offer a lifestyle – or a lifetime – experience for the super-rich. But given that the privileged class of deep-pocketed Chinese seems to be less enticed by Macau’s charms these days, the industry might want to try expanding its appeal to more-distant global markets, and reach players who would be attracted to this beyond-bling enclave of the Far East.