Marilyn Spiegel is the President of Wynn Las Vegas, the largest Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star resort in the world.
She oversees day-to-day operations and all revenue centers at the luxury resort, including casino, hotel, food and beverage, retail and entertainment, marketing, finance, and employee relations.
With a deep understanding of hospitality at all levels and a passion for helping female and minority entrepreneurs, she shares her knowledge as a board member, advisor, and mentor for several non-profit organizations.
With Las Vegas open again, and the Wynn specifically, Spiegel recently took the time to answer our questions about what the experience is like, and also what it takes to create a safe, luxury travel environment that makes you want to stay an extra day and come back soon.
How did you prepare to reopen the resort?
Our goal was to create a relaxing and fun environment that incorporates robust health and safety protocols but didn’t impede the guest experience. In preparation, we spent three months working closely with a team of leading medical and public health professionals, including current or former faculty and fellows of Georgetown and Johns Hopkins, to create the Wynn Resorts Health and Safety program. It is a resort-wide plan that is based on the most effective health safety practices available and, just as important, is clear and transparent to our guests. The full plan is available on our homepage at www.WynnLasVegas.com.
What type of health safety measures have been implemented?
It’s a long list of new measures in social distancing, touchless technologies, and cleaning protocols have also been incorporated throughout the resort to help protect the wellbeing of all guests.
Most notable among the enhancements are; Non-invasive thermal temperature checks and face coverings provided at all entrances; Automatic hand sanitizer stations, UV Technology, and electrostatic sprayers utilized throughout the resort; Sealed guest rooms after meticulous sanitization by Wynn’s professional housekeeping staff; In-room amenity kits including sanitizing wipes, hand sanitizer, and face coverings in each guest room; A dedicated team of cleaning professionals sanitizing public guest areas 24 hours a day, and guests are required to wear masks that cover the nose and mouth and are expected to maintain social distancing.
Behind the scenes, each operating department has its own customized set of procedures that are incredibly detailed. All Wynn employees were COVID-19 tested before they returned to work and we continue to provide testing.
Employees are also required to complete a health questionnaire before they enter the resort every day, and all have been thoroughly trained in our health and disinfection program.
Can you share some insights or advice about what you learned during the reopening process?
As the world’s largest five-star resort our exceedingly high service standards include multiple interactions with guests over the course of their stay. One of our biggest challenges was to consider how some guests may be looking for less interaction with our employees, or how they may want to maintain their distance from other people in the resort, and how this desire for less contact could be balanced with our typical approach to service.
We needed to pivot quickly and find new ways to digitally recreate our five-star experience for guests that were intuitive, fun, and most importantly – helpful and personal.
The answer was found by introducing new automated technologies that are in-step with the way people are looking to travel today and provide more options for our guests to curate their visit while controlling the level of interaction they have with others.
To this end, we have incorporated several new automation and digital technologies throughout the resort, including: Check-in kiosks for guests who prefer to avoid the front desk; A digital resort directory, replacing the physical in-room directory; Every guest room is equipped with Alexa for touchless room controls including lights, temperature, and television; Online food and beverage ordering system at fast-casual eateries, and tap-and-pay capabilities and digital menus available at all restaurants.
What about the experience? What’s open? What’s not?
Wynn Las Vegas has fully re-opened both Wynn and Encore hotels, with all restaurants including the buffet, three shopping esplanades, five pools, two salons, two spas, the golf course, and both Wynn and Encore casinos. In other words, Vegas just as you remember it.
Amenities that remain closed are the nightclubs and theaters, which is based on state mandates that limit group event sizes. Our newest restaurant, Elio, also opened in June in partnership with renowned restaurateurs Enrique Olvera, Daniela Soto-Innes and Santiago Perez of Casamata, and offers a menu of contemporary Mexican dishes from executive chef Sarah Thompson. Elio’s lounge is full of energy, ideal for late-night or after-dinner drinks.
What’s your best advice to help someone make the most of their stay?
Take advantage of our professional concierge team who knows everything about the resort and the city. They come to understand the individual needs of every guest they interact with and what their ideal trip looks like in order to arrange a full itinerary.
The service they provide is incredibly helpful during a time when our amenities are operating with occupancy limits and we encourage reservations be made, especially at fine-dining restaurants and for tee times at the Wynn Golf Club, our 18-hole championship course. We have the only golf course on the Las Vegas Strip, which is in incredibly high demand since being recently redesigned by Tom Fazio.
