Wynn Resorts has begun furloughing workers in response to slackening demand on the Las Vegas Strip.
The company didn’t say how many of the thousands of employees at its marquee casino hotels, Wynn Las Vegas and Encore, are being affected.
“Although we retained all of our people while we were closed, we now know how challenged business volumes in Las Vegas are and are staffing to the significantly reduced demand,” spokesman Michael Weaver said.
He said those laid off will continue to receive company-paid health benefits through October 31.
Wynn employs around 30,200 people across its operations in Massachusetts, Macau and Las Vegas. Roughly 16,400 of those were based in the U.S., where the company’s Las Vegas resorts reopened June 4 and Encore Boston Harbor reopened July 12.
The furloughs come as visitation to Las Vegas reportedly is slowing, a worrying trend observers attribute to the spike in new coronavirus infections in and around the city the last two months and the deluge of new cases reported in much of the rest of the country.
“Let’s face it, Covid-19 is putting a damper on anyone’s travel plans,” said Wynn Las Vegas and Encore President Marilyn Spiegel. “We are trying our very best to encourage our guests to come back and visit. Their concerns for their health and safety are overriding their desire to travel.”
Spiegel said casual restaurants will be closed midweek and operations at gourmet outlets will be limited in response to the slowdown. The spa and salon at Encore also will not open midweek.
“We are going to have a rolling schedule of closures by day of week,” she said. “You may see that one restaurant is closed four days a week, but it’s always going to be open on weekends, when we have the most demand. Another may be closed three days a week or two days a week.”
Main valet parking at both properties also are closing, although the service will remain open for guests at Wynn Tower Suites and Encore Tower Suites and for private access members and VIP customers.
Earlier this month, Las Vegas Sands said it would not accept midweek room reservations at its Palazzo resort on the Strip.
For Nehme Abouzeid, president of consultants LaunchVegas and a former marketing and entertainment executive with both Wynn and LVS, the cutbacks are a sign that things on the Strip “are not even close to normalized yet.”
