Go “Big” or Go “Tall”?

By Zachary Collins

Upon doing more in-depth research for my thesis project (Hotel complex in Las Vegas) I came across some information that was very interesting to me. And it kind of made me stop and think about how I might proceed with my thesis. This information, along with other findings might influence an alteration of my project scope.

Out of curiosity, I decided to “google” the largest hotels in the world. Several pages came up for the subject. I picked a couple and looked at them. Come to find out (surprisingly to me!) Las Vegas hotels were mentioned…a lot. Now, the word “largest” was interpreted into how many hotel rooms there are. According to the website that I’m basing this information off of, Las Vegas hotels held 17 out of the 25 spots for largest hotel! I was stunned. The third largest hotel in the world is the MGM Grand at 5,690 rooms (Left Picture). It was beat by the Izmailovo Hotel in Moscow with 7,500 rooms (Middle Picture) and the First World Hotel in Malaysia with 6,118 (Right Picture). Las Vegas holds the 3rd-10th spots, and then trickles down through the list. This really amazed me.





Then I had a thought, if this was based off of how many rooms there were, I wonder what the tallest hotel would be? So back to google I went and searched for the tallest hotels in the world. To my astonishment, Las Vegas was rarely mentioned, respectively. On one website, it did not make the top 20. Another site, Las Vegas didn’t hit until spot 32! That spot was held by the Encore at 631 feet (48 stories) left picture. The top 2 ranks of tallest hotel went to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai at 2717 feet (163 stories) center picture, and the Abraj Al Bail Hotel in Mecca at 1972 feet (120 floors)right picture. Although the Burj is not a stand-alone hotel, there is a hotel located within. And the Abraj Al Bail is a hotel tower. One site had the Burj at number 1 and the other site did not (basing on hotel tower vs hotel use). So with this information, I was yet again amazed.





So this brings me to the point of where to take my thesis now. According to Las Vegas statistics, only 80% of hotel rooms are rented at really discounted prices to stay competitive. And in general, tourism is not at its best there. Do I put another high-rise tower in adding even more for tallest hotel or building in the world (not necessarily most rooms though)? Or do I go the opposite direction and design more of an exclusive, boutique style hotel with limited rooms but lavishly done with latest technologies and the utmost luxury for guests? It’s a decision that I have to make really fast.

http://www.insidervlv.com/hotelslargestworld.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_hotels_in_the_world
http://www.emporis.com/statistics/tallest-hotel