Hooters Las Vegas

Hooters Las Vegas opened in 2004 on East Tropicana Avenue, bringing their popular formula of "Beer + Burgers + Hot Chicks = Fun" to Las Vegas.

The Hooters property was originally a Howard Johnson Motel in 1973.Then it became the Paradise. Then 20th Century. Then Treasury. Then Pacifica. Then the Polynesian. Then the San Remo. Someone in the Hooters upper management obviously thought it was a good idea to put the first Las Vegas Hooters into a building off the strip where seven businesses had already failed, rather than constructing something new on the strip. This has proven to not be a good idea, as revenue continues to decline and two potential offers to buy Hooters (in January 2007 and March 2008) fell through.

The Hooters hotel building has always been a budget property through its eight different incarnations, most recently as the San Remo, which I stopped by in 1998 during one of the two times I walked from the airport to Las Vegas Blvd. I haven't been in there since then. The Las Vegas strip has so much to offer that even the Hooters formula is bland and ordinary in comparison.

I'm not sure if Hooters is not doing well because it's not upscale enough, or because wives refuse to go there with their husbands, or if the target demographic of young to middle aged men just feel too "pervy" checking into a hotel called Hooters. Probably a combination of all three things.