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(More customer reviews)Some casinos get all of the hype, while others fly below the radar but are consistently good performers. The California, in downtown Las Vegas, is definitely one of the latter. Odds are you've never seen a TV advertisement for it, or, if you're from the mainland, been solicited to spend your vacation there. But it's one of the busiest properties in Las Vegas, all on the strength of one market segment: Hawai'i people. Basic business strategy says that this should be an awful approach, but it works, and it's spawned a fascinating subculture of Hawaii within the subculture of downtown Las Vegas within the subculture of the Southern Nevada gaming and tourism complex.
This book has been assembled from interviews with longtime employees, affiliates, and customers of the California, and it is a testament to the effort that Sam Boyd and his successors at Boyd Gaming have put into retaining the loyalty of their guests from Hawaii.
Most of the book is told from the point of view of John Blink, who started working for Boyd in 1965 at the age of 14 as a busboy and eventually became the VP of marketing at the California. Blink has a plethora of stories about the early days at the Boyd Group, shedding some light on the evolution of a Nevada gaming legend.
The relationship between Hawai'i and the California developed slowly in the late 1970s. Boyd had opened the property in 1975. It was small, in a secondary market (downtown), and not even on Fremont Street. After trying several strategies, Boyd maximized his longtime connections to Hawai'i and, on the strength of his own personality and a great deal of hard work from Blink and many others, built a lasting bond.
The secret, as we learn, is not just offering good room rates, but understanding the culture of Hawai'i gamblers. They didn't want prime rib, they wanted sticky rice and other food from Hawai'i. While they might not complain as much as other customers if they had a bad experience, they'd be sure to tell their friends about it when they got home. Much of this involved trial and error learning and a willingness to accept, on faith alone, suggestions from their representatives in Hawai'i. In many ways, the California business model made no sense at all, but no one can dispute its success.
For those who have been coming to the Cal for years, this book will likely be a walk down memory lane. But even those who've never been to the casino would benefit from reading it, particularly if they're interested in casino management. The California really is a textbook case of building customer loyalty the old-fashioned way, which isn't quick or easy but is nonetheless successful.
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"[This is] the story of how the California Hotel grew from an unattractive property in a run-down section of Las Vegas to become the must-visit destination for Hawai`i gamblers, whose special relationship with the hotel was forged in its first decade of business--1975 to 1985. . . . [It's] told largely through the voice of John Blink, who was a witness to the powerful connection Sam Boyd created between the California Hotel and Hawai`i's gamblers. But it also includes personal recollections from people who worked in Hawai`i and the hotel. Together, they offer insights, memories, and opinions on what made the hotel an oasis of aloha in a depressed corner of Las Vegas. The early chapters, which provide the background and the events that led to the opening of the hotel in 1975, introduce the reader to Boyd and describe his growing mentorship of Blink. Subsequent chapters chronicle the California Hotel's shaky start and the business decisions that turned it into a profitable casino beyond everyone's dreams. They describe a place so popular that guests routinely say the best times to see old friends--sometimes the only times they ever see them--are at weddings, funerals, and at the California Hotel." --from the Introduction by Dennis M. Ogawa
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