Las Vegas Hilton to have new name next year

In September, Colony Resorts LVH filed federal trademark applications to exclusively use the name LVH-Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. The property's new name was first made public in a special Las Vegas advertising section published by the Los Angeles Times. "If LVH-Las Vegas Hotel & Casino is the new name, it can't be anything but a placeholder," said David G. Schwartz, director of the center for gaming research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "It's not a viable name for a property."

Schwartz said the name chosen by Colony Resorts "shows they don't have a lot of options." The application said the mark would cover hotel, restaurant, lounge and bar services; arena services, including providing facilities for sports, concerts and exhibitions; casinos and casino gaming; wagering services and entertainment in the form of live performances by bands.
The property on January 1 was set to lose its franchise rights to use the Hilton name unless a deal could be worked out with Hilton Worldwide, which owns and licenses the name. "The only options are to revert back to the Hilton name or you sell it to somebody that can invest in a real name change," Schwartz said.

Neither Hilton Worldwide nor Colony Resorts would comment Wednesday on the specific reasons for terminating what will have been an eight-year business relationship at the end of the current contract.

"Hilton Worldwide has 17 hotels, representing six of its brands, in the Las Vegas area," the company said in a statement Wednesday. "We continue to explore a number of projects in strategic markets and currently have the greatest development pipeline in our history."