News
|
December 10, 2007 |
Tropicana struggles to rebuild public image
Tropicana struggles to rebuild public image
By DONALD WITTKOWSKI Staff Writer, 609-272-7258
(Published: December 10, 2007)
ATLANTIC CITY - A customer in Pittsburgh recently called Suncoast Tours to arrange a bus trip to the Tropicana Casino and Resort.
Normally that would be no problem for the Cape May-based tour operator, but revelations of bedbugs, stinky rooms and other unsanitary conditions at the Tropicana have caused some people to take a second look.
"One of my customers requested Tropicana. Knowing what I knew, I felt I must tell them. God forbid if they got there and there were bedbugs," said Sis Butler, a sales representative at Suncoast Tours. "We're in the tour business, and we want to give our customers the best possible service that we can provide."
Butler's comments show that Tropicana needs to rebuild its image following embarrassing disclosures of filthy conditions that have come out during its New Jersey Casino Control Commission licensing hearing the past three weeks.
"We just can't get rid of this bad press," complained Mark Giannantonio, who took over as Tropicana president in August during a management shake-up by the casino's new owner, Columbia Sussex Corp.
The Casino Control Commission will vote Wednesday on whether to renew Tropicana's license. Citing a litany of problems caused by Columbia Sussex's deep job cuts, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has recommended that the commission approve only a conditional one-year license, not the standard five-year term.
No matter what happens with the license, Tropicana will remain open. Even if the license is denied, a state-appointed conservator would run the casino until a new buyer is found.
A public relations expert said Tropicana must take responsibility for the problems and prove they are being fixed if it hopes to woo back customers. He said Columbia Sussex has stumbled in its attempts to blame the media, labor unions and disgruntled employees for the casino's troubles. Now, Tropicana runs the risk of turning off customers, he said.
"The image being projected is one of finger-pointing and blaming others," said Gene Grabowski, a senior vice president who heads the crisis management team of Washington, D.C., public relations firm Levick Strategic Communications.
Grabowski said Tropicana's executives have made the classic mistake of closing ranks and acting like aggrieved owners instead of putting themselves in customers' shoes.
"The first rule of thumb in a crisis is to think like a customer," he said. "This is not the first example I have seen in my career that the organization is thinking like a shareholder, a stakeowner, an owner."
Under Columbia Sussex's ownership, Tropicana's revenue has declined 10.3 percent for the first 10 months this year, double the industry average. Atlantic City has struggled this year to cope with extra competition from slot parlors in Pennsylvania and New York and the impact of a partial casino smoking ban.
William J. Yung III, Columbia Sussex's cost-cutting chief executive officer, has responded by laying off hundreds of employees. Critics charge the job cuts have left Tropicana dirty and understaffed.
The National Environmental Health Association sent Tropicana a scathing, 15-page letter in September complaining about bedbug bites, filthy rooms, poor food quality, dreadful service and surly employees during its annual convention at the casino hotel in June.
"In twenty-five years of conference planning and management, this hotel experience was by far the worst that I have ever gone through," wrote Nelson Fabian, the health association's executive director.
In testimony during the license hearing, Giannantonio said Tropicana is investigating the complaints but had not yet contacted the health association. Noting that Fabian's group is disputing part of its convention charges, he questioned whether the letter was simply a ploy to avoid paying the bill.
Giannantonio and Yung insist that Tropicana is sparkling clean now and things have returned to normal following a difficult first few months. Even if that is true, Grabowski said, Tropicana must spend a lot of time, effort and money proving it to customers.
"If I take a complaint to a manager in a hotel, and I point to bedbugs or a dirty curtain, but the manager says, 'It's hard to get good help,' that doesn't solve my problem," Grabowski said. "But I will be satisfied if a manager says to me as a guest, 'This is unacceptable. I'd like to fix it.'"
Dennis Gomes, a gaming executive who oversaw Tropicana's operations when the casino was formerly owned by Aztar Corp., said it appears Giannantonio is taking the right steps to clean up the property and rehabilitate its image.
"I was in there a few weeks ago, and it looks clean. The floors in The Quarter were polished," Gomes said of Tropicana's mall-like retail and entertainment complex that complements the casino.
Still, Gomes is not so sure that Tropicana has gotten the word out.
"They should hire a PR firm that specializes in crisis management and have that person let the public know that things are back to normal and are fixed," he said.
# # #