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Greenbrier Saves Some Green by Shedding Employees

Where: 300 W. Main Street [map], White Sulphur Springs, WV, United States, 24986

What do the Borgata, the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas and West Virginia's Greenbrier hotel all have in common?

Massive layoffs!

The Greenbrier hotel, on the list of historic hotels in America, is the latest hotel to lay off employees—and by far the largest amount so far: 650 of 1,350 people, or slightly less than half of its staff. (Atlantis cut about 10 percent of its staff, or 800 employees; while the Borgata let go 400 of its roughly 7,000 staffers.)

Reuters explains:

Greenbrier said in the statement that historically, business improves in the late spring and summer, and that it anticipated that some of the furloughed employees could return at that time. The resort said the furloughs announced on Friday [January 9] were significantly greater than those associated with seasonal declines. Greenbrier Hotel has existed since 1778.

It just so happens that during the Cold War, the U.S. government built a 112,000-square-foot bunker beneath a wing of the hotel, meant for as many as 2,500 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate and their families to hide out in the event of a nuclear attack.

Sounds to us like those folks may need to hunker down there if different reasons if they don't get this economic mess sorted out soon.

[Photo: Vicky TGAW]

Tags: Hotel Layoffs / AC Hotels / Hotel Staff / Hotel News / → All Tags

AC's Borgata Lays Off 400 Workers

Where: 1 Borgata Way [map], Atlantic City, NJ, United States, 08401

Some shocking news today from Atlantic City--The Borgata Hotel and Casino has laid off 400 workers due to the rough economy.

Rob Stillwell, a spokesman for Boyd Gaming, the co-owner of the Borgata, said the layoffs were the first in the casino's five-year history. "We did everything we possibly could to avoid this," he said. "But the economy is just too bad right now."

400 employees is a lot, although some 7,000 still remain. Borgata is not the only one conducting layoffs. The chain of Harrah's hotels in Atlantic City has also laid off several hundred employees in recent months.

Meanwhile, the future of AC is not looking so bright. Revenues in September were down 15.1 percent and the casinos have put off enacting a smoking ban so as to not hurt further business.

And here we thought that maybe more and more East Coasters would head to AC because Vegas was too pricey and involved pricey airfare. Now, there's less Borgata babes to wait on us.

Would you pick AC over Vegas as a way to save money or are you not gambling at all, no matter where? Let us know what you think.