“I always longed to be in charge of a small property, and then my wish came true,” said Ana Marie Mormando, general manager of the 30-villa The Mansion at MGM Grand, Las Vegas.
In March, Mormando moved across The Strip from MGM Resorts International’s 3,933-key Bellagio, where she headed a 2,500-strong team. Now she has 250 associates doing everything but laundry for those staying in The Mansion’s villas, which run from 3,500 to 13,000 sq. ft.
Interestingly, she has no marketing department. “People who stay here want privacy and there is very little social media activity,” said Mormando, who was born in Bogota, the daughter of a lawyer who built up a successful commercial trucking business.
Only 20% of her rooms are available to paying guests – the rest are reserved for casino high-rollers who are tempted to the MGM tables by the thought of staying at The Mansion, surrounded by original David Hockney, Frank Stella, Sol LeWitt and 797 other valuable artworks.
“It is extremely demanding as we have a high repeat factor and with average stay of five nights there is ample time to get to know everyone on a one-to-one basis,” Mormando said. “With a high percentage of business from China, as well as Europe, many guests are on completely different time zones and set meal times mean nothing.”
The one restaurant, open only to hotel guests and those staying in MGM SkyLofts, offers separate Chinese and international menus the entire time and there are, accordingly, two culinary teams. Cuisine has to be of the highest quality – the chicken, for instance, is Jidori, the Kobe-Wagyu of the poultry world, and all breads are made in-house.
The hotel is run completely independently from the neighboring MGM Grand, though it does host many of the 4,994-key property’s star entertainers, and in return Mormando can call for extra help if her four-floor glass-topped central atrium, a veritable prize-winning interior landscape, is hosting a cocktail, which she can do for up to 300.
From her teens she was also on the road, though further afield, living temporarily in London, Milan and Paris. She wanted to be a doctor, or a United Nations translator, but she diverted to restaurants and heading operations for Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s culinary empire before being enticed to become vice president of F&B for Bellagio, which led to promotion as vice president hotel operations.
In rare quiet times at The Mansion she is learning Mandarin from some of her Asian employees; away from work she likes reading, hiking and, with her husband, immersing herself in new destinations. “I am so lucky still to be able to travel regularly,” she added.