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New York City Council last Thursday approved to raise the Big Apple's hotel tax from 5 to 5.875 percent beginning in March. That means a $2.62 hike per room per night on the average $300/night room rate in the city. 

The move was part of several by the council designed to plug New York City's $4 billion budget deficit in the next 18 months.

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It's not a good time for Vegas casinos. 

On Tuesday, MGM Mirage sold off the Treasure Island casino resort to Kansas billionaire Phil Ruffin Sr. for $775 million in a bid to raise cash as it struggles to continue building its huge City Center megacomplex on the Strip and get bodies into its existing properties amid the recession. The news came hot on the trail of a story I wrote in the latest issue of MeetingNews (www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nielsen/mn_20081215) about the woes of another struggling gaming giant, Las Vegas Sands. Like MGM Mirage, Sands is cash-strapped, and after announcing the postponement of its huge, nine-hotel resort development in Macau, it laid off 200 workers from the Venetian and the Palazzo to save $100 million. Sheldon Adelson has had to reach into his own pockets to keep his empire from defaulting on construction loans. Meanwhile, MGM Mirage has already had to ditch its $5 billion Atlantic City megaproject indefinitely. 

While the latest MGM Mirage and Sands moves are not said to affect day-to-day operations and their service to customers, what's disturbing is that Sands did not rule out more layoffs and that MGM Mirage, according to the Wall Street Journal, had been in talks to divest more properties that ultimately fell through. What's more, the WSJ report stated that MGM Mirage is "sharpening its focus on the luxury segment of the hospitality market." 

While it is not necessarily panic time yet for those who've booked or are looking at meetings, conventions, and other types of events at Sands and MGM Mirage properties, these developments certainly should give pause. But if you have a meeting at Treasure Island in or after second-quarter 2009, when the Ruffin deal is expected to close, perhaps a call to your TI rep is a good idea. 

If MGM Mirage resumes looking for buyers and is able sell off its other lower-tier properties, it would be a huge blow to planners who rely on a booking system that currently offers many price points. And, who's to say that potential new owners won't remodel those divestitures into more upscale palaces, further diminishing options for budget planners? And what would happen to existing meetings contracts? 

Brace yourselves.