Design characteristics of culturally-themed luxury hotel lobbies in Las Vegas: Perceptual, sensorial, and emotional impacts of fantasy environments

The lobbies of culturally-themed luxury hotels in Las Vegas have a particular ability to entice clients, convey intended experiences, and provide areas of sociability and pleasure. The primary objectives of this thesis were to analyze and identify the key design characteristics that shaped the lobbies of four prominent and distinctive luxury hotels, and to understand how the characteristics could be employed beyond Las Vegas. Caesars Palace, The Venetian Las Vegas, Bellagio, and Paris Las Vegas are among the most desirable culturally-themed luxury hotels in Las Vegas and their lobbies are the topic of this study. Research methods include physical, iconographical (semiotic), and sensorial analysis of designed spaces from a material cultural perspective and application of a sensory slider model to measure the level of emotion arousal from a social science perspective. Findings show that distinctive themes and styles of the hotels meet with the context of contemporary life and requirements of Las Vegas for pseudo-authentic experiences of escapism. The design concepts are inspired by the past with many rooted in classical antiquity or a derivation of it. Reinventions introduce and restore historical appearances that are tied to period styles, and also exhibit integrated styles and tastes of multiple periods in one building. The themes of the hotels emphasize a sense of a specific period and place. The study interprets how findings could be applied in hotel lobby designs beyond Las Vegas