Las Vegas is built on being a welcoming and friendly destination, but it can be a little intimidating.
That’s the effect it had on Cami Christensen when she arrived in 2001 looking to build a career in hospitality. Originally from a tiny farm town in western Iowa, she had worked at golf courses and country clubs in Arizona before spending a few years working overseas and then landing her first casino job in Tunica, Miss.
Christensen applied for every available job she could find up and down the Strip.
“I remember driving up to this property, the Las Vegas Hilton, thinking if I wanted to be in the hotel business, the Hilton was the place to go,” she said. “I very vividly remember stopping in the driveway and looking up at that building and thinking, there’s no way they’ll ever hire me. I’ve only ever run a 300-room hotel. Talk about your insecurities and doubts. But I fell in love with it, the style of it and the look of it. And they hired me.”
That first Vegas gig was the assistant hotel manager position at the Hilton. Seventeen years later, she’s still there. The iconic resort just off the Strip is now known as Westgate Las Vegas, and Christensen is the new president and general manager.
Announced Oct. 10, the appointment makes her the rare female resort president along the tourism corridor, but her promotion is unique in another way: These jobs don’t usually go to executives who have worked their way up at the same property over several years.
Westgate Resorts founder and CEO David Siegel acquired the property — originally opened by Kirk Kerkorian as the International in 1969 — in 2014 and has invested more than $175 million in widespread renovations and new programming. Christensen says that’s just the beginning of changes and plans for Westgate Las Vegas.
What brought you to Las Vegas?
It was an interesting path that took me to Switzerland for three years and then down to Tunica, and that’s where I first got into the casino-hotel business. I started there as a casino host and just loved it. I couldn’t believe someone was paying me to do it every day. And then Caesars was building a property down there and the GM at the time asked, “Why don’t you run our hotel?” So I went to do that. It was a 300-room hotel and everything was focused on customer service and the high rollers. And then my husband at the time wanted to move to Las Vegas, and I thought I wasn’t interested. I was used to finding a new place to land every couple of years and I had no idea what I was going to do out here.
And then you landed at the Hilton.
Yes. I applied for everything, cocktail waitress to food server, you name it, up and down at every casino. I got two calls on the same day with offers. One was a host-type position and one was assistant hotel manager here. I remember calling my parents and my dad said to me, “It’s a lot easier to explain to people what a hotel manager is.”
Did you have a real understanding of this property’s grand history?
Ironically I had been to two shows here in the early ’90s, “Starlight Express” and Wayne Newton. I knew at the time this had been the home of Elvis and Liberace, so entertainment-wise, I was aware of its iconic status. But it unraveled as I started working here. I was bright-eyed. The first week, I worked a Friday night by myself and there were really long lines at check-in. People were waiting for 45 minutes to check in so I started comping them all drinks, thinking this is terrible service. The next morning I got a call from the vice president saying, “What did you do? You have a $2,000 bar bill.” I told him about people waiting to check in like it was so bad, and he was like, “This is Las Vegas. That’s the way it is. We have 3,000 people to get into this hotel. It’s gonna be like that.”
It was a wild ride in the beginning. There was a very seasoned team at the front desk and they all had bets on how long I’d last. Now they’re some of my best friends.
You’ve held different positions, worked in meetings and conventions and as executive director of guest experience. You certainly had offers to work at other resorts, too. What kept you here?
The people. I fell in love with the property first, then the people, especially the years when the economy went sideways. I did have other opportunities but when I thought about leaving, I also thought, “What will happen to this team?” There’s something really special about a place where you have somebody who has been here two weeks and someone who has been here 47 years. This place has a special soul, and it comes from the team. They create the spirit and the energy.
There’s a lot more energy since it became Westgate Las Vegas.
Westgate came in and saved this property. It’s a very exciting time. We’re turning 50 this next year. We don’t have the same traffic flow of being on the Strip but we’re right next to the convention center and its expansion. That’s what makes our property tick, when the conventions are in town. But the investments Westgate has put into this property put us back on the map. We didn’t have entertainment for four or five years, so getting Barry Manilow back was a big deal, and bringing in (comedian) George Wallace and (magician) Jen Kramer and the “Sexxy” show. Entertainment is a big piece of it and that will continue.
We’ve done a lot of renovation through so much of our public spaces but we have tough competition coming at the end of 2020 and 2021 at this end of the corridor with The Drew and Genting (Resorts World). But I’m excited to have it be alive again. Let’s get this side (of the Strip) going again. The most exciting part for me is we’re about to start the renovation of the rooms. Fortunately, David Siegel and Westgate have been so supportive in turning this property around and making it a top resort in Vegas. We’re going to keep going and I’m looking forward to guiding the team and changing the culture a little bit to bring back the pride in this property. We can feel it coming back, and that’s exciting.
You’ve been here for 17 years, so I’m sure there are a lot of people here who feel that pride with your promotion.
Yeah. That’s where I get emotional. I feel that my promotion has been their promotion. We’ve done this together. I wouldn’t be here without all of them and it’s an overwhelming feeling for me, how happy they are about it.
I underestimated it.
Someone who works in valet and has been here 40 years recently said to me, “This has never happened.” If the team supports you, clearly I’m the perfect example of where you can go.