Graton Resort and Casino's $175 million hotel is now open

The Graton Resort & Casino’s 200-room hotel officially opened for business Tuesday after a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new facility attached to the Rohnert Park gambling hall.

Before a large crowd gathered under the hotel’s covered vehicle entrance, casino and tribal officials marked the public debut of the $175 million project, which includes a full-service hotel, 20,000 square feet of multipurpose space, a pool and more. The original $825 million casino portion opened in November 2013, and the hotel expansion broke ground in September 2015.

Greg Sarris, tribal chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, said he was happy to see the expansion become reality but acknowledged the long and sometimes difficult road behind him.

“Sometimes it seems like it’s been centuries, other times it’s much shorter,” Sarris told the crowd before the ribbon-cutting. “But for all of us, the dream of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria was to create something that Sonoma County could be proud of, something that Sonoma County needed and something that would help the tribe accomplish its goals: to take care of its citizens, to further enhance their well-being and, at the same time, push the tribe’s agenda.”

The resort, owned by the Graton Rancheria and managed by Las Vegas-based Station Casinos, already featured a casino with more than 130 table games, 3,000 slot and video poker machines, live poker, and a range of restaurants and bars.

But for the first three years of operations, customers have had to stay elsewhere if they planned to remain in the area overnight. Those customers now can stay in one of the casino’s upscale rooms and suites, which range from more than 500 square feet to 2,600 square feet in size. The expansion makes the Graton resort Sonoma County’s first casino with an attached hotel.

Rooms at the start of this week were selling for $300, but the hotel now has reservations available in the mid-$200 range. The county’s average daily room rate for full-service hotels was nearly $230 through September, according to local tourism officials.

While Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting ushered in the start of business to the general public, resort officials have already operated the new facilities on a limited basis. Staff and invited guests tested them out in the weeks leading up to the opening, and singer Patti LaBelle christened the multipurpose space with a concert Saturday.

Joe Hasson, the resort’s vice president and general manager, said trial runs helped the resort make adjustments, such as turning down the initial volume on hotel room televisions after realizing they were set too loud. He said the resort also worked on its “choreography” - making sure that guests could move easily from one area to the next, for example.

“We want to make sure the guest experience is an easy-to-understand one and not a riddle-filled experience,” Hasson said.

Tribal members also explored the expansion as part of an exclusive party Sunday night and were “blown away” by what they saw, Sarris said.

Santa Rosa resident Debbie Milby was among those gathered Tuesday morning to watch the ribbon-cutting ceremony, even though she had opposed the idea of building the casino. While she did not originally want a casino in the area, she acknowledged the tribe had a right to build it and admired the resort’s contemporary beauty.

“It’s here, so I might as well enjoy it,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writer J.D. Morris at 707-521-5337 or jd.morris@pressdemocrat.com.