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For the past year, the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada has been opening new rooms and other facilities in hopes of bringing in more money. Sadly though, the hotel reported its lowest revenues since 2004. Just to put things in perspective, the Hard Rock opened a total of 867 rooms in 2009 – Paradise Tower with 492 rooms and HRH Tower with 375 rooms. On top of that the Hard Rock opened a new meeting space, a large concert venue, and several other facilities. Still, its revenues are the lowest since 2004.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Hard Rock Hotel’s net revenues for 2009 were of $161.5 million. Compared to the previous year, mainly 2008, the hotel’s net revenues have dropped by 1.7%. In 2008 the Hard Rock Hotel reported net revenues of $164.3 million.

In 2008, the Hard Rock Hotel reported a cash flow (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $41.1 million. That figure has dropped down to $23.4 million in 2009.

Despite having managed to trim its losses by 34% in 2009, the Hard Rock Hotel reported a deficit of $197 million. The deficit is to be blamed on a noncash impairment on assets, which in turn is to be blamed on the poor state of the economy.

The revenue decline can be broken down into hotel revenues decline (10.1% decline) and casino revenues decline (18.3% decline). If the hotel reported occupancy rates of 91.7% in 2008, the occupancy rates in 2009 dropped to 88.2%. Not even lowering the room rates from $190 to $134 per night wasn’t enough to boost occupancy rates.

As cash flow, net revenues and occupancy rates went down, there are some things that went up. The number of employees increased from 1176 in 2008 1362 in 2009; the hotel’s long term debt increased from $1.03 billion in 2008 to $1.2 billion in 2009.

At the current moment in time Morgans Hotel Group CEO, Fred Kleisner, is in charge of the Hard Rock Hotel. Morgans, as you may remember, acquired the Hard Rock back in 2007. After the acquisition, overseeing the Hard Rock was the responsibility of Randy Kwasniewski. Unfortunately though, he was found dead in his Summerlin home earlier this month (he shot himself in the head). Until a new top executive is found, Fred Kleisner is in charge.