Vegas 2009 Price Trends?

During my last visit to Vegas, I was dismayed to see how expensive the city was becoming in terms of food and gambling- especially the gambling. What do you see happening in Vegas for the rest of this year and into 2009? With housing deflating and gas at an all time high, do you think resorts will make an attempt to compete for our business again? Specifically, will we see a return of lower priced dining options, lower betting limits, room offers, etc? Is it already happening? My parents went to Vegas a few months ago and already received an offer for 3 free nights at the Palazzo and they are by no means high rollers.

Vegas 2009 Price Trends?

I am going in Sept with my father in law, mother and wife...

My mom got us 2 free rooms for four nights at Paris. It took a while to get the two free rooms.

At first they only gave her one room, so I told her to just cancel it. About an hour after she canceled, they called her back and offered her the second room (she is a diamond club member).

I keep hearing we are in recession. However, every time I goto the store, the place is packed with people spending money.

As far as trend goes, I see prices dropping a good bit over the next couple of years. Room rates are as high now as I can ever remember.

With airline tickets going up too, the hotels are going to have to compete for our travel time and I think the only way they can do that is by dropping prices of food and rooms.

Vegas 2009 Price Trends?

It%26#39;s very doubtful dining prices will go down. As for the cost of gambling, supply and demand will dicate what the minimum betting prices are at the tables. Slots won%26#39;t change!

I find LV interesting on a lot of different levels. As an MBA and somebody in the business world, I am constantly amazed at the business dynamics that are at work in LV.

The biggest problem for us as visitors is the way we have changed our spend patterns while in Las Vegas. We spend more money than ever, but now the majority is spent on non-gaming items such as shows, rooms, and food.

The rule use to be to get the customer to your casino with cheap rooms and $1.49 buffets because you want them spending their gambling purse with your property, not the resort next door. Now, there are really only 3 owners of the vast majority of the properties, so they now want you to visit the other properties and see a show at one, maybe lunch at another, maybe dinner and slots at a third. This formula has served them well for the last decade.

Big problem on the horizon though. Vegas is going through a MASSIVE build phase currently and there will be THOUSANDS of new rooms added to the city%26#39;s inventory. This is happening at the same time the economy is getting tougher and gas is over the $4.00 mark. It does not take a genius to figure out that the steady stream of traffic from So. California will be reduced, not increased. The amount of Air travelers will also be reduced as the airfares rise to accomodate jet fuel prices and people cut back their travel due to their own budget issues.

Sooooo, it will break down to simple economics of supply and demand. Supply will be way up and demand will steadily fall (it already has begun) Prices will start to fall, in some cases dramatically as the resorts start to feel the pressure of the situation.

My predicition is with the completion of the new mega-resorts (City Centre, Echelon Place, etc) and the lessened demand, by this time next year we should start to see those $59 strip room rates and the $14.99 buffet prices start to return. The airlines will also be forced to reduce fares to Vegas becasue the planes will be half empty....a problem they have not had going to Vegas in a very long time.

I can remember getting a deal in the early 90%26#39;s to LUXOR that included round-trip air fare from Kansas City and 2 nights accomodations for 2 people for $189.00 each. At that time, the big reason was also the economy with unemployment being sky-high and a flood of new hotel rooms available.

I hope you%26#39;re right Mr. Snappy.

I agree with Mr Snappy.

In addition, if things really go sideways, you could see the big two start to divest of certain ';non core'; properties. I%26#39;m not sure how much debt they now carry, but it could force a few moves. The result might be one or two new players moving in to buy properties at relative bargains or small existing players expanding their holdings.

Off the top of my head I could see places like The Rio, TI, MC and maybe Ballys/Paris sold off. Pure specualtion on my part however.

Mr. Snappy- good analysis! Where I disagree somewhat is that airlines will park planes and cut flights before they lower prices to fill planes to LAS. The city has always been a low margin market for the airlines and they are at a point where they will not fly people at a loss to a low margin city. We are already seeing this as US Airways has cut back their night hub. If LAS is lucky, Southwest, Jetblue, AirTran, Allegient, etc. may be able to fill in the service gaps as they can make a few more pennies due to lower costs.

I agree completely with the room inventory: huge projects will come onto the market over the next year and it may be tough to fill them. Look at how many deals the Palazzo advertises. Even the Wynn has promos under $200 a night now. Vegas was able to do well over the past few years and absorb the new rooms as the housing market and loose credit pumped a lot of cash into the economy and a lot of that cash went to Vegas.

Another point I forgot to mention before I hit the ';SUBMIT'; button.....

Conventions and Business Travel:

A huge portion of LV%26#39;s revenue and the reason that hotel room rates are as crazy as they are is due in larger part to conventions and business travelers. I don%26#39;t know how many of you travel for work, but as a general rule, people don%26#39;t care what the price is if the company is paying for it. When I travel for business, I stay where I want to stay, I don%26#39;t look for the cheapest place. Yes, yes, I know some companies work on a ';per diem'; basis or have strict guidelines about where you can stay, but as a generall rule, especially for conventions, companies simply pay the price whatever it is....at least that is how it use to work.

Unless you work for EXXON-MOBILE, most companies are in the same boat that families are in, the budget is getting killed by the energy costs that it takes to run a business. As a result, most companies start to take a hard look at the budget and look where they can cut back. This usually starts with what is called the ';T%26amp;E'; budget (T%26amp;E = Travel %26amp; Entertainment)

In some cases, a company will just stop going to these conventions. In other situations, they will scale back the number of participants that the company usually sends to such events. Any scenario is big trouble for the casinos, those customers are HUGE on the bottom line.

Remember, this issue will hit most companies, especially companies that would tend to be involved in conventions or business travel to Vegas. I am not suggesting that the convention business will stop, but it will be impacted.

Voreezz73,

You may be right on the airlines, I also agree that they are pretty tight on profitability as it is, but remember, the airlines pay for those routes and gates at McCarran, so unless they plan on giving those up, they will have to keep flying planes there at a significant level. I would suspect that the airlines would try to keep as many planes going as possible for as long as possible.

Another possibility is that the hotels will subsidize the airtravel at higher levels than current. Those good deals that were fairly consistant in the early 90%26#39;s almost certainly were subsidized at least in part by the Casinos.

My daughters ex works in Vegas in the convention end of tourism. The slowdown is very noticeable to everyone involved with it. Its gotten too expensive.

The big corporations have wiped out the smaller older

moderately priced hotel casinos. Big business is killing Las Vegas and their greed is catching up to them.

Downtown will continue to draw a crowd and will be the place that will boom when the strip starts to bust.

This is what he has stated to us. I am merely the messenger.

I agree with MrSnappy re: the future flood of more available rooms that the casinos will want to fill with potential customers. I%26#39;m hoping when City Centre opens that the MGM places like the Mirage and TI will be a little more generous with their room rate offers and comps in order to get more gambling action going. Also, the properties on the Strip that are deals now should be downright steals, like Balley%26#39;s, Bill%26#39;s, Harrahs, Flamingo, etc.

We just got a postcard in the mail offering $27 a night for Imperial Palace rooms this summer. That%26#39;s a great rate, but unfortunately, we don%26#39;t want to stay at Imperial Palace. I%26#39;d like to see some Downtown hotels get a little cheaper, too, like Golden Nugget, Four Queens, and Main Street Station. El Cortez has always been a bargain, but we%26#39;d like to check out some other places.

ittwit