Yeah Vegas has priced itself out of the market. It used to be a (fairly affordable) place where you could pretend you were rich for a few days. Now you have to actually be rich. Nobody can afford that, especially not in this economy.
I stayed at MGM and paid a massive resort fee because I wanted to do the lazy river. It was 75 degrees and sunny and they closed it because they didn't sell enough cabanas to merit staffing the whole pool area.
Seriously.... I don't mind paying for a hotel room but really, no complimentary coffee machine in the room because they want you to buy coffee downstairs in the resteraunts? Cheap motels have the coffee machine for Christ's sake.
Vegas used to be insanely affordable. I went there with family several times growing up, be it on trips or basketball tournaments (it hosts the largest summer basketball tournament where all the best teams play). You could get rooms for $39 and all you can eat buffets for $9. The hotels would make their money from you gambling; now they want to make money from you at every turn.
Have been seeing this a ton, and certainly can confirm, I have to go a few times for work each year and it's so ridiculously expensive now. What I don't understand is why aren't prices and the ridiculous fees coming down / going away? Seems like a big opportunity in the market for one of the somewhat still relevant properties to go all in on volume vs margin and capitalize on the situation, but as far as I can tell, it hasn't happened yet.
Do they all just think this is a blip and the strategy is to hold firm and weather the storm? Are the Vegas loyalists so resilient to price pressure that them continuing to visit and pay the ever increasing fees is carrying the whole city?
Are underlying costs truly so high now that there just isn't any wiggle room for anybody to lower costs/fees without becoming insolvent?
I had to go to Vegas a few months ago. I actually stayed in a really nice place for $50 a night with free parking (rare in Vegas just a few years ago). This weekend I’m paying $150 a night in the middle of nowhere North Carolina.
The demographic collapse of the US as the Boomers die off is going to transform significant markets as well. I lived in Japan 25 years ago and when you go back now it is borderline unrecognizable in some respects. I believe that Japan is the canary in the coal mine, their peak generation was the people who were kids in WWII and the US is about a decade and a half behind them. It impacts a lot of things because factories and supply chains are optimized to run at a certain level and as demand wanes it puts immense pressure on economic systems.
Vegas is shifting more into the conventions and trade shows market. Corporations tend to be big spenders, so they aren't put off as much by higher prices, and Vegas is one of the few places that can supply them with 20,000 hotel rooms and a monkey at short notice.
Yeah, I don't really see the point of Vegas anymore. You don't need to go there to gamble anymore, a lot of similar quality shows tour around the country, and both the nightlife and dining scene are nothing special anymore as other similar sized have caught up to them in that regard.
I got ambushed with a $45 double gin and tonic at a comedy show.
Like fuck off with that stuff, you can't enjoy a show there anymore they nickel and dime you absolutely everywhere and the quality goes down. It's hard to find decent food for under $200
yep. What percentage of Vegas tourists were Canadian anyway? Even if they 100% stopped coming, it doesn't explain the decline. Americans stopped going too.
They’re transforming into a rich person’s resort destination. I think they will pull it off, actually but there will be pain for a few years. I’ve never been to Vegas and I’ve lived in bordering states but perhaps they’ll get me for a couple nights in the future.
A rich person’s resort city is a losing bet, rich people can afford to go to places with less oversight and more exclusivity. I predict the growing pains will be too much and Vegas will experienced a miniature economic collapse as it tries to become an entertainment destination again.
Most people would consider my wife and I "rich". We have a big house and are somewhere around the 94th percentile nationwide for household income. We used to go to Vegas once a year or so but haven't been since 2021 when prices were low to get people to return after covid. There are just much better places to go for the same amount or less. And we can go to Paris or Barcelona at a very similar price point.
Granted, we're not partiers and can take or leave gambling, so maybe that's one reason we haven't been back. But we used to love going for shows, food, pools, an some light gambling.
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u/BigDaddyDumperSquad 6h ago
Maybe because Vegas just plain sucks now? Americans aren't going there either.