Increase in the # of rooms equal # of visitors?

Looking since 2008, we have seen a large number of rooms added to the strip. Encore, Aria, Cosmo, Vdara, Mandarin, Palazzo, PH towers (used to be anyway), and a few additions to existing hotels. Each new hotel averages roughly 2,500 rooms, making about 18,000 additional room son the strip in four years.

So, are there really that many more visitiors coming to Las Vegas since the downturn of the economy? Its seems like everytime I go to Vegas on weekends, most major hotels are near or at capacity. Anyone else wonder about this?

 

There have also been lots of rooms taking out of inventory Stardust, Sahara,
Binions and several others. From my understanding Vegas is on pace to have the largest ever number of visitors this year. While in the depth of the recession the new rooms where overkill but I think they are being absorbed and pricing for rooms seem to be going up all the time. Now with the price of gas and airfare soaring will this trend continue who knows.

 

Keep in mind, it isn't like they had an idea and built a hotel/casino.

Something like City Center was probably thought up when times were good and rooms could easily be filled and they expected things to stay the same or get better. Unfortunately when all was completed the economy is not what they were expecting.

 

Caesars had held of on opening up the new tower until there was a demand. I think there's just enough right now. There's not alot of excess, but its just right for the economy and the city.

Despite alot of the whining you hear about the City Center on the forums, its a hit with alot of people. I go to Aria monthly and theres always a good crowd on the weekends. The rooms are great as well. Cosmo has restaurants that are on top lists. The club Marquee is voted top club in the world right now. The Terrace rooms are always sought after. So I think its a needed thing for the city. Vegas needs a little update once in a while and the City Center is it for this decade.

 

I don't know that all rooms are in service. Even though CP added Octavius, they took Centurion out of the mix to turn it into NOBU and even before that, it seemed they were trying not to rent those rooms. And with some of the newer hotels, they opened without putting all their rooms in service. I wonder if they are all now in the mix. They could be but for a time the hotels were definitely fudging their occupancy numbers.

I think what has me surprised is how quickly the convention side picked back up. I figured that businesses would try to cut back on travel for a longer period of time. And Vegas is coasting on its rep for bargain travel. I hope that they don't screw it up and try and run prices up the way they did pre-recession. Vegas would have been in line for a setback whether the economy tanked or not because prices were out of control.

 

Even though Las Vegas is currently on pace to top record visitor "volume" levels set in 2007 or so, average spend per visitor is wayyyy down. The old home equity ATM is gone... Once Wynn set room rates, for the most part everyone else has to work proportionally under that level. I'm excluding Mandarin, Four Seasons, etc and talking hotel/casino properties. Average room rates have climbed some, but not significantly.

 

Yes. More options make for more competition which in turn gives more people the chance at a better price.

Just imagine it the other way around. How many people would go to vegas if there were only 1 hotel?

 

Vegas is like Hollywood/Bollywood/Disneyland,etc.

Vegas gets visitors from all over the world. They also make a lot of movies and t.v. shows there. The place is jumping with reality t.v. show people....
like American Idols, The X Factor, Big Brother, Hugh Kefner, Trumps, Kardasians, So you think you can dance...etc. Those are shows that have gone to Vegas for auditions for their t.v. shows and also to have lots of fun.

A lot of Americans have chosen to stay home in U.S.A. and just travel in the U.S.A. I am one of those people. I plan to visit Vegas every month this year.

My sister is a gambling addict and she has gone to Vegas without a reservation and had to sleep in her car because she couldn't find a room.
She has done that several times for many years now. That's her personality.