It Was Nice While It Lasted

Something great happened in Las Vegas when the economy crashed in 2008. Hotel room rates in Las Vegas decreased. A lot. $200-$300 hotel rooms at Wynn could be had for as little as $99. It was awesome for those not hurt too badly by the slowed economy.

I was able to get suites at The Palazzo for $109 without ever having gambled there before. Even middle of the road hotels had to discount their rooms and places like The Mirage and MGM Grand offered rooms as low as $29.

Things are changing. The number of visitors to Las Vegas has increased almost every month this year and while that’s good for the businesses in Las Vegas, that is becoming bad for for the customer. Insert the law of supply and demand.

The law of supply and demand defines the effect that the availability of a particular product and the desire (or demand) for that product has on price.

When hotel rooms were unoccupied, the hotels had to lower rated to get people in the door. Now that there are more visitors the hotel companies have been able to raise prices. Those $99 Wynn hotel rooms are back in that $200-$300 per night range. The Cosmopolitan feels so confident about their room rates that they’ve added a resort fee to their rooms even though they said they would never have one.

This is just a warning that prices will continue to rise as tourism rates rise. There are still bargains to be had at casinos if you are a players club member and/or if you shop around. Twitter and Facebook offer sales and expedia runs weekly discounts just to name a few places you can find bargains.

Plan your trips to Las Vegas early and manage expectations of where you’re staying because the dollar won’t be stretching as far as it used to.