In a city dominated by tourism, traveler demand finally matches what is on offer in Las Vegas.
With the Electric Daisy Carnival, a Raiders home game and a host of other major events across the valley, rooms at Las Vegas resorts are hard to come by. And for the few rooms that are still available, you have to pay a large sum to get hold of one.
From the resorts with available rooms, the prices this weekend are in many cases double or higher than the price for the following weekend 29-31. October. For example, a room at the Excalibur costs $ 509 a night from Friday through Sunday, according to Hotels.com. That rate drops to $ 199 the following weekend.
It’s welcome news for a region where its lifeblood industry has shrunk to a fraction of itself due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘Flood’
“The room rates show their resilience for events like EDC. We’ve seen prices rise downtown during Life is Beautiful, but having a citywide event with the crowd from EDC will help all ships with the rising tide, ”said Brendan Bussmann, director of government affairs, Las Vegas Global Marketing Advisor .
“When you have big event weekends like this one with EDC and the Raiders, room rates will go up due to the number of visitors at the destination. It’s good for the destination’s long-term benefit, but ultimately, it’s short-term recovery as we continue to recover, ”he added.
The three-day EDC festival, which is back in Las Vegas after an almost 2½ year hiatus, is expected to attract more than 450,000 fans to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend. The massive festival is the latest sign that the big events that have been a staple of the Las Vegas economic and entertainment calendar and one of the last missing pieces of the region’s economic recovery are finally making a comeback.
“With the return of EDC, it continues to build that second bucket that will hold meetings and conventions and events hosted by domestic guests as we continue our recovery from The Great Shutdown. If more and more of these events return and the restrictions are lifted, it will have a positive long-term impact on the Las Vegas economy, ”said Bussmann.
“Because we’re back”
Jonathan Jossel, CEO of the Plaza Hotel in downtown Las Vegas, said it was a continuation of the excellent weekend rates for the hotel in October.
The Plaza is already sold out for Saturday evening, said Jossel, who referred to the Raiders’ home game on Sunday as an additional factor this year, which, in addition to EDC traffic, is increasing demand.
For Jossel, however, this is not a sign that Las Vegas is recovering.
“Because we were back,” he said on Wednesday. “I had the feeling that Vegas has been back for us since April. Downtown is on a great way. We’ve had the busiest nine months since owning the Plaza in 2005. “
There’s more to this weekend than just EDC and the Raiders. At Westgate there are around 300 billiard tables that fully occupy the congress halls and hotel rooms.
The American Poolplayers Association’s World Pool Championships will take place in the city from October 21-30, in what they call the largest pool tournament in the world. That helped Westgate completely sell out its hotel rooms as of Wednesday, said Gordon Prouty, vice president of public affairs for Westgate Las Vegas.
“That fills a lot of space and we’ve booked all of the convention rooms with pool tables and everything they need for their tournament,” he said.
Other major conventions, like the Marijuana Business Conference and Cannabis Expo, held this week, have also helped bring the weekday traffic that was lagging behind during most of the pandemic to a much stronger level, Prouty said .
Other major events such as the SEMA automobile fair are on the calendar for the beginning of November and will ensure strong room bookings in the next few weeks.
That still means high prices and fewer rooms for would-be travelers.
This is a good problem for Las Vegas.
Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.
