Las Vegas has seen a magnificent resurgence in revenue and visitation over the last year or so, and according to the latest report from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), visitors paid an average hotel rate of $187.18 per night in September, the highest number on record and a 36 percent increase from September 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.
Throughout September, Strip rates came in at $199.49 per night and downtown Las Vegas posted a nightly average of $117.95.
LVCVA officials attributed the record numbers to a slew of high-profile events in the month, including the iHeartRadio festival, the Life is Beautiful festival and the super middleweight prize fight between Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez.
Amanda Belarmino, a professor at the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality at UNLV, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the record rates are a result of multiple factors.
The first is that “hospitality firms have been competing for employees,” which is an “expensive proposition which needs to be offset by increased earnings and increased room rates may be a part of this.” She also noted that “inflation has also impacted supplies to hotels.”
That said, Belarmino doesn’t think it will be enough to deter visitors from traveling to the city, asserting that “there is still enough variety in our market of higher-priced and low-priced rooms as well as seasonality to allow value-conscious guests to have options.”
Of course, a conversation about room rates in Las Vegas wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the infamous resort fees that are commonplace on the Strip.
Even though the fees have been around for a long time, they have garnered a lot of recent political attention–-during an address at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on October 27, President Joe Biden pledged to fight what he called “junk fees,” or hidden fees that cost Americans “tens of billions of dollars” each year.
Resort fees were named alongside other hidden costs, such as those included in airline tickets, bank accounts and utility bills.
Biden went on to assert that “the Federal Trade Commission has started to work on a rule to crack down on unfair and deceptive fees across all industries, fees that were never disclosed.”
A similar, bipartisan initiative called the Hotel Advertising Transparency Act was introduced back in 2019, but was stalled in the House of Representatives.
The issue has since sparked debate from both sides—Charlie Leocha, president of the advocacy group known as Travelers United, told KVVU in Las Vegas that resort fees are “unfair and deceptive,” and lamented the fact that “something like 70 percent of the hotels in Vegas which are now charging resort fees and the other 30 percent are not. That 30 percent that are not are the smaller lesser-known hotels.”
Conversely, the American Hotel and Lodging Association fired back, telling KVVU that “93 percent of hotels do not charge resort fees.” It also noted that all fees are visible before a guest is finished booking a stay.
