The holidays always make life interesting. Whether the time is spent celebrating with friends and family or working there’s always something out of the norm. Vacation for the masses is usually a good time to get some random work done. I’ll share some of the interesting information I found shortly. Let’s get to the Vegas news.
Visitation To Las Vegas Up In November
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) released their Executive Summary for November during the week. As you can see visitor volume was up 5.6%, convention attendance was up 15.6% and overall occupancy in hotels was up 3.6%. Hotel operators in Las Vegas saw that RevPAR (Revenue per available room) was up 13.5% from 2017 to $112.98. The increases were fairly modest since tourism was down last year because of the shooting at Mandalay Bay. Much of the convention attendance visited Las Vegas for Amazon Web Services re:Invent. The monthly report shows that there were more tourists in Las Vegas this November. Weekend occupancy, when most tourists visit Las Vegas, was 95.5% in November. That’s an increase of 2.2%. You can see a deeper breakdown of the Executive Summary here. After reading this report I ended up diving into some other information. The cheapest hotel rooms for New Year’s Eve at Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts hotels was $300. The cheapest rooms anywhere in Las Vegas for New Year’s Eve was about $200 out near Hoover Dam. New Year’s Eve weekend is one of the most expensive for tourists. I was curious about convention visitors since the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) takes place in a couple of weeks.
CES Hotel Room Rates are Bananas
Approximately 150,000 people are expected to attend CES between January 8 and 11, 2019. This is the largest convention of the year in Las Vegas. Hotels love those expense accounts and will charge accordingly. As of last week, hotel rooms for MGM Resorts properties start $409 per night (plus taxes and fees) at Luxor. Aria was $919 per night when I searched. Caesars Entertainment hotel room prices during CES aren’t much better. In fact, the best hotel “deal” on the Vegas Strip during CES is probably getting a suite at The Venetian or The Palazzo. The least expensive room at the Cosmopolitan is $800 per night. The $780 per night at The V and The P gives you a larger hotel room at one of the closest hotels to the Las Vegas Convention Center. Tourists should know to visit the week before or the week after for decent prices on hotel rooms. If you are going to be in town for CES, make sure you have restaurant reservations at the nicer restaurants before visiting. All those expense accounts will make last minute reservations at the best restaurants impossible. I’m a tech dork and attended CES the year I moved to Las Vegas. I was so stoked to go but haven’t returned. The convention is massive and insanely crowded. I’ll let other people do the legwork for me. Here’s a good article pointing out how CES has changed over the years.
New Year’s Eve
Here are a couple of quick hits if you are visiting Las Vegas for New Year’s Eve.
- Road closures start at 5 pm
- No backpacks, glass, strollers, coolers or children on the Vegas Strip on NYE. Read more here.
- Info on where NYE fireworks
- There’s a smoke advisory on NYE
Lady Gaga Begins Residency At Park MGM
Lady Gaga descended onto the stage at the Park Theater on the first night of her Las Vegas residency at Park MGM. That was certainly a grand entrance and it was just the beginning. The production (above) and stage show is impressive for the “Enigma” show (she’s also performing nine stripped down shows). I’m more of a Britney Spears kinda guy, but I can’t imagine that her lip synching and lazy dancing show will be any match for the massive production and actual singing at Lady Gaga’s show. This looks like a must see if you’re even remotely a fan of Gaga. Personally, I’m more curious about Eataly. I’ll visit the newest incarnation of Eataly during the week. You can see some videos of different songs during the first night here.
Quick Hits
While my world was mostly quiet, there was a lot of news in and around Las Vegas.
- Speaking of Las Vegas residencies…Billboard has the Top 10 Grossing Las Vegas residencies here.
- “Wynn Resorts Has A Tourist Problem.” Wynn Resorts isn’t just Wynn Las Vegas. This article about Wynn is not about Las Vegas.
- Wynn Resorts is suing Genting because Resorts World Las Vegas is confusing. Read more here.
- Vegas Golden Knights player, Ryan Reeves, has his own beer. Read more here.
- Wayne Newton is leaving Bally’s. Read more here.
- One of your favorite Vegas Trippers has a detailed review and lots of pictures of the Lanai Suites at The Mirage. Read more here.
- Sadelle’s is open at the Bellagio. They need this casual dining option. Snacks isn’t great and not quite a walk from one of the hotel towers. Read more here.
- The land that was once home to Moulin Rouge is available again. Read more here.
- Caesars sold Harrah’s Philadelphia to its REIT. Read more here.
- There was a $1 million slot machine win at the Cosmopolitan last week. There was also a $2.7 slot machine win at Green Valley Ranch. I’m sharing those so I can share the Top 10 slot machine jackpots of the year.
Photo Credit: The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas | $1 million slot machine win at the Cosmopolitan
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