[olecapt]

Originally Posted by Golfinnova

Rates at the hotels, restaurants, and golf courses have dropped. I get e-mail specials for all the hotels; however, Olecapt is correct on the occupancy. My vacation club clients are still between 85-100 percent, in fact I had to fill an emergency restock request earlier this week because they realized that having full product means increased revenue and profit.

After years of growth and stability, owners and management now are forced to be creative in getting and retaining clients.

That is good...timely...let us all scramble and give good value for the buck.

Going to live off the torusts...let us treat them very well. Honored guests rather than sheep to be plucked.

[jfkIII]

bahhhhh!

[swagger]

Originally Posted by Kwame Y

I'm curious. In light of the current economy, have you noticed a significant reduction of tourists? Less traffic? Cheaper prices? What's going on?

Yes, definitely. We drove down the strip on Friday and Saturday - during the Consumer Electronics convention (what should have been a very busy time). It was virtually DEAD. The casinos have been much less crowded lately, too.

[Buzz123]

According to the Governor in his State of the State address tonight, Las Vegas visitors are down by 3%. That was a million less visitors last year. Reno/Sparks is down over 10%, but they don't get the big numbers that we do.

We get direct mail offers from hotels all the time. Things like special ticket prices for locals, etc. I get email deals from some of them. Palazzo has been emailing special room rate offers since before they opened. We saw Jersey Boys on Christmas Eve, but it was at the regular price. They did have a deal for locals but not what we were interested in. As it was, we paid for the cheap seats and since the place wasn't full they moved us to better seats anyway. Place was full of Asians and people wearing yarmulkes...and us, but we were waiting for Santa.

[Buzz123]

I know that news weenies like to make things sound much worse than they are, but since 93% of the workers in this country are still employed, wouldn't it be wise to tell those people to get out there and spend, spend, spend, in order to get the economy moving again? Instead they make it sound like working people are as bad off as the unemployed, when in reality, recession has caused lower prices on nearly everything. So why shouldn't we take advantage of it and buy things we maybe couldn't afford before? Not sensational enough I guess, and besides the news media thrives on bad news so they really don't want things to get better.

[MomMom]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

I know that news weenies like to make things sound much worse than they are, but since 93% of the workers in this country are still employed, wouldn't it be wise to tell those people to get out there and spend, spend, spend, in order to get the economy moving again? Instead they make it sound like working people are as bad off as the unemployed, when in reality, recession has caused lower prices on nearly everything. So why shouldn't we take advantage of it and buy things we maybe couldn't afford before? Not sensational enough I guess, and besides the news media thrives on bad news so they really don't want things to get better.

Oh geez, my sentiments exactly Buzz. I, for one, am enjoying the lower prices here at home!

[tony soprano]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

I know that news weenies like to make things sound much worse than they are, but since 93% of the workers in this country are still employed, wouldn't it be wise to tell those people to get out there and spend, spend, spend, in order to get the economy moving again?

~10 trillion dollars (yes, that's a T) in personal wealth has been vaporized in the last year, courtesy of the housing bust and market implosion. When you drain that kind of money out of the economy, consumer spending is going to slow no matter what you tell them to do.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by Kwame Y

I'm curious. In light of the current economy, have you noticed a significant reduction of tourists? Less traffic? Cheaper prices? What's going on?

Thanks

I help a lot of friends book trips to Las Vegas and other locations. I am a frustrated travel agent. Like the work, would never work for THAT pay.

In 2006, it was difficult to find a room rate at even a non-Strip hotel under $100 on a weekend. Therefore, we would stay in Las Vegas Sunday - Thursday and moved elsewhere (i.e., Primm or Laughlin) over the weekends.

This year, I am getting deals for weekends like $69-79 at the Luxor, TI, Monte Carlo, etc. I am getting BOGO offers at off-Strip properties like Sams Town, South Point, etc.

Last week, Southwest offered a half-price sale on most flights to Las Vegas.

Las Vegas is pure capitalism. The strength of the economy can be measured by its hotel rates.

[kimba01]

Stayed at Flamingo from Sat.-Tues night this past week and paid $27.50 a night. Sister and BIL paid a total of $43.00 for their 4 nights, but they had a coupon. Wandered around and watched the area from the 24th floor. Much less traffic, but it was a bit chilly. Hardly noone on the streets. Inside, looked much slower too even on Sat. night. But maybe everyone was at the CES or the Adult Ent. Awards!!!

Sister went to the Love show and said it was not sold out, but looked pretty full. Very few at Pure from what I could see across the street.

Fremont St. was very slow. Spoke to a couple of the bartenders at Binions and they were saying it was incredibly slow for them. Guess they would be the ones to see the big difference.

I am sure it will pick up in a month or so.

[george1208]

Just a thought, but isn't this a naturally slow time of year anyway?