Vegas in Trouble?

[d.anders]

Looks like Las Vegas is really suffering.

 

 

[Luv2play]

Well Canadians are avoiding travel to the States in droves . I say this as my brother and his wife are travelling there. His excuse is he wants to see his son and his wife who are Americans and an old friend who at 80 may be the last opportunity to see him. 
I have no direct relatives in the States except for my brother's kid so have no inclination to cross the border at this time. Just the thought of the border agents searching my phone and finding all my incriminating conversations with escorts is enough to keep me north of the 49th parallel. 

[Johnrom]

Vegas is a great product overall. Nothing quite like it. But I think Vegas is alienating some travelers with high resort fees and a lot of nickel diming on things in hotels.  Bottles of water in your room for 25 bucks? 😳😱  Give me a break.  Plus, most states have ample local casinos now which keep people closer to home and technology has made gaming and betting on devices and computes very easy now.  These factors provide some  headwinds  for the Vegas casinos.  🎰 

[+ JamesB]

In my opinion, Las Vegas has managed to price itself right out of being a fun destination. Between the endless resort fees, parking charges, and cocktails that cost as much as a car payment, it feels less like a vacation and more like a slow motion pickpocketing. At this point, the only gamble in Vegas is whether you’ll make it home without maxing out your credit card.

[samhexum]

 

[handiacefailure]

1 hour ago, Johnrom said:

Vegas is a great product overall. Nothing quite like it. But I think Vegas is alienating some travelers with high resort fees and a lot of nickel diming on things in hotels.  Bottles of water in your room for 25 bucks? 😳😱  Give me a break.  Plus, most states have ample local casinos now which keep people closer to home and technology has made gaming and betting on devices and computes very easy now.  These factors provide some  headwinds  for the Vegas casinos.  🎰 

The resort fees really tick me off but at least with Rio, I dont have to pay them since I'm a hyatt globalist.    If I stay on the strip I don't even rent a car anymore with all the casinos charging for parking, it is cheaper just to take raideshare from the Rio than to pay for a rental car and parking.

 

Also airfares are absurd to Vegas now

[ericwinters]

I agree with all the complaints about resort and parking fees—it's insane. What compounds my frustration is that many properties, such as Vdara and Delano (now W), have dismal, disengaged employees who seem to lack basic empathy or concern for their guests. Too often, you're treated like just another number. Just my humble opinion, of course.

[+ PhileasFogg]

I’ve been there once in my life and it was on business.  Having come from the eastern time zone and arriving at night, I hit the sack and arose at about 3AM.   I was at the Bellagio and decided to walk down to the strip since the weather was perfect.  Half way down the lush and curving sidewalk, I passed a young man and we made eye contact.

Being southern, I politely say “Hey, how ya doin’”

He replied “Great”

“Beautiful night,” I responded

Then he said “I have a limo and strippers, you can have tits in your face for breakfast” 🎉🍾

🤨 “Thank you,” I said, “but bacon and eggs will be fine!” 😎

[+ PhileasFogg]

1 hour ago, ericwinters said:

I agree with all the complaints about resort and parking fees—it's insane. What compounds my frustration is that many properties, such as Vdara and Delano (now W), have dismal, disengaged employees who seem to lack basic empathy or concern for their guests. Too often, you're treated like just another number. Just my humble opinion, of course.

It’s a frequent occurrence in service and hospitality industries these day.  I suspect that these are employers who have no engagement with their employees and they’re attracting employees who act similarly.  The good ones are going where they have better work environments. 

Edited August 28 by PhileasFogg

[harlow]

Vegas has changed a lot and not for the better. I used to be a frequent visitor when I lived in SoCal back in the 2000s and it was great and pretty affordable. This summer was my most recent visit and it was just meh.  Prices are insane for what you’re getting. Food is ridiculously expensive. You can’t find a table for under $25, and a lot of the games have gone electronic…even roulette. The excitement of Vegas just isn’t there anymore. 

[Luv2play]

7 hours ago, PhileasFogg said:

I’ve been there once in my life and it was on business.  Having come from the eastern time zone and arriving at night, I hit the sack and arose at about 3AM.   I was at the Bellagio and decided to walk down to the strip since the weather was perfect.  Half way down the lush and curving sidewalk, I passed a young man and we made eye contact.

Being southern, I politely say “Hey, how ya doin’”

He replied “Great”

“Beautiful night,” I responded

Then he said “I have a limo and strippers, you can have tits in your face for breakfast” 🎉🍾

🤨 “Thank you,” I said, “but bacon and eggs will be fine!” 😎

What would you have replied if he had said”

I’ve got a limo and you can have a stiff cock or smooth ass for breakfast”?

[+ PhileasFogg]

3 hours ago, Luv2play said:

What would you have replied if he had said”

I’ve got a limo and you can have a stiff cock or smooth ass for breakfast”?

I wasn’t exploring men at the time.

But I had dinner with a friend who was with the LVPD at the time.   He said it’s a scam.  They would have spiked my drink with visine to trigger diarrhea and would have rolled me for all my cash and left me on the sidewalk with my pants around my ankles 

[+ azdr0710]

the city has gone thru many booms and busts since its original founding in 1905......it'll survive this downturn.......

[marylander1940]

On 8/28/2025 at 5:26 PM, azdr0710 said:

the city has gone thru many booms and busts since its original founding in 1905......it'll survive this downturn.......

Agreed! 

The city will attract conventions, downside, look for other markets, etc but it's going to be a few years until Canadians and others risk to come to the states without the fear of being mistreated, deported, declared inadmissible, etc. 

[Nightowl]

15 hours ago, marylander1940 said:

Agreed! 

The city will attract conventions, downside, look for other markets, etc but it's going to be a few years until Canadians and others risk to come to the states without the fear of being mistreated, deported, declared inadmissible, etc. 

Agree 💯 percent.  Greed is a big part of LV’s problem but fear of traveling here is another.

[rvwnsd]

On 8/28/2025 at 2:26 PM, azdr0710 said:

the city has gone thru many booms and busts since its original founding in 1905......it'll survive this downturn.......

Agree it will survive the downturn. The question is whether the hotel/casinos will survive their ridiculous resort fees, high drink prices, high food prices, high...

[BSR]

On 8/28/2025 at 11:26 PM, azdr0710 said:

the city has gone thru many booms and busts since its original founding in 1905......it'll survive this downturn.......

While I’m slow-traveling, I’ve been keeping up with the situation back home.  Yes, Las Vegas survived downturns like the Great Depression (then a small town, it actually boomed thanks to the Hoover Dam construction) and the 2008 GFC, but this downturn is all of its own making.

The appeal of old Vegas was that middle-class tourists could come and feel like VIPs.  Sure, you lost money gambling, but pit bosses were generous with the comps.  Even when Steve Wynn changed the business model with 1989 opening of the Mirage, visitors still felt like they were getting decent value.  Restaurants were pricey, but most were really good.  Comped or at least discounted rooms were common, and free drinks were a given.

First came the resort fees, which started small and have been climbing ever since.  IMO, the snowball started rolling down the hill when the casinos ended free parking.  The old-timers said tourists would boycott, but nope they kept coming, just grumbled a bit.  That gave the bean-counters the green light to start death by a thousand cuts, nickel $ dimeing visitors with service charges at every turn and even charging a high-roller ($25K a hand!) for a $10 smoothie.

Of course, the high-rollers (refusal to comp the smoothie aside) are still treated like royalty, as are high-end business travelers, but according to numerous reports, the average Vegas visitor is treated like sh!t.  For a while, the top-tier spending more than made up for the loss of the nurse from San Antonio and the plumber from Chicago, until the desertion of the middle-class became so great that there simply weren’t enough 1 percenters to offset.

I’ve heard that the casinos are realizing their error and are trying to lure back the middle-class they so recently scorned.  Unfortunately, once you really piss off a regular customer, it’s just not that easy to get him back.