eponymous_coward

Those other cities aren't Las Vegas, and I've had four/five star hotel rooms for $100-200 in Vegas over recent stays (including resort fee). Feel free to tell me where I can get those in Manhattan, Hollywood, downtown SF, or near a Disney resort (picking some USA places with high demand for tourists). I can sure find reasonably priced hotel rooms in NYC during offseason (I do this regularly in January/February), but they aren't the marble bathroom, 500+ square foot ones you get in Vegas.

It also isn't very hard to get a room for $50-60 a night offseason in downtown Vegas (occasionally less), even with a resort fee. Vegas has a ridiculous number of hotel rooms (around 150k, for a city that's around the same population as Kansas City). When demand is low the prices are very good.

Locals don't go to the Strip unless they work there or they're going to a Golden Knights game, even before there were parking charges. It's not particularly designed for locals.

ijgordon

Well, they fell pretty hard in the last recession, which was really the first time Vegas experienced a downturn in its history. The short reason is the US was a lot more saturated with casinos in 2008 than it was in 2001 and 1991 and recessions before that. Kind of caught everybody by surprise. The companies were also in the midst of a building boom when the capital markets shut down. I think the next time the companies will react more quickly and decisively.
I imagine the parking charges primarily impact the SoCal drive-in traffic and probably really just discourage casino-hopping, which perhaps helps the traffic situation.

redtop43

Vegas used to be a cheap vacation, but definitely no more.

I feel like the price increases have been greater at the lower-priced properties than the more expensive ones.

But I know that in late 2015 I could stay for a week at Orleans for a little over $400 all-in, rent a car for $175 a week, and fly from Philly to LAS round-trip for under $200. Now it's more like $650, $300, and $450.

I do agree though that the high-end hotels are nicer and cheaper than elsewhere - at least during the week.

eponymous_coward

I may want to amend my statement a bit on the basis of some data.

Fewer people are visiting Las Vegas. One insider thinks hotel resort and parking fees are to blame

Calculated Risk: Las Vegas: Convention Attendance Sluggish in Q1 2018, Visitor Traffic off Slightly

It's interesting- I wonder if profits are up while visitors are down...

redtop43

I've made it a matter of principle not to go to the North outlets anymore. I go to one of the malls every day I can get there (has to do with manufactured spending) but I will drive the extra 20 minutes to the South outlets rather than pay. I'm hoping, frankly, that traffic drops enough to cause them to rescind the fee. There are only two times I expect to pay to park when I'm shopping. One is in downtown areas where everybody pays to park. The other is in shopping areas very close to public transportation where if they don't charge, they'll get buried with commuters (like Ballston and Tysons Corner, Virginia). There's nothing so special about this mall to make me pay to park.