Room rates are going up, even as occupancy levels fall

[Alan Mendelson]

Business tracking group says both Wynn and LVS raised room rates in July. See our report: http://alanbestbuys.com/id73.html With a drop in gaming revenue because of the recession, raising room rates makes sense. Also, both the Las Vegas Sands properties and the Wynn properties are popular with convention goers and with the conventioneers there might be less gambling revenue, so raising room rates might be more feasible for these "north strip" hotels.

As you may know, there was a lot of publicity about LVS restricting comps and free rooms for low to mid level gamblers. I suspect if LVS can make money with this change, other casinos will also start cutting back on free rooms and other comps.

[BobOrme]

"Convention goers" are the key words. When one is traveling on a company expense account or can write off travel expenses as legitimate business expenses, the higher room rates are easier to swallow. Most Vegas visitors don't fit this category.