Following room-rate increases in April, Truist Securities analyst Barry Jonas saw them soften through May and into June on the Las Vegas Strip. His findings were published in a June 3 investor note.
The downward trend Jonas spied in the second quarter continued into July as well. Although the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority recently cited “consumer uncertainty” as a factor, Jonas wasn’t ready to subscribe to that view yet.
He argued, “We could still see improvements, given shorter and shorter Vegas booking windows.” However, Jonas did concede, “We’re generally seeing some deceleration in rates as our survey progresses, potentially as the macro uncertainty weighs on consumer demand.”
Although MGM Resorts International experienced a four percent decline in room rates in April, those for Caesars Entertainment properties shot up 17 percent. MGM prices slipped three percent in May and seven percent for June bookings. Those for Caesars casinos oscillated between seven percent down (May) and two percent up (June).
For July, advance bookings show MGM rates dipping one percent, as Caesars’s slipped six percent. Jonas took comfort that “our most recent survey (taken May 29) looked stable to slightly positive overall relative to the prior week’s survey (taken May 22).”
In a possibly worrisome development, the May weakness was concentrated on weekends, traditionally high-traffic periods for Las Vegas. MGM rooms fell eight percent, while prices at Caesars’s plunged 18 percent.
By contrast, midweek rates remained relatively stable overall. MGM’s rates actually rose 12 percent, while Caesars’s were down eight percent.
The June price survey showed a continued slowdown, with MGM lower one percent on weekends and Caesars plummeting 17 percent. Both companies saw midweek rates drop 12 percent.
Jonas called July bookings “less bad … but still down” compared to 2024. “We caution that there are still limited data points for the full month of July (~4 full weeks of data) and could see drastic shifts as more data comes in especially with shorter booking windows,” he added.
