Las Vegas have achieved record rates and demand for hotels while hosting mega events over the past few months, and that success is also raising the appetite of investors to buy and develop in the market.
Not only has the hotel sector seen a wave of development in Las Vegas in recent years, the apartment and industrial sectors have also been active. In 2023, construction on 5,600 apartment units was completed in Las Vegas. Michael Petrivelli, CoStar’s Nevada and Utah director of market analytics, said that's an all-time high, surpassing the previous record of 3,600 units in 2020.
Though the biggest demand and rate driver, Super Bowl 2024, was held in first quarter, hoteliers say the energy and momentum will continue through the year.
Excitement in the city happened even before the Super Bowl touched down in Paradise, Nevada.
Here's a look back at recent Las Vegas coverage on Hotel News Now.
Formula One
Hotel performance on the Strip accelerated in November when activity around the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix generated $220 million in hotel revenue and $1.2 billion in total economic impact.
Hotel average daily rates grew each day of the week during the event, which took place between Nov. 16-18, with the highest year-over-year increase on Thursday at a 207%.
“Headlines swirled about hotels slashing rates weeks before the event. However, hotel average daily rate on the Las Vegas Strip increased substantially Monday through Sunday the week of the event. The highest hotel rates and occupancy levels occurred from Thursday through Saturday night,” Emmy Hise, senior director of hospitality analytics for CoStar, reports.
Las Vegas appeared to steal some of the F1 thunder from Austin, where hotels underperformed compared to last year's race.
“I think people kind of forgot about the Austin race with the Vegas race [going on]. We actually felt that,” said Gilbert Arredondo, senior vice president of revenue strategy for Remington Hospitality. “Because these events are so infrequent, Austin used to have phenomenal demand for the Formula One race. It’s not that it doesn’t have good demand still, but we did definitely see an impact of the Vegas race on Austin.”
Las Vegas has secured a 10-year contract to host a Formula One Grand Prix event.
Super Bowl
In February, the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers faced off in Super Bowl LVIII, going into overtime and resulting in another Vince Lombardi Trophy for Kansas City.
Hotel performance during Super Bowl weekend in Las Vegas was unprecedented, surpassing every other Super Bowl host city in ADR and revenue per available room.
Weekend rates, on Saturday and Sunday, were the highest ever in the continental U.S. (excluding Hawaii). ADR peaked on Sunday at $808, roughly $50 higher than Saturday and more than $580 above the Sunday baseline.
Hotels prepared for a record weekend of sellouts at incredible rates.
Resorts World Las Vegas, which contains a 1,678-room Hilton, a 1,496-room Conrad by Hilton and a 332-room Crockfords Las Vegas, LXR Hotels & Resorts, had been preparing for months ahead of the event.
"The touchpoint becomes important. This is not our typical sold-out week or weekend. We understand that there was a premium to come in for this experience," said Chief Marketing Officer Ronn Nicolli. "That's something that my hotel operations team takes very serious. Someone coming out here that is choosing our property, that's very meaningful to us. Someone who's coming out here and has paid a premium holds more of a white-glove touchpoint that we need to make sure we're on top of."
Brand Enthusiasm and Expectations
On the company's latest earnings call, Marriott International President and CEO Tony Capuano spoke to how well the city was able to accommodate such a large-scale event.
“No. 1 ... look at the vibrancy of that market ... you likely heard the NFL commissioner talking about how anxious the league is to get back to Las Vegas," he said.
On another earnings call, Wynn Resorts CEO Craig Billings, said his company continues to "fire on all cylinders here in Las Vegas."
Bill Hornbuckle, president and CEO at MGM Resorts International, said his company is encouraged by its room rates for business on the books, as well as in-the-year group attendance.
“On the group side, the Mandalay Bay Convention Center refresh is nearly complete, and we're poised to benefit from an increased 100,000-plus group room nights on The Strip. With MGM's casino segment, we will drive growth from the return of Far East baccarat play, which is still below 2019 levels," he said.
Apple Hospitality REIT CEO Justin Knight said Las Vegas is on the winning side of leisure trends.
“Even outside of the Super Bowl week, [it] has continued to produce incredibly strong numbers for us year over year. We feel it will be meaningfully additive to the performance of our portfolio overall,” he said.