Hot town, summer in the city: Vegas bookings robust for summer months

Get ready Las Vegas, it’s looking as if you’ll be pretty popular this summer.

Early indicators from the past few weeks (when people really start to book summer travel) are looking strong for Sin City, according to Expedia.com’s records. Specific numbers won’t be available until the company releases earnings later this month.

Sarah Gavin, Expedia.com’s public relations director, said Las Vegas will be in the top five destinations nationwide, with transactions so far up 50 percent year over year for the city.

“We’re seeing really nice trends,” Gavin said. “It’s looking fantastic.”

Travelzoo Senior Editor Gabe Saglie agreed that Las Vegas stands to do well this summer. In a recent survey, Las Vegas came in as the No. 2 destination site users would want to visit this summer, after Los Angeles.

Saglie also noted that the summer promotion from Las Vegas seemed to come early this year. Resorts generally start their summer pushes in March or April, but Saglie said he noticed many advertising in January.

“And there’s been a pretty steady flow of really good deals coming out of Las Vegas,” he added. “I think that based on what the resorts are doing, and the early push, (Las Vegas) stands to be a big-value destination once again this year.”

In 2012, summer travel was up 0.88 percent in the destination.

Last year, 10.18 million visitors came to Las Vegas from June through August, compared with 2011’s count of 10.09 million visitors for the same period, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority statistics show.

Occupancy rates at chain hotels have been strong recently, an indicator of a solid summer travel season.

“We’re expecting a very good summer,” said John Valletta, president of Super 8 Worldwide.

Super 8 doesn’t use advance bookings for its projections, as most of its customers don’t make reservations more than a week ahead, if at all.

“The folks that come to us have probably left their house this morning without a reservation,” Valletta said. “We just rely more on recent history and projections. From that we can pretty much tell you there’s a good, solid upward trend, and there’s no reason it won’t continue that way.”

Super 8, owned by Wyndham Hotel Group, has three locations in the Las Vegas Valley, a tiny portion of the 2,350 Super 8s around the world.

The Super 8 hotel brand entered Las Vegas in 1986.

Systemwide, the brand is back to the occupancy levels of 2007, a trend the company expects to continue.

In 2007, the average occupancy for a Super 8 hotel was 56.2 percent. Last year, the average occupancy was 54.8 percent.

In revenue per available room, the average for a Super 8 hotel in 2007 was $32.80. Last year, the average was $29.06.

According to the travel authority’s statistics, citywide summer occupancy (hotels and motels combined) was almost flat when comparing 2012 with 2011.

When compared with national occupancy rates, Las Vegas’ summer 2012 was strong.

Local rates for June, July and August were 88 percent, 87.2 percent and 84 percent, respectively, while the national occupancy rates were 67.6 percent, 69.9 percent and 66.2 percent for the same months.

Gavin said more people are going on vacation, but they’re staying a day less than typical.

However, they’re spending more as a result, generally opting for four-star hotels.

Courtney Fitzgerald, a spokeswoman for the travel authority, said this summer’s additions of the nightlife/daylife venues of Hakkasan at the MGM Grand as well as Light and Daylight at Mandalay Bay will be a draw, as will the 10th anniversary of Rehab at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Contact reporter Laura Carroll at
lcarroll@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588.
Follow @lscvegas on Twitter.