Resorts ready to accomodate the masses for summer’s last big fling

Expect a lot of people to be in Las Vegas this Labor Day weekend.

The traditional end-of-summer holiday usually is a big last fling for people whose children are settling into school schedules. And while none of the major tourism organizations released estimated visitation numbers, all indications point to a busy weekend with dozens of hotels sold out and rates towering above nightly averages, both signs of high demand.

Long weekends and holidays typically draw more than 300,000 people to Southern Nevada, and resorts and event planners make sure their performance venues and dayclub pools are ready to accommodate the masses.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is optimistic about Labor Day weekend and expects the trend of rising visitation numbers to continue. It also issued a news release listing concerts, celebrity appearances and special events running through the weekend.

Earlier this week, the agency reported its July visitation statistics that showed 3.49 million visitors made the trek to Las Vegas, the highest monthly total since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

The LVCVA said 2.94 million people visited Southern Nevada in September 2021 — monthly totals have wavered between 3 million and 3.4 million each month ever since.

Room rates

The clearest indicator that Labor Day weekend will be robust was illustrated in an informal survey of room rates by the Review-Journal on Wednesday.

Visitors will spend far more than the average compared to Labor Day weekend last year for a three-night stay beginning Friday, based on average room rates for Las Vegas properties on hotels.com.

A survey of 145 motels and hotels found an average rate of $216.30 a night. That’s well above the average daily room rate of $155.80 reported by the LVCVA in September 2021 and higher than the $172.49 a night average for the first seven months of 2022.

In addition, 68 hotels were sold out for the weekend, according to hotels.com, and there were only two properties with rates under $100 a night.

The highest nightly rates were found at Bellagio ($579), Green Valley Ranch ($539), Red Rock Resort ($529), Nobu at Caesars Palace ($499) and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas ($495). Those prices don’t include resort fees and taxes.

Expectations run high

While AAA reports travel numbers for Memorial Day weekend and Fourth of July, it doesn’t provide estimates for Labor Day weekend.

“What I can tell you is that we’re expecting travel to be around 22 percent higher than last year based on hotel and airline reservations, which is still down about 16 percent from 2019,” said AAA spokesman John Treanor.

Treanor said the organization is forecasting an increase in roadside assistance calls from 460,000 last year to around 500,000 this year.

Earlier this month, the average price for gasoline fell below $4 a gallon nationwide, down $1.11 a gallon from its peak in mid-June.

But almost two-thirds of U.S. adults said they have changed their driving habits or lifestyle since March, according to a AAA survey.

The shift hasn’t seemed to have affected Californians driving Interstate 15 from the Los Angeles basin to Las Vegas. While the number of vehicles crossing the California-Nevada border are fewer than in their respective months in 2021, vehicle counts have steadily grown every month since January with minor dips in May and June, according to the Nevada Department of Transportation.

Passenger traffic into Harry Reid International Airport has been steady with the highest number of passengers ever to use the airport — 4.86 million — arriving in July.

Airport spokesman Joe Rajchel said the airport is expecting large numbers of arrivals and departures over the holiday weekend, perhaps as many as 150,000 a day, the average from July.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.