Vegas Room Rates Climbing Into Q4

LAS VEGAS-The amount it takes to keep hotels in town as occupied as possible is officially on the rise again. The average daily room rate hit five-year low of $84.02 in August 2009 but has now recorded its second straight 9% gain to reach $99.59, according to October data released late last week by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau.

While up 18% the ADR is still 13.9% behind the same month in 2008, but there again that spread is the smallest so far this year. Indeed, the spread from 2008 has declined not only in ADR but also in hotel occupancy, which ended October at 82.6%, down just 120 basis points from the same year-earlier period. That, too, is the smallest spread year-to-date, and weekend occupancy was off by just 0.4% from October 2008, which is as slim as it has been in 2009.

Backing up out from there, total room nights occupied also rose for the second straight month in a row, as did visitor volume. Visitor volume was 3.15 million in October, 3.7% higher than the same year-earlier period while total room nights occupied was 3.6 million, up 1.2% from the same year-earlier period.