Las Vegas Hotel Boom, Then Bust?

The NYT reports that Las Vegas is in the midst of an unprecedented building boom among its signature casino hotels. Las Vegas already has more hotel rooms than any other city on the planet. Fifteen of the world's twenty largest hotels are in Las Vegas, and even more remarkably, the presence of so many hotels in such a small area has not hurt occupancy rates. Magnates like Stephen Wynn can still look like financial wizards building hotels in a city with 151,000 rooms because the weekend occupancy rate pushes 95%. And last year, the weekday occupancy rate was just under 90%.

The ability of Las Vegas to fill its hotel rooms at such an astounding rate is a testament to the drawing power of gambling and entertainment. Thanks to the poker boom which has recently swept the country, gambling at casinos has achieved a new, much higher cachet. Advertising your primary product on at least 4 stations on basic cable certainly helps, but Las Vegas isn't just a one-hit wonder.

Las Vegas has packaged itself as a man-made entertainment wonder. Even people who never gamble can find plenty of low-cost, high quality shows both on and off the strip. And for the so-called whales who are willing to bet (and potentially lose) millions of dollars on a roll of the dice, there is no place like Las Vegas.

Tourists in Las Vegas dropped $15 billion last year, but the majority ($9 billion) was spent outside the casinos. And the growth rate is so strong that Las Vegas not only has another 35,000 hotel rooms on the drawing board, but a second airport is planned thirty miles outside of town to handle the immense volumes of people moving through.

Las Vegas has been super-saturated with casinos since the 1950s, but the boom continues. New investors are sparking a gamble on the condominium market as well. The luxury market is loaded with competitors in a way that no other city of the world can beat. It doesn't look like Las Vegas has room for any more growth, but its never a good idea to bet against the house.