Hotel room rates higher first week of January, thanks to CES

The tech industry will be in Las Vegas next week — and with it, costlier hotel rooms.

CES, the annual electronics trade show that begins Jan. 5, is expected to bring 100,000 attendees, including about one-third of international visitors, to the four-day event. And demand for hotel rooms during the convention is driving up prices.

The week after a holiday can often be a slow period for resorts, but with New Year’s Eve falling on a weekend, it leads straight into CES with additional conventions following behind.

“It’s typically a great start to the year,” Brendan Bussmann, analyst with Las Vegas-based B Global, said. “You’re coming off a high of New Year’s and then with CES, World of Concrete and others, it’s a more normal convention calendar.”

The average daily room rate on the Strip in January 2022 was an estimated $154, according to data from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. But this month’s hotel room rates during CES are much more.

A Friday afternoon review of hotels.com and resort booking websites by the Review-Journal showed stays costing well above that figure. (Hotel room prices are dynamic and can rise and fall in the days leading up to the event.)

For a Thursday night to Sunday morning stay, the lowest available price was $143 per night at Suncoast in Summerlin, several miles away from CES venues such as the Las Vegas Convention Center and The Venetian Expo.

A stay at the off-Strip hotel-resort Rio went for $236 per night, not including taxes and fees.

Caesars Entertainment Inc.’s most expensive option was Caesars Palace at $649 per night. MGM Resorts International’s lowest rate was $274 at Luxor while its highest listing was at Aria for $1,083 nightly.

Rooms at The Venetian — next to door to the CES venue The Venetian Expo — was at least $586 per night during the convention. Wynn Las Vegas and Encore had nightly prices of $674.

Options are also inflated in downtown Las Vegas. The Golden Nugget offers a room for $272 per night. Circa offers rooms during CES for about $409 per night beginning on Friday — a Thursday night stay was unavailable — while Downtown Grand was offering a nightly rate of $237.

In January 2022, the average room rate in downtown Las Vegas was $90.87.

Flight cancellations by Southwest Airlines and other air carriers this week, which heavily impacted Las Vegas visitors, are expected to be resolved by the trade show and likely won’t factor into room pricing, Bussmann said. Instead, he’s concerned about the customer service angle.

“You have to continue to see the fallout from Southwest,” Bussmann said. “While the system may be back, the question then becomes will people be willing to fly an airline that failed them a few days ago?”

McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact her at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross on Twitter.