Ok, I've done my part........

Another excellent question.

It's a podcast, not a leaked memorandum. Stevens isn't trying to avoid playing by the rules, he's capitulating to a reality created by the proliferation of extremely profitable travel sites. Expedia and Priceline and their ilk are not victims by any stretch of the imagination, they are the engines moving this forward.

How are they the engines moving this forward??? I don't see Priceline holding a gun to the hotels head making them use their website to sell rooms. If they don't like paying them a commission, don't list on their site. Southwest Airlines seems to do very well selling their own tickets and not relying on travel sites to fill seats.

And how are they not victims in this? If a hotel drops it's price to $20 then adds a $20 resort fee after you check in, the travel sites are getting screwed out of 50% of their commission. Next you'll see $10 rooms with $30 fees tacked on just so they can stay on Page 1.

Ray

No guns or heads are involved. Casinos and resorts can no longer compete unless their online data reveals the lowest possible room rate on the initial travel site search done by people who (inexplicably) think this is the only way to book a room. They literally cannot compete. This is a new reality created by the existence and proliferation of travel sites, many of whom now boast market caps in excess of the casino industry itself. They are in charge of this process. They are driving it. Looking at it pragmatically, it's not bad, nor is it good. It is simply how the world has changed.

If you prefer to believe something else, no one will lose any sleep. Nor should they.

IMHO, it is not the individual properties that have caused the volume of LV visitors to increase, it is the travel sites.

They purchase or guarantee large blocks of rooms at various properties, and put together packages with inexpensive air, etc that are true bargains. Many of "us" who love Vegas are not comped for the full monty. I could get a couple nights, but not the 10 or so I'd want to make my Vegas trips profitable.

I've booked direct with the hotels, and also purchased packages. Last one was a "Gay Pride" airfare & hotel for 7 nights, (coupon needed) and was less expensive by $100 or more than any other deal I could come up with. So I bought some pink panties in size XXXL, and booked it (3 times!) I think it cost me less than >$60 for 7 nights downtown, incl. RT non stop from S. Fla, hotel, and airport shuttle.

I would NOT have made those trips if I had not come across what I considered an amazingly low price I could not come close to replicating on "Orbitz".

The properties can keep on playing their "creative accounting" games. They can consider to screw the travel sites out of commissions. And, I suspect, the volume of Vegas visitors will decrease, or fail to expand, in part, due to that.

JMHO, of course.

So...it's the internet's fault. (travel sites wouldn't exist without the interweb) I knew it! And all those mom and pop travel agencies are gone too, because of the internet. I knew it! again.

So we need to get rid of Wal-Mart AND the internet.

Yow. That would seriously impact my ability to refill my $4 meds online.

Get rid of wal mart? I'm all for it!

Dewey would be so proud of this thread.