The title of this post isn’t really news. We have all been reading about changes in the airline, hotel, rental car and ride service industries. I want to talk a little bit about how it affects my specialty, getting to Las Vegas and still having a plus EV trip including all travel expenses, while playing at low roller levels.
I have been talking and writing about low cost travel to Las Vegas since 2016. In the last 9 months, the cost for me to travel from Detroit to Las Vegas has increased. On my most recent trip, 5/28 – 6/2/21, I paid $351 for a rental car. This is the most I have paid for a rental car in Las Vegas in the 35 years I have been doing this. And $351 was actually a very good rate. Vehicles were going for about $600 for the same period.
Airline travel cost has gone up significantly, which makes using frequent flier points even more important. 10 or 15 years ago, you could find $150 round trip tickets to Las Vegas from Detroit. That same flight is $500 now. Add on baggage fees (unless you have an airline credit card or fly Southwest) and it is easy to spend over $1000 for airfare for 2.
Another added cost is resort fees. A major reason resort fees came to be is the hotels are taxed much less on fees than on room rates. If the room is $150, the hotel pays more in taxes than if the room is $110 with a $40 resort fee. Another benefit to the hotel is that they can advertise comped rooms, but those rooms still have a resort fee. I have seen this at Tropicana and the M in Las Vegas. Also, some of the MyVegas offers are structured that way. A free room for 3 nights at the M sounds good but adding in $120 or so for resort fees and it isn’t such a great deal anymore. We don’t currently pay resort fees, but that option is getting more difficult to find.
Parking fees are coming back. We stayed at Bally’s and my wife is Diamond so we could valet for free. If not, the rate was $36 a night. At Cromwell, it was $40 a night. I don’t know if hotel guests get free valet parking. So, a free room could still cost you $80 a night for parking and resort fees. Ouch.
I haven’t seen much change in room offers in Las Vegas, which is a good sign.
Also, there are signs that the rental car prices may not be sustainable. When we picked up our car at 5:30 PM on Friday of Memorial Day weekend, there were very few people in the Rent A Car center and there were a ton of cars in the lot at Hertz. Given that last minute prices were about $125 per day, people must have made other arrangements, used a ride share or used public transportation. I can’t remember ever seeing that many cars in the lot.
Las Vegas has eliminated the ban on surge pricing for Uber and Lyft so hopefully that will encourage more people to return to those jobs. I saw that Turo (basically Air B and B for cars), is doing record business.
What does this all mean? Costs are way up and travel is more work. So far, casino offers are about the same. Once my companion fare runs out at the end of the year, my trips for 2022 will decline. For 2021, I will make 6 trips to Las Vegas. For 2022, that number will probably be 2. And once I run out of frequent flier miles, it will go to 1. For the past dozen years, airfare has been free, hotels have been free, food has been mostly free and rental cars have been reasonable.
My last trip, we had about $2000 in free play to pick up at various places. My rental car was $350, cost of gambling was about $500 or $600 so the trip had EV of about $1000. If I have to pay more for a rental car and have to start paying for flights, the EV would be $0 at best. And at that point, I’ll be finding another activity.
I think rental car prices will get closer to normal in 2022. Hopefully, there will be enough frequent flier opportunities to still make some trips to Las Vegas. If not, it has been a lot of fun for the last 35 years.
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I have kept travelling to Las Vegas during Covid and now since it’s been getting busier, I find I don’t like it as much. I have car rentals through the end of the year already reserved, but airfare has gone up substantially. I believe I will also reduce the number of trips as well in the future.
This is a very valuable and interesting report to all visitors that are watching their expenses and I am very glad to read about. Many thanks for your time for the run-down of these infos, Jimmy.
I take it, however, the rental car rates will not be sustainable for the upcoming months and the sooner the world will be through with this pandemic, the car-companies will probably increase their fleets and lower the rates again. I used to pay around 750 Dollars for my rental car for a 3 weeks vacation, and I just can’t imagine a trip to Vegas without a rental car because I play all over the valley where I find the best games. Driving through the city , especially at nights, is one aspect of enjoying Las Vegas, so I hope to find Las Vegas the way it used to be before 2019 when we Europeans are welcome to visit again next year.
From Switzerland
Boris
Boris,
Thanks for the kind words. As for rental cars, I booked for 5 days end of July and the best rate I have found so far is $462. If that is the case, we are going the Uber route. Most of our play will be downtown so no car is not the end of the world. It will be something new, though. It has been probably 25 years since I haven’t had a rental car on a Las Vegas trip.
So, even though the prices were high over Memorial Day weekend and there were plenty of cars to be had, there wasn’t a reduction in price. Vehicle shortage with rental cars will take a while to fix. New car prices are high, automakers don’t want to build fleet vehicles ( low margin). There is still a chip shortage so all available ICs are going into high profit SUVs and Trucks. It will take a while for prices to come back to a reasonable level. I’m thinking it might be mid 2022.
Boris,
Thanks for the kind words. As for rental cars, I booked for 5 days end of July and the best rate I have found so far is $462. If that is the case, we are going the Uber route. Most of our play will be downtown so no car is not the end of the world. It will be something new, though. It has been probably 25 years since I haven’t had a rental car on a Las Vegas trip.
So, even though the prices were high over Memorial Day weekend and there were plenty of cars to be had, there wasn’t a reduction in price. Vehicle shortage with rental cars will take a while to fix. New car prices are high, automakers don’t want to build fleet vehicles ( low margin). There is still a chip shortage so all available ICs are going into high profit SUVs and Trucks. It will take a while for prices to come back to a reasonable level. I’m thinking it might be mid 2022.
Correction on parking fees. The fees I quoted were for Valet Parking. Self park is about half that price. I don’t know how parking works if you are a hotel guest.
Oh and one more note about parking. We stayed at Bally’s and the Valet is only open Thursday – Sunday. For Memorial Day, they decided to stay open til noon on the holiday Monday. I wonder how many people came to pick up their car on Monday afternoon or evening and were greeted with an empty valet station. The only signs indicating this were at the valet station and it would be pretty easy to miss it. I talked to one valet and he said they can’t get enough people to work.
Hello Jimmy
Please keep us posted on the situation in Las Vegas. Not all valuable info on this sensitive subject are being published in Europe. For instance, we currently hear that Las Vegas seems to celebrate its awakening from Covid-19 , but reality is that this crisis is not over yet. With the parking fees being reestablished and resort fees going in rocket-mode again, these facts are a little bit discouraging to us. It might be interesting to find out what happens to the buffets and if they are also reopening and what happens to the promotions that we used to like before 2020.
If you visit Las Vegas on a regular basis, it would be great to get additional bonus as they come in. The way you describe everything gives us a great and clear picture and we absolutely appreciate your effort and time .
Thank you and best regards from Switzerland
Boris
Boris,
I’ll be back the end of July. As I think I mentioned, my rental right now is $450. If it doesn’t go down a lot, I’ll be taking Uber. I like the freedom of a rental car but that is just too much cash.
I think there are 4 or 5 buffets in operation now. If you are concerned about people wearing masks, Las Vegas is not the place for you.
In general, there seems to be a lot of first time visitors, a lot of places are not fully staffed yet and everything you do takes longer.
I think the LVA does a pretty good job of updating Las Vegas conditions. One of things mentioned is that the casinos are seeing demand increase and they are trying to reel in every dollar that they can. I hope that doesn’t last but as long as people will pay top dollar , I’m sure the casinos will accept those dollars.
I’ll report out again after the July/August trip.
Here’s a possible rental vehicle alternative. This won’t work for a lot of people does have some extra hurdles to jump through so if convenience your main concern in renting a vehicle, this option is not for you.
For July 29 – August 3, I currently have a rental car rate of $450 for 5 days. A local Hertz location has a cargo van for $169 a week. Now, you will have get from the airport to the location and vice versa, so add another $50 or so for Uber rides, but it is still less than half the price. On the plus side, you avoid the bus ride to the rent a car center. Also, this rental is a weekly rate so if you are actually staying for an entire week, the savings are even better. There are coupon codes available that will save you another $20 and if you pay in advance, that can save you $30 or so. If all the options work, that weekly rental would be under $120.
Now, it is a cargo van. It only has 2 seats. The van lists at 19 mpg so if you doing a lot of driving, fuel costs will be more. It is unlimited miles, though.
Again, this option is not for everyone but if it fits your schedule and style, you can save quite a bit.
With all these impediments in place already, visiting Las Vegas has just become a little less interesting to many of us. Let’s put it this way: Lake Mead water level at its all time low needs some breather. Perhaps this will help a bit. If it doesn’t , then Nevada’s politicians shoud better create some water tax and start negotiating and consctruction of that futuristic trans-state pipeline from Canada. Because if nothing is being done, then Las Vegas will experience a rough awakening within the next 20 years for sure. Wouldn’t it be sad to see this great city become deserted because there is no more sufficiant water?
From Switzerland,
Boris
If Southwest is an option for you, they are running a half off sale the next 2 days.
Jimmy
you may be aware that the United States is keeping its borders closed for all Europeans or other international travellers without. No info about how long this situation will remain in place. Europe is not in worse or better shape than the U.S. , in terms of covid-cases. From that point of view I feel it a bit irritating, hence, disciminating, that countries such as Italy and Spain is allowing Americans to visit their country and US airlines are now exploring new travel destinations and setting up flight-schedules while at the same time no European gambler is allowed to visit Las Vegas. It’s the way it is but I will remember that for the future when some day we will be invited to come and spend our money in Las Vegas.
From Switzerland
Boris
Chase Southwest cards are offering a 65,000 point sign up bonus but only through 7/13/21. There isn’t enough time to split a referral bonus so go ahead and take advantage if you can. This is the highest offer I have seen for the Chase Southwest cards.