Whenever you find that room rates are through the roof on weekdays, it means a big convention is either in town, or is coming soon, and has just left.
And that’s the case for a large part of the year. After all, with more than 10.5 million square feet of convention and meeting space (most in the U.S.), Las Vegas hosts nearly 60 of the 200 largest conventions (most in the U.S. and more than one a week). As such, Las Vegas has reigned as the U.S.'s top trade-show destination 22 years in a row, according to the Trade Show News Network, hosting upwards of 20,000 meetings annually.
This is great for conventioneers, who find plenty to see and do around town when they’re not pounding the trade-show floors. But it’s not so great for general visitors, who must contend with hordes filling airplanes, crowding hotels, casinos, restaurants, and shows, monopolizing rental cars and parking places, jamming the monorail, and packing shuttle buses clogging the streets and porticos.
In addition, room rates are sky-high when the largest conventions are in town. And yes, they’re held weekdays, generally Tuesday through Thursday and sometimes a half-day Mondays and Fridays, when rates are ordinarily lowest. If you're booking for a weekday and a reservations agent asks, "Are you attending a convention?" get ready to be gouged.
In your case, March 5, 2017, is a couple days before ConExpo, the annual construction-industry trade show, boasting 2,500-plus exhibitors (representing the asphalt, aggregate, concrete, earth-moving, lifting, mining, and utilities industries, and more) and covering 2.5-million square feet of convention space. And by the way, it hosts upwards of 130,000 attendees — many of whom show up a day or two early to prepare for the show, or rent cars, or have fun before the convention.
Lots of sites list the upcoming convention schedules. This website has a list of the largest among them.
The official site of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is at VegasMeansBusiness.com, click here.
Before you make any plans to visit Las Vegas on weekdays, definitely check the convention schedule. You might have to adjust your dates around one.
