Las Vegas Strip Room Bookings Positive in Q1, Concerns Raised About Rest of 2025

Posted on: March 28, 2025, 09:29h. 

Last updated on: March 28, 2025, 09:45h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.
  • Room rates on the Las Vegas Strip were up in Q1
  • A slight softening could be coming in the months ahead
  • Visitor volume was down in January 2025

Social media remains abuzz regarding Las Vegas and the Strip, with countless insiders, influencers, and loyal travelers to the gaming capital of the United States expressing concerns about the destination’s state of play.

Las Vegas Strip room bookings Nevada
The statue of Augustus Caesars is seen in the Caesars Palace Las Vegas lobby on Oct. 29, 2024. Las Vegas Strip room bookings remained strong in the first quarter of 2025. (Image: Shutterstock)

Mounting resort fees, excessive prices for supposedly cheap eats like pizza and sodas, tight odds, and costly hotel room rates have many Las Vegas regulars fuming. Locals have also expressed worries that a slowdown is imminent, with many reporting slower traffic in and around the Strip.

The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority (LVCVA) confirmed those thoughts with its January “Executive Summary,” which reported a 1.1% visitor volume decline. The year-over-year loss would have been significantly more if it hadn’t been for strong convention attendance, which was up almost 13%.

Truist Securities, however, reported Friday that the first quarter of 2025 (January through March) remained positive for Las Vegas Strip resort operators in terms of room bookings. 

Las Vegas Strip Bookings Strong

Barry Jonas, Truist’s managing director and senior gaming equity analyst, reported that room rates for Las Vegas Strip rooms in the first quarter “are up nicely” year over year. Despite a difficult comparison, as Las Vegas hosted the Super Bowl in February 2024, January and March saw strong visitation for overnight guests.

MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, which command the bulk of the Strip resorts, respectively reported year-over-year rate increases of 24% and 29% in January, and 5% and 8% in March. The outlook for April is also positive, with MGM reporting 11% higher room rates and Caesars 6%.

The outlook for May and the summer, however, isn’t as strong and is causing some caution.

This week’s survey saw some modest rate deceleration from the prior survey. Our very early read into May is also a bit soft,” Jonas wrote. “Still, it’s too early to call this a consumer-driven trend.”

Truist conducts a weekly room rate survey by tracking 13 weeks of forward internet room rates for 28 casinos on the Strip. The survey tracks only leisure rates — not groups — and only the lowest available room prices are included, which can include suites and deluxe rooms when standard rooms are sold out.

February Preview

The LVCVA has not yet unveiled its February Executive Summary, but the traffic report from Harry Reid International Airport could hint at a further slowdown of visitors despite the Las Vegas Strip resorts continuing to up their room rates.

Las Vegas’ primary air hub served 7.5% fewer travelers in February 2025 compared with February 2024. That wasn’t necessarily unexpected, as February 2024 brought hundreds of thousands of NFL fans and media personnel to Southern Nevada.

Another concern facing Las Vegas is whether Canadians will follow through with their pledge to avoid leisure travel to the United States in the wake of President Donald Trump threatening tariffs and wishing to make Canada the 51st state.

Kruna Patel, a 40-year-old art teacher from Vancouver, told the Wall Street Journal this week that he and seven friends scrapped their plans to visit Las Vegas due to Trump’s escalating language about tariffs and annexation. Patel says his group is now going to Spain.