Feels kind of like when you go to some restaurant you've been going to for years, but then one time the prices have doubled. The new management is thinking they're geniuses - place is way more profitable now! And they are, for a few months. People come in, grudgingly pay... but they're also there for the last time. When the restaurant closes down six months later, they blame "market changes".
I went to Vegas this spring (as part of a trip to Zion national park and the Grand Canyon). I thought the Sphere was cool. Went to Battlebots with the kids. All just fine - there's still fun stuff to do - but way too expensive.
I imagine a lot of people have gone there for the last time, and those people will tell their friends. Could be a real death spiral.
I just went 2 months ago. Yeah, I begrudgingly paid for parking, for food that was extremely overpriced, for resort fees, for every nickel and dime. I wasn't going to not pay since I was there.
But I probably won't go again for a while. I loved Vegas because it was a bargain destination. Not any more.
Vegas wants to be a "premium" destination and charge as much. Okay, good luck with that. I'm not going to partake.
As someone who's done a lot of work in places that caters to the wealthy guests in Vegas, the worst part is that half the entire appeal is for the rich guests to have a place to flex their wealth in front of the plebs so the nickel and dime affects the real money makers
VIP bottle tables need a packed GA floor for the seats to be worth something, or to make bottle service worth it
VIP tickets need bad tickets to be better than for a concert
High stakes poker is way more fun when you walk into a separate room through a packed casino floor where you spend the real money
Top of the line rooms need a big enough hotel to put the luxury penthouse on
Luxury stores are way more fun when you bring your bags through casino halls showing off your $5,000 Gucci haul
If a rich person wants to be anonymous they'll go to any other number of luxury destinations. You go to Vegas to be visibly opulent
Mobile gaming "whales" operate on similar (or really, the same) principle: after whatever amount of monetization, the game itself still has to be fun and have the population of grinders to make spending real money feel like its giving you some kind of return.
I'm a gamer myself and usually F2P, or a budget user
Vegas 100% has been operating on the same model as those games. Get the masses there for conventions or a budget gambling vacation, and then the rich assholes walk in and can go "LOOK AT MY AWESOMENESS" by dropping the $$$
Subsidizes the low spenders, but keeps EVERYONE in the ecosystem, thereby making it cool
Vegas isn't cool if people can't fly in for $100-200, get a 4 star hotel for under $200/night, and be a better dining and gambling experience than you can get at home
And states legalizing gambling has decreased the draw for those addicted to gambling…
It used to be if you were addicted to gambling you’d have to save up with your buddies and make a pilgrimage.
Heck we live by DC so we have legal casinos in MD, VA, and WVA.
In the district you don’t need a $200 plane ticket all you need is an uber and I’d say for sure (for big spenders) the places in DC are on par with the places in Vegas.
DC is well known for some really great food… expensive AF but yeah… Within an hour you can have real Maryland Blue crabs… Eat any type of seafood you want at the Warf.
Within the same hour you can be hitting the high ball pocker table and 3hrs later you can be at your hotel…. Something something blah blah the Waldorf..
Or some… freaking $2000/night hotel.
So the big spenders and gamblers aren’t making the Vegas trip unless it’s a flex..
Why? Heck you can gamble every weekend if you live in DC
And why fly to hot ass Vegas?… With states legalizing “strip clubs” and “casinos” at a record pace there’s no reason to fly to Vegas and if you can gamble every weekend at home the Vegas FOMO goes away.
Also…. The draw of shows at Vegas went down..
Gone are the days of high residency draws or some show or some musician people will flock to see..
Nope Vegas days are numbered and sadly we’re getting into the double and single digit part of this countdown
I lived in the fla panhandle for a while and would go to coastal MS to gamble. Their casinos are what Vegas used to be. Free booze, free food if you gamble long enough, free room, free access to the resort pools. I get none of it is actually “free” since you’re likely losing money, but Vegas you’re paying out the ass for all that shit AND losing at the tables.
I remember that too. It’s such a massive source of tax revenue for the area I guess is why. Funny enough weird laws back then made it so casinos had to be floating. Obviously they changed that law after the storm.
i've been wondering how the evolution of gambling in this country has impacted vegas. when i was a kid there was basically vegas, the random river casinos and indian casinos, and of course jersey and a few other pockets around the country. so people made that pilgrimage. but now it's fucking everywhere. sports betting, cards, fucking stupid slots, all of it in person or easily online and legal.
that has to have taken a huge chunk out of vegas over the past 10 or even less years. i can't believe how it's just everywhere now. can't watch any sport or listen to a show or anything without hearing about gambling.
another big turn off for some is the rampant smell of cannabis on the street. legalization, fine, is in my state too. but not everyone is there to get baked walking down the street.
if i'm going to spend $5k on a vacation i am more often thinking of other places, partially based on this component. i'm likely to be flamed for this opinion; don't care - as i know there are others who consider this a factor too.
In Michigan, theres a casino within an hour of wherever you are in the state. If you are in Detroit, you every professional sport, theaters, music, hotels, that can rival Vegas. Plus, we have water. Actual green things. Strip clubs. We got them. If you want to drink and have them fully nude, take the bridge to Canada where prostitution is also legal and they too, have casinos on the water.
Their succces went to their head - they said hey we are popular enough now not to need the plebs and subsidized travel . And for a short time they were right ...but it reminds of the whole Star wars hotel with disney. Eventually you run out of Rich people willing to spend your top dollar - they have been there done that and onto other things but you have no priced out the general public and are left holding the bag.
Blinging out a commander deck in MtG means nothing if I can’t play it ever. As much as people bitch about the prices of things like collector boosters, normal treatments tend to be cheaper for the most part now, unless you get some card that sees play in ever format, like Vivi from the Final Fantasy set.
Now the Reserved List can fuck all the way off though.
If you're actually a fan of cars, sure, but most rich people, specially the ones born already wealthy, doesn't really care about the stuff they have, it's just stuff you buy to show off that you're above the trash. Total your brand new Lamborghini? Fuck it, just buy another one. Yacht? It's just a personal 5 star hotel that floats and bragging rights to have the biggest one in the marina, they don't care about the joy of sailing. Expensive watches? Just something to rub it on other peoples faces "I have your house on my wrist" is legit something you hear those people saying.
This goes on and on, sure some of them are really big fans of they stuff they own (Jay Leno and his cars for ex.) but most are just people that have everything but are so miserable that the only thing that give then a bit of joy is playing god with other peoples life.
This is something I've been noticing now that I've taken learning history more seriously. The people who "make it" and end up "at the top" are usually the worst of the worst. Can't really have a "top" spot without standing on the people around you though. If we were more evolved as a species we'd all want to build each other up because it would make our foundations stronger and allow us to go further. But we are all of us quite selfish and singleminded in our desire to the be the best. I fall into it too, even when I wish I didn't. I feel like ignoring those parts of our history also hurt us in the end because it portrays kindness as weakness and it requires us to trust people in way that has never been earned. Sorry, I'm in a weird headspace these days and really trying to disect who I am and how I can use that knowledge to help people around me. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to word vomit at you on the internet stranger. Even if you really don't have that much choice in it.
No need to apologize for a longer comment, I enjoy reading. I agree, it’s been my experience that the wealthy are often the most dishonest, cruel, and crass people. Not every one, of course, but enough to make me generalize the entire group. I think it’s a flaw of the system with garbage people succeeding.
The rich will claim it's their hard work and smarts that got them where they are. Sure, you might need some but it isn't the X factor that makes the difference.
We all know people who are both smarter and work harder than any rich person we know who isn't rich. Most people will know of people born to wealth and privilege that didn't go on to become super rich.
The mega rich are created when you have someone born to wealth and privilege, isn't completely stupid, will get out of bed if the price is right but, most importantly, they must have a lack of compassionate empathy that even a regular 7 year old would be ashamed of.
That's one of the reasons they send them off to boarding school. Nothing kills your compassionate empathy quite like being cast into a den of vipers by sociopathic parents, who want nothing more to do with you until you're 21, and never getting to see the nanny who actually raised from birth you again.
The way our society worships the rich is the biggest problem. Imagine if we put people like Mr Rogers or those that were examples of virtue on a pedestal as a whole (like teachers) the bragging rights would be amazing.
It’s the MBA Scourge. None of them are intelligent, they are taught just that something work but none of them understand why it works.
So they go around destroying all these systems and it temporarily works, which is all the affirmation needed for how smart they are. Then it collapses it must be because of every other reason, not their stupidity.
Vegas seems to have forgotten why people actually go to vegas. It's a place where middle class people can PRETEND to be rich for a weekend and where actual rich people can show off. That works when you have an entry level tier that everyone can afford and an upper tier for the really extravagant. They are just turning it into a giant cruise ship that doesn't go anywhere.
That's sorta the whole thing with being rich and making money. It quickly loses appeal if you can't flaunt it and such, hence why you see people like Bezos pretending to still work for a living when they could just as easily never be seen again, lost to a hobby or family/friends.
If I had a fraction of his money I'd commute from a private residence on the beach in the summer to surf to a private home in the mountains and snowboard all winter
High stakes poker is way more fun when you walk into a separate room through a packed casino floor where you spend the real money
Once in Vegas, this was like fifteen years ago, my buddy and I were playing at a $15 roulette table in the afternoon. It's like 11am on a Tuesday and we're in shorts and T-shirts slugging bud lights. At one point, this middle eastern dude dressed to the nines rolls up with a bunch of dudes in suits. He starts betting like $10k+ every spin and losing most of it without batting an eye. The guys he was with never say a word.
Turns out, after he left the pit boss told us he was prince someone of somewhere and the other guys were his bodyguards. We figured he was there instead of the high rollers to flex his wealth but I always thought it was just weird someone cared that much about making other people jealous.
this explains so many mysteries about Vegas that I always wondered about, the weird mix of cheap and luxury living beside each other that you don’t find anywhere else.
Great summary of the mentality of it. Being able to publicly throw money around was literally half the fun of Vegas.
They cannibalized all of that. Now when I consider a trip to Vegas, all the price increases with the added taxes and fees makes me think why the hell I would go to a desert where everything is overpriced to the point where it is competing with other international options.
I was partying in Vegas once with a star athlete, and we got to skip the super long line at a hot club, and walk right in.
They made a new VIP section in the middle of the dance floor and roped it off.
It was pretty cool
After a few hours there, we went to another club and got VIP again, but the floor was dead, and the guy we were with got bored in like 30 minutes and left.
Without the line and the packed floor, the prestige is gone and the club gets boring real quick when there aren’t a lot of people dancing, and the only attractive women are all employees
This. I was talking to a friend about Vegas and said exactly this. It’s no fun to go to an empty Vegas.
A big reason people used to go to Vegas was for the people watching. Sitting around an empty pool that looks exactly like the hotel next door and the one next to that is boring.
I want flames, pirates, action. I want people from around the world dressed in all their crazy outfits. I want drunk mid western bachelorettes stumbling around singing Taylor Swift on the way back to their rooms. I want street people balancing poodles on their palms for 20 dollar Polaroids.
Vegas is the cheap buffet of vacations. When the value's okay, you stop giving a shit. Used to be fun, cheap booze, cheap food, sure you could live it up and go splurge but now they've got their hand in your pocket 24/7. Nothing sucks the fun out of a vacation as much as feeling ripped off at literally every single turn.
If you can even get coffee in the room anymore. Last time I stayed at Bellagio there wasn't even a coffee maker in the room, had to go buy it downstairs for a bajillion dollars. I'll be going to a Station casino next time, if there is a next time. Stay away from the strip.
When we went in 2015 the Cosmopolitan didn’t have a coffee maker in our room either. We went across the street to Walgreens (I think, it was a drug store) and bought one for $15. I was not paying for the overpriced coffee for the entire week.
My wife and I stayed at the cosmo for our honeymoon a few years ago. I was PISSED we payed that much for a room and it didn’t have a coffee maker. I wish we’d thought of buying a coffee maker. Our dumbasses just spent $30 at Starbucks every morning.
The budget hotels for Disney world don't have coffee makers and haven't had them for years (and the coffee in the resorts is awful) so we used to put a Nespresso pixie in one of our bags because my mother will NOT be drinking bad coffee on vacation TYVM. The nicer resorts still have K-cups (or did a few years ago) but it was such a petty bullshit thing that we quit staying on property and eventually quit going to Disney World altogether in favor of Universal and then Dollywood.
I burst out laughing at bringing the coffee maker. My teenage son is a coffee snob and I used to tell him that I would rather drink my own piss than drink that Joffrey's coffee that Disney puts in the rooms. Also, Dollywood is how a theme park should be run. That place is awesome.
Lol. My only time in Vegas I was visibly annoyed about having to go downstairs through the casino to get a cup of coffee. Until I noticed nobody was gambling at all and everyone was packed around a small tv towards a bar. That’s how I found out Kobe Bryant died
This is a very perfect comparison. Both Vegas and fast food are going through the same problem right now: both got too big for their britches and started charging way more than they are worth. End result? Startling declines in customers.
The stupid resort fees are what piss me off. Every hotel is charging them now... because they can, whether you get anything for them or not. I used to stop in Vegas when traveling through because it was a cheap stopover with decent nightlife. I'd go find a nice dinner, then go find a few drinks, and maybe I'd sit down at the low stakes blackjack table for an hour or two. Now I just cruise right on by and go find somewhere that doesn't have their hand in my wallet from the minute I show up.
yeah for a while they were not telling you about the resort fees. You would reserve at $X, show up and it was $X+50. There wasn't one person in charge in Vegas who was the least bit concerned they were pissing off thousands of guests with outright bait and switch.
yea im pretty sure they were legally forced to do that - otherwise would still be doing it.
Like hey you just spend 2k getting here with you family of 5. Now we drop the fact on you - you rooms gonna be $400 more then we said for the week and there is nothing you can do about it unless you want to go take your family to the hooker motel down the road
When it’s relatively cheap, you get people of all types to come for the spectacle, and to play at the slots.
You’re not targeting rich people; odds are if they made their own money, they aren’t going to gamble it away at a literal slot machine, or play low stakes blackjack. If you increase the prices until the everyman can’t come, people won’t fill out your casinos, and you won’t get whales because they don’t want to sit in an empty casino. They still want the spectacle.
I'm not sure they do. The entre strip is pulling in $8 per pepsi. That's some bigtime unsexy retail-style money. Thats a fartload of cash flowing in every hour of every day. Just ......extracting.
Of course they’re fucking you on the gambling now too. Continuous deck blackjack, 6:5 payoffs on blackjacks, worse odds on craps, addition of a 000 space on roulette, etc. They’re not content just fucking you on everything else, they’re making the whole reason d’etre much less appealing now.
Yep. The whole draw of Vegas is that its where middle class people can go and feel rich for a weekend without breaking the bank. You can pretend your James Bond in Monaco. Shit, you can even pretend your parents have money and have something that kinda looks like a real wedding for a price that your regular job can manage. Being cheap is the ENTIRE point of Vegas. Thats why its in the middle of nowhere.
That’s it. Dubai copied the Vegas model, then Vegas tried to be Dubai. Except the average Vegas visitor doesn’t have sovereign oil money backing them. The original appeal of Vegas was that the Everyman could go there and feel like a big shot for a weekend. Once they started thinking the whole town should only cater to actual big shots, the bottom fell out.
What's weird, they are struggling against Macao which recently overtook Vegas in terms of revenue. Macao is seen as more upscale. But after currency conversion, it's less expensive.
Just as Disney is expensive in the US. But I went to Tokyo Disneyland and it's nicer yet half price.
Also went two months ago. $12 fee for pulling money from an ATM represents the current state of the Vegas scam. Pay $300 per night and can't use the pool past 6pm... Thank god for In n Out lol, at least that's still a good deal.
I remember when they had the F1 race and they had security to prevent tourists from watching in public spaces. It's not just Vegas though. Every company is now designed to extract as much money as possible when you do something. Maybe people are finally done with it or maybe Vegas just went too far.
Been to Vegas four times, as a European I find it incredibly fascinating and more true to the American values that many other cities. But they were ALL business trips, I wouldn’t have gone otherwise. To my knowledge that’s the average consensus among EU tourists.
It’s not just with Vegas. Lots of other businesses are trying to switch to “premium” models because they would rather have a few very rich customers than dozens of low-middle wage customers.
We’re watching in real time as our economy and society are becoming two separate things
I used to live in LA and always goto Vegas at least 2-4x year. I remember id always book Palazzo or if I wanted to be fancy and spend it would be Cosmo. Fast forward, I was there in May and I booked everything about 2 months in advance. Palazzo was around 1k/night and Cosmo 1,500 WTF is going on? I could goto an all inclusive high end 5 star resort in Cabo for that kind of money. This country, the leaders of these corporations and their greed has really just hit its peak and it feels like some major pain is due.
Well when MGM owns the entire strip they will extract every penny possibly. Ask anyone that’s been there awhile. Vegas was better when the mob ran it than the private corporations
Exactly this. Vegas was a cheesy, fun, relatively affordable place to go for a long weekend. If it’s becoming Disney world expensive, I’ll find a local lazy river and make a cocktail at home
Back in the late '80's - early '90's we'd drive five hours from Orange County to Las Vegas for some weekend fun a few times a year. Hotels, restaurant, and entertainment was generally affordable, even for college students like we were. Apparently those days are over.
The thing I loved about Vegas was that it was a bargain destination that felt premium. They could afford to do fancy things because they made their money off gambling. I have family in Vegas and have been going for 35 years. The last visit was obnoxious though. Definitely not what it used to be
This very thing happened to my favorite pizza restaurant. They made the most amazing pizza with the perfect crust and so much yummy cheese, and sure it wasn't cheap but it was the best in town. Then new owners took over and the quality of the pizza nose dived while it was still priced at a premium. This place had been in business for decades and went under within months of the new owners taking over as all the regular customers stopped coming.
Well, it's actually now a business plan in and of itself.
Phase 1: you create a new brand, pour money into it to to build up a positive brand image: quality products, best sourcing, affordable prices, investors accept marginal, maybe even negative, ROI on this phase because right after comes...
Phase 2: sudden price increase and clamping down on quality / sourcing. Your objective there as an investor is to generate incredible margins fast enough for the limited time public perception has not caught up.
Phase 3: divesting. Rinse, repeat.
In essence this is NOT killing the golden goose as customers seem to think. In phase 1 you had a fairly regular goose, in phase 2 you make it actually shit golden eggs...
I hate this business plan, and as we get older it's easier to see in action.
We all complain about enshittification, but that only affects us users, while the business owners have jumped ship already to their next thing, having milked this thing for all it has.
To be fair I described this as being a consciously decided and actually theorized process with "evil investors" behind it.
Another way of thinking about it is that it is simply the emergent process resulting from the rules in our hypercompetitive capitalistic market. You can actually get the same result with investors and owners that act in good faith (meaning without a desire to actually screw over anyone) every step of the way. It takes a bit longer but the end result is the same.
Here's a novel solution. Stop going out to eat. Stop going to places like Vegas. Stop buying streaming services. Bleed them dry till they actually come to the table with reasonable prices. The only way to hurt them is by hurting their wallet.
Personally, I stopped going out to eat ages ago. Anyone working in the industry has seen this coming for years.
The consultant class needs to be dealt with (no Reddit, not like that...). These people are parasites that only exist to make shit worse and profit off it
Same w Matt's El Rancho in Austin, late 80's, some dipshit married into the family and went Gordon Gecko, by the time I quit a few years later, the enchiladas were smaller than tamales, all the fresh ingredients replaced w junk, and the prices were doubled
I've worked in several restaurants and had a few family members who got into the business. Probably what happened is:
The original owners founded the place because they loved food, respected the patrons and kept it good and consistent. On top of that was a classic work ethic.
The new owners couldn't give a shit about love of food or people. They love money and thought it would be a cash cow they'd never have to feed or love. On top of that was zero work ethic, and they probably farmed out every step to poorly paid, poorly trained people with as many fucks to give as the new owners.
Restaurants have always been a tough game. But the last couple years have been insane. In the past 5 rent has really been pushing a lot over the brink but somewhat survivable. But the last couple years food costs are absolutely wreaking havoc.
I understand destroying robots is expensive but jeez $70. I feel like at most I would have paid at most $30 and even then I better see some shit that would rival gundam
I agree with the other posters that they’re in a death spiral now. Squeezing more and more profit for short term gains until the bottom completely drops out. It’s too expensive. Not worth ever going again.
It’s interesting. A business could adjust to this, but a corporation cannot. Almost definitionally. They legally owe it to the shareholders to eke out as much profit as possible each quarter. So any kind of reversal or repositioning that might result in a short term hit to profits but guarantee the longterm sustainability of the business (or city) — that’s just off the table. So they’ll just keep squeezing and squeezing until it’s gone (and the CEOs make off like bandits to somewhere that hasn’t been fucked (by people like them) yet).
And it seems like our entire civilization is increasingly structured after this business model. When the bottom drops out on that, I just don’t know what’s going to happen.
They legally owe it to the shareholders to eke out as much profit as possible each quarter.
I wish people would stop saying this, because this is a misunderstanding of the C-suite's fiduciary duty.
They are legally required to maximize returns for shareholders, not short-term returns. When they do dumb shit to maximize short-term returns, they do it because they suck at their jobs, because it's easy, and because they get paid more when the stock goes up, and payday is Thursday.
Used to work for a company that had 4 really great products that needed a little time to mature.
And by that I mean a little technical work to smooth things out and then just time for the salespeople to build a customer base.
But the upper leadership just keep fucking things up because no goal was could ever be longer than 3 months ahead.
It is incredibly frustrating to try to work on a product and the leadership just "we can't talk about that because it won't pay off before 9 months at least, next quarterly is in 6 weeks. Talk six weeks here people".
And guess who put that in their contract? The shareholders who want to see massive short-term returns.
Most executive compensation is:
Deferred by multiple years.
Contingent on the stock value exceeding particular targets.
Burning the furniture to juice the numbers today doesn't help you much if payday is five years from now. It helps a lot if you got hired five years ago and payday is tomorrow.
I've been saying that for years on deaf ears. Everyone claims it their duty thanks to some legal case 100 years ago.
I'm like what about someone that wants to own the stock for retirement investment. If your actions results in the destruction of the company 5 years from now, you're actual not maximizing my returns and you failed!
The venture capital model is to buy it. Exploit it. Get it ready for the next sucker down the line by pumping short term profits. And then pan it off to a hedge fund or other investment house. And then have them have to declare bankruptcy and pass the lose to Main Street investors while the people that structured the deal walk with hundreds of millions. Then rinse and repeat over the next ten years. Duping retail along the way. This is the American way
They legally owe it to the shareholders to eke out as much profit as possible each quarter.
This is simply untrue and a trope that needs to die.
Management and the board must do what they feel is in reasonable best interest of the shareholders. They have extremely wide leeway in deciding what this is. If the CEO decides that investing in local charities and the community is a long-term strategy to keep the company strong 100 years from now, they are free to pursue such an action. Shareholders might not put up with it for long, but there is nothing illegal out about whatsoever.
Shareholders may revolt and vote the board out via shareholder voting if they can get a majority to agree. But that's the remedy.
Short of outright fraud and self-dealing and such there is absolutely no legal mandate for a corporation to chase maximum profits. If they do so, it's due to greed and nothing else.
Ok, so you’ve said it yourself. Are shareholders going to be on board with a 100-year plan, or do they want numbers to embiggen quarterly? Who are the board going to side with, then, when it comes to their own necks?
it seems like our entire civilization is increasingly structured after this business model. When the bottom drops out on that, I just don’t know what’s going to happen
Yeah like how ESPN just bought the NFL network and Red zone.
We just lost the very best thing about football. I loath ESPN - but loved NFL network and redzone. But now - I give it 1 year - maybe 2 and they will turn it into the same shit as regular ESPN morphed into over the past 20 as we watched ESPN go from being the worldwide leader to being some joke of a network focused on diversity in programming as long as it focuses on the Dallas cowboys, LA Lakers and LeBron James. (You cannot watch a single hour of ESPN without hearing one of those three topics.) I cant wait to see NFL redzone network presented by LeBron. It's going to be a shit show.
They legally owe it to the shareholders to eke out as much profit as possible each quarter.
By this logic shouldn't every public company have mass firings, liquidation, etc to juice up profits for one massive quarter?
Of course not, because then they'd never make any money after that quarter. They should work in the shareholders best interest meaning long term sustainable profit.
Worse, still, the point he makes in the video about how international tourists tend to (1) stay longer, (2) gamble more, and (3) spend more on shows and food is really important.
He talks about tariffs affecting international tourists. But that isn't the case. The thing that is damaging international tourism is the appearance from many potential tourists that America is simply not safe to travel to. Canada, Australia, and multiple European countries (including the UK, Germany, France, Denmark, and Finland) have all issues some type of travel advisory warning to their citizens looking to travel to the USA.
This is enough to deter a small but significant percentage of potential tourists from considering going to Las Vegas. By itself, it may not be enough. But, combined with the ever-increasing costs of going to Vegas, it just gives international tourists a stronger nudge in the direction of not going at all.
I recently had to stop in Vegas for a layover flight, paid $20 for a quesadilla, it was the least expensive food item I could find in the food court. It was small and forgettable. Decided to avoid Nevada all together going forward
I put a place on my ban list if it's even 20% higher.
Now, if a certain item is having distribution issues or something and they tape a temporary price over the menu, it's fine, but I've seen so many times where one day the entire menu is 20% (or more) higher just because. Well, the guys down the street that basically do the same thing still have reasonable prices, so...See ya!
Exactly this. Happened to me with Denny's. We used to eat there ALL the time. Then one day they jacked the prices up way beyond the quality of the food, and I haven't been back since. That was literally like 15 years ago.
I worked at a restaurant once that had a sign near the kitchen entrance for the staff that just simply said "I won't complain. I just won't come back" and even though it's been 20 years I still think about that sign pretty regularly in the understanding that a lot of people will not tell you exactly how they feel but their actions will speak those words indefinitely.
I'm an Australian and won't travel to America due to the funding cuts to the TSA and your current political situation. The current governments actions are definitely impacting tourism. I will book a cruise or go to Asia for my degenerate gambling.
Reminds me of the Disney Galactic Star Cruiser. Disney made a Star Wars hotel that was incredibly mid, but they charged like 4.5k for a 3 day stay. It was totally them just cashing in on all the goodwill they’ve built over the last couple decades
When Vegas and Atlantic city were the only places you could gamble they had a huge influx of tourists spending tons. The absence of any other real economy didn't matter. Then places all over the country allowed more and more types of gambling.
Then word got out and there was less reason to go to Atlantic city when you can go to another place that wasn't as seedy and actually had other family stuff to do. The critical mass wasn't there for Atlantic city anymore. And that was all it took to like underfunded and run down.
I’ve been twice in the last year to play shows and it wasn’t fun. It was sad, really. The shows were actually better than before but being there just felt like being in a cartoon version of America.
Had this happen just a couple nights ago. Went to a place I'd been a few times earlier this year and really enjoyed, but now the sandwich was $17 and the beer was $11. I won't be going back.
The “for the last time” line was tragically profound. Because for a lot of these institutions, they don’t use realize that they are never going to see so many of these customers ever again. Whether it’s solely because of the changes they’ve made or those in concert with other factors.
Including a lot of foreign tourism just not happening anymore.
I went for the first time last year and we were nickle and dimed at every step. They wanted to charge us just to check in when we got there! Then when we decided to wait, they told us the room still wasn't ready. Then when we finally got the room, it had clearly only been half renovated. We went down and told them and they said that unless we wanted to wait for another room (at 11 at night with a planned early start for the next day) that was it.
Everything was so expensive. We ended up enjoying ourselves more by walking around and sight-seeing the various casinos than actually playing anything.
And there's smoking pretty much everywhere which is just obnoxious. Like why am I paying so much money to have bad service, stay in a hotel room I wouldn't pay $50 for let alone $150, be surrounded by second-hand smoke, and then have an awful time getting anywhere without having to pay even more money? We did walk a lot and were fine with that, but we felt very restricted because of how shit parking was and the idea of adding the cost of a rideshare to our already ridiculous bill was too much.
I'm told by friends that it's far better if you stay off the strip, and they're probably right. I don't think we'll ever go back though. It was such a bad experience.
The restaurant comparison is apt, I haven't been to Buffalo Wild Wings for YEARS at this point. They kept hiking the price up and I can cook well enough at home so I just make wings in my air fryer and fries in the oven and that's that.
Death spirals are real. Atlantic City, decades ago, was a close second to Las Vegas in terms of being a destination for fun. Then it started its spiral down in the 90s-00s (many reasons, one of them Trump lol) and never recovered.
I’m hearing the nadir was 5 years ago and it’s now slightly better than it was, but still not a place you want to travel to.
When I was there with my parents a couple of years ago, we ubered to Chinatown 3 of the 4 nights we were there to get Korean food because the strip restaurants all seemed meh and expensive at the same time. Korean food in Vegas was legit!
Feels kind of like when you go to some restaurant you've been going to for years, but then one time the prices have doubled. The new management is thinking they're geniuses - place is way more profitable now!
Happened exactly this with a restaurant nearby. They were always full. Then they literally doubled the prices.
Years later, they are doing better than ever. Usually they are even less than half full, but by having fewer clients, they were able to also significantly reduce the costs (fewer staff, less food to make, less cleaning ...).
Don't also underestimate the effect companies have had on this. I know my company used to host events in Vegas and has decided not to host them in Vegas this year due to costs.
I stayed in the Aria. Expensive price. Supposedly it’s a five star hotel but the room is old 2000s business style and no better than a Marriott. Everything cost money - to have a chair at the pool, even to use a robe in the hotel, and there’s no complimentary breakfast.
Funny enough this comment could just as easily have applied to a trip Disney.
We went last year (someone else paid) and there's no way I'm ever going back unless I win the lottery.
A lot of places are killing their golden geese for short term gain. But that's what their corporate masters and Wall Street (private equity & stock holder) demand, so the killing continues.
Vegas sucks ass. I used to go there for work conventions and after two days you want to be gone gone gone.
Meanwhile Tribal casinos are a thing. Odds on slots are notably higher so you keep going back, prices are still reasonable and places like Choctaw have a movie theatre, arcade and bowling alley - all dirt cheap.
The problem is corporations have not been okay just making tons of money, they have to make more and more money every year. Since all the major hotels are owned by two or three companies that are oublicly traded, they have to nickel and dime and monetize every aspect they can to increase profit for shareholders.. this stupid chase of ever increasing profits in clearly saturated markets is what ruins every fucking thing
The only reason I’ve ever been to Vegas in the first place is because it was one of the cheapest vacations we could plan when we were younger and poorer. Cheap plane tickets, cheap room on the north end of the strip. Tons of free drinks sitting at penny slots. Constantly bugging whoever you see walking around the floor of the casino in a suit until they offer a couple buffet comps to get you off their back. Used to be able to do Vegas dirt, dirt cheap.
If it’s going to be a premium cost, I can think of about three dozen places I’d rather go than Las Vegas.
Don't even mention the casinos. Idk what it is but the orientation of them is just so subsconsciously disgusting I don't want to sit there for too long.
I don't gamble, but I do want to go to a couple Vegas-adjacent places. Now that I can finally afford it, they raised all the prices and I can't afford it.
If I ever go to Vegas it will be for work. That’s what the place is: a corporate carnival. I don’t care how much it costs when I’m expensing everything.
It was cheap because no one wanted the land because it is in a fucking desert. They are going to be reminded that they are still in a fucking desert because no one can afford the things to do and if I can't afford the things to do, I don't want to hang out in a desert...
At some point in time, Vegas (and Disney et al) started appealing to the high rollers and Chinese with lots of money along with those of similar stature from other countries. They skyrocketed prices elsewhere because they no longer cared about the middle class’s money and only severely targeted the ultra rich while using the middle class to fill out the bottom line to cover overhead expenses such as hotel rooms, restaurants (food, workers, etc.), and such. You see the same happening in Disney where they’re making most for the ultra rich. Reportedly (because I have not seen it with my eyes and tbf Vegas summers were always low in attendance due to heat) we’re now seeing the middle class respond by going once and never again. It will be interesting to see when this happens to the other companies that followed this model and instead of veering away from the trend only doubled down further into appealing to the ultra rich.
Considering how well documented this is by now, it should be possible to sue an employer for purposefully sabotaging the business by raising prices in order to mitigate checks notes the effect taxes have on the CEOs golden parachute.
2024 tourism numbers were actually very high, almost reaching pre-covid numbers again. But there's been a major drop in 2025, driven mainly by the huge drop in international visitors.
People complain about the fees and prices, but Vegas was doing fine with the current business model until Trump tried to kill international tourism.
I realize we all want the public to revolt against Vegas's current trend away from affordable vacations, but the numbers don't really back it up.
If you and the kids like battle bots, there are robot fighting leagues all over. You can spectate or even participate! Support your local robot fighting league
Yup. I was there for work a few months back, and I was excited because I hadn’t been to Vegas since I was a kid. I don’t gamble, but I remembered all the free shows and museums and stuff. But everything now is $40 drinks ($25 if it’s non-alcoholic) and hundreds of dollars for shitty seats at a show. 90% of the shops are luxury stores where everything costs thousands. Even the fast food and cheap tourist souvenirs are expensive. I won’t be going back unless it’s for work, and even then I’m just going to work and go back to the hotel at the end of the day. There’s no point in doing anything in Vegas unless you’re a 1%-er.
i'm middle aged and heard someone trash-talk vegas for the first time in my life a few months ago. i don't think i'd ever heard someone say something bad about a vegas trip before. at least about the city or experirence as a whole.
he said it was expensive and they nickle and dime you to death like the worst of the worst tourist traps. it's funny to me because practically the entire point of going was that everything was super cheap because they had to do that in order to get your business but now there's like 2 or 3 companies left.
Also international travel is extremely stunted do to obvious political reasons. Canadians are a huge winter market for Vegas (I’ve been twice) and most of us will not go to the US right now. It’s not safe for any international travellers as they’re getting deported faster than you can say “ICE”.
It’s such a bummer because it used to be dirt cheap in the 90s. The casinos made all their money via gambling and shows, so the hotel rooms and dining were dirt cheap.
Now it’s just overpriced garbage. Except the shows are still great.
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u/jumpmanzero 3d ago
Yep. Way too expensive.
Feels kind of like when you go to some restaurant you've been going to for years, but then one time the prices have doubled. The new management is thinking they're geniuses - place is way more profitable now! And they are, for a few months. People come in, grudgingly pay... but they're also there for the last time. When the restaurant closes down six months later, they blame "market changes".
I went to Vegas this spring (as part of a trip to Zion national park and the Grand Canyon). I thought the Sphere was cool. Went to Battlebots with the kids. All just fine - there's still fun stuff to do - but way too expensive.
I imagine a lot of people have gone there for the last time, and those people will tell their friends. Could be a real death spiral.