CES May Leave Las Vegas Due to Gouging Room Rates

CES or the Consumer Electronics Show, the largest and most popular technology show in the world, is now looking to move the convention elsewhere as the costs associated with bringing the tens of thousands of attendees has gotten much too expensive.

The decision has not been made as of yet, and Las Vegas officials are scrambling to find a way to stop the usual practice by hotels of hiking room rates when they know that high demand allows them to do so. The decisions being made by these large corporations to gouge not only CES but other huge conventions has been going on for many years and there may be little any governmental agency can do about it.

Supply and demand dictates room rates, but greed may be the factor that begins the downward cycle for Las Vegas to lose major conventions to other cities that will organize and woo these cash cows away from them. At one time a room in Las Vegas during CES could be had for $150 to $250 per night if you booked early. Most first class rooms now begin at $350 to $500 per night and even though that compares with New York City or San Francisco it is just too much for Las Vegas, known for its inexpensive room and food, hence the amount of huge conventions the city hosts.

Greed is what the casino are all about-on both ends. Everyone wants to win, the casino wants you to think that you can while they rake your money in. The now defunct Comdex convention suffered from the same saga. The saying in Las Vegas was that the COMDEX attendees came to town with a white shirt and a twenty dollar bill in the shirt pocket and left with both. Geeks were not gamblers, so they jacked up the room prices. CES attendees are not the same type of customer and if corporate management doesn't wake up they will drive the very core of what keeps them in business out of town.

Having worked for various Hotel/Casinos here in Las Vegas I can assure you that logic and intellect are not a primary concern when it comes to being pressured to show higher and higher percentages to Wall Street year after year so the executive branches of these gambling giants keep their jobs and perks. That mentality is what starts bubbles that eventually are pricked and everyone loses. Wake up Vegas!