Sin City’s Super Bowl LVIII is an opportunity not to be missed for hoteliers and short-term rental owners

We’re about to find out when this year’s Super Bowl comes to Las Vegas for an incredible match-up both between the teams, and between the city’s hospitality sector and visiting sports fans.

The Super Bowl is set to sell out rooms in Las Vegas

It goes without saying that the Super Bowl is one of the biggest demand generators for a major US city, but this year it’s heading to Sin City, home to some of the world’s largest hotels, so what difference can it make in such a massive market?

Lighthouse data reveals a significant impact.

Even in a city with over 150,000 hotel rooms and 15,000 short-term rentals, which comfortably puts it into the top 10 city markets globally, most spaces have already been snapped up for Super Bowl LVIII (or 58 for those unfamiliar with Roman numerals).

As we approach the Super Weekend, our Market Insight solution reveals that 83% of hotels in Las Vegas are unavailable on the Saturday before the Super Bowl is being held and 77% on the Sunday of the event itself (meaning they are sold out, have length of stay restrictions or are closed).

For context, compare these numbers to the weekends surrounding the event: The preceding weekend shows less than 10% of hotels with similar unavailable status, and the following Saturday sees a slight increase to 17%. This stark contrast not only highlights the exceptional demand for the Super Bowl weekend but also emphasizes the relative calm before and after the storm.

This illustrates the strength of interest and high pace of booking within Las Vegas already. Our future demand indicator, which combines these two factors, shows that the Super Bowl weekend is by far displaying the highest levels of elevation over the first half of the year. This analysis isn't just numbers; it's a testament to the immense pull of major events like the Super Bowl on destination cities like Las Vegas.

Football fuels Las Vegas’ strongest performance for the first half of 2024

This is naturally driving a major bump in hotel room pricing with rates rising above $500 for a standard double room across the Super Bowl weekend.

Over the Super Bowl weekend, the cost for a standard double room is averaging above $500. The pricing peak occurs on Friday, with room rates hitting an extraordinary $531. Interestingly, there's a slight decrease on Sunday, the day of the game, with prices averaging around $514. This peak rate represents a staggering 130% increase compared to the average room rate observed in Las Vegas for the earlier part of 2024.

Over the Super Bowl week, the peak price for short-term rentals is a comparable $563, which is a much more modest rise of 62% compared to the average for the prices we have so far across 2024.

This increase is noteworthy, especially when considering that it's an 89% rise from the rates seen just two weeks prior to the event. These figures highlight a different market elasticity for short-term rentals compared to hotels.

The comparatively smaller size of the short-term rental market in Las Vegas means there's consistently higher demand for these properties year-round. This demand contributes to generally higher average prices and results in less price elasticity, even during peak events like the Super Bowl.

It’s looking good for Sin City hoteliers, but how good?

How does this compare to prior Super Bowls? For last year’s incarnation in Phoenix, Arizona, hotel rooms were also priced 130% above the average across the remainder of the year. However, Phoenix has less than half the inventory of Las Vegas. If we look a year prior to Super Bowl 56 in Los Angeles, prices were just 11% higher than the annual average.

Therefore, Las Vegas compares extremely favorably with prior years and is set for an excellent hospitality market performance.

So, can this go any higher? According to our data, Las Vegas rooms tend to be priced highest in the final few days before the stay, with the peak in pricing before the arrival date typically coming between one and two weeks out.

With already high prices and a limited inventory – about 20% of rooms remain available – it's highly probable that the rates for the remaining rooms will escalate as we approach the Super Bowl weekend. This trend aligns with historical patterns, indicating that we can expect the peak in rates to materialize in the final two weeks leading up to the event.

Prices have started to head upwards over the last few days following on from some steep discounting in the run-up to Christmas. Rates are 12% higher for Super Bowl Sunday than 14 days ago, and 8% higher than a week ago as of 10th January.

Summary

In summary, this sporting juggernaut is making moves even in this hospitality mega-market and accommodation providers should be gearing themselves up for a final run into the end zone.

This data was powered by our industry-leading commercial platform, which enables hospitality professionals to see what the future will hold when events are coming to town in terms of demand, market occupancy and competitor pricing.

To see how the Lighthouse platform can help you score a touchdown at your property by maximizing revenue during periods of exceptionally high demand, get in touch and try out some of the hospitality industry’s top rated software according to Hotel Tech Report.