CONVENTIONS ARE A MAJOR PART OF THE HOTEL/CASINO BOTTOM LINE - THE CES CONVETION IS MOST IMPORTANT TO LAS VEGAS

Implications: Does it seem a bit of a farce for the hotels to price themselves out of the convention market? It's a far cry from good marketing to abuse their guests with inflated prices that are completely out of sight. Just because the hotels think that whatever they charge for rooms during this most favored convention will be tolerated by attendee's is poor confidence builder with these patrons. It's would be an enormous loss of revenue should CES decide to move on after their contract runs out.

Analysis: I must beg to differ with Alan Feldman of MGM - his analysis of selling cars and the high cost of rooms during the CES convention makes little sense. At least the auto industry tries to remain constant with their pricing and don't gouge their customers during a peak period. The plan for them is to reduce the sales price to stimulate business - the hotels on the other hand just keep raising prices during high end conventions - it seems like it's get whatever the market will bear. The city of Las Vegas is growing in hotel rooms every years and will eventually come to the realization that these conventioneers will start shopping for the best prices. Remember that not all of the attendee's, and for that matter, manufacturers showing at the convention hall are not all in the same financial status as Sony or Microsoft. It should be noted by some of the larger hotels that it will come to a point when these rather loyal convention goers will tire of the financial burden placed on the coming to Las vegas. 

When the costs are added up against the profits it could mean a cut back by a number of exhibitors coming back year after year. There has been some talk about possibly having more then one show a year for CES. We may see a much more scaled down version of the show in New York or Chicago as a buffer to the size of the show now in Las Vegas.

It remains to be seen as just what the hotels and the Convention Authority will do to keep this very valuable and profitable in Las Vegas. I think it may be time for the hotel industry to take a hard look at their room pricing procedures during these events. It not to say they should not pump up their price a bit -  however they should certainly give thought to triple and quadruple room revenues at the expense of their guests during these lead conventions...... JUST ONE MAN'S OPINION