Despite increasing prices on the Strip, this hotel is hoping to bring back value to Vegas

Between buying a ticket to Vegas, booking a hotel room, gambling, eating, drinking, and partaking in other excursions, it’s easy to run up a hefty tab in Sin City. Downtown Grand is aiming to appeal to budget travelers, however, by introducing its “Welcome Back to the Downtown Deal.”

According to Travel Weekly, the 1,124-room hotel is offering free parking to hotel guests, gaming and dining customers. The deal also includes value food and drink offerings including a Nathan’s Famous hot dog and Pabst Blue Ribbon for $2, a Pabst Blue Ribbon and a shot of Evan Williams bourbon for $3.50, and a three-course lunch at the Triple George Grill for $20.

The “Welcome Back to the Downtown Deal” also has something for casino goers. Including lower table minimums for certain games. Travel Weekly notes that there are $25 buy-in blackjack tournaments on Thursdays at 3 p.m., where winners can earn a minimum of $250 for first place, $150 for second and $100 for third. Payouts increase depending on how many people are playing.

Andrew Economon, general manager at the Downtown Grand, said that some components of the deal have always been in place, but that they just weren’t being promoted.

“The lower limits for play on the casino floor were kind of a big deal, and no one was paying attention to it,” Economon said. “So I started bundling all these things together. And I said this is great; we need to add a couple more things to this to really round it out.”

The hot dog and beer combo pays homage to a location on the Strip that used to offer half-pound hotdogs for 99 cents, Economon said. Loss leaders used to be popular in Vegas, but have become rarer over the last decade.

“Everyone started squeezing everything and trying to get the most out of it,” he said, noting the onset of parking fees on the Strip in 2016. “Then we started seeing how drinks were being comped, especially at bars where you had video poker and a bartender there. All of a sudden, there are meters on the machines that are indicating that you have to have max play for x number of minutes before you’ll get a green light to where you can give someone a drink.”

Despite increasing prices in Vegas for virtually everything – from food to hotels to gambling – Economon says that “There is value everywhere, even on the Strip. … It’s just at a different price point.”

“You’re paying something very different to be in Circa [downtown, or a Strip resort], whether it’s the cost of your room, the cost of your parking or the betting units that you’ve got on the table. You’re paying for that experience. And that is a value. But that’s the value that they created,” he continued.

The meaning of the word “value” changes and varies depending on the person, notes Anthony F. Lucas, a professor at the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“Value is such a subjective notion. If you’re at the lower end of the market, then those types of value propositions like $5 craps with 10 times odds, $2 hot dogs and stuff like that could be enticing. But if you’re in the middle or upper echelon, then that’s not going to be valuable to you,” Lucas said.

Although price gouging could be a tactic by some casinos and hotels to help prepare for a potential economic downturn, travelers are still finding ways to work around pricier Vegas stays.

“The traveler has become smarter, and they know when our rates are going to be down,” Economon said. “They plan their trips accordingly. We’re coming into the slowest months of the year, which are June, July and August. And that’s the same for everybody. We will see an influx of a customer that is a little more value-centric.”

Roshae Hemmings is an arts and culture magazine journalist from St. Louis, MO. A graduate from the Missouri School of Journalism, Roshae has bylines in the Columbia Missourian, Vox Magazine and 5280 Magazine discussing topics ranging from pop culture, social justice and eat and drink. She is a foodie at heart and enjoys eating food as much as learning about the story behind it. You can reach Roshae via email at roshaehemmings@detourxp.com.

This story was originally published June 19, 2023 at 2:55 PM with the headline "Despite increasing prices on the Strip, this hotel is hoping to bring back value to Vegas."