Maybe on the Strip I might be considered riff-raff.

Downtown, at the Cal I might be a mini-whale. Or at best a very fat goldfish.

Maybe.

The issue is "whales" want bigger rooms and not your standard 250sq foot one.  then the companies have various casinos for different clientel. A whale won't usually stay at Excalibur, but instead NYNY at min.

It comes down to diersifying and knowing your clientel.  The casinos pushed as hard as they could and alienated many.  This resulted in months in not a year of loss income from these people. Now they're trying to get them back, which would take time too.

I remember when Summer was slow, so they made summer specials during summer. But they did it too late as many people book vacays months in advance due to requesting time off from work.  This is their mindset, thinking of "what can we get away with". The majority demographic that would take this are the weekend drivers coming in from CA or so on last minute decisions.

All those emptry rooms, keep in mind 2 casinos are missing. So it would be even more.

My daughter is a teacher and keeps in touch with her former students.  2 of her former students are in Vegas right now.

Stuck at the airport.   Their flights have been canceled and the airlines are working to get them home.

Plus they said most of the places they went to eat at was junk.  Overpriced and one buffet they went to seemed to have food that was either from the day before or sitting under the heat lamp too long.

Moral of the story:  Don't eat at buffets since visitor count is down, the food will not be refreshed as often.

My daughter is a teacher and keeps in touch with her former students.  2 of her former students are in Vegas right now.

Stuck at the airport.   Their flights have been canceled and the airlines are working to get them home.

Plus they said most of the places they went to eat at was junk.  Overpriced and one buffet they went to seemed to have food that was either from the day before or sitting under the heat lamp too long.

Moral of the story:  Don't eat at buffets since visitor count is down, the food will not be refreshed as often.

I tried the MGM buffet years ago, and I was completely underwhelmed.  Seemed most were there for the crab legs, which meant a 20-30 minute wait for yours if the Fuller Family put their order in ahead of you.  The rest of the food was so-so, nothing to write home about.  The price back then was not cheap, so I'm guessing it's not gotten better.

The Main St Station had a wide variety, but again, the quality didn't blow my socks off.  But, if you left hungry, it's your own fault.  Cost was surprisingly high for downtown, but still affordable if you don't intend to eat again the rest of the day!  I usually used a comp, and one time it was a New Year's Eve party i was invited to from The Cal. 

The best IMO was the Fremont Hotel's Friday Seafood Buffet.  Super variety, good to excellent quality, fresh and plentiful.  Cost was a few bucks if you had the Boyd's food coupon.  If not, it was still affordable and a great value.  Comp's were made for these types of restaurants.  You get to enter through a shorter line than the riffraff ( ), and you get excellent service since the wait staff knows you're a preferred guest.

My problem is I'm not interested in eating until I'm in pain.  So, the amount of food for my dollar isn't the great value it used to be.

i think it was Golden Gate, but might have been 4 Queens, where I went to ask about the buffet.  They had stopped the buffet and turned it into kind of a cafeteria type thing.  Go through the line, pick what you like, and they charge per item.

My daughter is a teacher and keeps in touch with her former students.  2 of her former students are in Vegas right now.

Stuck at the airport.   Their flights have been canceled and the airlines are working to get them home.

Plus they said most of the places they went to eat at was junk.  Overpriced and one buffet they went to seemed to have food that was either from the day before or sitting under the heat lamp too long.

Moral of the story:  Don't eat at buffets since visitor count is down, the food will not be refreshed as often.

At least they got delayed on the way back and not when going.

there are only 2 buffets on the strip worth it's cost. Bacchanal and Wynn.  All others are way overpriced.

The moral of the story is watch reviews before going.  Or ask friends who are regulars.  I guess many have old vegas in their mind still.

Wynn is up 10% and in general the strip is down 6% gaming revenue.  Wynn's room occupancy was down.  What this means is that they know their market.  THey stated they were not trying to fill rooms, so no lower pricing or comps to not their ideal market.  Seems like they learned from covid reopening as when they and Palazzo/Venetian gave free rooms to lower income people, they got lower income problems.  Like more fights on the casino floors.  Palaz/Ven were the first to revoke giving comps to this demographic, followed shortly by Wynn.

So Wynn's statement about not lowering room prices makes sense.

At least Wynn gives free parking to hotel guest. Most do not. Wynn's snacks/drinks avaiable in their rooms also is lower than other hotels on the strip.  I mean, they're still much higher than Walgreens, but not $25 for a bottle of water.