Hotel rates drop as much as 70% in Las Vegas ahead of the inaugural F1 race next month - Reports

F1's most anticipated event of the 2023 season calendar is just a month away as the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix is scheduled on November 16-18.

The buzz and excitement surrounding the inaugural event have been trending upward. However, the Hotel room rates surrounding the Strip have dipped almost 70% since the announcement of the 2023 season calendar in November of 2022.

A report published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal compared the price trends of a four-day stay at four Caesars Entertainment properties (taxes and fees included). These are the Linq Hotel, Paris Las Vegas, Planet Hollywood, and Caesars Palace.

Here are the prices of the four hotels:

The Linq Hotel

• Nov. 2, 2022: $2,694.87
• Oct. 16, 2023: $810.55

Paris Las Vegas

• Nov. 2, 2022: $3,497.60
• Oct. 16, 2023: $1,513.45

Planet Hollywood

• Nov. 2, 2022: $4,336.61
• Oct. 16, 2023: $1,524.79

Caesars Palace

• Nov. 2, 2022: $5,323.02
• Oct. 16, 2023: $2,420.49

The Linq Hotel showed a 70% drop in rates. On average (across the four properties mentioned) there has been a 62% decrease from November 2022. Furthermore, there has been a 25% dip in the last month.

While there is a downward trend in the rates of the hotels, F1's return to Las Vegas is projected to attract more than 105,000 fans nightly. The drop in the rates also doesn't mean a decrease in interest as ticket sales continue to remain strong.

Dr. Mehmet Erdem, professor of hotel operations and technology at UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hospitality, has shared his take on the same. He suggests that operators do not have historical data to set the prices for an inaugural event and will hence lower the rates as the booking pace drops.

“It is not unusual to be overly optimistic about the optimal room rates for such first-time events, especially when comparative predictive analytics data is limited,” he said to the Las Vegas Review-Journal

The hype surrounding the penultimate race of the F1 season is building up. F1 drivers will race down the world-famous Las Vegas Boulevard, Koval Lane, and Sands and Harmon avenues between November 16-18.

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Haas F1 team principal firmly against Andretti joining the grid

Haas F1's team principal Gunther Steiner has voiced his opinion against Andretti's bid to join the Formula 1 grid. Steiner argues that the addition of an 11th team would destabilize their finances, as the teams at the back of the grid run on a shoestring budget.

“The economic situation, we are stable, but we are not making hundreds of millions of profits,” Steiner was quoted by The Race. “We are still trying to get our budgets together to work on the budget cap and all that stuff. If you put more teams in there, the risk is if something goes wrong the risk is higher that we fail.”

He added:

“It’s easy to say, ‘it [Andretti] doesn’t do anything for F1’. I’ve always said, if it can be demonstrated that nothing is going negative for anybody, let’s talk about it - but I haven’t seen anything.”

Steiner made comparisons to the pandemic hit 2020 season as he recalled four teams were on the brink of collapsing, unsure if they would return the next year.

Although most of the F1 teams are against Andretti's inclusion, Steiner added that the decision ultimately lies with the FOM.