Life Is Not Good For Vegas Hotels

This is a scary time to be running a Las Vegas hotel-casino.

The 90-plus percent occupancy rate of just a couple years ago is a distant memory, as hotel-casinos are now closing hundreds of rooms or even towers.

Already announced is the indefinite closure of the Binion's hotel.

Now comes Sahara, stating that they will close two towers over the holidays, with no reopen date set. It's conceivable the towers could remain closed until business picks up.

Recently Vdara (at CityCenter) opened at a claimed 80 percent occupancy. At over 1400 rooms, that appeared to be good business and a sign of hope for tourism. But Vdara actually only made 400 of those rooms available. Not that difficult to have an 80 percent occupancy on 400, when over 1400, occupancy would be less than 30 percent