Wynn Resorts has always been at the high end of the luxury market in Las Vegas and on Thursday, the company’s top executive explained how it has fared during the visitation lull of the summer months.
Craig Billings, CEO of Wynn Resorts Ltd., gave his explanation to investors and analysts in a conference call announcing the company’s third-quarter results.
“Wynn Las Vegas is not necessarily built for those visiting Las Vegas on a tight budget,” Billings said in response to an analyst’s question about the social media backlash to price gouging.
“Our customer generally isn’t the customer who focuses on cost alone,” he said. “But they are the type of customer who is unrelenting when it comes to value for their dollar. Their expectation of that perceived value could not be higher.”
The company remains unapologetic about its pricing.
“We don’t ambush patrons with unexpected charges,” he said. “So contrary to what you might expect, our minibar prices are a fraction of some others in the market. We held out as long as we possibly could in charging for parking and really only began to do so when we were at risk of becoming the neighborhood parking lot.”
Billings acknowledge customers pay high rates at Wynn – but customers are getting what they pay for.
“Yes, our customer pays a premium room rate, but we don’t want them to feel nickel and dimed. That’s actually contrary to creating high perceived value, so because of that, we haven’t seen that pushback on pricing that others in the market might have, or at least we’ve seen on social media.”
He addressed the narrative that Las Vegas is overpriced.
“Las Vegas is actually chock full of low-price options and values. It really is. But historically, it has also been a town where one could escape one’s worries for three days and experience world-class service and beautiful environments. In other words, a town of really high perceived value. Any erosion of that perceived value will manifest itself in a mantra against the cost of the experience itself. But read through the underlying messages and you will see that much more has been about the value for dollar and not the dollar itself per se, and that’s just not us. That’s why we haven’t seen that pushback.
“If rates compressed 50 percent in Las Vegas tomorrow, would we feel that? Sure we would. But we will always be at a pricing premium and the reason is because we deliver a whole lot of value.”
Billings and his team gave updates on the company’s Macao properties where the company experienced “impressive” cash flow growth, and construction in the United Arab Emirates of Wynn Al Marjan Island. He said crews are pouring the last of the concrete on the top floors of the resort’s 70-story tower, expected to open in early 2027.
For the third quarter that ended Sept. 30, Wynn Resorts reported net income of $128.5 million, 85 cents a share, on revenue of $1.834 billion, an 8.3 percent increase from the third quarter of 2024. That compares with a net loss of $5.4 million, 29 cents a share, on revenue of $1.693 billion.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
