While the hotel industry sees growth amid strong travel numbers in many parts of the world, the high costs of operations, which to some extent gets passed on to visitors, is the primary roadblock for both small family-owned spots and global chains.
At the end of October, hotel giant MGM Resorts International released an earnings report in which its earnings per share of 24 cents were significantly down from the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 37 cents, even as its total quarterly revenue of $4.25 billion represented a slight increase.
The hotel giant is behind many iconic luxury Las Vegas properties such as The Bellagio, The Aria, and the primary MGM Grand hotel itself, as well as more budget-friendly names like Excalibur.
In his call to investors, MGM President and CEO William Hornbuckle said rising prices had driven away a certain subset of its customers, and he went so far as to apologize for travelers’ sticker shock.
“We should have been more sensitive,” MGM CEO tells hotel guests
“When we think about pricing and things that got everyone’s attention, whether it’s the infamous ($26) bottle of water or Starbucks coffee at Excalibur that cost $12, shame on us,” Hornbuckle said.
“We should have been more sensitive to the overall experience at a place like Excalibur. To those customers, you can’t have a $29 room and a $12 coffee.”
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The referenced water-bottle incident occurred in June 2025 when a visitor to the Aria resort in Las Vegas sent travel industry watchdog View From The Wing a photo of a receipt that included a $26 charge for an Eska bottle taken from the room’s minibar. The story quickly went viral as an example of hotel pricing getting out of control.
“Look, we lost control of the narrative over the summer,” Hornbuckle continued in that earnings call. “I think we would all agree to that in hindsight. We’ve gone through the organization — we think, we hope, we believe — and we price corrected.”
MGM Resorts International
As Las Vegas goes through a tourism drop, MGM says it “price corrected”
All this comes at a time when Las Vegas is already seeing one of the steepest drops in visitor numbers.
As a city whose industry relies almost entirely on tourism, it saw large numbers of tourists from Canada and Mexico stay away this year, due to the Trump administration’s anti-immigration crackdown as well as high pricing, especially given the unfavorable exchange rate between USD and their home currencies.
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Over the summer, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority released numbers showing that in just one month, the city saw 400 million fewer visitors than at the same time the previous year. Mayor Shelley Berkley even held a press conference in which she asked Canadians to “please come” because “we love you, we need you, and we miss you.”
In the earnings call, Hornbuckle did not give specifics on how exactly MGM brought down or is planning to bring down prices, but he repeatedly promised that guests will no longer get sticker shock from what they see in the rest of the hotels.
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Please make a free appointment with TheStreet’s Travel Agent Partner, Postcard Travel, or email Amy Post at amypost@postcardtravelplanning.com or call or text her at 386-383-2472.
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