So Mandalay Bay is closed from Monday noon to Thursday noon. The new hours went into effect Nov. 30, one day after I checked out.

The casino resort reopened June 2, 3½ months after COVID-19 shut down Las Vegas’ hospitality industry. The reason for Mandalay Bay’s new, partial closure: business travelers and conventioneers who never returned.

The 43-story luxury resort expects to fill so few rooms that it can’t justify staying open during the week.

So Mandalay Bay is closed from Monday noon to Thursday noon. The new hours went into effect Nov. 30, one day after I checked out.

The casino resort reopened June 2, 3½ months after COVID-19 shut down Las Vegas’ hospitality industry. The reason for Mandalay Bay’s new, partial closure: business travelers and conventioneers who never returned.

Since this is Las Vegas, the casino floor will remain open 24 hours a day. With gambling odds in its favor, the house is always willing to take your money. But paying hotel housekeepers is another issue.
The story of the Mandalay Bay is the story of hotels across the U.S. that depend on business travelers.

Tourists are starting to come back during the weekends, albeit in reduced numbers from last year. In Las Vegas, weekend room occupancy reached 64.2 percent in October, down from 98 percent a year earlier, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

But only 38.6 percent of hotel rooms were filled midweek, down from 87.1 percent a year earlier, the authority reported. The massive drop is because meetings and conventions are gone.
The business travel market has collapsed nationwide.

Iconic hotels across the U.S., such as the Palmer House in Chicago, which depended largely on conventions and groups, remain closed. A lender is suing the ownership group because it’s been unable to make loan payments. The hotel’s future is in doubt.
Mandalay Bay in particular depends on conventions and meetings. It’s 2.1 million square feet of convention space makes it the fifth-largest convention center in the U.S.

The return of those events is many months away — after enough people have gotten the vaccine to protect themselves from COVID-19.