The Las Vegas Grand Prix's Airbnb Bump Stops 2 Miles From the Track
Last November, a one-bedroom a short walk from the Las Vegas Grand Prix circuit booked all three race nights at nearly $1,500 apiece. Six miles out, an eight-bedroom house in Spring Valley sat empty.
Rentals near the track earned 48% more per available night than they had the weekend before, according to AirROI, a short-term-rental data firm that tracked 5,341 entire-place listings across the Las Vegas Valley. The measure divides booked revenue by every night a listing was open or booked. The comparison flatters the race: the weekend before was the slowest of six fall weekends near the track. Beyond 2 miles, earnings fell 6%.
At stake is how far the race's money travels as the Grand Prix returns Nov. 19 for a fourth year. Organizers and the Strip's casino companies call last year's race a hit. For the valley's short-term rental hosts, it was a narrower event, and this year they face a split hotel market and a new county rule aimed at unlicensed listings.
The city's tourism chief describes the same geography. "It fills about half the [city's 150,000 hotel] rooms. It is a great event around the circuit," Steve Hill, president and chief executive of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, told Nevada Newsmakers host Sam Shad in an interview after last year's race. The city also needs other programming, he said.
The trade show beat the race
Near the circuit, race weekend placed third among six fall weekends last year, behind the SEMA trade show two weeks earlier and the National Finals Rodeo's opening weekend in December. A listing earning the near-track average took in about $410 over the three race nights, some $100 less than during SEMA week.
Beyond 2 miles, the race came last. Listings across the rest of the valley earned $121 per available night on race weekend, less than on the ordinary weekend before and about half what SEMA week brought.
It was the only one of the six weekends when rentals near the track out-earned the rest.
In 2024, race weekend near the circuit again trailed both SEMA and the rodeo.
Weak hotel occupancy marked the race's debut. Hill told the authority's board in July 2024 that the 2023 race was "a great financial weekend" but "one of the lower [hotel room] occupancy weekends that we had. It may have been the lowest that we had."
Hotel data from that first race, which Berry College economist Frank Stephenson described to LVSportsBiz last year, showed occupancy down as much as 18 percentage points a night even as room rates for race night and the two nights before rose more than $250.
Victor Matheson, a Holy Cross economist quoted in the same article, called the race "wildly disruptive to other activities in Las Vegas."
Last year, Airbnbs near the track showed the opposite mix. Their occupancy rose from about 35% the weekend before to 46%; farther out, it slipped. Median booked rates near the circuit rose only 3% to 8%, depending on size.
A VegasInsider study of asking prices concluded last year that Airbnbs "show almost no race-weekend surge." On price, the booked numbers agree.
Small units got the lift
Studios and one-bedrooms near the circuit earned 53% more than the weekend before, and two- and three-bedroom units 49% more. No other segment gained more than about a tenth, and the biggest houses off the Strip lost ground.
| Earned per available night, 2025 | Race weekend | Weekend before | SEMA week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Near circuit, studio/1BR | $126 | $82 | $146 |
| Near circuit, 2–3BR | $152 | $101 | $191 |
| Near circuit, 4BR+ | $192 | $174 | $374 |
| Rest of valley, studio/1BR | $47 | $43 | $71 |
| Rest of valley, 2–3BR | $101 | $102 | $182 |
| Rest of valley, 4BR+ | $170 | $190 | $350 |
Most of the gain near the track came from filling more nights, though a tail of pricey units, like the one-bedroom at nearly $1,500, pulled the average booked rate up about 14%, against about 8% for the median.
Off the Strip, race weekend was the weakest of the six for homes with four or more bedrooms, which earned about half what SEMA week paid. One earning the segment average took in about $510 over the three race nights, against about $1,050 for SEMA week.
The Spring Valley house booked all three nights of SEMA week at about $2,150 a night and the rodeo's opening weekend at about $2,200. It was full the ordinary weekend before the race, too. For the race itself, its calendar sat open at about $1,600 a night, and no one booked it.
The split is consistent with trade-show and rodeo crowds renting big houses in groups while race fans stay near the Strip. "It is at a time of year that without the NFR here, we'd be slow. And that change makes a huge difference for the city," Hill said of the rodeo in the same interview.
Hotels called it a strong weekend
"We are incredibly proud of what this sold-out Las Vegas Grand Prix delivered," Emily Prazer, chief executive of Las Vegas Grand Prix Inc., told Reuters in an email after the race, which organizers said drew more than 300,000 fans over three days.
Caesars Entertainment Chief Executive Tom Reeg told analysts on a Feb. 17 call that "F1 was a very strong event for us." MGM Resorts Chief Executive Bill Hornbuckle said on his company's call the week before that its Strip properties saw higher room rates for the race.
Reeg placed the weakness elsewhere. "The big event weekends, the big conferences are delivering," he said. "It is those soft patches in between."
On Airbnb calendars near the track, the ordinary weekend before the race was one of those patches.
For this year's race, the owner and the high end of the Strip sound confident. "Our ticket sales are trending well ahead of the last year with respect to both volume and revenues," Liberty Media, which owns Formula One, said on its Aug. 6 earnings call.
Wynn Chief Executive Craig Billings said two days earlier that the company was "on track for another strong F1 weekend and pacing ahead of last year in our transient and leisure business for that event."
The rest of the Strip is less sure. In a Truist Securities survey of November advance-booking rates, described by CDC Gaming this month, MGM's rates were down 12% and Caesars' 9%. Wynn's were up 31%.
Truist data "also suggests solid [year-over-year] rate growth at higher-end properties during the event, which typically skews more toward the higher-value consumer," analyst Barry Jonas wrote in a Sept. 18 note, according to CDC Gaming. Hornbuckle was more guarded about the quarter that includes race weekend. "We got some work to do in the fourth quarter," he said on a July 29 call.
The county's new rule spares Airbnb, for now
Nearly nine in 10 active entire-place listings within 2 miles of the circuit are condos or apartment-style units, according to AirROI's count of listings booked this summer. County rules deny a license to an ordinary condo or house within 2,500 feet of a resort hotel, but units in a condominium hotel or resort condominium fall outside the short-term rental chapter.
On Aug. 18, county commissioners unanimously approved a ban on platforms processing payments for unlicensed rentals in unincorporated Clark County, which includes the resort corridor. The rule would "ensure that the platforms are following, essentially, those rules," Commission Chair Michael Naft had said, KTNV reported.
The ban was scheduled to take effect Sept. 2. The day before, county officials told Fox5 it would become enforceable only once each platform had a license-verification process in place, and that "Airbnb will not be encumbered by these new rules as the injunction is in place."
Airbnb, a co-plaintiff in the federal suit against the county, pointed the Las Vegas Review-Journal to an earlier statement saying the county "continues attempts to eliminate a large portion of accommodation options for visitors."
Hosts' advocates blame the county's own licensing. Jacqueline Flores, president of the Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association, told News 3 at the hearing that "the county itself is the one that's blocking people from being able to obtain that license." Malee Simpson, who has run short-term rentals in Las Vegas for about a decade, described the stakes to the station: "This is, for some, including myself, our livelihood."
Enforcement against hosts themselves is on hold. A federal judge's December injunction bars the county from enforcing licenses, fines and liens against them. "I don't think that the county can be permanently enjoined from enforcing its licensing requirements," Ninth Circuit Judge Roopali Desai said at the Sept. 14 argument on the county's appeal. The panel has not ruled.
More hosts are marking up this year
Among near-track listings with no race nights booked by the end of August 2025, the ones asking the most for race weekend ended up the busiest. They had started out that way.
| Race-weekend ask vs. week before | Listings | Booked, weekend before | Booked, race weekend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10% higher | 1,172 | 25% | 29% |
| 10% to 50% higher | 361 | 36% | 41% |
| 50% or more higher | 94 | 50% | 55% |
All three groups added about 5 points of occupancy over their own prior weekend. The top group, just 94 listings, had been twice as busy the weekend before as the bottom one, and it sat closer to the track.
The markups went on listings guests already wanted, which leaves the higher price's own effect unclear.
This year, more hosts are trying it. By the end of August, 17% of near-circuit studios and one-bedrooms were asking at least 50% more for race weekend than for the week before, up from 7% a year earlier. Most hosts still price the race like any other weekend: half of those near the track, and more than three in five elsewhere, ask no more than 2% above the week before.
Airbnb bookings near the Strip are running slightly ahead of last year, as the race's owner says its ticket sales are. By the end of August, rentals near the circuit had booked 26% of race-weekend nights, against 24% a year earlier. Elsewhere in the valley, bookings were flat. Near the track, SEMA week and the rodeo are both pacing behind.
Much of the race's business comes late. Last year, about 55% of the eventual race-weekend bookings near the track were in hand by the end of August. Even after the late bookers arrived, most near-track race nights never booked.
Practice opens Thursday, Nov. 19. Between now and then, the near-track hosts asking half again as much will find out whether late bookers pay it or take Strip rooms at MGM and Caesars, where November rates have slipped.
About the data: Weekend results cover 5,341 entire-place valley listings with fall 2025 bookings, Thursday through Saturday nights. Pacing and asking prices come from each year's Aug. 31 calendars; listing panels differ by year. Near the track means within 2 miles.
Frequently Asked Questions
Last year, rentals near the circuit booked at a median of $244 a night on race weekend, about 8% more than the weekend before, according to AirROI data. A handful of units a short walk from the track booked for several times that.
Close to the track, yes, though the gain is smaller than it looks: race weekend beat a slow mid-November weekend by nearly half on earnings per available night, while SEMA week and the rodeo's opening weekend paid more. Beyond about 2 miles, race weekend was the weakest of the six fall weekends AirROI compared.
Last year, among near-circuit listings with no race nights booked by late August, those asking at least 50% more than the prior weekend gained about as much occupancy over their own baseline as listings priced less than 10% above it. Because the marked-up listings were already busier and closer to the track, it is unclear whether the markup helped or hurt. Off the Strip, big homes saw booked rates barely move while fewer nights filled.
It depends on the building. Clark County will not license a regular condo or house within 2,500 feet of a resort hotel, allows condos only where governing documents permit, and prohibits apartments, while units in a condominium hotel or resort condominium fall outside its short-term rental chapter. A new rule barring platforms from processing payments for unlicensed rentals was scheduled to take effect Sept. 2, though county officials said Airbnb is exempt while a federal injunction stands.
