MGM casino head admits company lost its way with summer prices and regrets ‘infamous’ $26 bottle of water

MGM Resorts President and CEO Bill Hornbuckle had a simple message for his company this week after extortionate prices have kept people away from his hotels in Las Vegas: “Shame on us.”

In an earnings call Wednesday, Hornbuckle said the company has “price-corrected” its resorts following a summer of backlash over steep charges, including the “infamous” $26 bottle of Fiji water at the Aria hotel.

He also mentioned the $12 Starbucks coffee at Excalibur as an example of how the company hadn’t been attentive to customer needs.

“We should have been more sensitive to the overall experience at a place like Excalibur,” he said in the call, according KLAS.

“You can't have a $29 room and a $12 coffee. We lost control of the narrative over the summer,” Hornbuckle continued. “I think we would all agree to that in hindsight.”

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The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported that the city experienced a difficult summer, with an 11 percent drop in visitors year-on-year in June, followed by a 6.7 drop in August.

Hornbuckle attributed the tourism slump to several factors, including 400,000 fewer Las Vegas travelers on Spirit Airlines, a decline in Southern California drive-in visitors, and continued drops in international travel following comments and tariff policies from the Trump administration starting in February, according to KLAS.

“July for everyone in the community was a rough month. The summer was rough,” Hornbuckle said.

But things have turned since, he added, and the resort giant might even beat numbers from last year’s “all-time fourth quarter” based on bookings.

Jonathan Halkyard, MGM’s chief financial officer and treasurer, said Wednesday that the company reviewed what customers are actually willing to pay for certain goods and services, and have since implemented about 90 percent of those adjustments.

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MGM’s net revenue dropped to $2 billion in the third quarter, down from 2024, mainly due to room renovations at MGM Grand Las Vegas, the company said.

Earnings at MGM’s other Las Vegas properties also dropped from $731 million in September 2024 to $601 million this year.