Cost of buffets, parking, etc.
I was reading / viewing / hearing that tourists are complaining that they have made incidentals too expensive. They used
The items included in the resort fee are purely pretextual. You're not actually paying for those things with the resort fee. How do we know that? Because 99% of the time you can't opt out and refuse the resort fee in exchange for not having access to those amenities. I assume for regulatory reasons they need to tie the fee to something that is not a component of the room itself
I don't care about those because I don't drive there. The vast majority of Strip hotels were already built before they started charging for parking. The only reason they're charging for parking is they can get away with it.
Everything gets more expensive; it's the way inflation works. If you want no resort fees, free parking, etc., the casino would just build it into the cost of the hotel room. Then, instead of complaining about resort fees, people would be complaining about how much more expensive the hotels rooms are. The bottom line is that Vegas is never going to be as cheap, in absolute dolla
The parking fees don’t have anything to do with inflation or the price of hotel rooms. A lot of the people paying parking fees aren’t staying at a hotel on the Strip.
The parking fees were added because they were an extra way to make money in aedition to raising the resort fees. And they are very noticeable which is a reason why people are complaining.
If truly had nothing to do with hotel guests, they would give free parking to hotel guests and charge visitors. Obviously parking fees were added as an extra way to make money, but my point is that revenue is fungible -- if the property isn't generating it from one source it needs to generate it from another. And it absolutely has to do with inflation in the sense that as expenses go up, the property needs to find new sources of revenue to compensate.
You're right that locals are very vocal about paid parking because that fee impacts them a lot more than, say, resort fees. And because Vegas locals who frequent the strip are notoriously cheap. 😃
If truly had nothing to do with hotel guests, they would give free parking to hotel guests and charge visitors.
I didn’t say it had nothing to do with hotel guests. I meant they didn’t add in parking fees so they could keep the rooms cheaper, which you seemed to be suggesting.
Obviously parking fees were added as an extra way to make money, but my point is that revenue is fungible -- if the property isn't generating it from one source it needs to generate it from another. And it absolutely has to do with inflation in the sense that as expenses go up, the property needs to find new sources of revenue to compensate.
I’d say it’s more because of a different way of doing business than in the past.
My biggest issue with resort fees is that every casino corporation has different rules for who pays them and who doesn't. Some automatically deduct resort fees at a certain tier level, others don't. Some never charge resort fees on comped rooms, other almost always do, and others charge them on some comp room offers but not others. As far as I can tell, it doesn't change the
You hit on the biggest issue to me personally, which is the hidden fees and "gotcha" brand of capitalism.
It's like they prey on people who are uneducated and unprepared. Word has gotten out and this creates a mental barrier for normal people to book a trip.
I went to the WSOP this year and it was a stressful and exhausting process planning the trip, and I'm a frequent traveler who typically plans trips with ease.
They're advertising this price for a room, but what is the resort fee, how much do they charge for parking, are there any other hidden fees they're not telling you about? Oh they charge X$/day for a mini fridge or microwave and it's $50 if you want an early check-in. OK.
Then you get there and it's a hot day and you're thirsty so you grab a bottle of water from the gift shop and it's $8. You're hungry and want to grab a quick, fast food equivalent, meal and it's $30-50 for a burger.
I even created a thread on twoplustwo asking about these things, and got responses like, "Oh the parking fees are no big deal, you can just status match with X card to get Y card... If you park here the first four hours are free then if you stay longer gambling you can get your parking validated here." It's a bunch of hoops and headaches (I am appreciative for the information anyone who helped, it's just frustrating that Vegas is this way).
Most of us just want a simple trip where the costs are transparent. It's not even the higher overall costs that bother me. I expect that with inflation. I don't want to have to jump through a bunch of hoops and spend hours researching just to figure out what prices I'm looking at and avoid all the "gotcha" traps they use to extract money from unsuspecting tourists.
^Just a nitpick here but it’s first 3 hours free, not 4 hours.
Damn they got me again. Here's 30 bucks.
NYT has a story on the front page today about the decline in Vegas tourism:
My biggest issue with resort fees is that every casino corporation has different rules for who pays them and who doesn't. Some automatically deduct resort fees at a certain tier level, others don't. Some never charge resort fees on comped rooms, other almost always do, and others charge them on some comp room offers but not others. As far as I can tell, it doesn't change the
It changes who gets the money. Many more taxes/fees, etc on room costs than on resort fees.
NYT has a story on the front page today about the decline in Vegas tourism:
Quite surprisingly, the NYT article is excellent, it covers many good points about the state of tourism on the Strip without sensationalist BS or local boosterism.
If you do not want to pay for parking at an MGM property, get the MGM credit card, which comes with FREE parking, its biggest benefit by far.
If you do not want to pay for parking at other properties, consider valet parking .... which may or may not be free, but you REALLY need to tip your valet.
CET charges for valet parking.
