USA TODAY International Edition
Vegas fees turn a $25 room into a $65 room
Planning a Las Vegas vacation? Better boost your hotel budget. Resort fees, those mandatory nightly charges for Internet service, fitness center use and other “perks” that hotels insist guests want in one bundle, are increasing on and off the Las Vegas Strip. Visitors will pay as much as $45 a night plus tax on top of the room rate. You won’t find a resort fee less than $32 a night on the Strip. And you could pay up to $30 per night at Fremont Street hotels downtown. At most hotels, that is in addition to parking fees, which also are on the rise.
These Las Vegas hotels have raised resort fees
MGM Resorts, which operates 13 Las Vegas casino hotels including New York-New York, Mirage and Bellagio, raised fees at all but its three priciest resorts in March. So did the all-suite Venetian and Palazzo resorts, which have the city’s highest resort fee at $45 plus tax.
That was on the heels of an acrossthe-board increase in February at Caesars Entertainment hotels including Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood and Harrah’s Las Vegas.
Caesars now charges $30-$39 a night and MGM charges $32-$39. Together their hotels dominate the Strip.
The CEO of MGM was practically gleeful about Caesars’ fee increase, telling Wall Street analysts it was great because Caesars initially shunned the fees, which MGM has been charging since 2010. Caesars aggressively touted its no-fee policy, plastering ads on the sides of some of its hotels, until it added fees of $10-$25 a night in 2013.
“Welcome to the party,” Jim Murren said of the Caesars increase.
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, one of the most chic resorts on the Strip with balcony rooms overlooking the Bellagio fountains, has announced it will boost its resort fee to $39 from $35 in January 2019.
In downtown Las Vegas, home to the popular Fremont Street attractions, the Golden Gate Hotel and The D Las Vegas just raised their resort fees to $25 from $20.
How a $25 room becomes a $65 room
Fees have risen so much in Las Vegas, with no commensurate addition of amenities, that the resort fee can be higher than the room rate in the cheapest hotels.
Circus Circus, the giant pink hotel with the indoor theme park on the north end of the Strip, recently offered midweek rates starting at $25 a night.
The bill at checkout, though, was $65. Blame the nightly resort fee, which comes to $36.28 with tax.
On the other end of the Strip, Lux- or’s $35 room rate came with a matching $35 resort fee.
Many travelers are taken aback.
What is a resort fee?
Hotel executives in vacation destinations including Las Vegas, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Ariz., Florida and Hawaii justify the addition of resort fees as the packaging of services that previously carried extra charges.
Cosmopolitan’s pitch: “We have bundled everyday essentials into one nightly charge.” Aria Las Vegas says the resort fee “includes amenities that are sure to enhance your experience.”
But some hotels lump basic amenities such as the pool into their fee, and tout services most travelers no longer need, such as local calls and faxes.
Las Vegas creates its own set of resort-fee questions, including: Who uses any of the items covered by the fee?
Driving? Don’t forget about parking fees.
As recently as two years ago, parking was free at Las Vegas hotels. The only cost, if you opted for valet over selfparking in the garage, was a tip. That changed in 2016, when MGM Resorts announced it would start charging for parking. The parking fees went into effect in June 2016 and were quickly matched by other chains. Caesars and Wynn hotels added them later that year.
And like resort fees, the parking charges have steadily increased.
Venetian and Palazzo have the highest resort fees on the Strip but don’t charge extra for parking.