Yes, there are other Cities charging resort fees but Las Vegas was the first to do so on an almost all of their hotel inventory. There are still a few Hotels but no resorts that do not charge a Resort Fee. At first it was the MGM properties that put this bogus charge on all their properties and Caesar’s properties (listed at bottom) took the high road and constantly reminded Us that they did not charge a Resort fee. Charging this hidden fee could be called false advertising, dishonest business practice or at the very least deceptive.
It makes truly comparing hotels all over Vegas much more difficult, You must have the resort fee page open in one window and searching hotel prices in another. Right now No Site is adding the price of the hotel and the resort fee together because They would then look like They are much higher than anyone else. For instance if You check the the Resort Fees list You will see that at the time of this writing Hard Rock Hotel is listed at 28 dollars plus tax (31.36) but they are running a special for as low as 19.95 per night Sunday Thru Thursday which sounds pretty appealing to say the least but the reality is the real price is 19.95 +28.00 +12 percent = 53.70 which is still a good price but very deceptive. When You see that 19.95 You are very excited and make Your plans and by the time You learn the truth You have already pictured Yourself surrounded by second hand smoke in front of a slot machine. All Hotel sites have the tools to add this 28.00 to the 19.95 but they do not because if You see it added at one site and not at another, You will bite on the one that has left it out so it would not be fair for ONE site to be honest.
The deception is coming from the Hotels not the booking sites. The resort fee deception helps the hotels in a number of ways.
- It makes the price of the room look much less than it really is.
- They only pay the booking site a percentage of the Room price not the Resort Fee.
- This automatically forces the Customer to pay for all the things that used be offered separately.
What does the Resort fee include: Most Hotels all over Vegas include an internet connection for up to two devices, access to the fitness room, local phone calls and some will thrown in a couple bottled waters, use of a safe and trivial other items. But only a small percentage of People use the fitness center since walking all over Vegas takes care of that by itself. Most People would buy the internet connection but that should be around 10.00 per night so all the Hotels charging more than 10.00 are making up huge extra profit by using this deceptive practice.
Las Vegas Hotels were hesitant to add on the Resort fees until MGM Properties (listed at bottom) totally got away with it. People Were comparing the price of The MGM Grand to Planet Hollywood and choosing MGM Grand because they were not adding the resort fee to the MGM Grand Price when Planet Hollywood was not charging any Resort fees. After Caesar’s found that MGM was not getting all that much negative publicity for this deception they decided to start charging Resort fees also. Now others have joined in and it would be easier to say Who isn’t charging resort fees than Who is. The ones that are not are more like Motels not Hotels and You most likely would never stay at one.
Like it or not the search for hotels all over Vegas is a two step process, always find the resort fee FIRST Find all the Resort Fees here, Then search however You normally do for the Hotel.
A similar new expense is coming all over Vegas: PARKING. Right now MGM properties are charging for self parking (except Circus for now) but Caesars properties are not, watch for that to change if MGM gets away with it. Right now if You need to park just avoid all the MGM Properties.
MGM Properties:
Bellagio, Mirage, Aria, MGM, New York New York, Monte Carlo, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay and Circus Circus.
Caesar’s properties:
Ballys, Paris, Planet Hollywood, Cromwell, Flamingo, Harrahs, Linq and Rio