BEWARE--Las Vegas Resort Fees

On my recent trip to Las Vegas, Station Casinos (Boulder Station, Sunset Station, Texas Station, Palace Station, Red Rock, Green Valley Ranch, Aliante) has a MANDATORY Resort fee of up to 40% of your "Nightly Rate". I was required to pay Boulder Station for 3 Nights $39.00($13.00/night) in addition to my room rate...O-U-T-R-A-G-E-O-U-S!!! Check your Hotel/Resort BEFORE you Book......

When we stayed at Celebrity Resort in Reno last month (timeshare stay), we were charged $3.99 per night on top of our exchange fees. It was charged directly by the resort. Grrrr!

Dori

These "resort fee's" are kind of like temporary taxes....

We spent the weekend at The Orleans and they too added $5 per night, for services we never used!

You do not think these amenities are worth it:whoopie:

Wired and Wireless High Speed In-Room Internet
Unlimited Local and 800 calls
Daily Local Newspaper
Fitness Center access
Shoe Shine Service
Airport Shuttle Service

And at Green Valley Ranch the charge is $24.99 a night

Station casinos is very close to Chapter 11. I'm sure they're willing to sacrifice customer goodwill for a little extra money.

Next time, find out where the "new local casino" is (currently it's Eastside Cannery and M Resort), and stay there. And when I say "new" I mean "opened within the last 0-6 months."

You can get a new room at Eastside for $30/night with no such fees. Weekends are higher, but a whole week is $310, tax included. M runs $85 per night, but I'm told the rooms are very very nice.

You'll find the attitudes are much better the first few months after a casino opens. After that, it becomes "the same ol' grind" for staff.

If you gamble at all, then before you check out you should call a casino host and ask them to pick up the tab. The worst they could do is say no. The resort fees are bulsht. I've complained to the front desk and gotten them removed every time, but I usually stay in free rooms.

Orleans Casino has had $5/day for the last 3 yrs. It gets you free local calls, access to the health club, and I think coffee maker in the room. I think it technically might include free internet in the business center, but not in-room (still outrageous at $12/day).

We stayed at Sunset Station last month, I think it was also $5/day there.

I'm sure these places are making far more money by charging everyone than the resort fee then they ever did buy ala carte prices for phone calls, health club, etc.

Jeff

While I will agree that I HATE resort fee's, look at what we're complaining about and try to put it into context. You can't even get a crummy Motel 6 room for $39.99 in most towns. For that price, plus the resort fee, you're have a pool, several onsite restaurants, a show room, gambling, bell service, room service et........ By contrast most rooms I book, nicer hotels but not top hotels, run me around $100/night or more. At $100/night I get very little and they often don't have an onsite restaurant. Maybe a cheap breakfast buffet with scrambled eggs, make your own waffle and a selection of fruits and ceral's but that's about it.

I do not like being blind sided by a resort fee and, when they're charged, it usually seems to happen that way. I know several years ago we were tagged with a "resort fee" at Excalibur that I had no idea about. The thing with resort fee's is they can be added on AFTER you've booked your room. They can go both up and down without notice.

Isn't that what owners pay maintenance fees for?

dougp26364 said:

While I will agree that I HATE resort fee's, look at what we're complaining about and try to put it into context...

Click to expand...

That's not the point. If the item being added (health club access, for example) is that important, then incorporate the charge for it into the base fee. It's not like room rates are regulated, and they can't advertise the room for say $85/night vs $80.

If they want to package some items into an optional resort fee, that's fine. For some people, in my previous example, maybe it's practical to pay $5/night extra for free phone calls and health club. For those that don't go to the health club, and use a cell phone for everything, it's an extra $5 they are paying that gets them nothing.

One could make the arguement that if you're paying a 'resort fee' for access to the health club, why isn't there an extra charge for use of the pool or outdoor hot tub? Cost-wise they have to cost just as much if not more to maintain.

It's still my belief that the only reason for mandatory resort and other fees is to deceive customers by being able to advertise a lower price than the actual cost is.

Jeff

JeffW said:

That's not the point. If the item being added (health club access, for example) is that important, then incorporate the charge for it into the base fee. It's not like room rates are regulated, and they can't advertise the room for say $85/night vs $80.

If they want to package some items into an optional resort fee, that's fine. For some people, in my previous example, maybe it's practical to pay $5/night extra for free phone calls and health club. For those that don't go to the health club, and use a cell phone for everything, it's an extra $5 they are paying that gets them nothing.

One could make the arguement that if you're paying a 'resort fee' for access to the health club, why isn't there an extra charge for use of the pool or outdoor hot tub? Cost-wise they have to cost just as much if not more to maintain.

It's still my belief that the only reason for mandatory resort and other fees is to deceive customers by being able to advertise a lower price than the actual cost is.

Jeff

Click to expand...

The advantage to a hotel to add a resort fee rather than incorporate it into their base rate is that the resort fee can change, even after someone has made a reservation. Plus, they can advertise a lower room rate, much like the airlines do by not incorporating their hidden extra fee's into the price.

Of course, unlike the airlines, with resort fee's you have to pay them. With the extra fee's the ailrines charge, you can avoid those if you just don't use those particular services (no drinks on the flight, bring you're own food, check in online and no checked luggage).

I really haven't seen resort fee's outside of Las Vegas and, like you, think that they're akin to what come out of the south end of a north bound bull. The Vegas hotels and casino's have done a lot over the last 5 or 6 years to tick off their customers and these nickel and dime resort fee's are just another example of their complete stupidity. While to over all picture remains that you're still getting a great room and a magnificant resort and a fantastic price, it STILL ticks off the public and all they'll see is a 40% upcharge on a base rate of $35/night for services they might not use or come free in a room that goes anywhere else for more than $100/night. It's just one more STUPID thing Vegas hotels/casino's have come up with now that their corporate owned. But, I guess when you have more hotel rooms on one corner than all of San Fransico, you feel that you have to advertise the rooms at $35/night rather than $48/night or you might lose to much business.

Kozman said:

Isn't that what owners pay maintenance fees for?

Click to expand...

The original post is about one of the hotel's in Vegas and not a timeshare. Although timeshares around the world will also hit you with "resort fee's". It's their way of trying to keep the MF's fee's down for their owners. The idea is to charge extra for services not used by all. If you own at resorts that include the cost for those services in their MF's, much like my Marriott and Hilton ownerships do, then you're getting to pay for those services twice when you exchange. It's one of the reasons I tend to make internal exchanges with both my Marriott and Hilton ownerships but exchange our DRI ownerships. DRI resorts have a few extra fee's so, when I exchange one of those weeks, it doesn't bother me so much that the resort we've exchanged into might have those fee's as well.

Sorta like how they charge you for the use of electricity at many/most of the UK timeshares.

Timeshare Von said:

Sorta like how they charge you for the use of electricity at many/most of the UK timeshares.

Click to expand...

Yep, that REALLY annoy's me.

dougp26364 said:

..The idea is to charge extra for services not used by all...

Click to expand...

And that's fine, as long as the charges are optional. The Banyan t/s in Key West charges $9/day for onsite parking. While it costs more then the Galleon for example (free parking), it's a fair charge - if you don't have a car to park, you don't pay anything extra. I think they also have free once a week change of trash and linens, but you can go down and exchange linens (and towels) anytime you want, and if you want more often or extensive in-room service, you can pay for it. Again, in my mind, perfectly fair.

I've been to a resort in Hawaii that charged extra for air conditioning. Don't want to pay - no air conditioning. Okay with paying - they come up and literal turn a key lock to allow the AC to work. Optional service with optional cost.

It's the extra charges for items which you may never use that's annoying.

Jeff

Timeshare Von said:

Sorta like how they charge you for the use of electricity at many/most of the UK timeshares.

Click to expand...

I've stayed at a few UK timeshares. None of them charged extra for power, but they all had this weird cardslot on the wall by the door that only activated power to the room when our room key was in the slot. In one place, even the refrigerator was wired to that circuit, so anything left in the fridge began warming up the minute we left.

Fortunately, we discovered that ANY plastic card would keep the fridge on. We did turn off all the lights though.


Getting back to Las Vegas resort fees -- don't stay in any place that charges them. There are plenty of resorts that don't chisel guests an extra Jackson per day.

And seriously, stay in the new resorts. For the first few months after opening, they're trying to build up as much local "buzz" as possible. After that, they've lassoed in all the local suckers gamblers they're going to get, and service levels go down. The first few months are all about building local goodwill.