“W hat do you think of these resort fee increases?” asked Shawn Coomer of Miles to Memories in response to mandatory resort fees increasing at ten hotel properties under the Caesar’s Entertainment brand in Las Vegas. “When will they stop?”
As to “when will they stop”, the answer is simple: mandatory resort fees will stop when one of two actions occur — either when:
- Guests boycott hotel properties which charge resort fees; or
- When sneaking mandatory resort fees into the booking process of reserving a hotel room becomes illegal
Caesar’s Entertainment Properties to Increase Mandatory Resort Fees
As of Wednesday, March 1, 2017, mandatory resort fees will increase at ten properties in Las Vegas — and remember, taxes imposed on these fees are not included:
- Bally’s $30.00 — an increase of one dollar
- Caesars Palace $35.00 — an increase of three dollars
- The Cromwell $35.00 — an increase of three dollars
- Flamingo $30.00 — an increase of one dollar
- Harrah’s $30.00 — an increase of one dollar
- The Linq $30.00 — an increase of one dollar
- Nobu $35.00 — an increase of three dollars
- Paris $35.00 — an increase of three dollars
- Planet Hollywood $35.00 — an increase of three dollars
- Rio $30.00 — an increase of three dollars
A Reminder of Mandatory Resort Fees at Work
At Bally’s Las Vegas, the mandatory resort fee and taxes turns a special Hot Rates 2017 promotion for one night at a rate of $55.00 — checking in on Wednesday, February 22, 2017 — to $95.66, which is an increase of almost 74 percent…
…but if you booked the Indigo Room on Wednesday, March 1, 2017 for one night, you are initially greeted with an enticingly low room rate of $30.00 through that same Hot Rates 2017 promotion. Add the mandatory resort fee of $29.99 — which will actually be $30.00 — plus taxes; and the room rate jumps to $67.19.
That is an increase of almost 124 percent of the initial expected room rate — and greater than 127 percent with the increase in the mandatory resort fee — for such features as:
- Daily in-room high speed Internet access — something more hotels include in the room rate
- All local telephone calls — for those people who still do not have a mobile telephone
- Fitness center access for two daily — even if only one person checks into the room
Summary
As for what I think of those increases in mandatory resort fees, my stance on this issue remains staunch: I am vehemently opposed to not including mandatory resort fees in the advertised room rate of any hotel or resort property — especially when useless amenities which border on the absurd are shown to justify those mandatory resort fees.
Although the mandatory resort fee is clearly — if not overwhelmingly obvious — disclosed during the booking process, the hotel property already wasted the time of the potential guest. Who wants to be enticed with one room rate and be purposely misled to a total cost of more than double the money you initially expected to spend?
That is pure intentional deception and blatant false advertising — pure and simple. The hotel property can claim that they have not raised room rates in years — despite increasing the cost of mandatory resort fees. If those resort fees were optional, that would be a completely different story.
The bottom line is that the mandatory resort fee is an increase in the room rate — period; end of story — and if that is not bad enough, some hotel properties in Las Vegas are now also charging for parking a vehicle on premises. Are free drinks next to becoming obsolete?
I am putting my money where my mouth is, as I am scheduled to be in Las Vegas later this year; and I booked reservations in hotel properties which do not charge either a mandatory resort fee or a parking fee. If you visit Las Vegas in the future, consider doing the same…
…and also please consider helping me list hotel properties to fight mandatory resort fees to assist fellow readers of The Gate as to which hotel properties to avoid.
Photograph ©2014 by Brian Cohen.
