My girlfriend and I just returned from Vegas where we stayed part of our trip at NYNY. We knew in advance about the resort fee on our comp rooms, however we questioned it at checkin and was given the standard response that the daily resort fee consolidated popular requests from guest into one convienent fee so they didn't feel nickled and dimed. We asked if we could opt out and was told no. We were further told the Internet was wi-fi, which apparently wasn't the case because NYNY didn't have wi-fi like some of their sister hotels. Anyway, just a quick review of the issues related to the resort fee for those of you who hate them as much as me and the reasoning behind them being complete and utter b.s.:
Internet - tried to use it via wi-fi and discovered NYNY doesn't have wi-fi setup yet. You can wire access from your room, however you must have your own network cables. If you needed to rent a network cable, it was $5 per day. What about this nickle and diming business? The front desk didn't have an answer for that.
Health Club - tried to use it one day and was told I could purchase a reduced full access pass for $10 from the health club. When I mentioned I had the resort fee that included access to the health club, the girl had to call the manager to talk with her and then tell me it was a limited access. When I asked what my limitations were, she had to talk to a manager again and then tell me it didn't include any "special" services (I assume like a spa treatment which I obviously assumed because I wasn't paying for a spa treatment). It seemed not even the front desk of the spa knew how to handle the health club benefit of the resort fee. I assume not too many people have taken advantage of the free health club pass or maybe she was just new.
At any rate, NYNY definately profited by imposing a mandatory fee on me for services that were overwhelmingly requested by their guests. I tried to use the internet once, didn't have the cable and refused to pay a $5 rental fee. I used the hotel health club once for about an hour and had about 15 minutes of hassles getting in. The total resort fee was $45 for three days so I have to say that NYNY (and MGM) definately benefited more than I did with this convienence.
Oh well, I didn't book the trip and allowed my girlfriend to stay where she wanted to stay. I find it all amusing. Before we know it other fees will be creeping up on us too. I still think there will be a casino admission fee at some point in the future :-D (Just kidding about that - hopefully).
Internet - tried to use it via wi-fi and discovered NYNY doesn't have wi-fi setup yet. You can wire access from your room, however you must have your own network cables. If you needed to rent a network cable, it was $5 per day. What about this nickle and diming business? The front desk didn't have an answer for that.
Health Club - tried to use it one day and was told I could purchase a reduced full access pass for $10 from the health club. When I mentioned I had the resort fee that included access to the health club, the girl had to call the manager to talk with her and then tell me it was a limited access. When I asked what my limitations were, she had to talk to a manager again and then tell me it didn't include any "special" services (I assume like a spa treatment which I obviously assumed because I wasn't paying for a spa treatment). It seemed not even the front desk of the spa knew how to handle the health club benefit of the resort fee. I assume not too many people have taken advantage of the free health club pass or maybe she was just new.
At any rate, NYNY definately profited by imposing a mandatory fee on me for services that were overwhelmingly requested by their guests. I tried to use the internet once, didn't have the cable and refused to pay a $5 rental fee. I used the hotel health club once for about an hour and had about 15 minutes of hassles getting in. The total resort fee was $45 for three days so I have to say that NYNY (and MGM) definately benefited more than I did with this convienence.
Oh well, I didn't book the trip and allowed my girlfriend to stay where she wanted to stay. I find it all amusing. Before we know it other fees will be creeping up on us too. I still think there will be a casino admission fee at some point in the future :-D (Just kidding about that - hopefully).
