Rip Off "Resort Fees"

Happening today!! Resort fees at Bellagio, Aria, Vdara and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas will increase $5 to $55 per day. The daily resort fee at MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Delano, Park MGM, Nomad and The Signature will go up to $50, an increase of $5 for the first three and $8 for the latter trio. New York-New York, Luxor and Excalibur will charge a resort fee of $45, which represents a $3 increase for New York-New York and an $8 - And the amazing thing is that visitors will pay fees.

What has amazed you?

People willingly pay lots of money to stay at nice hotels.

Is it that you're bewildered by the task of adding the room rate and the resort fee together?

You're very alone in that.

Adding those sums together is easy.

It's almost 2025.

We can handle this.

No, it's not ideal.

Resort fees suck.

But we got this.

  What is "amazing" you ask? Well, "resort fees" add nothing to the rental of a room that was not a "given" before the rip off resort fees were instituted. The biggest perk is in room wi-fi, which, in most cases is barely basic. If one wants better wi-fi, there in an additional daily fee. Over the years these (and room rates) have constantly increased without there being any logical reason for the increases - except greed. But the most "amazing" thing I find is that the visitors continue to pay these fees, while the service to the rooms has been downgraded, essentially paying for nothing of extra value. Now some, who are more affluent than others, have no concern about the ever esculating fees, while the majority of visitors are being gouged. But, as they say, "whatever the traffic will bear". 

So after 20+ years of resort fees you're still "amazed"?

Amazing!

From the start, Las Vegas has ALWAYS been about gouging the customers. The techniques change, the goal doesn't.

You think Meyer, Bugsy, Wynn, Benny, Ferguson, Glick, Lefty, & Moe were running charities?

Come on now.

  What "I think" is what I posted previously. Resort fees started @ Green Valley Ranch in 2004 and since then every one has jumped on board even though, other than for wi-fi, these rip off fees produce nothing for the guest that they wern't getting before these fees were implemented. They are and continue to be a money gouge.

David, please do not read this post.

Hey everyone, can we all agree not to tell David about:

Bag fees

Seat assignment fees

Automatic 18% service fees for tables of six or more

Concert ticket service fees

Car dealer doc prep fees

To-go order packaging fees

Shipping AND handling

  Hey Dan, I am aware of these fees. My solution(s).-- (1)- Bag fees - I only fly Southwest (no bag fees for first 2 bags), (2)- No seat assignment fees,(yet), -  (3) I don't eat with 6 people, therefore no asinine  18% "service fee",(4) I never go to concerts.- 5) I never have bought a new car and I pay cash when I buy a car - no prep fee for me, (6) I never order any to-go item that requires a fee, (7) I use Amazon Prime (no shipping/handling fee). As you can see, I don't patronize and don't get ripped off from any vender that charges a frivious, asinine "fee" for their product or service. With a little planning one can eliminate many if not all of these asinine fees.

I don't think we should tell him that if resort fees weren't a thing, that the casino/hotels would just raise their rates in a more forthright fashion--or start charging much more for amenities, perks, and extras.

I also don't think we should tell him that complaining about the fees for something that you don't intend to purchase is a waste of energy. Now, fees on stuff you're forced to buy, such as licenses, permits, utilities, etc.--that's a whole 'nother can of worms. We are, at this moment in time anyway, not forced to patronize casinos. That may change with the new administration, of course.

  Rip off "resort fees" are nothing but a now accepted method to deviously hide the TRUE cost of rooms. Here is why these fees are used - Why do hotels charge fees? Hotels charge fees for a few reasons. A lower base rate might pique a customer's interest in a hotel they might not otherwise have considered. Hotels then make up the difference in revenue by charging a resort fee rather than one higher, singular base rate. But it’s not just about getting customers in the door. Some hotels say resort fees allow them to reduce the commissions paid to online travel agents. If a hotel promises to pay, say, 5% of base rates to travel agents, then it would owe $5 on a $100 nightly room. If the room is $50 plus a $50 resort fee, the hotel gets the same amount of money, but it would have to give only $2.50 to the agent. Even the U.S. government agrees resort fees are no good. “Studies of drip pricing and partitioned pricing suggest that separating mandatory resort fees from posted room rates without first disclosing the total price is likely to harm consumers,” according to a 2017 report from the FTC. The report cited “forcing consumers to click through additional webpages to see a hotel’s resort fee” as being a complicated extra step that either makes the consumer do more work or worse forces them “to make an incomplete, less informed decision that may result in a more costly room.” - Additionally, these fees are intentionally misleading as to the ACTUAL COST of a room. As to the suggestion - " that complaining about the fees for something that you don't intend to purchase is a waste of energy- It is my energy to speak about what I deem a "scam".

“Look, your grace,” responded Sancho, “what you see over there aren’t giants—they’re windmills; and what seems to be arms are the sails that rotate the millstone when they’re turned by the wind.”

“It seems to me,” responded don Quixote, “that you aren’t well-versed in adventures—they are giants; and if you’re afraid, get away from here and start praying while I go into fierce and unequal battle with them.”