Poll : 30 November - 13 December 2011

Analysis

While resort fees remain a contentious development that virtually no one condones, we were interested to hear some fair and balanced feedback, rather than simply outright hysteria. We will pass along your views to our hotel partners, who include properties that do charge resort fees and those that don't -- we'll sure both sides will be interested to hear some candid thoughts on the subject. In the meantime, here's a link to our up-to-date list of which hotels charge Resort Fees, how much they charge, and what you get for it.

• "I can stomach the resort fees if they are in a reasonable range like $7-14 and include "free" Internet usage. Otherwise, I refuse to make a reservation."
  
  
• "I used to use words like 'diabolical' to describe resort fees, but I since have learned to tolerate them. First, they are only really a problem when you are uneducated about them, but with experience and by reading LVA, etc. you can anticipate the resort fee and incorporate it into your comparison. I've come to see that they are as much a way to pay the booking agencies such as Travelocity and hotels.com a lower proportion of the total cost of the room rate, since the resort-fee portion apparently is exempt from the commission to the agency. That means that, all else equal, the hotel's costs are a few dollars lower. In a market as fiercely competitive as LV hotel rooms is these days, at least some of this savings presumably is passed onto the consumer in the form of lower total dollars spent on the room. Even with resort fees, the value proposition at just about any hotel in Las Vegas is pretty hard to beat these days."
  
  
• "I AM OUTRAGED BY HOTELS THAT CHARGE A FIXED "RESORT FEE" FOR SERVICES I DO NOT USE... I STOPPED STAYING AT ANY LAS VEGAS HOTEL THAT CHARGES FEES. THE LAST TIME I GOT STUNG WAS BY ARIA: AN ADDITIONAL $225 FOR MY STAY THERE. SINCE MY TRIP WAS ALREADY PAID FOR THRU AN ALLEGIANT AIR PACKAGE, I WAS TOLD I COULD NOT CHECK IN UNTIL I AGREED TO PAY. THAT WAS MY LAST STAY THERE ... FOREVER."
  
  
• "I voted 'I don't use these services,' because all I ever do in Vegas is 1) Gamble, 2) Eat, and 3) Drink!* With the comped room and food offers I get, that's all I need. That being said, I think that Vegas needs to grow up and provide WiFi access for its guests for free. Most people only want to check their emails and send a few updates to their favorite social media site, which shouldn't require too much bandwidth. If hotels are loath to having John Q. Public logging on when they're in the neighborhood, I wouldn't object to a password provided at check-in, but either way this is an idea that McDonald's and Starbucks already have exploited with seeming success. Not to mention the promotional info they could push your way when you log in. *I'm hoping it's understood that bathing and sleeping are included in this hierarchy of needs! Basically, I don't want to pay for the health club access or the daily paper unless I choose to do so, and this should be an à la carte option if desired."
  
  
• "I always stay at a comped Caesars Entertainment property, so I don’t pay any resort fees. I have my cell phone to make any calls needed and an app to get my boarding pass electronically. We rent a car to get water, snacks, and drinks at the grocery store, a discount at the gift shops comes with the players card, so the only thing I use on the list is valet parking, and it is free everywhere in Vegas. I can’t imagine paying a resort fee, although I am certain the casino gets that money anyway, but at least it was my decision to give it to them and not forced upon me. Staying at another property and paying these resort fees is much like flying an airline other than Southwest and paying baggage fees, which makes no sense to me as that is rental car, dinner, show, and gambling money."
  
  
• "Just to mention an added insult, they tax the resort fee."
  
  
• "Yes, I really do use the fitness center -- but not daily. I do wish that, since I’m paying for the fitness center, I would get free access or a reduced fee for the spa, too. As for the Internet fee, it’s cheaper to pay a resort fee than to pay the daily rate at many non-resort fee hotels."
  
  
• "I was surprised you had tea and coffee on your poll list, as they're the one thing I almost never see at the mid-level properties where I generally stay. And it's the one thing that I probably would not mind paying a modest fee for, as it would save me a morning walk through a busy casino to stand in line and pay way too much for a just-fair tasting cup of coffee, along with the walk back to the room with the inherent danger of spilling half of it when bumped by the other half-asleep guy on the same mission, and neither of us is in any mood for such nonsense, 'cuz we HAVEN'T HAD OUR MORNING COFFEE YET! Oh, for the chance to just savor that first cup in the tranquility of my own room! But the cost of that, too, should be included in the cost of the room." [Ed: You're not wrong that most properties in Las Vegas don't offer tea/coffee in the room, for a number of different reasons. You can read more about that in the QoDs 5/11/05 and 12/9/06, but make a call before you rely on the list of hotels that have in-room coffee, since it's been that long since we researched it.]
  
  
• "Why pay fees when you can just stay at a Harrah's property?"
  
  
• "Although I checked Internet service, a lot of times this service is restricted to places like the coffee shop, where it is free for everyone. A lot of places, like The Orleans, have free WiFi at the coffee shop as part of the resort fee, but WiFi in the guest room is still an extra $15/day. I will not pay extra fees on top of the resort fee for what was listed as an included service. In fact, I no longer stay at properties that charge a resort fee."
  
  
• "I checked 'valet' in the poll - but it's free to everyone whether staying (and thus paying) at the hotel or not. It burns me when a hotel lists valet as one of the 'services' included in the resort fee and I know that it isn't any such thing! We always print out boarding passes at the hotels. I was trying to think back over the many years we've gone to Vegas and I can't come up with a time that we've used the business center. We're not upper-level card members so - there again - we pay. And Internet ... don't even get me started on that issue! Hotel resort fees: just another expense and, unfortunately, many travelers don't know they're having to pay this extra 'tax' 'til it's too late! Thanks for the opportunity to vent!" [Ed: Actually, valet is not free everywhere -- the Stratosphere has included that service in its resort fee for years!]