What Casinos Charge Resort Fees on Comped Rooms?

Could you please look into the new policy at the M resort of charging resort fees for comp hotel stays? Do any of the other casinos have this policy? It seems that the M is starting to cut corners in order to save money leading to lower value for their patrons.

We answered this question a couple years ago and essentially, nothing has changed — except, as you might expect, that the policy of charging resort fees on comped rooms has gotten tighter. Thanks for letting us know about M.

And yes, most other major casinos do charge resort fees on comped rooms — and tax on the fees to boot. But as always around here, there’s no real cut-and-dried answer; in this case, it often depends on a couple of factors: at which casino you have the comp and which casino department has issued the comp.

The marketing department might have a promotion going that waives the resort fee for rooms — for example, an invitational tournament for high rollers where everything’s free.

The casino itself, on the other hand, might give you a comp for a free room that doesn’t include the resort fee. From what we know, more often than not, a casino comp doesn’t include the resort fee, which is on you.

At some casinos, such at Caesars Entertainment's properties and the Cosmo, if you’re in the highest players club tiers, the resort fee is waived. In addition, if you give a particular casino a lot of play on a trip where your room is comped and take it up with your host before you check out, you can often negotiate away the fee.

Some casinos won’t charge you the resort fee, but will charge for the services that the fee covers. The most common is wifi. Last we heard, this was true at Treasure Island. Also, at some casinos you have to put down an incidentals deposit.

As far as we know, the Downtown Grand, South Point, Rampart, Tuscany, and Boyd casinos, including the Canneries, don't charge resort fees on room comps.

If anyone knows of any others, we’d like to hear about it in the comments.

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Comments

David Miller May-31-2019

More gouging...

  Ripping off the goose that lays the Golden eggs is what these greed merchants will do until people come to their senses and quit going to Vegas.

Jerry Patey May-31-2019

Resort fees

Orleans does not. At least last time 3 months ago they Did not. I have  stayed for extra days and they do not charge me a Resort fee. Fremont does not. 4Queens has no resort fees. I am at sapphire level. I guess that is benefit of sapphire level. Don’t know v

David May-31-2019

Casinos made money in the 80s

Casinos all made money in the 80s. Now this is just greed. If you ever wonder what the 99% means when they say "The system is rigged" just look at casino practices. They grossly overpay for expansion, because they somehow (shareholder pressue) think they need to grow. The expansion leads to efficiencies, i.e., job cuts, service cuts, etc. Then to make back their stupid over-payment they need to gouge the customer. Las Vegas will collapse because it insists of solving for shareholders first when it used to solve for customers and employee first.

David Sabo May-31-2019

RESORT FEES

My free room offers at Golden Nugget and Circus Circus have no resort fees. Not all free room dates with CC have no resort fees but most are free.

Kurt Wiesenbach May-31-2019

No resort fee for me, so far

I don't stay at hotels that often, but I was just at the Palms for Memorial day weekend, and didn't get charged a resort fee. Same goes for the Hard Rock the few times I've stayed there.

Hoozdo May-31-2019

Station Casinos

There is no resort fees at Red Rock, Green Valley Ranch, Sunset Station, or the Palms. I don't know about any of the rest of the Stations.  

Also, there is no resort fee at Rampart Casino.

snowgolfer May-31-2019

Silverton doesn't charge

the last time I stayed at the Silverton (about 2 months ago) they didn't charge me resort fees on comped rooms and on my next trip they said they will be waived at check out.

Dave May-31-2019

EL CORTEZ

Got thru the mail, 3 night offer. Was pleased to find out no resort fees added on, doing it again in a couple months. They are out there.....

David Todd May-31-2019

My experience

El Cortez never charged me a resort fee on my comped room but haven’t stayed there in over a year since they took out their 8/5 BP. Now we stay at Red Rock in a reduced price room (player’s club) and they charge half-price resort fee. I can live with that as it’s a really nice property with free parking and great restaurants, pool, and spa. Oh, and lots of full-pay VP.

Larry Stone May-31-2019

mgm resorts

Hi, all the MGM resorts in LV charge fees on comped rooms.  Along the East Coast, MGM Springfield Mass charges fees.  Mohegan Sun CT charges zero.  The new Resorts World Catskills charges zero.  In Atlantic City NJ all hotels charge fees of about $25 a night except Caesars/Bally/Harrahs which only charge $5.00!

Kenneth May-31-2019

Downtown

The D and Golden Gate downtown don’t charge them.  The Plaza doesn’t either.

Gregory May-31-2019

El Cortez

El Cortez, like all casinos have different levels of comps.  I did some digging a couple of months ago and found that there are at least 5 different comp levels @ ElCo.  Some of the lowest levels do not waive the RF on comped rooms.   Some of the highest levels waive the resort fee for additional nights (beyond comped nights) that are charged at casino rate.

Sam Glantzow May-31-2019

B Connected

no resort fees at Orleans or Gold Coast on comps. Good to know about Palms. It's also why I pass on comped rooms at any of the M Life properties

[email protected] May-31-2019

TI

Your intelligence on TI is right - the resort fee is waived unless you want to pay it (which might make sense for someone who plans to take advantage of all the amenities).  I do pay for wifi, but generally just take it once every two days (taking it late one day pretty much covers the next day, too).

bobr May-31-2019

About the M

I definitely noticed the fine print recently when the offers I received started stating a resort fee would be added.  On the other hand, as a marginal player, I had stopped receiving free room offers.  "Free" room offers now, though, have started coming again.

This is similar to MGM.  Now that they get $40/day for a "free" room, even though I play very little there I get midweek room offers.  I think Harrah's was the first to mine that vein.

I wish Cosmo would do the same, since they are such a great place to stay, but even with a lot more play than MGM gets I haven't seen a "free" offer for a while.

Roy Furukawa May-31-2019

Not Sure

I see some people say they pay resort fees as comped/hosted players at MGM resorts, but I have not paid one in years. I play both tables and slots and occasionally get in their buy-in slot tournaments. So I am not sure how it's determined for who does/does not pay the fees.

marcellot May-31-2019

comped room/resort fees

I have been staying at Venetian/Palazzo last 10 years always comped. I asked about resort fee being waived the first trip due to me never using any of the added features and my host always took care of them. Ask your host if you have one

Jun-01-2019

El Cortez

We need to make a distinction between the two different kinds of comps. The term "comped" normally connotes that we have played first, then gone to a host for evaluation, and then the host waived the lodging charge for the stay. The other kind of "comp" is the free-room offer that comes ahead of time via either email or U.S. mail; it simply offers us a free room for 3 nights (or whatever) and doesn't require any certain amount of play to get the room for free (though such offers may end if you don't give the desired amount of play).  I've never tried to get a free room at the El Cortez through the former method, but in the past, I got a lot of free-room offers through advance mailings.  Those past offers for a free room always wound up waiving the resort fee.  I can't say for sure that this is still the case after the most recent changes in policy; perhaps another member still gets free offers and can comment. But the EC's resort fee is almost the lowest in all of Las Vegas.

Question of the Day - 31 May 2019

Comments