Book Now Before Customer-Requested Resort Fees Kick In
Having “No resort fees” added to my daily rate has been the reason why I have been selecting Caesars Entertainment hotels when visiting Las Vegas. This reason is soon going away. Caesars announced that they will start charging resort fees in their Sin City properties for new bookings on or after March 1, 2013.
The reason stated by Caesars for wavering from their long-standing marketing of “No resort fees” is because their customers are asking for it, they say.
“This is in response to the increasing demand from our guests to provide a package price instead of the inconvenience of separate fees,” said Gary Thompson, director of corporate communications at Caesars Entertainment. “We continue to do all we can to provide our guests with the best value, best products and best experiences in Las Vegas.”
I’m definitely NOT in the list of customers who want this package price! I bring my own wifi card so don’t need their internet. My workout consists of miles and miles of walking up and down the Strip and back and forth thru convention halls. Granted, my right arm hasn’t been getting the exercise it used now that the one-armed bandits are push button-driven, but an upper body workout isn’t reason enough for me to pay resort fees to have access to the fitness center for a few days.
Expect fees in the $10 to $25 per night range at these Caesars Entertainment properties:
· THE QUAD: $10
· BALLY’S: $15
· FLAMINGO: $18
· HARRAH’S: $18
· RIO LAS VEGAS: $18
· PARIS LAS VEGAS: $20
· PLANET HOLLYWOOD: $20
· CAESARS PALACE (and Nobu Hotel): $25
The new resort-fee policy will also apply to Caesars’ Lake Tahoe properties, but so far has not been extended to other markets.
The charges will reportedly cover internet access, fitness center usage, printing of airline boarding passes, local phone calls…regardless if guests use any or all of the listed services.
All guests who have booked rooms prior to March 1st (including future stay dates beyond March 1) will not be assessed the new fees, so if you’re planning a stay at one of these hotels, book before March 1st. After that, good luck in finding a Las Vegas Strip hotel without resort fees (here’s one: the LVH still brags “No resort fees).
So … are you one of the customer asking for this?
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There should be a law against resort fees. Or options to have it taken off if you dont use those anmenities.
These are the worst thing ever, and such a lame excuse. If some customers want it then make it optional for those customers!
Caesars is hurting, guys. They haven’t been able to build in Macau, and Vegas is getting hit hard. I don’t think they’ve turned a profit in years, and have around $20B in debt. They have multiple cost cutting projects going on right now (I was staffed on one of them for about 6-8 months)
I was wondering how long it would take for them to pull this trigger – cutting costs is one thing, but I guess they finally have to raise prices, and resort fees are a great way to “keep prices low” and then really charge a lot more. It’s a deceptive practice that ultimately hurts their relationship with their guests, but I guess they have no other choice.
They are so far in debt at this point, that they can’t afford to keep up their hotels properly…just another reason you should not be investing in their stock…ever!
This is an unfortunate move in having extra fees for hotels like airline’s fuel surcharges, where the cost should just be bundled into the nightly rate.
I hope the US passes a similar law for the hotel industry where the total price must be shown upon booking as well.