How much will you be charged for that hotel stay? The answer, of course, should be obvious: You’ll pay the published rate, plus government-imposed taxes and fees. Whatever that total turns out to be is your price.
27.07.2023 - 18:55 / smartertravel.com / Tim Winship
Vegas has come a long way, baby. No longer a Mecca for gambling and other less licit activities, the city has become synonymous with family fun, world-class dining, and big-name entertainment.
In the process, the value proposition has evolved as well. When gambling was the city’s primary economic engine, the hotels happily courted chance-takers with $5 prime rib dinners, $19-a-night rooms, and complimentary parking. Vegas visits were cheap trips, because much of the cost of travel was subsidized by gamblers’ losses.
No more. Today, Vegas hotel rates are no bargain, especially when the mandatory “resort fees,” typically around $30 a night, are factored in. Dining on the cheap means downgrading to a Happy Meal. And the end of free parking is less than a month away.
Related:Wyndham’s Rewards Program Is Now More RewardingBeginning on June 6, MGM Resorts International will begin charging as much as $10 for self-parking, and up to $18 for valet parking, at its 14 Las Vegas hotels (ARIA, Bellagio, Circus Circus, Excalibur, Luxor, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage, New York-New York, and several others).
In a recent email sent to members of the company’s M life Rewards program, MGM’s vice president of loyalty marketing rationalized the new fees thusly:
Outdated and inefficient facilities? I spent several days this year at MGM’s Luxor hotel, arriving and departing at peak times over a holiday weekend, and the free parking facilities worked just fine. No hassle, no frustration. Which leads me to wonder: Of that $90 million, how much will be spent on simply converting facilities to accommodate paid parking, adding meters and ticket kiosks and toll booths and the like?
M life Rewards members who have earned Pearl status or above will be able to self-park for free; members with Gold status and above can valet park for free. But with points expiring after just six months of inactivity for entry-level members, M life is not a program designed to reward infrequent Las Vegas visitors. They—most of us, that is—will pay to park.
It’s the new normal, baby.
Reader Reality Check
Are you more or less inclined to visit the “new” Vegas?
More from SmarterTravel: Delta Puts Award Tickets on Sale Southwest, JetBlue Tops in Award-Seat Availability The Best Mileage Program for Average TravelersAfter 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.
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How much will you be charged for that hotel stay? The answer, of course, should be obvious: You’ll pay the published rate, plus government-imposed taxes and fees. Whatever that total turns out to be is your price.
Today’s announcement that Southwest has a new marketing relationship with a rideshare company was no surprise. As rideshare services have become an ever-larger part of the travel landscape, such tie-ups have proliferated. It won’t be long before every airline and hotel loyalty program has a rideshare company on its roster of points-earning partners.
Planning a road trip this summer? For the sake of safety and peace of mind, your own and others’, add this to the pre-departure to-do list: a review of your driving habits. After all, while there’s nothing you can do to change other drivers’ bad habits, you are at least in control of your own.
It’s a fact of loyalty-program life: Airline and hotel programs periodically adjust their award prices. Of course, those adjustments amount to price hikes more often than not. And, all things being equal, higher award prices amount to an overall devaluation of the program.
As changes to hotel-program award prices go, the latest for InterContinental’s IHG Rewards are decidedly modest: Prices for award nights at 400 hotels will change by either 5,000 or 10,000 points, half moving up, half moving down. If it were just that 50-50 split, Rewards members might dismiss it as a wash and count their blessings. After all, “It could have been worse.”
Likely in response to JetBlue’s systemwide double-points promotion, in effect through February 29, Virgin America is also offering double points, but only on select routes.
Following is our regular summary of the latest travel news and best frequent traveler promotions reviewed during the past week.
Enter the Liberty Richter “Kitchens of India” sweepstakes by June 15, 2016, for a chance to win the grand prize: a six-day trip for two to New Delhi, India, including air, transfers, and hotel.
Could you justify spending $35,000 for a year’s worth of unlimited business-class flights between New York and London or Paris? Probably not. But if so, La Compagnie has a deal for you.
By traditional measures, Alaska Airlines is a carrier of decidedly modest size, even after its acquisition of Virgin America. Its own flight network is small, compared to those of American, Delta, and United. And it’s not a member of one of the three global airline alliances.
I’m not a fan of flash sales or flash promotions. I understand the motivation from the travel suppliers’ standpoint, but snooze-you-lose offers are manipulative and disrespectful.
Supersonic speed – mainstream fares