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 - 18:13 / smartertravel.com / Tim Winship
With the widespread imposition and quick escalation of parking fees, Las Vegas hotels seem to have little interest in preserving the city’s reputation as a budget-friendly destination. And it’s not just the parking fees.
Last week, two popular hotels, the Venetian and the Palazzo, raised their so-called resort fees to $45 a night. That’s up from $39 a night previously, and now the highest such fees in Las Vegas.
Today, resort fees remain at $39 per night at many of the pricier hotels, including the Aria, Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Mandarin Oriental, and Wynn.
Related:These Are America’s 10 Most Sinful StatesResort fees are the mandatory surcharges hotels impose for a slew of services that travelers may or may not need or use. Here’s how they’re described by the FTC in a report overtly critical of the practice:
The overwhelming consensus among both travelers and the media is that resort fees amount to legal extortion. They should be banned.
For now, Las Vegas hotels will keep squeezing travelers ever-harder, until occupancy rates fall off or the government restricts their use.
Reader Reality Check
Have you ever been blindsided by a hotel’s resort fee?
More from SmarterTravel: In Another United Fiasco, Family’s Dog Dies During Flight What Matters Most to Travelers on Hotel Review Sites The World’s 10 Happiest and 5 Unhappiest Countries, RankedAfter 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.
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.
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.
For U.S. News & World Report, the road from weekly news magazine to publisher of company rankings has been a long and winding one. The key, though, to its shift toward data-driven ratings of companies and institutions was its 1983 publication of “America’s Best Colleges.”
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.