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 - 18:29 / smartertravel.com / Tim Winship
How high can mandatory resort fees go? Sky high, apparently.
Notwithstanding an overwhelming consensus among travelers and the media that the fees amount to legal extortion, resort operators just can’t get enough of them.
In late 2016, MGM Resorts raised resort fees at five of its properties by an average of 10 percent, following similar hikes at five Caesars hotels earlier in the year.
And now, as reported by the industry trade publication Travel Weekly, Caesars will again raise mandatory fees, from March 1, “bringing those fees in line with competition.”
Related:Starting This Week, It’s a Bare Fares WorldAt Caesars Palace, the Nobu Hotel, The Cromwell, Paris Las Vegas, and Planet Hollywood, the fees will rise by $3, to $35 a night. And at Bally’s, Flamingo Las Vegas, Harrah’s, the Linq, and Rio, fees will rise by $1, to $30.
The increased resort fees aren’t the only budget-busters in store for Las Vegas visitors. This year, the city’s room-rate tax increased from 12 percent to 13.35 percent. That applies to the resort fee as well as the base room rate. And further eroding the value of consumers’ travel dollars, fees for parking, once free, have been imposed by the majority of Las Vegas’s largest hotels, adding as much as $18 a day to the final hotel tab.
So far, the cost spikes haven’t dampened demand. According to Travel Weekly, Las Vegas visitor numbers for both 2015 and 2016 were at record levels. Occupancy rate for Las Vegas Strip hotels was 90.1 percent, even as average nightly room rates increased 4.5 percent to almost $136.
For now, the perception persists that Las Vegas is Fun City, not Expensive City. At some point, however, those unethical and extortionate resort fees are going to give Vegas a new, unwanted moniker: Rip Off City.
Reader Reality Check
Las Vegas used to be a destination as famous for its affordable hotel rates and free buffets as it was for its gambling. Is it still a bargain?
More from SmarterTravel: Travelers to DOT: No Inflight Calls, Please! Best-Ever Bonus for Starwood Credit Card Is Back How to Get Banned from Flying for LifeAfter 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.