Unbelievably.....one casino hotel charges an extra $25 to let guests “eat off dishes”....... when ordering its exorbitant room service offerings.
“The extreme tactics Las Vegas hotels are using as hotspot faces worst crisis in years”
A fellow FReeper asked me why people are attacking Vegas in response to one of my postings where I only mentioned parking and facility fees (up to about $90 per night, including tax, by the way), so as I run across more charges, I decided to keep a file on what Vegas is doing to kill off tourism with 1000 cuts, including a few stabs. Here’s what I have so far, mostly from a video that I recently saw:
1. Parking and Facility Fees.
2. Dynamic Drink Pricing (new for 2025 at several joints), also real-time happy hour cancelations when too crowded.
3. Premium Room Fees (buried in fine print, get a nice view, you find out during checkout).
4. Pool Access Fees (many joints, $25-40; chair $25-50, towel fees, chair reservation fees).
5. ATM Fees - $10 to $15, plus one’s own bank fees (also surge fees on ATMs)
6. Room Service Delivery Fees (delivery fees $9-$15, plus about 20% mandatory tip)
7. Technology Fee (3-5%, for betting)
8. Ticket and Entertainment Fees (convenience charges, processing charges, and facility fees)
9. Concession and Venue Charges (3 to 8%, plus tax, plus gratuity)
10. Online Booking and Convenience Fees ($10 to $40 per reservation - hotels, restaurants)
11. Energy and Carbon Surcharges ($4 to $8) - In Vegas! LOL.
Las Vegas was a money laundering service when the Mafia owned it. When they gave it up, it had to make money.
Let the mob run it again.
Now the hotels and casinos are run by investment groups who have accountants who are squeezing tourists for every cent. Hotel parking is no longer free. Buffet's are expensive. Everything that was formerly cheap for free now has a fee.
Two different business models.
I have seen a couple of You Tubers upload videos on the downfall of Vegas.
Table games with “human” interaction have two tiers with the much better odds offered for those betting higher amounts.
Secondly they’ve increased the square footage given slots.
I don’t know all that much about “slots” except they now involve an “electronic” screen.
I also know there are a lot of video gaming machines offered where I live whether they are stand alone parlors or offered at bars and restaurants.
Eventually a “screen” is a “screen” and the folk attracted and addicted to this kind of “gambling” can stay home and save money.
I’m enough of a libertarian to not care much if folk gamble whether it be legally or illegally, but GREEDY politicians at the state and local level have allowed gambling to spread out of control because the licensing and tax revenues have made them partners in the rackets.
I remember when the pols first took over the numbers rackets now known as the lottery.
They made big promises about revenues going to education.
In Illinois they paid Michael Jordan millions to pimp the numbers racket in television commercials aimed at what Rush might call “low information” consumers.
Actually if one studies lottery commercials many are aimed at the 13 per centers.
My favorite example is black folk at the Christmas tree with stockings hanging at the fireplace thanking one another for giving each other lottery scratch cards.
Nowadays no one notices this racial component as most commercials seemed to be aimed at the 13 per centers.
When I had to go to Vegas to work, I usually stayed at one of the motels across the expressway. One time I needed to stay downtown so I went with the Golden Nugget. Extra fee for the lights on Fremont Street. I always stayed away from the Strip, but I did walk a few blocks down Fremont and buy an overpriced hot dog for supper.
If I wanted to do a casino, there’s a couple about an hour and a half from where I live; or there’s Louisiana about 3 hours away.
List goes on and on.
When people came back from Vegas they’d tell people, “I had a great time, definitely going again”.
Now the message is, “it’s outrageously expensive, not going back”.
They pushed the prices to the point of “short term benefit”, now are experiencing the longer-term effect.
It’s still a bucket-list location -but instead of encouraging you to come again, you leave thinking, “never coming back”....and that word gets out.
Which is why I subscribe to the idea that when you find a deal you do not ever put it on social media or else it will be gone next time.
The other part of it was that they had so many people there to exploit the deals that they felt comfortable taking advantage of them in other places. They did not considered that all the people there were not part of the swarm and just there for a good time and a couple of cheapies if they could find it.
Social media threw the balance off of everything.
I lived in LV about 10 yrs ago, have been periodically since then. for the casual traveler it is a lot worse.
resort fees to fund the various stadiums substantially inflate room prices.
parking fees are almost ubiquitous on the strip (TI and CC the exceptions last I saw)
loss-leader buffets are gone. used to, some buffets were a jaw-dropping value and would get people in the door.
for family travel, just the above can add up to over a couple hundred bucks a day.
other negatives - the strip has a lot more Avenida Central vibe to it with drugs everywhere. Fremont might as well be an open-air drug bar now. 10 yr ago daytime it still was a decent family destination. the zipline might as well advertise ‘zip through clouds of chemicals’ now.
in aggregate, a lot of what might once have brought people to vegas is changed for the worse, and the price of being there is substantially higher.
The last time we were in Vegas we stayed at an upscale hotel/casino on the strip. Hotel was very nice, but if you wanted to all to another property etc on the strip, it was pretty gross.
My guess is the taxpayers were heavily subsidizing Las Vegas.
I lived in vegas for a couple of years in the early aughts, and went back last year to find it NOTHING like I remember. (Yes, it’s been 20 years, but I had been going to computer shows in Vegas for 10 years prior, and despite the occasional casino implosion spectacle nothing really changed.) I was shocked when I was charged to PARK. That had never been a thing. I was shocked at how hard I had to look to find a breakfast buffet one morning.
Vegas turned into a pit.
I think very few of those who were there “X number of years ago” when it was a whole lot better, have any desire to go back these days.
the other big reason vegas is dying is the indian casinos. go to any indian casino resort of your choice.
At least the hookers are free for the big players....