The Las Vegas Strip has always been a place where value mixes with absurd luxury.
Low-level players used to get comped buffets or free drinks, while high-end players would stay in free suites where, between games, they shopped in high-end luxury stores.
Las Vegas still has comps, but the post-pandemic-era, prices and fees have generally surged.
As a formerly frequent Las Vegas visitor who can get comped at Caesars properties most nights of the year, I curtailed my Vegas Strip visits when the cost of my daily Starbucks latte climbed nearly $12 for a grande (medium).
That’s more than twice what I pay in Florida.
You expect airport-style price at places like Starbucks or hotel convenience stores when on the Las Vegas Strip, but there’s a line between accounting for higher rent and price gouging.
In recent years, Las Vegas Strip resort casinos including those owned by Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International have raised resort fees, brought back parking fees, and quietly found new ways to shake their customers’ pockets until every last dime falls out.
Image source: Rolf_52/Shutterstock
This Las Vegas Strip fee should make you angry
Our friends at CasinoNews.org shared a number of outrageous Las Vegas Strip fees in a recent article. Some, like a $26 bottle of water and a $60 early check-in fee, seemed like run-of-the-mill price gouging, but one fee being charged at Bellagio, an MGM property, jumped out at us.
“In May, Vital Vegas revealed that the Bellagio charges room-service customers for the luxury of receiving real plates, silverware, glassware, and linen napkins. They call it an ‘operation charge’ for ‘Classic Service.’”
The waiter does not stay in your room and serve your food. You’re paying a $25 fee to have your food served on plate with actual silverware.
Related: Another off-the-Las-Vegas-Strip resort closing
You can, however, opt to pick up your food yourself and eat it out of boxes with plastic utensils. That option, which isn’t actually “room service” because you have to pick it up, is called “Takeout Service,” and the hotel charges $10 to not deliver your meal or have to pick up actual plates and silverware.
Social media reports have also shown that Cosmopolitan and Mandalay Bay have also been using this fee.
Essentially, MGM has tacked on a fee to serve your dinner order on plates, and the chain has decided that it’s reasonable to tack on $10 for an order you pick up.
Las Vegas experts push back on fees
While they focused on broader fees, not specific ones like above, Las Vegas leaders have criticized resorts for charging too many fees. Leora Azoulay, president of Incentives by Design Inc., in Las Vegas, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the big casino operators need to make changes to help Las Vegas reverse its visitor slide.
“There are several of us in the industry that are very supportive of getting some kind of moratorium on resort fees. Anything we can [do to] get the people to come back is important…because right now there is at least a perception that we’re overpricing people,” she told the newspaper.
Las Vegas by the numbers:
- Room occupancy rates are off 7.6% points to 76.1%.
- The average daily room rate is down 3.4% to $155.
- Passenger traffic at Harry Reid International Airport is off 4.4% and has been down every month since January.
- Revenue per available room, a profitability gauge that takes gaming and nongaming revenue into account, is down 8.5%.
Source: LVCVA, via the Las Vegas Review-Journal
Price, however, isn’t everything, Amanda Belarmino, an assistant professor at UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hospitality told the Review-Journal.
“Consumer satisfaction has consistently been found to have an impact on loyalty and repeat intentions more so than value itself. Value is one aspect of satisfaction, but price is not value. Creating value is about creating memorable experiences, and that we continue to do in abundance,” she shared.
Parking costs at key Las Vegas Strip properties
MGM Resorts
Bellagio, Aria, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, New York, New York Park MGM, Vdara, Cosmopolitan and more.
- Self-parking: $20/day Mon.-Thur., $25/day Fri.-Sun.
- Hotel guests: $20/day flat with in-out
- Valet: $40/day
- Perks: Nevada locals get 3 hours free; MGM Rewards Pearl+ members get free self-parking; Gold+ members get free valet service.
Caesars Entertainment
Caesars Palace, Paris, Flamingo, Harrah’s, Horseshoe, LINQ, Planet Hollywood, Cromwell, and more.
- Self-parking: $20/day Mon.-Wed., $25/day Thur.-Sun.
- Hotel guests: $20/day flat with in-out
- Valet: $40/day
- Perks: Nevada locals get three hours free; Caesars Rewards Platinum+ get free self and valet parking.
Related: Las Vegas Strip uses shady pricing practices for basic items
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