Comments on: Vegas hotel + opaque site + resort fee = T-R-O-U-B-L-E

By: lasvegashotels

lasvegashotels — Sun, 29 May 2011 03:19:53 +0000

Also, resort fees should just be made illegal. The amenities that the hotel offers contribute to its rating and desirability to travelers and vacationers. The pricing that they give their customers should include all charges the hotel deems necessary to operate their property and make a profit. If a hotel beilds a new golf course on its property, don’t start charging me an $80 a night resort fee. Charge me more for the room and explain to the customers that it is because the amenities include golfing. After all, I am sure the hotel touts that as a benefit to staying there.

An example of this would be Motel 6. They offer low room rates and tell you up front that they offer internet service for $3 a day. (it’s optional) Other places just offer the service and roll that charge into the room rate, which is just fine. I would object strongly to an itemized add on charge of $3 for internet service.

By: bouzaglou gilda

bouzaglou gilda — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:05:42 +0000

sorry but it is ripe off to charge 20.00 dollars a day for resort fee . i would not go to vegas any more and if i go i will stay out of vegas thank you

By: Tim M

Tim M — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 16:43:39 +0000

The family of hotels that owns Caesars Palace don’t have resort fees. This includes Caesars, Flamingo, Paris Las Vegas, Bally’s,
Imperial Palace and Harrah’s Las Vegas. http://www.hoteldealsrevealed.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=434
This is a good list for resort fees.

By: Alicia B.

Alicia B. — Mon, 17 May 2010 21:41:59 +0000

Over Mother’s Day weekend, we paid for a suite at the Palazzo as a wedding gift for my best friend and his new wife. When I checked them in the clerk reminded me about the $17 p/n resort fee and when I asked her what it covered (spa/gym access, internet, water, newspaper) I told her that none of this would be needed or used and I asked if the fee could be waived. Because she couldn’t do it she got her manager who, after I explained that this was my friend’s honeymoon night, she graciously waived it. Although I don’t think this is the norm, I do appreciate the extra effort.

I do not think we should be charged for extras we don’t utilize. If I want to enjoy the spa, then fine charge me. But if I don’t use the spa or the internet or if I have my own water and newspaper, then I don’t want to be charged for it. Just because there are some guests in the hotel that will utilize those things doesn’t mean ALL guests should be charged for it.

But people, please read the reservation fine print especially with Priceline and Hotel.com…getting your money back in this day and age is like pulling teeth from a toothless person…it’ll never happen :)

By: Jackie Smith

Jackie Smith — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:47:48 +0000

We just spent a week in Las Vegas and both hotels we stayed at — booked through Expedia.com — levied resort fees. The first three-night stay at the Suncoast in Summerlin was $5 per night and included in-room single, paper-cup coffee and use of the safe in the room. We moved to the Palazzo on the Strip where the resort fee jumped to just under $14 a day but included wi-fi and use of the spa facilities. It seemed a lot until we compared it to a previous stay at Wynn (across the street) where we paid no resort fee but use of the exercise facility was quoted at $25 a day per person and internet connection was $14 daily.
Expedia clearly points out the resort fee as part of the booking process. The funny part is that we opted not to book the Red Rock Canyon resort because its resort fee was $25 a day bringing the real rate up to $155 – I’d written a blog entry complaining about resort fee add on’s . . .silly us, they all do it!

By: Ken Zablotny

Ken Zablotny — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:29:37 +0000

Add me to the list of resort fees that are charged by the property and NOT disclosed to the customer (bidder) on Priceline. I bid on Tucson Golf club last summer and there is nothing in the bid fine print or in the final price that tells you that you will pay a RESORT FEE. You never hear about this until you get your credit card bill and find it charged…long after you have left the property.
Priceline needs to alter their site and fully disclose each fee that is additional with each individual resort that they represent….I did dispute the charge with AMEX and they credited my account, but the resort would not budge on giving me the money back….Last time I will stay there and will go out of my way to tell others also….

By: Kirk

Kirk — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:46:10 +0000

What concerns me most about this situation is Priceline’s response. Just the fact they didn’t say something to the effect of, “We’re investigating ways of disclosing resort fees prior to bidding…” but instead gave a fresh-faced answer to a respected travel writer tells me that Priceline may not be the best company to give your money to when you have a choice.

By: David Z

David Z — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 02:03:48 +0000

Our travel agency sometimes get this complaint. A problem here is the hotel doesn’t always tell us if they finally charge a resort fee or what-not, and that’s inspite of our periodic checking with them.

We give partial refunds in cases where our web site, say, indicates parking is free but it’s verified the hotel charges for it. Case to case.

By: ajaynejr

ajaynejr — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:56:50 +0000

Half of the blame goes to Priceline because they can’t or won’t tell you exactly how much it is going to cost you.

Half of the blame goes to the hotels. Any charge that applies to all rooms at the hotel and is not the same (either in percent or in dollars) for all other hotels in the vicinity should be part of the room rate.

My recommendation: Bid insultingly.

This way you will still be below the competition.

By: Disneynut

Disneynut — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:09:43 +0000

This is a particular problem with opaque sites that use the ‘bidding’ model where the hotel details aren’t revealed until after payment is made. Other “undercover” hotel sites let you see the hotel details before you book it. At a site I checked this week the Trump Las Vegas, while undercover, plainly listed the $15 resort fee under the details section before you book. In that case, I think it’s fair to expect the guest to pay it. (Although it should be added to the room night charge, if you ask me.)

By: Kevin M

Kevin M — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:55:54 +0000

I think one reason no one’s mentioned thus far for hotels to charge “resort fees” is simple: I believe commissions to travel agencies are paid on the room rate, exclusive of incidental fees. Hence, knocking $15 off the room rate but recovering it via a “resort fee” means that $15 isn’t in the commission base.

The fees have the added bonus, of course, of being tacked on top of opaque-site bids – as several folks noted, if hotel A levies a resort fee of $15/day, it can accept a slightly lower bid than hotel B, with no resort fee, might be willing to accept – and yet still net more money. It’s a sleazy practice.

\LeeAnne noted above about doing your homework and seeing what’s out there, so that when you make a bid on these sites, you have a pretty good idea of what you might be getting. But that defeats the purpose of opaque sites, which is supposed to save you time shopping around by simply naming the price you’re willing to pay for set accommodations. You don’t have to be an attorney billing $200/hour for your time to be worth a considerable amount; if I’m going to spend two hours researching alternatives, I’m going to want to decide exactly where I’m staying and know exactly how much I’m paying.

By: larry bradley

larry bradley — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:05:06 +0000

To Erica, You were not “charged more than you could have received from other web sites or the hotel itself” at priceline.com. You BID more than what you could have paid elsewhere. This tells me that you did not do ALL of the proper research before placing your bid such as using biddingfortravel.com and betterbidding.com as well as looking up the rates of all possible hotels on their own web sites.

By: Charles

Charles — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:36:36 +0000

@ Jeff, you provide a lot of interesting information, but I can’t believe your hotel, if it has a casino attached to it, is making that kind of money off the “resort fee” because there’s no way you’re charging that rate to your high rollers, celebrity guests performing their shows and staying in your “star suites”, or even your middle-of-the-road gamblers who get a free room once in a while.

A nice revenue stream, sure, but even at 100% occupany all year long they couldn’t possibly be pulling down $ 6.5 million from it. Still even if it is half that, not bad. I still think its ridiculous that it can’t be built into the rate.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:19:36 +0000

@ Jeff, I really appreciate you offering your input. However, in this case, the fees were NOT disclosed up front as suggested by the priceline website. as others have said, the hotel could just tack on a $100 a night fee for using priceline.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:09:16 +0000

Priceline is a company with a history of shady dealings.

Consider that they are one of the 88 Web stores that sold their customers financial information to one of three marketers–Vertrue, Affinion and Webloyalty–firms that are now under congressional investigation. http://tinyurl.com/y9j6vbt