The South Point casino resort in Las Vegas has just announced the addition of nightly resort fee charges beginning March 1, 2013. The added nightly fees will be $12.50 plus tax ($14 total). According to their website, the fees will cover internet charges, fitness center access, local/toll-free calls, airport shuttle to and from the hotel, valet parking, and a fun book.
This announcement follows recent nightly resort fee additions at Caesars Entertainment ($10 - $25) and Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas ($25 ) properties in Vegas (see linked articles below). Both Caesars and the Cosmopolitan had either heavily and successfully marketed no resort fee policies (Caesars) or made statements suggesting that they'd never implement the resort fee charges (Cosmopolitan). The bean counters overrode those approaches, apparently.
Regardless of how Las Vegas hotels attempt to market a transition to additional nightly resort fees, in the end the only real outcome is increased hotel revenue with a high profit margin. Many Vegas hotel guests seldom use most or all of the 'amenities and services' offered under the proverbial resort fee umbrella. The charges are mandatory regardless if specific guests utilize the services or not, and therein lies the real travesty of now commonplace resort fee charges in Vegas. Further, many guests have been shocked at check-in or check-out because resort fee charges are buried within the fine print of booking reservation engines.
Las Vegas hotel management could shine a better light on themselves if they'd just hike their nightly room rates rather than implementing charges for services that most guests don't use. Better yet, why couldn't some innovative Vegas hotelier make the individual service charges optional for guests that desire their use? Regardless, Vegas visitors should get used to the fact that resort fees are now standard operational procedure at most Las Vegas hotels.
Article info source = Vegas Chatter
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