Resort Fees Are Nothing

I was in Chicago this past weekend for my cousin's wedding. I got a great rate of $69 on Hotwire at the Holiday Inn North. I was allowed to use the hotel's self parking garage for the bargain price of $45 per day. I would have been happy to pay a resort fee of $25 and get unlimited local calls and save $20.

 

I just booked a room at the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia and the valet parking there is $51 a night! If I rent a car it won't be that much per day. I may just cab everywhere while I'm in town.

Stupid cities.

 

Hotel parking in Chicago is nuts. I recently stayed at the Intercontinental on Michigan Ave., it was $40/night on top of the $300+ per night for the room.

 

Hey Matty Ice ; The crazy prices around the states doesn't justify the resort fees in Las Vegas. I think you have to look at the individual circumstances and the market.All the markets are different and most try to squeeze out as many $ as they can from the touristas. Amen !!!!!!

 

Resort fees are not unique to Las Vegas. I've stayed at other Hotels/locations and been charged a resort fee for fewer amenities and places that could hardly be called resorts!

 

Yeah, I've paid resort fees in Hilton Head, so resort fees in Las Vegas don't bother me like they bother so many other people. Maybe they should say the resort fee also includes free self parking. That would then sound like a great deal!

 

Yeah, this is yet another issue where it's all relative. Like others here I regularly travel to cities like San Francisco, Chicago and New York. To me, Las Vegas is downright cheap by comparison - even with resort fees (etc.).

Bill

 

Our in-house TA has given me a different view of these resort fees. She sees it as a way for the hotel to pay less commission on rooms sold through agents, which would include the on-line travel sites. Agents get a commission on the base price of the room, and not on any nuisance fees. She was calling it a way to shift more revenue to the hotel and less to agents.

 

Hasn't it always been a way to shift the price? IE the base rate is all that shows up when you're searching on a consolidator website, so you don't see those nuisance fees until later in the booking process. It's annoying, but I totally understand why it's done - I just make sure I'm always comparing apples to apples....I don't work with travel agents, but I can see how it would be an issue for them. These days, gak, I just don't see a need or reason to work with a TA. But then I'm an oddball who loves the process of researching & booking travel for myself....

(also, parking fees a major reason I rarely rent a car. That and the drinking ;-)

 

Boom!!! +1.

 

+2.

Not many places charge for parking, specifically valet. Hotel rates are cheap for the most part when looking at solid 4* hotels.

 

For cheap parking in major cities, download an app called Spotfinder. I have used it a couple of times in NYC to find the best rates. Piggylane, you can also go to the website for the Philadelphia Parking Authority to check out garages near the Ritz Carlton.

 

It's hard for me to compare a mandatory resort fee in Vegas for stuff I mostly won't use with an optional parking/valet fee, especially if the hotel is in a metro area with ample public transportation and taxi service. I've seen a few hotels in suburban areas with parking fees that made me raise an eyebrow but even if I don't like it, I can understand why a downtown hotel would have limited parking and assess a fee.

 

Our in-house TA (her job title is officially "Travel Counselor") is the only agent I use, for business (mandatory) and sometimes for pleasure, as we're allowed to use her for personal trips as well. She is very savvy regarding rates and trends in the industry. She works with a couple of "aggregators" and can often (not always) get us "corporate rates" at various properties. She has saved me a bunch on personal downtown Chicago trips! Not so much on NYC trips, since I usually stay across the moat in the LIC area. For Las Vegas, lately we've been doing great on casino rates and comps, so we haven't used her much. (ObResortFee: Negotiated corporate rates often are not subject to resort fees.)

For air, I always bounce the on-line rate off of her before I book. Sometimes she will say "I know I can beat that", sometimes she will say it's a great rate and to take it, and sometimes she will say 50/50 so I'll go with her so I have somebody I know to scream at if something goes wrong.

 

I actually had a feeling it was a corp TA - I don't use one at work (it's optional for us) and it costs $$ to use them for personal trips. But it is nice to be able to bounce prices off someone to see if it's a good deal or not. Most of my business travel is international (and rare) so those corporate rates at hotels and for rental cars aren't really applicable but I definitely know they can be great (I'm an avid Flyertalk reader ;-) For personal travel, we tend to prefer apartment rentals or more "local" hotels, so again, not going to find a lot of discounts (except traveling off-season, which we love to do....)

 

I have the HotelTonight app, and it gives me discounts on last minute hotels, and some of the self parking fees are 25 bucks for a 69 dollar a night hotel, or for a 100 dollar a night hotel no parking fees.. or some hotels are 25 for parking yourself and 45 for valet parking..

 

There is an app called bestparking. It will give you rates for nearby garages, if you do no mind walking you can save well over half. If you have someone with you, drop bags off then go and park...

But yes I agree it is insane hotel parking here...

 

I usually fly to Vegas and get a shuttle to the hotel, but I typically drive maybe once or twice a year. If parking wasn't free in Vegas, I would definitely fly every time. I live across the street from a light rail station which costs $1.75. I can take a bunch of transfers to the airport for that $1.75. It takes over an hour to get to the airport. The shuttle to the hotel costs me around $7 plus $2 tip.

The part I don't like about driving is driving home falling asleep and still a little drunk.

 

Is there any substantive evidence of this paid parking speculation other than, just that, speculation?

 

A room at the Holiday Inn in Fairmont Minnesota is about $150 a night. Fairmont is THE definition of Bumblefuck, Nowhere. One of the main reasons I really don't complain too much about spending $45 a night after resort fees in Vegas for a place like The D.