Resort Fees On Comped Rooms

Since there has been many questions regarding this, we'll try to keep an updated list of hotels who charge a resort fee and how it is handled on a comped room as reported by the users of VMB.

 

never charged at Aria, Bellagio, NYNY, M-Bay

A few have said I would be, but was not.

 

I was charged at NYNY while on a comp. Have not been charged at MC, but I book through my host.

 

I was at the MGM Grand in September on a comp (an offer through the MLife website), and the woman at the reception was surprised when I asked were there resort fees on a comped room.

I think it's safe to say MGM Grand doesn't have them, unless they've changed their policy in the past two months.

 

Not charged at MC in October 2012; comped through a host.

 

Charged at MC today on a comped room through VIP services, not a host.

 

The Wynn, the Encore, The Hotel and MB are my go to hotels of late, and I always stay on comp there. I have yet to be charged a resort fee at any of them.

 

We've stayed at both the Orleans and Gold Coast several times on comp and have never been charged a resort fee.

 

It's our collective complacency with these resort fees that give them the audacity to levy fees on complimentary rooms.

 

I'm not sure complacency has anything to do with it. If it's your only comp, the resort fee is better than paying for a hotel room elsewhere.

 

Palms used to charge but you could get it comped sometimes at the end of the trip. They recently changed the policy to NO FEE on comped rooms.

 

Aria - never on multiple stays (most recent Nov 2011)

Monte Carlo (Hotel 32) - never (most recent Jan 2012)

Mirage - No (Oct 2011)

Bellagio - No (April 2012)

Venetian - Yes (Late 2010)

Wynn - Never (most recent May 2011)

Encore - No on 3-4 trips prior to July 2012...yes on July 2012 trip (booked via casino marketing)...no on Sept 2012 (book via host)

 

We're at Boulder Station right now on a three night comp. No Resort Fee, but, they do charge you $5.99 to hook up to their wireless Internet which is included when you do pay the Resort Fee.

 

Luxor - yes, on corporate offers, unless the offer specifically says it's waived. Have never paid it when comped via host, though.

 

Orleans official policy is that they don't charge resort fees on a comped room. That has always been the case for me. I think the report of being charged was an error by someone at the Orleans and could have been reversed. It may still be possible to have it reversed. I'd like the details on that charge, and I'll call as well and ask it be waived.

Even beyond the official break on comped rooms, when I book on B Connected, I don't get charged resort fees, although they promise to charge it. This has happened at the Orleans, at the Gold Coast and at Sam's Town. Two years ago I booked on B Connected when Sam's Town was $9.99 for every weekday for about five months. An error I assumed on the B Connected calendar because it was there less than 24 hours. I certainly expected a resort fee added to that small amount, but it was not.
Twice I asked at checkout why the charge was not on my bill. Once they told me it was an error by whoever booked and once they told me that it all depended on how I booked. They did not turn around and charge it because I asked.
I'd love more information on this. Turtleman once wrote that he was charged the resort fee after booking on B Connected. What has been the experience of others?

Perhaps both these policies have changed since I last asked.

I agree with Sco 5123. Certainly if you are their best customer and you make it clear that this is important to you, you should be heard. If nothing else, they should not want you writing letters and continually complaining, letters that they can't afford to ignore. The time it takes to answer and justify their position wastes more money than the resort fee is worth. And were a large number of good customers at any property to band together and complain with a collective voice about resort fees on top of comped rooms to everyone who might listen, I can't imagine a property not changing policy. In fact, one of the advantages to the casino that has a resort fee is that it can be used as another carrot on a stick to encourage people to play more or it can be used as incentive to encourage them to pay for upgrades. If you are already playing enough for comped rooms, the resort fee charge seems logically inconsistent. At Palazzio my brother-in-law paid for an upgrade and in the bargaining asked the resort fee be dropped. It was.

Most of the advantage to a property in having a resort fee is lost on customers who are regulars. For these folks the property does not need to come out looking better on advertised rates than competitors in emails or on discount sites, or worry that people are using the good hotel deals just for travel and not for gambling. Players who earn comps are the casino bread and butter.

And the only alternative to complacency does not have to be as strong as boycott.


However, my experience is that most of the complaining gets done on discussion boards where the complainers are preaching to the choir, and even in those discussions I see resort fee apologists every time the issue is discussed, both those who argue that the casinos are suffering and need these "benefits" and those who repeat the "just be smart like I am and do the math" arguments and attack the victim while ignoring the arguments that newbies can't be expected to be smart, or the insanity of confusion in practices like that of booking Gold Spike on Hotels.com or Expedia, where the cusomer is charged the fee upfront but the discounter repeatedly denies it is a "resort fee" and claims it is a "service fee," while telling the customer verbally (and in the fine boiler print of the contract) that resort fee will be charged by the casino at checkout, only that won't actually happen because the Gold Spike itself says the fee has already been charged by Hotels.com and Expedia upfront, making booking the Gold Spike at either of these discounters one huge, disingenuous confusion.(book directly or with booking.com)
Booking Gold Spike on Hotels.com or Expedia.com is as confusing as trying to follow that last sentence.

When this insidious practice first started, I had a long back and forth on another board about this issue, put a lot of time and work into it, only to find out that the person defending the resort fee worked for the casino and was a local who only rented a room when her family visited.

Should we do the math. Absolutely!
Does that make the resort fee a fine practice. Absolutely not!
The obligation to do the math adds confusion to booking even for the most experienced. I learned about that Gold Spike hotels.com confusion when one of the most experienced travelers here on this board thought he had avoided the resort fee at the Gold Spike because he overlooked that he had paid it in his initial booking fee to the discounter.

Look at the math you now have to do at Boulder Station if you find it, as I often do, listed as the best value on a low to high tool at a discounter site First, you have to have to know to refer to this updated board so that you can check what the latest resort fee is, and then you have to have read this thread so you know that the free wifi will cost over $5 above and beyond the resort fee that was supposed to give wifi as an amenity.(thanks DonD)

The casino should be doing the math for us up front, so that we are protected from being tricked.

I am not a purist. I'll pay the fee at Gold Spike because it is in my financial advantage. I'll pay it (if they ever actually charge it) when I pay for a room at the Boyd properties because it is tiny still, and in my mind keeping it low (while places like Tropicana and Riviera are raising theirs to a rate higher than I typically pay for a room) is a good thing that I want to encourage.
When we can't get the fee dropped, perhaps we can get it from inflating.
I do respect the purists, however, who boycott casinos that practice resort fees, and I am idealogically attracted by casinos that don't charge a resort fee. Planning my next trip, I'm attracted by Eastside Cannery, which is offering free wifi and not charging a resort fee (or a crazy hidden set up fee either), who has a coin operated laundry and no resort fee, who has a pool, and parking, and floor to ceiling glass, and a city bus that stops and pauses at their parking lot, and a nice senior $10 off the rack rate discount and no resort fee.

And if I book directly on the Gold Spike official website, the Resort fee is not hidden in the fine print but added up by the casino in my bill and listed and labeled clearly along with the taxes so I can't miss it before I hit the booking button.
At least there is that clarity.

I don't play enough negative advantage games to have any clout anywhere, but if I did, I'd be writing that casino that was keeping my money for me and pointing out the amenities-with-no-fee places that I'm considering.
And were I comped a room, I would not pay a resort fee without complaint, and my complaints would be sent over and over to different levels of the casino, along with how good a customer I was to them, and I'd organize my good customer playing friends to keep up the pressure as well. If I had a half dozen friends who all regularly tossed slot play at our same favorite casino, I'd organize them and start a regular letter writing campaign.
No one needs to change their booking habits to end complacency, just the audience of their discontent.

Oh, here is one crazy thing I noticed reported this year. Folks booked Las Vegas Club, but when they arrived could not have rooms there due to renovation and were moved to the Plaza. At checkout the Plaza wanted the resort fee (charged by Plaza but not on any Vegas Club paperwork.) They complained long and hard enough to get the fee waived.

Nice thread. Thanks for starting it.

 

Stayed at MGM in August for a comped suite and there was no resort fees on that stay.
Staying at MGM in 2 weeks on a comped renovated room and i am getting charged $25 a day resort fees on this stay.

 

Dewey, there's no resort fee on a comped room but if you want to use the wireless, it's $5.99. The girl at the front desk said that's what the the hotel paid the outside company for an access fee. The wirless is included when you pay the resort fee.

 

One point that has not been brought up that may or may not be obvious is that when you are not charged a Resort Fee on a comp'd room, you also don't get any of the ammenities provied by the Fee. If you enjoy those ammenities, the a la carte price is almost always considerably higher.

Kind of an odd (in my way of thinking) thing is at Wynncore when you're comp'd, you can't get the ammenties at the Resort Fee pkg price even if you want it. Comp=A la Carte...no other choice.

Not sure if other hotels operate like that?

 

I have never paid a resort fee in the past at MGM, but I guess that changed today. I had a two night comp through the MLIFE corporate offer in January. When I booked this, nothing was said about a resort fee so I assume I wasnt going to pay one.

Today, I changed this reservation because I could get three comped nights. $150 in freeplay and the priceless 2 for 1 Brad Garrett tickets. When I called I was told that offer code has the resort fee associated with it, even if I booked through a host.

I still made the reservation, since I want to try the new rooms but I was kind of surprised. For the record, I am gold MLIFE with zero tier points (havent been to an MGM property since 08/11) and negative $17 in express comps (no idea how that happened).

Bottom line I am excited about the trip; I have a friday through monday comped in the Augustus Tower at Caeasars, and monday through thursday comped at MGM. Plus, I guess I will cash in a bunch of loyalty points from the MYVegas Facebook game to get free buffets, etc. for the trip.

 

Thanks for that clarification, Don. I think in the middle of sleepless night I got too carried away with the topic in my long post and did not stay on the narrow definition of this thread, being just on comped rooms.
Sorry.
Adding to your post, I can see that what Stations' Casinos do is different from what some other casinos do. Comped rooms at Stations do get amenities with no additional fees (well, except this new one). It probably would be helpful if Dean Martin listed the places that don't, and his post also gives yet another question to be asked when booking comped rooms.
Thanks again.