What don't you like paying for?

I don't like to pay for lessons that i couldn't pass.it's seems unfair and they always change the price during the term!

 

Others complain about having to pay various mandatory fees. I look at those as part of the cost of my vacation, if I decide to take it in Vegas.

IMO, the most wasteful and most easily avoided service fee is the valet tip. I always self-park the car. The second is the bellman tip. Your bag has wheels on it, and you're going to the room anyway. Circumstances occasionally make one or both of these services worthwhile, but generally they are not. Agree also that refilling a water bottle makes sense.

 

Things I don't want or won't use, such as much of the drek they cram into the so-called Resort Fee!

 

Not all bags have wheels and I treat the bellman as part of my vacation. If I spend $5 on them bringing my bags up and $5 bringing my bags down, that is $10 of not having to lug my bags all over these massive casinos. Personally I feel it is money well spent and I enjoy having someone cater for me usually once or twice a year when I am on vacation.

Valet tip is another thing I will potentially take advantage of. I will self-park in some circumstances, but if somewhere provides complimentary valet and you can tip $5 or so, they are appreciative and I like to help where I can.

I look at it this way, if I am going to spend $300+ on gambling, why not help a few others at the same time. There have been times when I even pulled out a $5 chip in case I was about to lose it all in order to pay the valet man.

Also, I hate the resort fees. I do not use any of the services provided and I see it as another way the properties are gouging their customers. They realized when they offered it as an option, there was little use, so they force it down your throat. I do account for the fees, but they’ve left us no choice since all the major resorts now have them.

There is an extremely little chance those people are refilling the water bottles.

 

I take my own luggage up UNLESS my room isn't ready yet--then NO WAY am I lugging luggage around!
Valet everytime--a couple bucks is WELL worth not schlepping to self-park (always viciously inconvenient!)
Rooms--crazy, just paid $120/nt for an OK Hilton Garden Inn in KC. I am balking at the $80 I must pay Saturday at Ballys...HEY, Caesars is free Sun-Thurs!!!
Drinks--I have had a few $20 drinks at the VP bar...but I watch people come up & order a couple cocktails & sometimes the price boggles my mind! Toss a $20 (or $5!) in the machine, have a chance to win & still get your drinks!
Resort fees--I walk so don't need fitness room, I have a smart phone so don't need free phone calls or internet
Shows--total cheapskate here. Free from MyVegas or CET diamond; otherwise I catch them dirt cheap on travelzoo, living social, groupon, goldstar
SO joined Founders Club for diamond status at CET properties--no more resort fees, diamond lounge for free drinks & snacks (and free drinks everywhere at my local casino) Worth it if you go to Vegas a couple times a year.

 

For me its drinks. I am not buying a 15 dollar drink at the pool when i could get them free gambling. if I am having a nice meal, same thing, i will get a water. But usually i drink so much gambling that even a 3 hour break to walk around and eat or see things i will be pretty buzzed. Every once in a while I will break down and get a fat Tuesdays slushie drink thing. small money sacrifices like this are the reason I have been able to enjoy semi annual trips to vegas.

 

Its been a common theme here, but for us its drinks. As gamblers we take full advantage of that as we play. Occasionally I'll buy a drink with dinner, or at a sports bar, but normally I drink so much gambling that's a prime rehydration moment!!

I don't mind getting the limo to/from the airport (and the associate tip), tipping the bellman if he takes bags up (about 50/50 there), or other things. Resort fees don't bother me all that much, although anymore ours are always comped, I'm always "working" to some extent, so I'd pay $15/night for wifi at a hyatt or Hilton, so its not that bad. I never use the fitness center, but at least at V/P there's a printer in the room, so I can print show tickets or airline passes, so its not terrible.

 

, so its not terrible.

 

I suppose it makes some sense to bell it if you're going to use the valet because you're right there already. Valets are probably the most overpaid people in the service industry. Half the time, I can get my own car faster than a valet can do it. If I really wanted to avoid the inconvenience of dealing with cars, I would use cabs. Do you suppose those people are drinking their water straight from the jug and never carry any with them? It's more inconvenient to me to wait for people to bring water each time I want it than it is to refill a bottle.

YMMV, pal, as my original post concedes. I like to avoid wasting money. Others like to bitch about things they can't change. Go for it.

 

I agree w/those that said water. We always hit up Walgreen's or CVS for the gallon jugs and keep them in the rooms.

 

I think we were saying different things on the water bottles. I know understand what you are saying about refilling your own, my apologies.

The resort fees probably won't change, but that doesnt mean I have to supress myself to them and become silent because I cannot change them. I know I have cointrol over changing them if I increase my play. I think YMMV is an appropriate saying, people vacation differently and some things are important to others.

 

My only thought on "upping" ones play to then "avoid" a resort fee: Never chase comps. That's about rule one in the casino. If you're planning on playing to that level because you want to play to that level, that's fine. But if going in deeper than is comfortable or logical to stave off 10 or 20 or 30 bucks each day, that's just folly.

Yep everyone's mileage varies, in all of this. Folks gotta travel how they wanna travel, and how that is shouldn't get anyone else's BVDs in a wad.

 

I just cracked up when I read your BVD comment. I just used that term a few days ago and my husband had no idea what BVDs were. After I told him, I had to google it and show him to prove it. I've used many terms over the years that he'd never heard before. Two that come to mind are "doesn't know shit from Shinola" and believe it or not cantankerous. He uses that one himself now. Goigle solves many conflicts in our household.

 

I use cabs often in Vegas and don't mind paying for them but really dislike having to discuss being longhauled with cabbies. Longhauling seems to have become the norm these days. When I cab from Palms, I tell the cabbie which route to take as 9 out of 10 times they take a creative longhaul if I don't.

If my room is ready, I take my bag up. If I can get discounted tickets via Groupon, Goldstar or Living Social for a show we plan to see, I do that. Why pay full pop when you can book your show before arriving at a discounted rate?!

I buy water on arrival as I do go through a lot of it in Vegas and often order water and a drink when the cocktail waitress comes around.

I rarely pay resort fees as I am comped but on the rare occasion I do when I've added an additional casino rate night on, they don't really bother me because the cost of a high end room in Vegas is still a bargain when compared to a Marriott calibre hotel room elsewhere.

 

I'm always tempted to order room service breakfast when I wake up after a crazy night in Vegas and have no energy to do anything but lay there and wish my hangover away, but the cheapskate in me always ends up schlepping to Walgreens for an Odwalla smoothie and then over to McDonalds for a McMuffin.

 

That being said EVERYONE should be using players cards everywhere they play. Hey, if you are gonna play anyway, why not get some benefits back? We have stayed 4-7nts 2-4x/yr in Vegas for 20+ years. Once we started using players cards we have rarely paid for rooms. (20 years ago our budget was $100pp/day; now it is $250pp/day--actually only $200 this trip so we are far from high rollers--plus we play poker & video poker, so not the same love as slots)

FIL & MIL got to Vegas for NASCAR race every year & stay at the Nugget. MIL loves dollar slots. I asked FIL if they got comped rooms & he gruffly replied no, they pay, they don't need big brother watching them with those players cards. We convinced MIL to use one--they checked her play & rep about choked when she looked at MIL's play--she got $90 cash back. From my best estimates that is $90K coin in. HOLY CRAP. I asked if she would just use my card when she played....SHEESH

 

I hate about the same thing as y'all do.

I take the WAX to/from downtown. Just a little longer, but only $2 each way.

Water/soda... since I do normally take the WAX, it stops right in front of the Walgreens. So, I just run in there, and get my drinks/snacks for the week. Then just check in, put it all in my insulated backpack, and start my vacation. Don't have to worry in the morning if I have something cold to drink or not.

 

Well, I googled the WAX and had trouble finding any direct information. What is that exactly? Bus of some sort? How much longer does it actually take?

 

Drinks is the biggest thing for me. Other than during meals, I can't remember the last time I paid for a drink in Vegas; I make it a point to only drink at bars where there's video poker and I can get it comped. The nice thing is that the guys at Lift Bar love me and comp me the big bottles of Fiji water as opposed to whatever the house bottled stuff is, so I can stock up on those and not worry about needing water in the room. There isn't much else that I really mind paying for, and in particular, I pay for rooms at Aria even though I have various offers for comp rooms at, among others, SLS, Mandalay Bay, Mirage, and Cosmopolitan. I'd much rather stay at a place where I'm comfortable and that I enjoy, than take a free room just because it's free.

 

Amen to that brutha!