MGM Resorts to start charging for LV Strip parking

These kinds of fees won't affect people staying at higher end properties, buy it will affect the Excalibur/Luxor crowd. Consider that during winter those two properties often advertise room rates of $29. Except...there is also a $30/night resort fee and $10-$15/night for parking. All of a sudden the $87 cost for a three night stay that was advertised to them is actually $225. For travelers on a budget - the exact kinds of people that stay at Excalibur/Luxor these days - this kind of thing might be a big problem.

At the end of the day though, Murren is just testing his price elasticity. If they can double the cost of a Vegas vacation and occupancy goes down by less than half, then they have done the right thing from an economic perspective. However, I think it will hurt their pipeline of future customers. Customers that may have in the past started out staying at Excalibur as broke college students or recent grads and then moved up the hotel food chain as their income grew may never get that introduction to Vegas because of rising fees and airfares. Even on the convention side, many companies are taking a serious look at the absurd cost of sending people to events like CES ($1k/night for a regular room at Venetian/Palazzo, $500+ everywhere else including Excalibur) and are starting to scale back the number of people they send. Nobody likes price gouging.

 

Essentially my thoughts on this.

 

I can see the CET email now.

"Folks, we wanted to keep our parking free of charge but, since MGM implemented a fee, our garages have been full with non CET guests trying to get around the MGM fee. To be fair to you our guests, we MUST implement our own fee..."

 

Does anyone have a rough idea of the percentage of Vegas visitors this affects? Meaning how many people just take taxis vs. drive or rent a car at the airport.

 

I did see that Mlife members can earn free parking I'm assuming it will be a perk that is added to one of the tier levels. If they give free parking for everybody that signs up then people will simply just get a Sapphire card. However if they really want to limit who is available and make it for their guests they could put it on Pearl membership and above.

This wouldn't effect me at all as I use taxi's and Uber to get around when I want to head somewhere off strip, however I can see this being a big problem once the new Arena launches with people driving in to watch a game/concert and use the resorts parking structures because it's free.

 

I can see upcharges for taxis in the future, as well. Same as the airport. The cabs will be charged for entering the "system". Make money off of everyone coming and going!

 

Uber and Lyft must be clapping their hands with glee. They are now going to get a piece of the rental car market where people who used to rent and self park will just say fuck it and take Lyftber.

Maybe the parking garages are full or near full so they thought, well, if we are already turning peeps away when they can't find parking, we might as well charge. There's still enough suckers that will pay.

Is the MGM lot full all the time?

I think/hope my theory is wrong.

 

The real danger is that the budget conscious staying at mlife will all park at cet props and stay at mlife and that this will push cet to follow suit. This attempt needs to be a spectacular failure for mlife or it will be the norm within a couple years.

 

MGM parking fee

It has been mentioned before but, what does everyone think about the MGM parking fee. This is on top of the resort fee that most people do not use. Should come about in April.
They say about $10.00 a day with valet a little more, even if you have a room there. . I can see the people that drive or have a rental car wanting to park at Caesars properties or others.
Then they will fill up and they will start charging a fee. Heard this is to help pay for the new stadium and parking structure. Resort fee is a rip off, now this.
I will divert most of my gambling to off strip properties. We are established at Stations, M, South Point and Boyd.

 

As much as I hate this line of thinking, because I hate the idea of Vegas chipping away at standard perks, I think there's also something to be said for the fact that a lot of people don't even realize this is an issue. I mentioned this to my girlfriend (who's been with me to Vegas 3-4 times, though we always just take cabs), and she was shocked that Vegas hotels didn't charge for parking. Hell, my hotel in Atlanta next week charges around $25/night for parking, a little less for self-park and a little more for valet. Vegas became an outlier, unfortunately.

If they come for the free drinks, though...

 

I think this will go exactly like the resort fee. People will complain but it is not enough to make very many people not go to Vegas. But charging everyone just a little bit more will add up for the casinos.

 

I am not sure about that. People hate airlines for exactly this kind of thing. The difference is that using airlines is a necessity for most people, while Vegas is not - enough of the nonsense and people will indeed stop going there. Resort fees, which are a form of fraud in my opinion because they fraudulently reduce advertised room rates while the actual rate is higher, have been reluctantly digested. But adding a number of other fees like this seems like a very bad idea to me.

 

I always drive. I have had Wynn TS wash my car. And, as related to your point elsewhere, The Beverly Hills Hotel has its own gas pumps and will wash and gas if you want. Not cheap of course.

 

But are you continually giving gambling money to other places you go?

I can understand them charging people who are just walking the strip but if I lost a lot of money, paid to stay in the hotel and then got hit with a parking charge on top I'd be seriously considering my options the next trip.

 

I wonder how they are going to figure that out in a 24 hour city. If you arrive at breakfast and leave at 10pm are you likely to be there longer than someone sleeping at the hotel.

 

That's just it.....You won't be able to go some place else. I'll bet before the Super Bowl is played, CET will announce their plans.

 

Not sure about a percentage, but every self park I have been in has been pretty full.

 

Good point, I'd likely consider a different destination in that case.

I don't have any problem with them charging people who aren't using their facilities but there should be a validation system in place.

 

Am I the only one who thinks paying 17 bucks to Valet is crazy?

SO The part of the MGM parking plan that really makes me wonder is Valet charging 20 bucks (lets face it it will be a $17 and a 3 dollar tip 80-90 percent of the time). To park your car in the middle of the desert, at a facility with thousands of existing parking stalls, that is almost exclusively used by people wishing to spend fairly large quantities of money at that business.

Now I understand that to make valet competitive it needed to be more than the 10 dollar self park and that if they made it an even $20 the valets would desert the job for greener pastures in droves since they would be getting stiffed way too often.

I know that Jim Murren is a graduate of the Becky Binion School of Business but isn't the goal of a business to remove all obstacles to your customers trying to spend their money at your resort?

One of the things that made Vegas special to me was how I get to feel like a big shot throwing a valet a fin a hoping in a car with the a/c already going. I don't begrudge the casino separating me from my money but why are they taking away one of those simple experiences that make Las Vegas special to me.

 

But are there other major cities whose patrons hotel hop throughout the day like those in Vegas?

Vegas is an outlier, sure, but the behavior of patrons is an outlier, too. So much so that Vegas and its parking situation can't really be compared to other major cities.

A huge part of the reason I drive to Vegas from Phoenix is to have a car on hand to to bounce around to mostly MGM resorts throughout the day(Wynn-Core, the only exception). It's much easier, faster and less expensive than taking a taxi. I usually stay 6 nights, so multiple hotel visits each day x 6 days can add up.