Bill to be announced to eliminate resort fees today

That's actually pretty normal. I agree with your earlier statement about the chances of it passing. But most bills are only introduced by one or two members so I wouldn't read anything into that. The years I worked up there, I don't recall any bill having more than two members introducing it. The co-sponsors is the key, and that can take a while to build up.

 

One thing I’ve noticed about resort fee defenders is that none of them actually agree with resort fees themselves... but rather, they disagree with the idea that they can be regulated because “If you can regulate resort fees, imagine what a slippery slope that is for our freedoms”. It then becomes nothing more than a philosophy debate.

As for the arguments that suggest consumers had ought to know about resort fees because they’ve been “a thing” for some time now... that presupposes a certain level of sophistication that not every consumer has, and it also presupposes that every consumer can afford to pay whatever the resort fee amounts to, when it’s not clearly stated alongside the price. Many can see “$XX plus resort fee” and not really pay attention because they can afford to pay the resort fee whether it’s $30 or $50... but that difference can also make or break the ability of many consumers to afford that stay.

 

I get that it impacts you, Mit. I believe what you are saying. I just choose to tilt after different windmills. Getting on a booking website, I know full well what I'm going to be paying.

No slipper-slope concern here.

 

Is that windmill people who complain about resort fees?

 

Here's a good example of how things work now. If you go on Orbitz and search for hotels on the strip, you get this result for Bellagio (among others):



Oh, $289 per night, OK I guess that sounds good. No mention of any other fees and even gives you a total of $1,156 for the whole trip. Now you click on that listing:



Wait...what's that in deliberately reduced size font? Oh another $51 per night...OK. So now we are at $340 per night. Well, let's go ahead and click reserve:



Oh, well I guess we aren't done yet. Now we've got taxes and fees so now we are up to $378.69 per night.

So the original pitch starts you at $289.00 but by the time they've got your attention and you are ready to hit submit you are up to $378.69. The very price they try to sell you on out of the gate turns out to be pure fiction and was never possible in the first place.

Pretty interesting to think about when you realize that this layer by layer unveiling of the real price is intentional and well thought out. It isn't by some bug in their website's programming that you don't get the real price until the 3rd click. They did it that way on purpose and probably spent a decent amount of time thinking about it.

Don't misconstrue my post as bitching. I know that the price wouldn't be dramatically different if it was all disclosed up front. I just think it's interesting to dissect it for the sake of discussion.

 

That was the hardest hit of them all.

 

Standing ovation. Great breakdown.

It’s really funny how when you book an airplane ticket, this doesn’t happen AT ALL. If airlines can do it, so can hotels. It’s not magic.

 

This is a consumer awareness issue..... not a governmental one.

I don’t just jump in and go wherever. I research everything before I go. I don’t rely on the government to do it for me.

Not everyone pays these fees...no urgency to fix/change anything. Most of it is symbolic anyways.

 

anyone remember School house rock ? how a bill becomes law

 

Thank you!

It turns out that one of the Congressdroids that introduced this is almost local to me! I'm not in his district, but only a few miles from it.

I'm on a road show this week so I did not see any local news about it.

 

Consumer awareness and government have been bedfellows since the beginning if the 20th century.

I'm not saying this is the most pressing topic for Congress but it wouldn't be unusual territory for them either. We have had regulatory agencies who were charged with writing rules to promote consumer awareness for a very long time.

How else do you think I would know about the existence of Yellow 5 and Carnauba Wax in my Skittles?

 

Well, they did take on the airline industry some years back about similar schemes.

 

Apples and oranges.

You’re comparing a health concern with the skittles. Could affect a large portion of population but mainly defenceless children.

To an adult population capable of avoiding a fee. If they did research.

One has urgency to inform. The other....too bad. Pay attention.

I don’t think anyone here is defending any type of fee. Comped or not.

 

Ok, well then I'll use mortgage disclosures since I'm doing that tomorrow. Not an urgent health concern but there still are very specific rules about how the bank must disclose the details of my loan before I sign.

I can also use gaming regulations themselves. There are rules on how casinos can advertise their games and what they can and can't say as well as what they must disclose on the games. Also not an urgent health concern.

But I don't want to parse this down that deeply to begin with. I think you are taking my attempt at humor regarding skittles a bit too specifically. To use your analogy, I'm not trying to say that apples and oranges are the same thing. I'm just trying to say that they are both fruit.

I'm not saying that you are defending resort fees nor am I trying to start an argument. I'm just discussing the topic in general and don't want to see this veer off into politics or hurt feelings for anyone.

I think it's perfectly valid to say that you don't think this warrants a government solution. That's a fine opinion.

 

This is the whole reason for RFs. It's a rate increase without a rate increase. I hope those that think this might happen understand that hotels will just start charging the base rate. These are businesses and businesses need to make profits to stay in business. The days of the casino supporting the operation as a whole are gone. Gambling now accounts for about half the revenue that it used to. Rfs may disappear, but rates will increase accordingly.

Good Luck!
Ric at Joes

 

My parents were recently surprised by resort fees on their last trip to Las Vegas. The people on this thread are ones who are very aware of Las Vegas. Most of us have done multiple trips to Vegas. So obviously, we know all about resort fees.

My first trip to Vegas was in college with 3 other friends more than 10 years ago. We were poor college students staying at hooters and all of us were surprised when the resort fees cost as much as the room. Back then, the hotels didn't even put resort fees in the final bill (when booking on 3rd party websites) but simply buried it in fine print. One of my friend's asked if we could cancel the reservation (because he though we could book somewhere else that didn't have the fees -- he didn't know those fees are close to universal), the hotel said that the booking was non-refundable.

My point is that lots of people find resort fees deceptive.

 

I’m going to try this one last time....

There are more pressing issues in society than resort fees. How about HEALTHCARE? How about STUDENT DEBT? How about HOMELESSNESS?
The list goes on and on......

People with DISPOSABLE income are not a priority when you have all of the OTHER things that plague society.

Do resort fee matter....yes....are they/should they be a government priority? FUCK NO......

 

I get that, sinner. Hence my comment about here. And I think all of us on this "side" get that there are some out there who have not traveled recently or who don't really pay attention who mind find it surprising. The first time. This is ever-present in popular-spots America. Buying cars must be hell on some.

Again. No one WANTS them. Some of us think the market not the government should be the arbiter. There is no gun to my head or duress, no threat to my health or the health of the public. If folks find a moral victory in $100 versus $80 + $20, so be it.

 

No bill like that introduced today is gonna get passed in the current Congress.

There's a retirement plan overhaul bill I've been watching for about 8 years, and that's how long it took to just get to a floor vote in the House.

 

The line items on my recent private rental in Bend tallied far more than the first-listed price.