Waive the resort fee

Why don't the casinos waive the resort fee for some of their rated players and or have an opton on a slot machine where the resort fee is one of the prizes and you could win say 1 year of no resort fee at their property/properties. It would certainly get the occupancy rates up !

 

My guess is because again this year, like last, Las Vegas is experiencing record numbers of visitors and very high hotel occupancy rates. That's not to say there aren't some rooms left vacant somewhere each and every night.

 

CET already waives the resort fee for Diamond and 7 Star players. If a premium player is already not paying resort fees, why would they play a slot with a chance for no resort fees. Personally, I'd rather have a slot pay out in cash. I don't have an interest in the slots where you could win a car.....you are out of pocket for taxes.

 

You're out of pocket for taxes on cash wins just the same as winning a car.

Casinos don't just want occupancy rates up, they want the right people in the rooms. People that are going to drop some cash in their casino.

 

Or spend a boatload on food and booze. They definitely don't want people like me. Lol

 

With a large cash win, the taxes will be deducted. If you win a hard good, like a car, you'd have to pay the taxes out if pocket......my point.

 

A 1 year of no resort fees prize on a slot..?

 

Casinos do waive the resort fees for some rated players.
This week I learned that Red Rock casino even has mailed a room offer that cuts the resort fee in half.
Hosts are often asked for a waive of resort fees and do it like they do food and room charges. Paying for a room upgrade can often mean getting the resort fee waived as well, if you ask.
Decent play should mean future rooms with no resort fee.

That being said, resort fees are a complicated casino tool. Rooms are marketed through discounters like those in the column to the left of this forum. The discounter then takes a percentage of the booking. Resort fees, however, are not tapped by those discounters. All the resort fee dough goes to the hotel.
Meanwhile, in any filtered or low/high searches on those sites or others, the casino is ranked on the basic rate, so it appears to outrank other properties. Resort fees are only mentioned later in fine print. And sometimes not clearly.

The best example is the D. You will see it advertised very cheap. You have to constantly keep reminding yourself that the resort fee nearly doubles the cost of the room. On the surface, the Four Queens next door might not look like a better buy, but since they have no resort fee, it may be more cost effective. Or the El Cortez might be a better buy since their resort fee is only half that of the D or Golden Gate.

In the discounter offers and in the emails or mailed adverts from casinos, prices can appear to be really cheap until we do the math. That works to grab our attention, especially to the really cheap offers. When our search activity is picked up by our computer traffic and up pops some advertisement with a price in a bubble on the right of our computer screen, no resort fee is included or mentioned in that bubble. Our brains don't compute the mathematics immediately; that takes another mental step. It is very similar to pricing goods or gas with 99 cents tacked on. It feels cheaper.

The D offers just what the OP suggests. If you do a little gambling, you will get for the next visit at least a 2 for 1 mailer and the resort fee is waived on that offer for paid and free nights. In this case the resort fee works in the gambler's favor because it allows the D to keep prices very low, and those are the prices paid on the 2 for 1. It is not won in the machine, but it goes out to those who want it. It is not for a full year. However, it works for those who go once or twice a year just as if it were.
El Cortez fees can be negotiated as well. If you want to stay more than seven days and do a certain amount of gambling, their fee for days after 7 can be waived. You just see a host and ask.
As for gambling for prizes like reduced resort fee, it might tend to discourage those who are gambling with no intention of staying. I used to see more free meals awarded as part of slot play, but usually only as an add on to a jackpot. I don't, however, see these promotionals catching on, so I suspect market research suggests they just don't attract that many folks. If the payouts are in cash, we can buy a steak dinner if we want with it or pay our room with it.
A blending of this is currently in the Four Queens Comp dollar system. These build up quickly and will reduce room charges (there is no resort fee) or food charges. However, they go away in a year. So, it is an incentive to come back. I tried to use all mine on my last trip, but when I booked I had $40 on account, so that really makes up for their cutback in free nights on the mailers. And it lets them get full value for the more expensive nights. A similar thing happened to Southwest. I used to get a free flight and it was free if I went to Baltimore or if I went to Vegas. Now, I get points that I spend like money, so going to Vegas is not as great a gain as it once was.

VP players have a different advantage on prizes tied to play because they can see that the prizes did not affect the payouts. When the Four Queens used to give a jacket for any quad queens, we knew that was an added incentive on an already full pay machine. El Cortez used to give ice cream for every quad and the same was true. We could evaluate the game from the pay table and know that we were not losing money to pay for some prize. Of course, we get less in comps most places because the play it takes to earn a point is greater than it is for slots. When I first started staying at the El Cortez, I knew that 1000 points earned per day of my stay would keep me getting offers of three nights and two rooms. Video poker was the same as slots, $1 for each point. I'd play and quit for the day, so it was a good money manager as well.

Finally, casinos don't want to advertise the resort fee because it is not customer friendly. Give away a car and that is an attraction.
Giving away a resort fee is like promising you won't be whipped if you play.
It would not produce that warm and fuzzy feeling that the casino is taking care of us. The whole idea raises the Carnival hackles and wakes us up in a way that does not contribute to our being irresponsibly profligate. For the same reason, places no longer put up the banners that say, "We pay a huge 6 to 5 on blackjacks." Once most people did the math, that marketing floundered.
And if the resort fee being waived needs to be requested from a host, well the casino will benefit from plenty of folks who don't know that or care.

 

I think this technically would not be considered gambling, more like a coin operated video game or midway attraction, if the prize isn't cash. Personally I wouldn't play it and I suspect it would be a tough sell, since the prize effectively is a discount coupon for your next visit.

 

I got an MLife offer at Excalibur or Luxor for 3 nights with no resort fees, so even the low rollers sometimes get a break on these fees. I'll probably use the offer for August at Luxor.... But for now I'm already set for tomorrow!

 

As already pointed out, they do. I have yet to pay a resort fee in Vegas except for some short non-gambling stays.

 

Great post Dewey. Let me add another reason resort fees aren't added on rooms in the first place, other than keeping the costs of rooms artificially low, is casinos do not pay commission to the OTA's on resort fees. It is to their benefit to keep rooms low and just raise the RF. It also gives them leverage to comp it, since they have not paid an OTA on it.

 

True, next week i'm staying at Bally's for 6 nights, 5 are comped, 1 is so low it equals less than $8 per night. But my resort fees will be $150 as I am the low man on the proverbial totem pole being Gold.
However, when i check out at Bally's, i won't have to reach into my pocket to garner cash or my credit cards, i have something better........ a TR rewards card courtesy of Social Rewards.
Basically i give them something they want, cash money in their casinos on a consistent basis with my ADT score. In return, they give me what i desire.........comped/insanely low rates so that they can keep me as a customer well satisfied time after time.
My resort fee is paid off through Social Rewards. So i not only give Caesar's my bankroll in the casinos, but at home they give me points for publicizing Caesars in the media.
I scratch their backs, they scratch my back......sort of like a Spa treatment, but with benefits.......LOL.

 

They always waive my resort fees.

CET and MGM.

 

Well, what I always thought was a way to relax the resort fee charges for gamblers on 2 for 1 offers had been modified. We now must pay the resort fee on the nights for which we pay cash. Too bad. That was a great deal now gone. $20 resort fee puts the cost up there with other casinos. It basically almost doubles the cost of the mailing offer.