The Dreaded Las Vegas Resort Fee

Above, The Beast at Circus Circus RV Park in those pre-resort fee days. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

When I was planning my recent trip to Idaho to view the total solar eclipse, I decided that I would spend the first night in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Two years ago, my daughter and I stayed at the Circus Circus RV Park on the Las Vegas Strip. It seemed like a reasonable place to stay (although not much to look at as it is essentially a parking lot with hook-ups), so I went about to make a night's reservation at the RV park.

They had a special going on for the night I wanted to reserve. It was listed as $31/night. That was reasonable. But then I got a bit of a shock.

At the end of the booking process, they wanted to tack on a $27 amenities (or resort) fee onto the price, making it nearly $60 for one night. I don't recall such a fee two years ago. I thought, "No thanks!" and looked elsewhere. Then I found the Riviera RV Park about 2-3 miles east of the Strip. It was only $22/night. So I booked a space. As it turned out, it was a much nicer RV park than the Circus Circus RV Park.

But what's with these amenities or resort fees?

I did some checking. It turns out that Circus Circus isn't the only hotel that's charging them. Here's a list of the Las Vegas hotels who are charging them and how much.

According to The Points Guy:

If you’ve stayed at a hotel on the Las Vegas Strip within the past few years, you’ve almost certainly been subjected to a resort fee. With tax, this daily charge ranges from $26.88 (Circus Circus) to just shy of $40 (Wynn and Encore), and includes some perks that you’d normally have to pay extra for (like water bottles and Wi-Fi), and others that you wouldn’t (such as pool towels and gym access). In almost all cases, amenities covered by a resort fee would otherwise be available free of charge to elite members, although even top customers are rarely able to get these fees waived (though there are some exceptions).

I was told that the Las Vegas resort hotels started this "resort fee" practice about two years ago.

Well, thankfully, I have a RV so I can avoid Las Vegas hotel resort fees by finding a RV park, such as the Riviera RV Park, who doesn't charge them.

To read more, go here.