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A Charge For Requesting A Non-Smoking Room? Only In Vegas

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 3799 S. Las Vegas Blvd. [map], Las Vegas, NV, United States, 89109
February 17, 2011 at 12:07 PM | by | Comments (5)

UPDATE 2.15pm: MGM Grand just announced that they are rescinding the $20 non-smoking fee. It's still showing on the website, but hopefully they'll take it off soon, and refund the people who've checked that box.

More and more hotels are eliminating their smoking rooms thanks to both customer requests and local regulations, says a huge USA Today report that frames the issue in terms of similar prohibitions on smoking on airplanes, in bars and restaurants and in rental cars. It's interesting reading if you like heaps of hotel statistics but the upshot is that, at least in the U.S., you're almost guaranteed a smoke-free room.

Well, except in Vegas. According to the Seattle Times, seems the MGM Grand has launched a $20-per-night "Non Smoking Room Guarantee," meaning you can ostensibly lock in a smoke-free room for an extra charge of $20. A quick search of other mid-range MGM properties in Vegas, like the Luxor, Monte Carlo, Circus Circus, Excalibur, and New York New York, reveal that this appears to be an MGM-exclusive fee. Aria and Bellagio, however, are not showing the charge.

Consumer advocate Christopher Elliott, who wrote the Seattle Times article, says the charge is particularly repellent because Vegas hotels often shuffle guests in and out of rooms like so many spades:

Knowing Vegas hotels like I do, I can't say the "guarantee" means much. I'm willing to bet you'll still catch an occasional whiff of cigarette smoke in your non-smoking room.

With the news that the smoking room is on the way out, we'd be surprised if these fees don't switch from "non smoking room guarantee" to "smoking room guarantee" in the next couple of years. Well, everywhere apart from Vegas.

Hotels mentioned in this story

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Return to » A Charge For Requesting A Non-Smoking Room? Only In Vegas


vegas smokes

mgm aren't the only bad guys (although they are the only ones to charge) - i stayed at the hard rock in vegas last summer, and on check in, i was assigned a smoking room. i told them that i have asthma and that there's no way i can stay in a smoking room. PLUS i'd requested a non-smoking.

the answer of the check in supervisor, who i asked to be called over: "room requests are never guaranteed".

so i showed them my inhalers and kicked up a stink and they found me an odd disabled access room next to the elevator. but at least it didn't make me ill.

juliab on February 17, 2011 at 12:23 PM #Permalink

Same at Bellagio

I stayed at the Bellagio in November and despite booking a non-smoking room, at check-in they said they had no non-smoking rooms available with a fountain view (I had paid for the view upgrade). I also have had asthma and mentioned that, so the best they could do was run one of their air purifier machines for a couple of hours. It helped, but you could still smell smoke.
JWalkSC on February 17, 2011 at 3:28 PM #Permalink

Not just in Las Vegas

Have been researching hotels in Tokyo for June and noticed the Sheraton hotels have a significant up charge for non smoking.
eagertraveler on February 18, 2011 at 9:15 AM #Permalink

We smoke in Vegas

and we charge for the freaks that think they have to be in a non smoking room. Zip bang End of story
militantsmoker on March 3, 2011 at 9:11 PM #Permalink

Smoking Bans Don't Always Work

If you offer smoking rooms, you can be sure that the non-smoking rooms are smoke free.  If a hotel offers no outlet for smokers to smoke then they might smoke in my "smoke free" room the night before.
cobra on January 17, 2013 at 8:28 PM #Permalink

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