Vegas' Resort Fees Killed Our HotelTonight Booking Buzz
Last week, we headed out to Las Vegas for an impromptu trip to catch Boyz II Men at The Mirage. Since we were only in town for one night and had about $100 in credits to burn on HotelTonight* we decided to use the last-minute mobile booking app to book our room.
So just as we were nearing Barstow on our road trip to Vegas from Los Angeles, we looked at HT and saw Caesars Palace open for only $91. We booked immediately and continued the rest of our road trip in rather high spirits. (It may have been because we were playing our fave early 90s hits the whole way there but never mind that.)
Yet when checked in at Caesars, they informed us that our room would be in the hotel's older Roman Tower. Thanks to VegasChatter, we know it's not in great shape. So we asked about upgrades. Turns out we could have the brand-new Octavius Tower for an extra $60 a night. We looked at our friend and said, Why not? That's just an extra $30 a night for each of us. Remember, we didn't have to pay for the room since our credits covered that.
We also inquired about possibly upgrading to the Nobu Hotel but even though rooms were going for a skint $189 a night, we would have had to cancel our HT booking, losing all our credits and then re-book.
So with our upgrade to the Octavius tower completed, we were given our keys to a room on the 64th floor with a pretty decent view out the side of the Bellagio fountains. Happiness! Except...
Just as the clerk was handing us our room keys, he remembered that it was the first day of the newly announced resort fees at all Caesars Entertainment properties. Having covered that story on VegasChatter, we knew that this would happen. But at the same time, we thought maybe it wouldn't really happen on that first day. Nah. We were dinged another $25 plus tax. And FYI: this fee was not included in the HotelTonight booking (nor is it included in many other third-party booking sites.) So remember to budget for resort fees when using the app.
In total, we spent about $88 on our room in Vegas for one night. Not bad, but did we use the internet and the fitness center which is now included in the resort fee? Nope. There are some exceptions to Caesars' new resort fees but in Vegas, resort fees are, sadly, a way of life now.
*We amassed that many HT credits in another long-winded hotel check-in story. Essentially it was a price adjustment, but instead of putting the money back on our credit card, we got HT credits.
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