Five Hundy by Midnight 228: Resort Fee Rage

/ Tim

Las Vegas podcast #228 includes:

  • Machine Gun McCain opener
  • Harrah’s buys P-Ho debt
  • Penn National pretends like its interested in Fontainebleau
  • Tropicana announces new restaurants
  • Wayne Newton speculation
  • Manilow movie on the horizon
  • Resort fee lameness
  • Resort fee list
  • Aria, Vdara and Mandarin Oriental room rates
  • vpfree2 video poker database
  • Listener calls
  • Call us at (702) 866-9494


Five Hundy By Midnight 9/18/09 (44:47 min, 41.2 MB)

14 thoughts on “Five Hundy by Midnight 228: Resort Fee Rage”

  1. Thanks for hammering one out!

    Re: Mirage Resort Fee. Interesting that they include comp admission to secret garden in the stay. Especially as one of their current promo (20th anniversary promo ) made a point of including the passes as part of that offer ( up to July 2010 ). That part of the promo has now been taken out sometime in the last couple of weeks just leaving the $50 Buffet pass.

    That’s right – i’m scouring promo codes already for March 2010!.

  3. I absolutely resent resort fees, and completely agree with Tim & Michele. I can’t stand Ticketmaster fees, airline fees, or hotel resort fees. Even when I’ve just had to pay $1 for the phone in the room, I resent paying that dollar for something I won’t use (i.e. it’s not the amount, it’s the principle). I’d rather have them take the phone out of the room.

  4. Grrr…don’t even get me started on Ticketmaster. They have some strange policies in addition to the fees.

    And wtf hotels charging for valet/self parking? I guess I’ll have no need of ever tipping valet if I stay in those places. They already got their money.

  5. Also any chance of a post-podcastapalooza meet-up for those of us who live here what must work for a living and can’t make it to the show?

  6. A couple of quick Vegas notes.

    At the Red Rock’s Casino, the Salt Lick BBQ (which I ate there one time, ordered the “all-you-can-eat” and didn’t go back for seconds) closed it’s doors. It’s being replaced by Yardhouse.

    I went down to the Bally’s/Paris with my brother, who was in town, and at the cage there was a card that was a 10% off comp for an on-property restaurant. It looked like it had been forgotten by someone by accident. When I went to give it to the cage person, he pushed it back to me and said “take it.” I said “Cool”. They game the look of “special VIP” type cards that a manager might give to a high roller. Turns out, later that day, my brother showed up with a second one that he picked up at the cage. Not sure what the deal is with these cards, but, hey, it’s 10% off at restaurant’s I wouldn’t eat at to begin with. Yay!

  7. Mirage Resort fee. Just received an email back from the resort in answer to the query as to what the cut off date is ( ie, stay date or reservation date ) and got the following reply :

    ‘Thank you for contacting the Mirage. The resort fee only is charged to reservation’s booked after September 3, 2009’.

    For any people who were wondering ( we re-booked ours exactly on the 3rd Sept when we noticed the room rates had been just cut back).

  9. I saw Wayne Newton about 4 years ago at a local casino and he didn’t sound very good at all, but he was very entertaining. I’m not sure if I’d see him again, but might think about it if he was hosting a variety type show or him telling stories. He was great to listen to, very funny.

    I just booked our next trip to Vegas (next Sunday!!!!) and we got 3 comped nights at Monte Carlo. The reservation agent said we just had to pay for the resort fee and listed what we got for the price (about $10.50). Pretty much the only thing worth while is the bottled water.

    I’m bummed that we couldn’t schedule our trip so I could go to podcast-a-palloza. 🙁

  10. Salt Lick at Red Rock is closed? Wow. I just stayed at Red Rock and ate there just 8 nights ago.

    I also recently stayed at a time share in Las Vegas and they also charged a resort fee. They told me it was “…so the county can get their money.”

    The V Theater in your beloved P-Ho charges a printing charge for tickets regardless of where you get them from.

    “And wtf hotels charging for valet/self parking? I guess I’ll have no need of ever tipping valet if I stay in those places. They already got their money.” The property gets that money, not the actual worker bee who parks/gets your Pinto.

    This is for you TIM- http://fuckyeahchristinahendricks.tumblr.com/

    The Cabana Suites sure look nice, even with their taxes and add ons and surcharges…but I am still kinda scared by the neighborhood.

  11. (Sorry for the multiple posts Tim. hehe)

    Wayne Newton. Yeah, saw him in Laughlin a couple years back. Ouch. That sounded rough and is really rather depressing in a ‘just go away and let us remember you when you sounded good’ sort of way.

  12. Maybe Wayne should just Lip-sync to recordings of himself from 20 years ago. I don’t think that’s technically cheating, if the voice we are hearing is his 🙂

  14. We stayed at Treasure Island at the end of September and didn’t get charged a resort fee. We also got one heck of an amazing deal through Expedia for $300 less with a car than booking directly through them.

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