Expensive Vegas

[+ Lucky]

I recently bought tickets to see the movie shown at The Sphere, the new attraction in Las Vegas.

Now to find a hotel. I remember how cheap Vegas hotels used to be. And you still see Circus Circus listed for $20 or so. But every hotel listing is suspect because they all add on fees and taxes. Circus has a fee that pays for use of the fitness center and phone calls...about $40 a night! Not that you'd stay there anyway.

All of the hotels jack their prices up from the list price. I had settled on New York, New York where I have stayed before. It was $130 a night plus $70 in fees, so $200. When I went to book it today, the price was up to $290 a night, including taxes and fees. Ouch!

A friend recommended a hotel, but it is over $400 a night. Aren't they making enough money off of the gamblers? We stayed at the Wynn once for $139, but now that same room is over $1000!

I'll probably break down and pay what I have to pay, but the damn Sphere better be worth seeing. I wonder how much the buffet at Bellagio costs now...

[+ BobPS]

The  Bellagio buffet was $86.89 per person on September 1.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Vegas hasn't been 'a deal' since the early aughts.

Now, you pay to play.  You pay to stay.  You pay to eat. 

The real problem with Vegas is that since COVID, you don't get what you pay for anymore.  Wynncore and those level properties are charging big with a noticed downsized staff and service.

The cheaper properties, it's even worse.  Some with no housekeeping.

What was once a place I enjoyed going is now a place I avoid.

Edited November 2, 2023 by BenjaminNicholas

[+ azdr0710]

new in the last few years are mandatory resort fees at almost all the Strip-area hotels/casinos....some resort fees (at lower-priced places on weeknights) are often more than the price of the room!.....that incredibly low-priced Priceline/Hotwire bargain at a Strip-side hotel really isn't.......

also, the once-unthinkable practice of charging (!) to park at a casino is now common at some popular Strip hotel garages.......blame some of this on locals flying out of the airport who used to get free covered parking/no airport parking charge in return for a quick and cheap taxi ride.......and some blame also goes to the tourists off on a multi-day National Parks bus vacation who aren't dropping a dime in the casino.....

and the super-buffets are now tourist attractions/Instagram-worthy events themselves.....once a clever loss-leader to keep the players in the casino late at night ($1 for a modest selection of cold cuts/hot dishes at the El Rancho in 1946), the buffets are now a game of one-upmanship for biggest and best (and priciest)

https://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/faq-dining-buffet-history/

[MscleLovr]

Don’t forget the impact of two powerful forces, @Lucky: price inflation and the rebound in demand post-Covid.

And speaking of inflation specifically in Las Vegas

6 hours ago, azdr0710 said:

$1 for a modest selection of cold cuts/hot dishes at the El Rancho in 1946

By the time, my then boyfriend and I went to see Elvis perform (in his white-leather catsuit heyday), the cover-charge was $4 per head.

[EZEtoGRU]

On 11/2/2023 at 5:35 PM, BenjaminNicholas said:

The real problem with Vegas is that since COVID, you don't get what you pay for anymore.  Wynncore and those level properties are charging big with a noticed downsized staff and service.

The cheaper properties, it's even worse.  Some with no housekeeping.

You can say that again!  And it's not just a problem in Vegas.  Everywhere you go these days, service sucks countrywide:  on planes, in hotels, at restaurants, and in stores.  There is zero sense of customer service...even at higher end businesses.  It's a sad commentary on life in the USA today.  

[+ sniper]

Vegas has been a victim of its own success.  The population has tripled in the last 25 or so years, which means cheap housing is gone, which means cheap labor is gone.  And that massive increase in residents abusing the hotel parking is why they had to do somethingIbut in general if you are  guest of the hotel the parking fee is waived). I used to go 5-6 times a year, now more like 3-4.

If you get player status you can lose the resort fees and parking fees and get much better offers on rooms, but food and everything else is still expensive.  Get a Caesars players card, go during one of their tier credit promotions and you can likely make Diamond Status in a  day or two, then you have status for the rest of the year and all of the following year. Or get gold with MGM properties(which I think is harder relatively speaking) and Caesars will give you Diamond.  With Diamond big event weekends are still expensive, but you can almost always find a cheap or free room Sunday-Thursday.  But yeah if you only go once a year you're paying through the nose.

Caesars hotels generally have fridges in the room so you can take advantage of the Walgreesns/CVS's on the Strip and save some on food that way.