June 14th 2010: Okay lets start off by saying i hate resort fees which is a daily charge added to your hotel bill on top of your room charge. Some hotels first started this a couple of years ago with fuel surcharges which were added to your room daily rate for a few dollars when we had high energy prices. The fuel surcharges went away when the energy prices went down but now most resorts have added a resort fee.
The big exception for resort fees is Harrah’s which has made a point of advertising they don’t have resort fees. The resort fee usually runs from about $5 to $20 a day but now most are in the $10 to $20 range and the fee is according to hotels is mean’t to cover amenities on the property which you can use. The stuff they list in the resort fees usually includes things such as free local calls (most people have cell phones so minimal use) or free entry to the spa (which you may or may not use). T
The rub is you get charged this fee if you use these services or not its basically a add on charge to generate money such as the airlines have got so good at. The difference here unlike the airlines is you cannot avoid the fee and, get charged either way. On a airline if you don’t check a bag you don’t have to pay a $25 bag fee but with resort fees you get charged either way. You may see a room offer for $59 for example but then in the small print as you are about to book the room it may say that $10 to $20 per day daily resort fee will be charged.
Resort fees are bad in my opinion but the current time are probably here to stay. If you want to avoid resort fees Harrah’s properties or one of the few properties that don’t charge them may be a better option. I’m kind of surprised that Wynn added resort fees at both the Wynn and Encore because as a top end property you are paying a premium price and an extra $20 per day seems something that could just upset their customers. As far as resort fees go the Wynn one isn’t a bad deal as most because it does include free internet which can run $13 to $16 a day at most properties.