Sorry to derail, but what is a "resort fee"?

only thing that surprises me is how long it took for someone to start charging.

people are used to paying for parking. get real, folks, nobody is going to scrub their vegas vacation and to go ft. lauderdale instead over $10 parking. someone will even be pleasantly surprised that it's only $10 when they are paying $25 to park in downtown chicago.

Just for my two cents. Ive moved from Vegas so it doesn't matter to me, but I definitely would not give then any patronage over this. If for some reason I just had to see flops at Aria, I certainly wouldn't park there.

I didn't say it would dampen tourism. I said it won't add income, it will just switch it around in the departments.

Resort fees don't add income. They just take money people have to lose gambling or otherwise spend and make them spend it in the lodging department.

There are three battles in modern gaming revenue:
City vs city.
Casino vs casino.
Department vs department.

That latter battle is counterproductive but not going away, now that casinos aren't generally owned by hands-on individuals.

Benny Binion would never care if his coffee shop was technically losing money (because customers were so well comped) because he only cared about overall bottom line.

Now, F&B expects to profit off supplying waters to poker rooms.

It's not just $10. A lot of people drive to Vegas several times a year so the extra costs will add up. And unlike some other towns, people use cars a lot in Vegas.

When you are going to a casino that is designed to part you from your money, charging you for the pleasure of losing your money to them is BS.

As far as poker players, you are paying them to deal and run the games, so charging you to park there is insane.

Come and go where, though? Is it clear that the parking fee would cover all MGM properties, like if I leave Aria and go to Mirage? And the real issue comes if other casinos follow suit, so now I'm looking at $20 or $30 some days.

Anyway, an extra $40-? over a four-day trip would definitely make me reconsider renting a car, and combined with the aforementioned 6/5 blackjack and resort fees makes some other cities seem more attractive for the price.

MGM really doesn't need or want customers who care about $20 or low limit 3/2 bj. They are telling (almost yelling at!) those of you that are whining that you should head off to Circus Circus.

The comparisons to parking in NYC,LA and Chicago are terrible.

From a strategic perspective it would help if all their properties(except mirage) weren't on the south end of the strip.

Everything was already moving north. Driving away anyone not staying on property might help the process.

No they're not. They are seldom at full capacity. They want you in their casino at the betting levels they set their tables at. That's how they do the adjustment. It's a numbers and amount game not just an amount game and that's why they offer limited non-poker gamblers like myself $39 rooms at their mid-level properties and less at there low-end properties. They also want you in their restaurants, bars, and clubs.

Also I am the kind of guy that probably drops easily $1,500 to $2,500 and sometimes more on food, drink and shows on a short trip and I actually care about $20 and the feeling that I am getting played. So this parking thing sits very badly with me. Bad enough that it might change my view of patronizing MGM properties.

The parking is definitely an issue for visitors from out-of-town who like to bounce around a bit for bars, restaurants, different casino floors/poker rooms, shows, shopping etc. I am a regular MGM client who rents a car and there is a very good chance I will avoid their properties if they don't handle this in an equitable manner. Between my wife and I we are often out and about 4 to 5 times a day.

As an example, if I go to the Mirage for a casual dining meal at say Carnegie or the BLT Burgers do I really want to fork out an additional $10 just to eat there. The cost of my burger just doubled.

Yeah, right, they only want whales. That's why they have so many 25 cent slot machines.

I'm gonna go with the general idea that a "whale" isn't quite the same thing as "is hyper-sensitive to having to pay $20."

Vegas is very slowly but surely dying & the bean counters are making sure of it.

what is telling you that vegas is dying? is it the absolute explosion in nightclub revenue or the record setting number of visitors?

It's dying for low-limit grinding nits who expect to have a great 7 day vacation with great meals (#FREEBUFFETOMG), great rooms (with no resort fees), and endless gambling on a $1000 budget for the week.

Yes, resort fees add income at least to the extent that they are not a commissioned charge. I would think parking is the same. Basically, the hotel makes an extra 10% on the resort fee and parking charge if you use a travel agent (including an online agent like Expedia) to make your reservation.

Vegas is simply adapting with the economy. The Lower class has never been able to afford Vegas, unless within driving distance. The Middle class or $1000 budgets are becoming either Lower or Upper class at record speeds. So they only have to cater to the Upper Class. Upper class don't give a sh*t about no $10 parking and they really like nightclubs, as you can announce your status without looking crass.

Unfortunately the upper class are only so few and never able to sustain Vegas as it is currently. The average gambling budget of a Vegas visitor is 500$. You do the math.

It's dying for being a gambling town & is now reliant on the younger partying crowd. They no longer know how to look after gamblers which should be their bread and butter income. They are driving down a dangerous path & will end up like Atlantic a City in many years to come unless they go back to the adage " one has to speculate to accumalate".

That's an odd comment. I mean, if the worry is Vegas ending up like Atlantic City, then increasing the range of revenue sources instead of relying almost entirely on gambling is exactly what they should be (and apparently are) doing. While that's affecting my personal decisions to visit, it very well might be better for the casinos overall.

Atlantic City drove itself to being a slum by wallowing in its own greed and completely failing to adjust to every other state around it legalizing gambling. Continuing to charge $400+ per night for even the crappiest of hotel rooms, all because you had the privilege of going to someplace near the ocean was just absurd. I spent 15+ years making the drive there several times a year but havent been back in 10+. Couldn't have happened to a nicer city IMO.

LV is absolutely nothing like that. They seem to reinvent themselves every couple of years.

I wish I could go back and read all the "OMG RESORT FEES" threads and what sort of imminent disasters were predicted in that regard.

My guess is that 12 months from now, when LV has had another record year for visitors, this will have become just an accepted fact of life that we just dont care about.

Well in capitalism it's always the same cycle. As soon as you have some decent and steady source of revenue, you get more and more greed coming in and it starts to destroy everything. Then you have a big crash and it starts all over again. Unless you have some other location, city or w/e that manages to take it's place

I looked this up. 47% of Vegas visitors drive their own cars while in Vegas, which of course means that the great majority of those people are coming from California or Arizona. NOBODY pays for parking at casinos in CA or AZ, nor do we pay for parking at most places. The comparison to cities where paid parking is standard does not fit. The reason parking is $25 in downtown Chicago is because supply and demand dictates it. The reason MGM is going to start charging for parking has nothing to do with that.