Welcome to the luxurious Golden Gate at 1 Fremont Street.





This insanity has even spread off strip. That being said it’s $50 total, less than what most people pay per day on average on there home mortgage. I also like this place and other than the nearly $30 reset fee, Derek Stevens is way better for downtown than MGM and Ceasars is for the strip.

I like Palace Station a lot and have stayed there 5-6 times in the past when the strip was too expensive. They then started a resort fee that was $14.99. I could deal with that since I used their shuttle a few times per trip. Then they went to $30 plus and I said no more.




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OK. You all convinced me. I want to go somewhere new to have a poker vacation.

Can you name the best cities/hotels to stay at that are cheaper than Vegas and are even reasonably close to similar in regards to foot traffic to desirable restaurants and entertainment.

Macau.

Man, there sure is a lot more garbage on this site lately wrt ads. It's nearly unusable for me. I might have to get a browser add-on that deletes the ads just so I can read the site.

Interesting choice of threads to post about that.

Not sure what it is about paying 150
350 a night in vegas on the strip that has ppl so upset.

Go to priceline and look at any city with a nice area downtown, hell I just looked at cleveland and prices are no worse than vegas for comperable days.

Yes resort fees should be included right up front for everyone to see, and hopefully we will get there.

There are plenty of options in every city where you can stay a 15 min drive away and cut the costs by 1/2. Times will not go back to the "old days." Vegas, Disney, Broadway, {insert your destination} are not going back to the old ways.

Again, it is their decision and I get ppl like to vent on the message boards, but don't get your hopes up for change.

Vote with your dollars and spend them where you see value. God knows there are MUCH better games all over the US. I only go out now a bout 6 times a year durring big conventions and with free offers (diamond so no resort fees).

Just a psychological thing. If your favorite 6-pack always was $4.99, you’re upset if they increase the price to $9.99. Even if all other comparable beers are around the same price point.

The people complaining about high prices for Strip resorts are guests that already visited Las Vegas when hotel rooms were highly subsidized or (poker) low rollers who think casinos have to provide them with cheap accommodation so they’re able to turn a profit on their trip.

If you’re a first time Vegas guest and spent previous vacations in Cabo or Mykonos, you’re probably not upset with hotel prices on the Strip.

Ahh, very well put.

This topic I think is more about increases in deceptive resort fees. For your above analogy it would be like your favorite six pack was $4.99. It's now $5.99 similar competitor product is $6.50 so you buy the one at $5.99. After you pay for it you notice a $1.00 deposit(non-refundable) and find the similar one that is $6.50 doesn't charge this (non refundable)deposit fee and is in fact $0.50 cheaper.

I don't think I'm entitled to anything. I think resort fees are deceptive and scummy and representative of short-sighted nickel and dime nonsense that has resulted in me dropping my annual Vegas hotel spend from roughly $10,000 to $0.

This is where your analogy doesn't quite hold up. The after-the-fact gotcha stopped years ago. You would know your favorite beer is $6.99 before you purchase it.

I took your advice and searched for hotels on Manhattan. It took me 2 minutes to find a hotel for next Friday and Saturday for ~$200/night (total, including taxes) that looks nice and is right by World Trade Center, Tribeca, Little Italy, Canal Street, and a lot of touristy and nightlife stuff.

I am most certainly voting with my tourist dollar by not planning to make any Vegas trips and this thread is simply where I express my surprise at price/value of Vegas. Before I visited Vegas, I had the warped perception that it is a place with great deals and amazing promotions to draw people in to gamble. After I visited, I have the impression that Vegas is an overpriced tourist trap and overpriced city that looks very sketchy in most areas.

I would be very interested to hear of alternative options for poker vacations that are good value for a 2/5 - 5/10 player. (Florida?) It can be cheap or expensive, as long as it is good value.

That would be true if some top tier Strip resorts charged a resort fee while others didn’t. But that’s not the case. The only hotel on the Strip that doesn’t charge a resort fee is Casino Royale which is certainly in the lower tier of Strip properties.

You could argue that Caesars and Cosmo “only” charge $39 while all other luxury resorts are at $45 now, but I don’t think that difference is the deciding factor for anyone.

Vegas diverted away from that business model several years ago. If that was what you were looking for, you came a decade too late.

Boston (for the new Wynn/Encore) lots to do with amazing food and tourist options. We have added this to our poker route multiple times since it opened.

MGM National Harbor is another good place with same as above nearby.

Florida is still good, as are the games in all of CA at those stakes.

Plenty of options out there. As I said I don't have to pay resort fees and get good rates and comps. So we still hit Vegas plenty in our rotation.

I know and you know but not sure a lot of casual tourist that don’t come here often are aware.

Maybe I missed it and maybe the downtown/Fremont properties I stay at are less transparent but I didn’t clearly see the resort fees when searching for a hotel. I basically had to google it and add it in. Really annoyed my favorite place downtown Main Street Station and all downtown Boyd properties recently got on the resort fee bandwagon.

Your first two is what I’d recommend as well. Basically any relatively new rooms in a big market area is going to be softer than Vegas. Even with grinders moving and visiting for this reason it’ll be softer than Vegas.

If I was a low to mid stakes PLO grinder I would’ve of definitely went to Houston before the biggest room was shut down. It’s supposedly opening back at the end of August. Games played very larger and appeared extremely juicy.

Sure, but that's not what you originally said. Your analogy said you only find out about the extra fee AFTER you already commit to paying (i.e. you didn't realize you paid 6.99 instead of 5.99 until after you walk away from the register). That's what I was jumping on, because that doesn't happen (there was a time, years ago, where some places DID do that, but not anymore, at least not in Vegas). That's all.

Yeah ok anyone buying there regular six pack would know this. Maybe someone visiting from Canada making a beer run wouldn’t.

Still the idea of a $45 resort fee is ridiculous. If it isn’t deceptive why keep separate from the hotel rate?

New business plan I am going to propose to the downtown casinos.

Make the room rate $5 a night, and the resort fee $120 a night.

What a bargain!

You don't have to stay at an expensive hotel on the strip, in order to visit Las Vegas and have a good time. I don't like paying resort fees, or parking fees, and I don't like the Strip, but I still love going to Las Vegas. Off strip Vegas may not be for everybody, but has everything I need, in 24/7 abundance, (great restaurants, bars etc.) at regular prices.

In June, I stayed at a nice airbnb condo in Spring Valley, just 4 miles (easy 5-10 minute drive) from WSOP/Rio and Orleans, where I like to play cash games. 2BR, 2 bath, full kitchen, laundry, covered parking, safe, gated. I paid $925 total for 9 nights. I compared to hotels. With resort fees and taxes, it would have cost me more to stay at Orleans or even shitty Gold Coast. Considerably more at most strip properties.

You need a car (and reasonably sober driver) to enjoy Vegas this way. I drove from California, and don't drink heavily so it was easy. True that if you fly and have to rent a car, the car rental may cost as much as resort fees. But that would be ok with me because I like having my own wheels to explore the area, and the ability to get the **** out of the casino quickly when I've had enough for the night. It's better for my body, mind and wallet to not be in casino/hotel/tourist atmosphere 24/7. I'll likely do something like this again next time.

Taipei City baby. Cheap, convenient, good food, easy to walk around everywhere.

Holy crap!

I am going to have to remember that NYC hotel. The wife and I were going to go back to NYC for a longer trip and part was going to be spent in that area. Our hotel would have been significantly more expensive.

That trip got canceled, but we are going back at some point as part of eighteen day, three city trip.

Shhh, the wife doesn’t know that NYC is one of the cities.

As far as Florida goes, I have only played Hard Rock in Hollywood and that was tournaments. Bad thing about that place is it is so far away from the beach at Fort Lauderdale.

They have poker there? I spent 2 weeks in Taipei last year and didn't know.

He got poker confused with poke her.

Moving on.

I am one of those directly affected by "hidden" resort fees. As an example, what I thought was a good deal at Vdara turned out to be not so good when adding in resort fees. I had some comp nights available and even on those I was being asked to pay resort fees.

As far as downtown goes, the strip has what I want so downtown is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to stay there.