Last month I wrote about MGM’s Aria Las Vegas charging $26 for each bottle of water they leave in guest rooms. You’d be better off buying water at the airport when you land, at the inflated prices there. It was the perfect example of the kind of costs that make people feel cheated on a Las Vegas trip. Vegas is suffering, and executives there can’t seem to figure out why.
A reader shares that the were billed “$50 to charge a laptop” at Paris Las Vegas, and they thought this was “an even more outrageous fee.”
On our last trip, my adult daughter brought her computer to finish some last minute work and needed a workspace. The only suitable workspace was a small desk and chair that also housed the minibar. From your article, I told her to avoid the minibar, since moving anything will result in charges.
She set up her laptop on the desk and looked for an outlet. There was one right above the desk, but it was full, so she unplugged one of the cords and plugged in the computer.
The guest was charged $50 (plus tax!) and there wasn’t an obvious explanation for the fee, so the guest pressed for an explanation. There was a “very small sign with even smaller print that says Please refrain from unplugging the tray. If this occurs, a fee of $50 will be applied.”
The little sign was not near the outlet. Disgusted, I went to the front desk to have the charge removed. The woman there told me that they couldn’t remove it because it was a third party fee. She even had a picture of the minibar with the sign at her fingertips to show me the warning.
The head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said on Thursday, “Visitation is down about 7 %, ADR is down, and RevPAR is down 14 % — the largest drop we’ve seen this century outside a crisis.”
Indeed, the city just saw the sharpest month‑on‑month deterioration outside 9/11, the financial crisis and 2020 pandemic shutdowns. CoStar’s weekly note on the city: “Las Vegas posted the second‑largest occupancy drop of any U.S. market, off 11.9 % last week.”
| Current level | Year-Over-Year | |||
| Visitor volume (Jan‑May 2025) | 16.46m | ‑6.5 % | ||
| Hotel occupancy (May 2025) | 83% | ‑3.1 | ||
| Room nights occupied (May 2025) | 3.88m | ‑5.5 % | ||
| Strip ADR (May 2025) | $212 | ‑1.2 % | ||
| Strip RevPAR (May 2025) | $181 | ‑4.8 % | ||
| Strip Gaming Revenue (May 2025) | $714m | ‑3.9 % | ||
| Weekly occupancy (July 13-19) | 74.30% | ‑11.9% |
There’s price fatigue and fee backlash; inflation and high interest rates squeezing leisure travelers that fill value and mid-tier properties (driving down their rates, putting pressure on upper tier); Canadians not visiting the U.S.; weaker value from service cuts and higher costs in response to ~ 30% wage growth since the pandemic.
Why could this possibly be happening?
(HT: Dan F.)
The Strip just isn’t fun anymore. When the Girlfriend and I go to Vegas now, we stay on Freemont Street where they still comp your drink if you’re playing video poker and it’ basically more fun.
Whoever said Hawaii was a rip-off is dead on. Hawaiians call Vegas the 9th island BTW.
Vegas in the 80’s and 90’s was fantastic! Now, it’s insane price gouging, and it really sucks the fun out of a trip there. My last trip was to see U2 at the Sphere, and will NEVER visit Vegas again. Piss poor value these days.
Maybe I live in a different world. I visit Vegas 3 or 4 times per year. I have never paid a parking fee or resort fee. I don’t use a computer in Vegas and when I am gambling the drinks are free. I took the time to know a host who resolves any issues that arise. Love the place
Geez – those defending the hotel – can get bent
They should have it plugged below the desk (as in added outlets)
They should have TAGGED THE PLUG to not be unplugged
It’s on the desk with zero clue NOT TO UNPLUG IT
Some of you are really just love to side with horrible hotels, airlines, vendors, etc
Las Vegas has a new name: “Sucker City”. Haven’t you heard?
I was at a business convention in Vegas in 2016, and stayed at one of the nicer strip hotels. The room price was very high for very little, and even though my employer was footing the bill, I saw for the first time “the resort fee”, and it wasn’t small. “What the f is that?” I thought. I wondered if there was some indoor pool, or workout room, or sauna, or some amenity that I associate with a “resort”. I asked the front desk, and they couldn’t identify a particular feature or amenity that was what the “resort fee” was paying for. Fast forward to 2022, and I am staying in a very small town in northern Idaho at an inexpensive motel. It has a $5 resort fee. This in interesting, because parking is advertised as free, the breakfast is advertised as free, the wifi is advertised as free, and there is no pool, workout room or discounted access to anything in the town. There was also no maid service or replacement of coffee packets, towels, etc. Turns out, as was admitted by the night clerk, that it was simply a way to make them look cheaper to search engines. I think this is the real reason for the scam; to make the rooms look cheaper on search engine rankings, or to fool the would-be customer into only looking at the cost of the room without the tax and resort fee.
The name of the game is greed. It started with utilities breaking sown charges without reducing basic cost. Airlines looked at that and started charging for everything. The travel industry has followed suit. Hotels in other cities were charging fees before they started in LV. In the late 90’s I was charged $21 a day for parking. When corporations moved into LV the old ideas for drawing in customers were thrown out, because they worked at engendering loyalty and pleasure being here. Now, customer be damned, we want every penny we can squeeze out of you. LV was a place for gamblers, not families. Now gamblers are a sideline and families pay through the nose. You don’t want to come back to LV, no problem. There are more who will come just because of the city’s reputation. Greed is not just in LV, it is everywhere. That is the root problem in this country today.
You weren’t charged $50 for unplugging a plug. You were charged $50 for unplugging the mini bar. You’re basically paying an a****** tax for making them go do a manual count of the inventory, because people sometimes attempt what you did to circumvent the automatic inventory control.
Used to go to Vegas every other month with 10k to play with. Have not gone in years cause its a complete joke. Its like what they did to times square.
Rates were very reasonable if you wanted to book a trip and not have it comped. Used to get upgrades to suites all the time at checkin. They had amazing buffets and restaurants that were cheap. Now they have everything expensive and most times not worth the price.
Never had to complain about things in Vegas cause even when it was not great you were still getting a good value. Now its you get ripped off and only can hope some of it is worth it.
Now if they offered me free airfare like they used to I would probably pass and just travel to Singapore to gamble as its much nicer and cheaper than vegas
Las Vegas had better realize that they’re not the only place to gamble and see a show. I moved here over 30 years ago. I worked and didn’t have time to go to shows. I’m retired now and can’t afford these show prices. We’re killing ourselves with these crazy prices. Including parking.
This must be why the Bellagio keeps begging me to come back with three-night comps. Went there one time like three years ago for a conference and maybe dropped $250 in the little bit of gambling I did.
A few weeks ago, I stayed at the MGM. They charge $50 just for opening the fridge (which we did not use) which seemed a bit much. So we went across the street to the liquor store, grabbed a case of water and some beers, and kept them cold using the ice bucket in the room.