MGM’s Aria Las Vegas charges guests so much for water that it strikes down a fundamental precept in economics that has held for 150 years. As one guest writes to me, a bottle of water in the room there costs $26!
Also, the person restocking the mini bar..Knocked on my door while I was taking a break between conference and dinner, was grateful to get in. I hadn’t looked in it, he cleaned out of the mini bar – food crammed in the fridge from two guests ago. Told me they are short staffed and can’t keep up.
Told me the price after I had already (out of thirst, in the desert) consumed (fortunately only one) bottle of water. Fortunately the Starbucks downstairs sold water for “only $7.45”.
As an undergraduate economics major I learned the ‘diamonds-water paradox’ that water keeps us alive yet is cheap, while diamonds are useless for survival yet very expensive. Market prices seem to ignore life-or-death usefulness! Adam Smith posed this in The Wealth of Nations,
Nothing is more useful than water: but it will purchase scarce anything… A diamond, on the contrary, has scarce any value in use; but a very great quantity of other goods may frequently be had in exchange for it.
Prices are set “at the margin,” not by total usefulness. Water is extremely important overall, but the usefulness of an extra unit of water (at current levels of supply) is very low. It’s ubiquitous and has a low market price. Meanwhile, diamonds are hardly life or death but the next carat is scarce and highly desired – so expensive.
Marginal utility is the additional satisfaction from the next unit, not from all units combined. Early marginalist economists—Jevons, Menger, and Walras-formalized this in the 1870s, dissolving the paradox.
And yet… Aria in Las Vegas proves there really was no paradox after all. Water in the desert is crucial to survival and incredibly expensive for guests staying there!
They have clearly given up on any idea of hospitality. I would think, though, that a $36.28 per night resort fee (inclusive of tax) might be high enough to offer a single bottle of water as one of its inclusions. I guess not!
You are better off actually buying water at inflated airport prices when you land and bringing them to the hotel. This is the perfect example of the kind of out of sample cost that make people feel cheated on a Las Vegas trip, leaving customers with a bad taste in their mouth. And that is dangerous heading into a Las Vegas downturn.
That property and that town is dead to me.
They killed a good thing, way to greedy.
Vote with your feet, go somewhere else. Las Vegas is a rip off.
Why use the mini bar at all? Everyone knows the prices are ridiculous. Always get drinks elsewhere. Tip the waitress $1 & get a water
Mandalay Bay, the hotel the sniper was in, is a MGM Resorts International property that is around a mile from the MGM Aria property.
Vegas forgot what is about, greedy, paying for parking, expensive, but service workers are very nice and helpful
Stay downtown. Golden Nugget gives you 4 and resupplies as needed.
You can drink from the tap for free.
This isn’t mexico – tap water is probably safer than bottled water.
You can go to the lobby or hotel gym and refill your water bottle for free if you demand filtered water.
You can get bottled water delivered to your door with doordash or walmart or amazon delivery.
Minibar like valet is for suckers.
@Shwan and @Steve should get together to share stories of their similar experiences at the Fontainebleau:
When we stayed at Fontainebleau they wanted $20 for bottle of water. Walked across the street and bought 5 1.5 litre bottles for $3.50 each. Rule of thumb is to never buy the ripoff water in the room, same with anything in the “convenient” mini bar. Many hotels provide water free of charge to your room. You may have to ask but they will.
Lived in Vegas 20 years ago, left because I could never afford to go downtown, way to pricey. Live in Carson city now, we used to go to GSR in Reno, and now you have to pay a Premium price on the room to overlook the pool area. We didn’t pay the price, just needed a comfortable room, after gaming there all day. And our hotel room overlooked the roof of the back of the casino. No more GSR for us.
The greatest marketing genius in the world was the guy who got Americans to spend lots of money on bottled water when they have access to free water almost everywhere. In fact, lots of bottled water is sourced from municipal water supplies.
When we go to Vegas , we buy a case of water from Walgreen’s!! Take up to the room and we are set!!
Also… every corner has a homeless person selling water for a dollar!!
Las.Vegas is pricing themselves rigjt out of business. Rjey built these big beautiful casinos and charging for everything that should be included with ylur stay already and they still cant pay the morrtgage.
Dont feel bad people you can get tbe same bad feeling you get after losing right at your loval Indian Casino but the difference is you get to sllep in yoir own bed and hydrate with your own WATER.
The imvestors need to not be so greedy and give 20% back before they all go bankrupt. Its just a theory of how economics work people. STOP THE GREED.
I live in Reno and don’t go to the “resorts” here either. I moved here in 1976 and the downtown was fun, the Nugget in Sparks was a great place, and wonderful food. I’ve been going to Las Vegas off and on for 70 years and it is really just the biggest nothing dirty rip off. IF they think they are a “world class city” they have another think coming.
Who could have guessed an entire town built as a shrine to capitalism would be this way. I for one am shocked that a town with a 15% poverty rate and a per capita wage of $33,000, a homeless population that is growing daily, would ever come to this. That bottle of water is probably 2x the wage per hour that that cleaner makes.
When you build a city in a climate suitable only for reptiles, expensive water should be no surprise to anyone.
Q: Why do we keep getting articles about $26 in room water bottles from the convenience bar?
A: Easy way to get engagement and rage replies.
Seriously, why is it a surprise that it is that expensive? People are either going to pay it or find their way to one of the many CVS on the strip if they’re not blitzed or lazy. It just drink the tap water. Problem is that a lot of people come from Cali and heaven forbid they drink tap and their friends find out about it.
Minibars and convenience bars (when they just put it on the desk or next to the TV making you believe it’s free) is always a rip off no matter the city, at least in the US. One time the whole minibar was free, at Ovolo Woolloomooloo in Sydney, bless them, it was needed after that long road trip from Melbourne.
Vegas has become crazy expensive! Aria was nice when it first opened but it has now hit the skids, along with all of the MGM properties! The only decent one is Bellagio but I would never pay those room rates. Yes, tourists walk through to see the glass fixtures and arboretum but the casino and restaurants now sit empty. I’m sure MGM will ruin The Cosmopolitan too. 🙁
If you have to visit Vegas, stay at Circa! It’s kid free, clean, service is impeccable and waters are complimentary!
Two words: “tap” “water”. Those sea turtles didn’t need to choke on your plastic trash anyway.
Absolutely, just left the Bellagio last week, I mistakenly took a bottle of water, wow $24 on my tab. I would never go back to this City!
We have been going to Vegas for 30 years, but not anymore. It has become a bastion of corporate greed and a blatant money grab. From the $55 burger, fries, and shake lunch at Johnny Rockets to the typical $500 dinners for two in their ubiquitous overpriced and underwhelming “celebrity chef” restaurants, and the ever-increasing “resort fees” that deliver nothing but additional charges. We are spending our time and money elsewhere and not looking back. So long Vegas!
Ironically, the most exclusive Hotel in that Aria Complex is the Waldorf Astoria and water there is free. 4 bottles are placed in each room on arrival and replenished with each housekeeping stop. Also they are given away for free in the fitness center and could grab another 4 per day.
Ironically, Resorts World has water filling stations just off the casino floor. Seemed like the only casino who did.