Avoid Vegas Resort Fees 2019
Over the past few years Las Vegas hotels have ratcheted up the resort fees. Now, it isn’t uncommon for resort fees to push $50 per night including tax. At some hotels the resort fee can even be more expensive than the actual room rate. Here is how you can avoid Vegas resort fees in 2019.
#1 – Founderscard
Unlike MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment actually waives resort fees as a published benefit for their top tier Diamond and Seven Stars members. While you can earn Diamond status through gambling (or through room rates these days), there is a way to shortcut it and avoid Vegas resort fees. Founderscard is a membership club that provides a ton of travel benefits including Caesars Diamond status, Hilton Honors Gold status and so much more.
With Caesars Diamond status you will not pay any resort fees, plus you’ll also get a $100 celebration dinner (best dinner locations) each year plus a free show each month (best free shows). I have also noticed that I get comp offers quite often even though I don’t gamble. For me, the Diamond status has more than paid for the membership.
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#2 – Stay At Hotels Without Resort Fees
Another way to avoid Vegas resort fees is to stay in hotels that don’t charge them. While these “no resort fee” properties are a rare breed these days, they do still exist. Let’s take a look at which Las Vegas hotels do not charge resort fees.
Las Vegas Hotels Without Resort Fees
- Americas Best Value Inn
- Casino Royale Best Western Plus
- Desert Rose Resort
- Four Queens
- Lucky club
- Marriott Las Vegas
- La Quinta Inn & Suites
- Residence Inn
- Royal Resort
- Travelodge Center Strip
- WorldMark Tropicana
- WorldMark Las Vegas Blvd
- Wyndham Desert Blue
- Wyndham Grand Desert
As you can see, there really aren’t any major Las Vegas Strip casinos with no resort fees. If you want to stay at any of the iconic casinos, there simply isn’t a way to avoid Vegas resort fees at those properties. Well, there is one more way.
You can find a full list of Vegas resort fees here.
#3 – Gambling/Offers/Host
While most Las Vegas casinos do not waive resort fees as a published benefit, if you sign-up for their player’s club and gamble you may receive targeted offers in the mail for free rooms, comp play and even waived resort fees. Up until recently comped rooms have still often been subject to resort fees (and they sometimes still are), however many of the major Las Vegas casinos have been sending out offers lately waiving these fees.
Player’s clubs are a method for the casinos to gather data and track you, but they are a necessary evil to make sure you are getting some value back from your play. If you do gamble a decent amount also don’t be afraid to ask for a host. A casino host can definitely help you avoid Vegas resort fees if you play enough. If you’re not sure if you qualify for a host just ask.
Conclusion
As you can see, avoiding Vegas resort fees in 2019 isn’t the easiest task. In many cases it will make sense to pay the resort fee to stay at the Strip’s best casinos. With that said, you can definitely still find ways to avoid Vegas resort fees including Founderscard which has been my go-to option for years.
Do you have any tricks to avoid Vegas resort fees that we haven’t shared? Please share them in the comments!
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Thanks to Miles To Memories, another way to avoid resort fees is to get VIP/Loyalty matches.
The main VIP matches in Vegas are Caesars (old TR/Harrahs properties) and MLife (MGM properties). We were able to match VIP status through a Royal Caribbean Captains Club with MLfie Gold. Then we got matched from MLIfe to Caesars’ Diamond. That only works for one year. You can not get a VIP match for consecutive years. That is where Miles To Memories comes in.
Thanks to your blog, we played it just right during the year to get matched by hopscotching Hyatt and Wyndham VIP matches to maintain the Diamond Club status at Caesars. So now, one year goes with one match. The next year goes with the other loyalty match and so on trading off through the years.
It saves us $40 a night at Caesar properties with a lot of the hotels being a fully comp’d room if you travel on certain dates or don’t mind staying at certain hotels. If you do the $20 at registration, you can sometimes get a really good upgrade. We got a suite once for a whole week!
Does the Renaissance have resort fees?
Is the Hyatt Place still there somewhere?