Virgin Hotels Las Vegas Food & Drink Policy
One of the more exciting new properties opening in 2021 is Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. Occupying the old Hard Rock Hotel, this new property has been completely renovated and will open on March 25, 2021. Recently they made waves by bucking the trend and not charging resort fees, however another policy they have has me a little confused.
Very Restrictive Food & Drink Policy at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas
A recent comment on one of our YouTube videos asking about parking at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas lead me to their website where I started looking through the FAQs. Thankfully I was able to confirm parking is free, but I also found something else quite interesting. Guests will not be permitted to bring any outside food or drink.
Here is how the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas Food & Drink policy reads:
Can we bring in our own food & beverage?
Outside food and beverage is not permitted in our guest rooms. Our resort offers an array of restaurant offering including pre-stocked in-room minibars, and 24-hour room service for your convenience.
I’m going to be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a policy at a hotel. No outside food or drinks? Surely this has to be a mistake!
Update: As has been pointed out in the comments, Hard Rock Hotel had a similar policy and Wynn has this policy as well. It isn’t clear how strictly it will be enforced.
Virgin Hotels Food & Drink Policy Purpose
While Virgin Hotels Las Vegas has a large selection of bars and restaurants, I’m not sure how they are going to force guests to keep outside food & drink off property. Perhaps they are trying to keep people from walking across the street to CVS and stocking up, but my guess is people will just find ways to sneak stuff inside their bags, etc.
No Coffee Makers Either
One other disappointment with their policies is the lack of a coffee maker in regular rooms. While they do provide coffee makers in suites, guest in regular rooms are out of luck. I guess this also means you can’t bring your own coffee either! 🙂 To be fair the lack of coffee makers is a norm in Vegas, but a frustrating one for many. I don’t personally use them, but I know a lot of people who do.
Virgin Hotels Las Vegas Food & Drink Policy – Bottom Line
Part of me hopes that this policy is just poor wording, because limiting guests from outside food and beverages is not cool. I’ll reach out to Virgin Hotels to get clarification, but for now I will intrepret the policy as written. Does this change your opinion of Virgin Hotels Las Vegas or make you want to spend stay there less? Let us know in the comments!
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[…] The Virgin Hotel Las Vegas is set to open on March 25th and there are many things the property is doing that are against the grain for Las Vegas and even for hotels in general. I already wrote about how the hotel isn’t going to charge a resort fee or anything for parking. In the comments to that post, many people felt that the Virgin Hotel would make up the lost revenue by charging $12 for a bottle of Evian. That’s not unreasonable since other websites highlighted the Virgin Hotel Las Vegas policy prohibiting outside food or drinks in g…. […]
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I am surprised that Winn has that policy. I always walk over from the Venetian with a drink in my hand.
[…] Virgin Hotels Las Vegas Bans Outside Food & Drink! […]
Lots of companies dont realize that when they try to make more money in one area, they lose it in another. Take buffets, for example, they were the key to bringing people into casinos and it was a break even for the casino….then someone figured they need to make money on everything, so they increased the costs of the buffets….but then realized they lost people. So the prices of the buffets went back down. On the other hand, keep in mind that the owner of Virgin is a billionaire genius, so he knows how to make money….he is GOD. I wont fly on Virgin Airlines because of their methods, but that doesnt stop them from being successful.
Isn’t this the same place that decided not to have a casino? If so, then it seems pretty clear that even the watered down comps a lot of strip hotels are offering these days wouldn’t apply either. It sounds like they’re going for a very specialized market segment although outside of Mormons I have no idea what that segment may be.
Do they provide drinkable water?
We stayed at a resort hotel in Europe just pre-pandemic. They had a strict “no outside food or drink policy” and had an airport type scanner at the hotel entrance. They pulled a bottle of vodka from my suitcase. Similar to cruise ships.
That is crazy
People apparently wash their underwear in coffee makers, yes, people are animals … so, yea, that $3 cup of coffee migt be a better way to go anyway.
Haha yeah that’s why I don’t really use them although I know many don’t have an issue. It is definitely something that you find in most hotel rooms that is now largely absent in Vegas.
Ugh, I will never get that image out of my head!
While I understand banning food, I find them too strict when it comes to drinks. I mean, I want to be able to buy a budget-friendly bottle of water to drink at night.
It will be interesting to see how this is enforced.
I hate feeling captive. I also doubt they’ll offer my Diet Dr. Peppers, and if they did they would want $3 or more a can. Are there ice machines or do you call room service for that also?
It’s hard to monitor incoming food and drink. Maybe they’ll monitor your trash and have a special cleaning charge if they can identify signs of violations (kind of like smoke cleaning charges). I can see people stacking their trash somewhere outside the room, near soda machines or whatever.
I’ve been in some resorts that were very restrictive, especially with alcohol. That’s just another use for your personal under-seat bag. Don’t be obvious and you’ll probably be fine.
[…] Miles to Memories notes that the Virgin Las Vegas resort that’s opening soon has a surprising policy, which is mentioned in the FAQs: […]
Well they have to pay for it somehow.
Haha I guess so.
This isn’t very different from the policy when it was the Hard Rock: “In order to maintain a safe environment, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino prohibits coolers; boxes; bags; or other containers for the purpose of transporting food and beverage on property. In addition, all outside food and beverage is also prohibited.
Small, personal-sized coolers no larger than 12″x12″x12″ to house small quantities of medications or kosher food are permitted.
Hard Rock Hotel reserves the right to confiscate any items considered a violation of this policy without compensation.”
Thanks for sharing that. I had no idea. I have seen the cooler policies but never realized they had a full ban. Of course it wasn’t really enforced and I’m guessing it will probably stay that way.
Just two more great reasons not to stay in places like this. I gotta have my coffee right away and have been known when needed to bring my own coffee and maker (Aeropress for the win!)
The no food in the rooms from outside the hotel/resort in insane! What about people that bring their own kosher food (Dan of Dan’s Deals is one from what I read on his blog) Or people with special dietary problems? Or just want a bunch of snacks of their own?
Crazy!
I have to think this won’t be strictly enforced and they would make exceptions in cases like you mention, but it is an interesting policy.
I saw the same odd food and drink rules on the Wynn site.
Thanks Gary. I looked that up and I had no idea about Wynn. Maybe more hotels have this policy and it just really isn’t enforced strictly or publicized. Maybe they have it to better limit food/drinks for conventions too. Something they can enforce when they need to and look the other way for normal guests. I’m intrigued.
I’ve been a frequent visitor to Vegas for years and all the major hotels seem to routinely follow the leader, so expect it to now become even more wide spread. I think they attend the same industry seminars on how to improve their revenue stream. Fortunately, I’ve attended seminars on how to stash my Diet Coke and Snickers Bar.