From the 1st of July, 2013, the Golden Nugget is going to start charging guests a $5 a night Fremont Experience fee.

The GN does not charge a resort fee to be fair, and neither do most DT hotels.

But no doubt the rest of the DT hotels will soon be following their lead.

How long before the Bellagio start charging us to watch the fountain shows.
How about Paris charging us to help pay for the electricity that lights up the Eiffel Tower.
Want to see a Volcano eruption up at at the Mirage, that will be $15 bucks please.
TI Sirens show, another $20 please.  

Believe it or not, I am not complaining about Las Vegas hotel prices/taxes/fees.

I still think they are amazing value.
No where else could I afford to stay in a 5* hotel like Wynn, Bellagio, Cosmo etc, etc for such a low price.

Just reporting the facts (

The Golden Nugget is charging that $5 fee every day a hotel guest is staying at the property starting July 1st.
They say they have given 18yrs of free Fremont St Experience now people will have to pay.
Regardless,if you never set foot on the Fremont Street Experience you are still going to pay that fee if you are a guest of the Golden Nugget.Other downtown hotels might get the same idea(although in my opinion golden nugget is the best downtown hotel)
It is still a lot cheaper than the resort fees that are charged at other hotels in las vegas.
I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future Golden Nugget starts charging a resort fee as well.
Vic & Anthony's Steakhouse in the Golden Nugget has fantastic food

Why not just raise the rates $5 a day?

Why not just raise room rate ???

Here is why -  

http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2013/jun/14/are-resort-fees-and-entertainment-fees-just-way-ho/

I also think it is because the way the accounting is done and taxes that hotels have to pay on revenue......... profit/loss and expenses/revenue.

The additional fee is to pay for the operating expenses of the Fremont Street Experience which is paid by 10 downtown properties, Golden Nugget is one of the hotels who pays for the FSE.
by calling it a an "entertainment fee" VS just charging more for a room , I am guessing it makes a difference for the accounting and probably some tax loop hole . .......

You know corporations and their loop holes LOL LOL  
xoxo CindySpice  

 

It's pretty crazy over at VMB since this news broke, and everyone is going crazy over this $5. I was expecting that they would start charging a resort fee soon, but I can't understand why they would go about it this way, and it seems very strange.

As said, surely just adding $5 to the room rates is the best way to factor the cost in, but by doing this it just serves to irritate the customers who get angry at the fees. I myself just factor things like this into the costs of my holiday, I'm definitely not going to have a fit like some people I've seen over there over it.

People are going to stay at Hooters, or other much worse resorts to save the $5! I can't work the logic out, why would you want to do something detrimental to your trip in order to save $40 a week?

I usually stay at the Palazzo or Wynn when I'm in Vegas, people should stay there and get a taste of a proper resort fee... I travel from the UK, so an extra $100 or so over my trip is a small amount proportionately to my total hotel costs. Regardless, I want to stay where I am going to enjoy myself, and if it costs me a bit more the next year so be it.

I stayed at the Golden Nugget last year for 2 weeks of my trip, and have to say I enjoyed it more than the week I had at the Palazzo. I found the people very friendly, and overall the vibe was a lot more laid back downtown. I'm back out there this summer and will be staying at the Golden Nugget for another 2 weeks, I'd booked my hotel back along so don't have to pay this fee, but I wouldn't be cancelling my room at the Nugget if I was required to pay!

We have some airlines in the UK which are known as budget airlines, and the flights on the whole are cheap. The downside is they split everything up, you pay for boarding passes to be printed at the airport, luggage is extra, you pay for food etc. That seems to be no different to what is happening in Vegas with all the resort fees popping up, but to my mind it seems like a massive over-reaction on the most part from the public about $5 a day...

Especially in a city where people are dusting off many times that in one bet, but enough rambling from me and roll on next weekend for some long overdue fun

I have never complained about any fee because when I am looking to book rooms, I add up the total cost, price, tax, fees etc, and if I am happy with the price , I book it. Simple as that.

Of course we would all like there to be no fees of any sort, but the reality is, there are, so get over it.

To be fair, some places like the Venetian/Palazzo give you the choice of paying a resort fee, or not.
I also use the Internet daily, so feel like I am getting something in return for the fee.

What makes me laugh is when I read about someone moaning about paying a $25 resort fee, then in the next sentence they say they lost $500 playing Craps or BJ...LOL.

Those are the same people who walk from Mandalay Bay to Ellis Island, because they can get a steak meal for under ten bucks, then proceed to lose $100 playing the slots...lol.

Even if the resort fee was $50 a day, Vegas hotels would still be great value.
In the past four years I have stayed in hotels in London, Paris, Rome, Venice and a few other places, and each time my room cost twice the price than a similar room in Vegas would have cost me.
And one of those rooms (Venice) I shared a bathroom with four other rooms.
So you will never hear me moaning about the prices of Vegas rooms.
Although I do think Caesars standard rooms are way overpriced, LMAO

That's exactly my view too, but each to their own and I'm just happy that I don't sweat the small stuff. A few guys that are visiting the same time as me were making noises about this, so I reminded them that we are travelling 5000 miles for a holiday and they would be foolish to allow such a small amount of money be an issue.

The majority of my budget is taken up by social activities in Vegas, nice restaurants, drinking and other fun as you can probably guess. Gambling is probably the thing I spend less time doing than anything bar sleeping, but as you say the people who happily gamble thousands see nominal costs as out of line.

Poker players are the best, will spend $500 on a bottle of Vodka and in the next sentence will moan if a cab driver isn't speeding his way to drop the off.

Hotels in Vegas are excellent value, we lose out in respect that meals are pretty expensive and drinking in some resorts too. All part of the experience though, I prefer to just go with the flow and worry about the money when I'm back in the real world!

Now only 5 days until I'm out of the real world for 3 weeks!!

That makes more sense.