By Elmer Whittaker
Apparently for some years now, Las Vegas’ Hotel Casino
Resorts are using a nasty rip-off scheme to lure in unsuspecting visitors and
outdo their competition of Hotels without casino operation.
When searching for a suitable and affordable hotel in Las
Vegas using travel sites like expedia.com, travelocity.com, hotels.com, orbitz.com
or when following advertisements on billboards, magazines, newspapers and the
internet, many of the renowned Casino Hotel & Resorts advertise a most
attractive, alluring and astounding low nightly hotel rate.
Once you book the hotel rooms via an internet travel
provider like Expedia you are being charged the promotional low room rate plus
tax via your credit/debit card and receive even confirmation about it via email.
Unfortunately, when you finally get to the hotel to
check-in you are confronted with the fact that the casino resort now demands if
not extorts a nightly “Resort Fee” to stay at the hotel. This rip-off scheme leaves
you with the choice of either paying what those fraudsters demand from you, or
take your luggage and try to find a different hotel room somewhere else, if one
is available, paying a cancelation fee, and then trying to get your money back
which your credit/debit card has already been charged with, which in the best
case scenario alone takes between 3-5 days.
The hotel resorts perpetrating this “Resort Fee” scheme
is naturally quite aware of the circumstance that you were not aware of any
additional “Resort Fee” charges and has a document ready for you to sign
specifically agreeing to this additional fee.
At my last trip to Las Vegas I booked a mobile promotion
of the Tuscany Suites & Casino (note that “Resort” is not even mentioned)
via Expedia for a $22 nightly room rate plus tax totaling $24.98 which was
debited to my debit card at the time of booking, confirmed by email. When I
arrived at the Tuscany to check-in the hotel staff confronted me with an additional
charge of a nightly “Resort Fee” of $14 plus tax totaling $15.68 bringing the
cost for a nightly stay from $22 plus tax (as advertised) to a whopping $40.66 including
12% tax.
The nightly “Resort Fee” totaling a 60% increase to the
cost of the nightly stay!
Once you complain about this rip-off at check-in, the
hotel staff is trained to blame the booking services like Expedia for the
rip-off and point to the small print on the travel providers website at which
it reads “Resort fee charged at hotel/condo”.
This in my opinion fraudulent “Resort Fee” scheme is really
nothing else then a bait and switch fraud and false advertsing at best, which not only millions of people
fall victim each year, but also a very nasty tool for many of the hotel resorts
to cut out their competition of honest hotels who charge the price of their
nightly room rate as advertised without adding any rip-off fees.
