I firmly believe that if, as an industry, you’ve alienated Gary Whitta, famed British script writer of The Book of Eli and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, then you’ve lost America. The CEO of Caesars Entertainment Corp., Tony Rodio, might feel the same way, as he recently cautioned the industry about resort fees.
Jumping back to Whitta, the loveable Twitter personality to ask his audience “wtf” are resort fees? While trying to book a hotel room for an upcoming business trip, he discovered that they added up to a significant portion of his total bill.
Hotel room charge: $663.10
Actual final charge after all “fees”: $826.69wtf
— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) August 5, 2019
The end result wasn’t a big bill for Mr. Whitta though. Instead, he sensibly decided to book at a more reasonably priced accommodation, and saved himself quite a bit of money.
That’s exactly the type of scenario Rodio is looking to avoid. During Caesar’s August 5 earnings call, he signaled the operator would monitor its resorts fees, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. This came after a $6 fee hike, to $45 total, for the Aria, Vdara and Bellagio.
“Over time, at some point there’s going to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” Rodio said. “I don’t think we’re there yet, but I want us to be very judicious and cautious about taking those rates any further. It’s certainly a revenue stream that’s hard to walk away from and it’s been accepted at this point, but we’re getting pretty high.”
Gary Whitta might disagree with Rodio’s assessment that the fees are still affordable enough. They might be acceptable by those who just feel they have to stay at a high end resort, but there are already examples of those who don’t want to pay a fee they don’t comprehend.
This all follows a lawsuit by Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, who on July 23 accused the Hilton Hotels corporation of hiding the true price of hotel rooms behind things like resort fees. Of course, that’s exactly what they’re doing, which Tony Rodio is pretty openly admitting to, but it’s hard to give up on a revenue stream.
