Golden Nugget Raises Room Rates $5

Golden Nugget Las Vegas On Fremont Street — Golden Nugget

Earlier this week the Golden Nugget added a $5 “Fremont Street Experience” charge to their room rates and people aren’t happy.

The Golden Nugget will not be charging a Resort Fee. Our Strip competitors are charging up to $25 in daily Resort Fees for use of certain hotel amenities regardless if they are used or not. Beginning July 1st, we will be adding a $5 Fremont Street Fee per day to room bookings. The Fremont Street Experience is an amazing 5-block attraction with free nightly light shows, bars, retail, unique vendors, and security. There are significant costs associated with maintaining the Fremont Street Experience and rather than raise hotel rates or charge high resort fees we have chosen to keep our rates low and implement a nominal $5 fee (80% less than Strip Resort Fees).

Base room rates at Golden Nugget for the next couple months range between $47 and $209. The $5 Fremont Street Experience price increase represents a room rate increase between 2% and 10%. The Cosmopolitan resort fee added about 10% to the cost of their rooms. It doesn’t seem like occupancy at Cosmopolitan was effected by the rate increase and it probably won’t hurt the Nugget because the surcharge isn’t as drastic to the customer.

Golden Nugget Las Vegas Hotel Room Rates

Hotels add resort fees on top of room rates so that third-party travel sites can’t commission on sales. Last year ago I hypothesized, jokingly, that we’ll soon see free rooms with $100 resort fees so that hotels can avoid paying companies like Expedia. Unless the government steps in to stop hotels from adding fees they will continue to use them as a way to increase room prices and avoid paying third-party booking companies.

Personally, I’ve lost so many times gambling at the Golden Nugget without ever winning that I won’t step foot in there. The price increase is annoying but it’s not out of line. If I didn’t have such strong feelings against the casino this small increase in prices wouldn’t keep me from returning.

That said, my next visit to Downtown Vegas will be a return trip to The D. I like that joint.

Photo: Golden Nugget