Hilton officials pull out of tough parking spot

Wednesday, April 21, 1999 | 11:07 a.m.

Don Gorman and his family drove into the Las Vegas Hilton parking lot Tuesday afternoon seeking a Star Trek adventure but found instead a monster of a parking fee.

"We saw that it was 20 bucks, and I thought, 'I bet we could do better than that,' " Gorman said. "It is a lot of money."

Money that applied to everyone who wanted to park and wasn't staying at the hotel. Didn't matter whether folks parked themselves or handed a valet their keys.

Too bad the Gormans didn't wait a day.

Starting this morning, Hilton officials omitted the fee for anyone possessing a Nevada driver's license or a Barron's Club player's card, said Alan Hopper, hotel spokesman.

Around the beginning of the year, Hilton officials started charging a $20 parking fee to anyone who didn't possess a room key. The fee was charged from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily during large events at the Las Vegas Convention Center next door, Hopper said.

Those events, such as this week's National Association of Broadcasters convention, only happen about four times a year. But they create huge parking problems at the hotel, Hopper said.

"We became a free parking garage for the big conventions," he said. "It was preventing our normal guests from parking."

However, the fee prevented others from visiting the hotel, too. Hopper said the Hilton was developing a poor reputation on the streets, as people were advising each other to stay away during conventions.

Locals and visitors to the casinos and Star Trek: The Experience were unhappy about forking over $20 to attend meetings and otherwise conduct business in the hotel.

Hotel officials didn't realize the solution to one problem created another.

"When we did this, we knew we were going to ruffle some feathers, but we didn't know how many," Hopper said. So late Tuesday afternoon, Hilton officials changed the policy for residents and Barron's Club players.

They also are working on a deal with the Star Trek attraction that would allow patrons to receive some kind of validation ticket so they can be reimbursed for the parking fee, Hopper said.

The Gormans probably would have been glad for such a policy. The $20 fee seemed steep on top of Star Trek admission fees of $14.95 for each of the family's five members.

"The parking is more expensive than the ride," Gorman said Tuesday afternoon.

Still, he said, there were options for the creative while the fees were in effect. Gorman found a spot behind a convenience store across the street where he parked for free, Tuesday.

The walk was shorter than the one from the Hilton's self-park lot anyway, he said.