Letter:

Hotels shooting themselves in foot

Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2008 | 2 a.m.

The hotels’ price gouging of Consumer Electronics Show delegates, described in Richard N. Velotta’s Saturday story, is merely the tip of the iceberg. This shows that the hotel magnates are willing to wring every last penny from a customer, even if it means losing a staple of Las Vegas convention bookings the CES. Other shows have moved on, including the West Coast Professional Golfers of America show (which I attended).

When will they learn that people chose Las Vegas because things were affordable? Show delegates could get a great room for $100. They could eat like kings for less than $75 and even take in a show for $100.

When exactly did the hotels make it customary to gouge the people who made them financially sound? This could be the beginning of the proverbial end for Las Vegas’ 25-year boom.

Steven Kellermann, Las Vegas

Discussion: 2 comments so far…

By ern1983

1/20/08 at 12:23 p.m.

Suggest removal

I couldn't agree more. I feel like I'm getting monitored and nickel and dimed on every littel thing. One example: I'm at a poker bar (playing a dollar machine) at the Flamingo and some people from my home state sit down next to me. We start talking and relize that we have much in common, so we talk for 20 minutes or so and at that time, I'm not playing my machine. They leave, and I start playing again. I look up and ask for a beer, and the bar tender smugly says: "that will be $4.50." What a prick , but apparently he is carrying out some Harrah's Inc. bean counter's new measure to decrease costs. That same pinhead will probably get a big bonus, and the cost savings may show up in the short term, but there will be long term damage to their good will and this will make their revenue decline more than any cost savings they are seeing in the short term. I see this with many of the maga, strip corporation casinos and it's making Vegas not as fun as it used to be. I never minded losing my $500.00 to $1000.00 per trip, so long as I felt like I was in this fantasy land and getting treated like a king. But now that is changing, so who knows, I guess the indian casinos are looking just as good to me as Vegas and not as far away.
By spartacus84

1/21/08 at 6:27 p.m.

Suggest removal

I have to agree. My wife and I perceived a squeeze during our visit this past year. Harrah's, a place we gambled at often because we could at the very least play for a while with our money, seemed to take a lot more than give. We've also noticed hotel prices creeping higher and staying there. We've been yearly visitors to Las Vegas, but if corporations want to bottom-line us, we can take our bottoms elsewhere.