MGM Resorts, the biggest casino operator in Las Vegas, increased the resort and parking fees at all 12 of its properties on the Strip on Wednesday. 

Resort fees have risen by $5 daily at Aria, Bellagio, the Cosmopolitan, Vdara, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, and Delano — raising their totals to $55 daily for the first four establishments and $50 daily for the last three. They raised the rates by $8 per day at Park MGM, Nomad, and The Signature, making their new totals $50 per day. 

New York-New York, Luxor, and Excalibur now impose resort fees of $45 — a $3 increase for New York-New York and an $8 rise for Luxor and Excalibur. 

This marked the second instance this year that MGM increased its resort fees, after a rise in January. 

Self-parking charges have increased from $18 to $20 per day at all MGM locations from Monday to Friday, and from $23 to $24 from Friday to Sunday. 

Members of MGM Rewards who hold pear tier status or above can continue to bypass the self-parking charges, along with all active military personnel from the US, veterans, and their spouses via the MGM Rewards Military & Veterans Program (MVP). 

Residents with a valid Nevada driver’s license may continue to self-park for free for a maximum of three hours at all MGM Resorts locations. 

Parking vs. Vacation Charges 

Parking charges are imposed for a genuine service, whereas resort fees merely give the illusion of one. 

Hotels argue that resort fees are a "convenience fee" for various services — such as Wi-Fi, gym usage, and local phone calls — that guests prefer not to see charged individually. (Because all guests continue to utilize the hotel phone for making local calls.) 

The actual purpose of resort fees is to allow hotels to increase room rates while staying competitive on travel websites like Expedia, Travelocity, and Booking.com, which collaborate with hotels by excluding resort fees from daily rates. 

In this manner, the hotels can continue to appear at the top of the results when users of these platforms look for room rentals with the “best value” or “lowest price” criteria. 

Resort fees, similar to other unnecessary charges, are additional costs that usually show up at the conclusion of the online reservation process. 

With just 39 days remaining in his presidency, Joe Biden states that his administration is still striving to eliminate all junk fees within the travel sector.