Plan Your Trip

Las Vegas Resort Fees Explained (and How to Avoid Them)

That advertised room rate is not what you'll pay: most Las Vegas hotels add a resort fee of $45 to $55 a night plus tax. Here is what the fee supposedly covers, what the 2025 FTC rule changed, and the only three ways to genuinely avoid it.

Reviewed by the Vegas Guide editorial team · Updated October 8, 2026 · 7 min read

A Las Vegas resort fee is a mandatory daily charge the hotel adds on top of your room rate - usually $45 to $55 a night, plus about 13.38% tax on the Strip. It supposedly pays for Wi-Fi, the gym and the pool, things that used to be free. You can't opt out, and it applies whether you booked direct or through a third party. On a 3-night Caesars Palace stay that's roughly $187 bolted onto the price you thought you were paying.

Since May 2025 the FTC has required hotels to show the fee inside the upfront total, so the check-in surprise is mostly gone - but the fee itself is alive and well. The only reliable ways to skip it: book a no-fee hotel, hold waiver-level loyalty status, or stay on a fully comped night. Everything else is a myth. Here's the detail.

What a resort fee actually buys you

Officially, the fee bundles amenities: in-room Wi-Fi, fitness-center access, local and toll-free phone calls, and pool access. Some properties pad the list. Wynn adds bottled water and a couple of daily gym passes; others throw in boarding-pass printing or a newspaper nobody reads.

The honest version: it's a way to advertise a lower nightly rate and collect the difference later. You pay it even if you never touch the gym, never open the pool gate, and bring your own hotspot. That's the part that annoys people, and reasonably so.

How much are Las Vegas resort fees in 2026?

On the Strip almost everything clusters in a tight band. These are the nightly fees before tax, re-checked in September 2026:

$55/night - Bellagio, Aria, Cosmopolitan, Vdara, Caesars Palace, Paris, Planet Hollywood, The Venetian, Palazzo, Wynn, Encore, Fontainebleau, and Resorts World.
$50/night - MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Park MGM, Flamingo, Harrah's, Rio, and Virgin Hotels.
$45/night - Luxor, Excalibur, New York-New York, and Circus Circus. The Strat, The LINQ and Treasure Island sit just under $50.

Then add Clark County room tax of about 13.38%, which applies to the resort fee too. So Caesars Palace's $55 becomes $62.36 a night, and MGM Grand's $50 becomes about $56.69. Over three nights that's roughly $170–190 on top of your room - often more than a night's rate in the cheaper months. For how this folds into the whole trip, see how much a Las Vegas trip costs.

Downtown and off-Strip: lower, not zero

Downtown casinos charge less, and two charge nothing. Before tax, as of September 2026: Circa $50, Golden Nugget $46, Golden Gate $40, The D $39, Downtown Grand $39, Main Street Station $32, El Cortez $30. Four Queens and Binion's charge no resort fee at all. The room tax inside the Las Vegas city limits is 13% rather than the Strip's 13.38%, so a $46 Downtown fee lands at about $52 a night. The full hotel-by-hotel table, Strip and Downtown, is in resort fees by hotel.

The 2025 rule that changed the checkout, not the charge

For years the play was simple: book a "$129" room, then meet a $55 fee at check-in. The FTC's junk-fee rule, in effect since May 12, 2025, ended that ambush. Hotels and booking sites now have to show the all-in price with the resort fee included before you reach the payment page.

What it didn't do is ban the fee. Resort fees are still legal and still charged. You just see the real number sooner, which makes comparison shopping honest for the first time in years - the rate you compare across hotels is finally the rate you'll pay. Treat it as a transparency win, not a discount.

When the fee is actually charged

At the hotel, not on the booking site. Your card is authorized at check-in for the room, the tax, the resort fee for every night and a daily incidentals hold; the fee then settles on the final folio as one line per night. Prepaying through a third-party site doesn't change that - the hotel still collects the fee on arrival unless the site states it has already been included. A split stay across two hotels pays each hotel's fee for its own nights, nothing more, and a single reservation with a mid-trip room change is still charged once per night.

How to actually avoid resort fees

Three things genuinely work. Most of what gets passed around online doesn't.

1. Stay at a no-fee hotel

A short list of properties charges no resort fee at all. Downtown has the most: Four Queens and Binion's on Fremont Street are the usual picks. On the Strip itself, Casino Royale (wedged between The Venetian and Harrah's) is the standout, and the Jockey Club is a fee-free condo-hotel mid-Strip. You trade a little polish for the savings, but Downtown in particular has gotten genuinely good - weigh it in the where to stay guide, or browse everything under hotels.

2. Hold waiver-level loyalty status

The big casino programs waive resort fees once you hit a mid-tier elite level:

Caesars Rewards Diamond and above - waives fees at Caesars Palace, Paris, Planet Hollywood, Flamingo, Harrah's, and The Linq (Diamond takes about 15,000 tier credits a year, or a status match).
MGM Rewards Gold and above - waives fees across Bellagio, Aria, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Park MGM, and the rest of the MGM stable (Gold needs roughly 75,000 annual points).

Both are realistic if you gamble even moderately, and status matches between programs are common. Separately, World of Hyatt Globalists get the resort fee waived on award stays at The Venetian.

3. Book a comped night

A fully comped room - from a casino host or an offer sitting in your rewards account - usually comes with the resort fee waived too. If you play at all, check your offers before paying rack rate.

What doesn't work

Booking direct instead of through a third party won't dodge it; it's the same charge either way. Neither will asking nicely at the desk, disputing it as a "surprise" (it's disclosed now), or hunting for a rate that hides it. The fee is the fee.

Resort fee vs parking: two different charges

People lump these together, but they're separate. The resort fee covers Wi-Fi and the pool. Parking is its own line item - most big Strip resorts charge for self-parking and valet on top of the resort fee, while Downtown is often free. If you're driving, budget for both. Whether you even need a car is its own question, covered in the do you need a car guide.

Is it worth picking a hotel just to dodge the fee?

Sometimes, not always. Saving $55 a night by moving from the Strip to Downtown is real money - about $250 with tax over four nights. But if it adds a $25 rideshare each way to wherever you actually want to be, the math tightens fast. The fee matters most when you're already choosing between two similar hotels, or when you're traveling in the cheaper months and the fee is a big share of the total. To time those months, see best time to visit; to squeeze the whole trip, the budget guide. First time in town? Start with the first-timer's guide.

Frequently asked questions

Can you avoid resort fees in Las Vegas?

Only in three real ways. Stay at a no-fee hotel (Casino Royale on the Strip, or Four Queens and Binion's Downtown), hold waiver-level loyalty status (Caesars Rewards Diamond or MGM Rewards Gold and above), or book a fully comped room. Booking direct, asking at the desk, or disputing the fee does not work - it's a mandatory, now-disclosed charge.

How much are resort fees in Las Vegas in 2026?

Most Strip hotels charge $45–55 per night before tax. The top-tier properties (Bellagio, Aria, Caesars Palace, Venetian, Wynn, Cosmopolitan, Resorts World) are $55; mid-Strip names like MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay are $50; budget MGM hotels (Luxor, Excalibur, Circus Circus) are $45. Add about 13.38% Clark County tax on top, so a $55 fee is really $62.36 a night.

Is the resort fee taxed in Las Vegas?

Taxed at the same rate as the room: 13.38% on the Strip and the rest of unincorporated Clark County, 13% inside the Las Vegas city limits, which is where Downtown sits. A $55 Strip fee therefore costs $62.36 a night, a $50 fee $56.69, and a $46 Downtown fee about $52. The tax shows as a separate line on the folio, so the fee you see quoted is almost always the pre-tax figure.

Are Las Vegas resort fees per person or per night?

Per room, per night, never per person: two people pay the same as four in the same room. Every night of the stay is charged, including the one you check out from in the morning. A split stay across two hotels pays each hotel's fee for its own nights and nothing doubles up, and two back-to-back reservations at the same hotel are charged the same as one continuous stay.

When is the resort fee charged, at check-in or at check-out?

At the hotel desk, not on the booking site. Your card is authorized at check-in for the room, tax, the resort fee for every night and a daily incidentals hold, and the fee then settles on the final folio as one line per night. Prepaid third-party bookings work the same way: the hotel collects the fee on arrival unless the site states it was already included in your total.

Do downtown Las Vegas hotels charge resort fees?

Nearly all of them do, at lower rates than the Strip: Circa $50, Golden Nugget $46, Golden Gate $40, The D and Downtown Grand $39, Main Street Station $32 and El Cortez $30, all before tax as of September 2026. Four Queens and Binion's charge none, and on the Strip only Casino Royale and the Jockey Club skip it. Downtown's room tax is 13%, a touch under the Strip's 13.38%.

Do you still pay resort fees if you book through a third-party site?

The resort fee is charged by the hotel regardless of how you booked - Expedia, Booking.com, or direct all carry the same fee, collected at the property. Since the FTC rule took effect in May 2025, third-party sites must show that fee inside the total price before checkout, so compare the all-in number, not the headline rate.

Did the FTC ban resort fees?

Nothing was banned. The FTC's junk-fee rule (effective May 12, 2025) only requires hotels and booking sites to display the all-in price, resort fee included, before you pay. The fee is still legal and still charged - you just see the real number upfront instead of at check-in.