Caesars Entertainment’s move to charge for parking rankles readers
When MGM Resorts International announced its paid parking initiative earlier this year, company executives expected blowback.
Las Vegas Review-Journal reader comments suggest Caesars Entertainment Corp. should, too.
Tuesday night, Caesars, which runs nine hotel-casinos on or near the Strip, said it will begin phasing in a paid parking initiative in late December.
The Caesars initiative, like the one started earlier this year by MGM Resorts International, includes exemptions for valley residents. Locals with proper identification and Total Rewards loyalty members rated platinum and above will be able to continue self-parking for free, Caesars said in a statement announcing the program. Total Rewards loyalty members rated platinum and above will also be able to use valet for free, Caesars said.
Nevertheless, Ulli Miyashiro, in an email Wednesday, wrote, “Why don’t they all just hang out a sign saying, ‘Locals not welcome.’ And while they’re at it, hotel guests with rental cars not welcome either.
“And don’t tell me … ‘they have to pay in NYC, LA and SFO (San Francisco).’ This is Las Vegas, not any of the aforementioned, and I know my family members who come here from Hawaii are stunned at this new policy.”
In a different email, Ken Nakatani wrote, “Only time will tell if this will scare away patrons or not. … Embrace that people are coming back to Vegas. Don’t push them away by setting a precedent for other casinos to follow.”
Responding on Twitter, 702Ray wrote, “Who’s left? Just need Wynn & Venetian to jump in and that’ll cover almost every parking spot on the Strip.”
On Wednesday, Wynn Resorts said it, too, would charge for valet parking.
MGM Resorts’ announcement of its paid parking initiative earlier this year sparked a change.org petition calling to keep parking free at all Strip hotel-casinos and a Facebook group calling to boycott MGM Resorts properties. By Wednesday, the Facebook group had expanded to include Caesars.
On the group’s Facebook wall, Brady Moore wrote Wednesday, “Sadly this ends my trips to any MGM or Caesars properties. I hope there is an analysis done on how their near duopoly makes this a predictable event.”
When it began its paid parking initiative, MGM Resorts CEO Jim Murren said his company expected complaints. But he said a two-year study by the company found that many Strip parking structures hadn’t kept pace with the development of other parts of the business.
“We first started with a candid observation,” Murren said. “We are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on new restaurants, theaters and other attractions, but the parking structures have been left entirely alone.”
Murren said MGM Resorts spends $30 million annually maintaining the facilities for its 37,000 Strip parking spaces.
“The question was do we continue to have parking be a loss-leader,” Murren said. “We took an amenity that had been free for decades and decided to charge for it. We knew that would cause a tremendous amount of discussion … (but) as leaders in the community, we don’t do something we regret. Deteriorating parking garages hurt our image.”
Contact Matthew Crowley at mcrowley@reviewjournal.com. Follow @copyjockey on Twitter.