We love visiting Las Vegas and can’t wait to return as soon as we can, it is definitely a city like no other. It’s stylish yet incredibly tacky, wonderfully garish but above all, tremendous fun. However, over our years of visiting, there are a number of things which continue to annoy us and surprisingly, they are not all related to money.
We all know that Las Vegas is designed to separate you from your cash but you should be having good fun as it happens. Although the current trend of the big faceless corporation is to charge, charge and charge again. Even in the mob-run days of Vegas, the gangsters knew how to keep the customers happy, although you’d probably end up in a ditch in the desert or as part of the foundations of the latest casino if you did upset them.
There are some things we are not going to include such as pool parties, as we’re not their target market. Although, even when we were younger we wouldn’t have gone anywhere near these. However, if your idea of fun is to pay an insanely ridiculous amount of money to be squashed onto an open pool deck under a desert sun while surrounded by sweaty beer bellies and with a less sophisticated ambience than your local council pool on a hot August bank holiday, then go ahead and enjoy.
So if you’ve been to Las Vegas recently, there should be no surprise to the first item on our list.
1. Resort Fees
Las Vegas resorts have been separating the cost of the room and the cost of the hotel facilities creating the ‘resort fee‘ charge. By doing this, the room rate appears cheap on hotel comparison sites which do not show the additional fee (luckily this practice has been stopped in the UK and Europe and these sites have to show the total price).
These resort fees are for ‘wonderful’ extras such as internet access and local calls on that old phone in the corner of the room that no one uses – all the basic extras you would expect as part of the room price. These fees are not optional, we equate it to buying a chair and finding out there’s an additional ‘leg fee’.
These dreaded resort fees have spread across America with many hotel companies now adopting this money-grabbing trend. Coming from the UK, we are used to the simple concept of the price you see is the price you pay. It’s also annoying that US prices never include tax. Unfortunately, we think these fees are here to stay.
2. Smoking In The Casinos
What is surprising to most first-timers to Las Vegas is that smoking is still allowed on the casino floor. Most people don’t smoke but as we all know, smoking isn’t exactly a personal thing. We’re surprised in the litigious USA that it’s still allowed and staff don’t sue for not providing a safe working environment. Although, as we write this, the Sahara has announced that customers will now have to leave the table to smoke.
Another smell that has become prevalent in recent years is the recently legalised cannabis. Smoking this is not allowed in the resorts although the distinctive smell carries really far and its aroma permeates many a corridor and alcove.
3. Salespeople On The Strip
From showgirls and dirty looking Elmos, from timeshare touts to hooker cards, there are a lot of salespeople along the strip. You’ll find a lot of the timeshare people at the entrances to the casinos and in some of the malls ‘are you going to be here tomorrow night?‘, just ignore them and don’t waste your time.
Whether you are a group of lads, a couple or a family with young kids, the infamous ‘porn card slappers’ will still hand you a card advertising ‘Girls straight to your door‘. If this is something that interests you then go right ahead, this is ‘Sin City’. Although, we do wonder if the person who actually turns up bears any resemblance to the picture on the card.
4. Drunk People And The Self Proclaimed “Party Animals”
We like a good time and a drink when visiting Las Vegas but when we refer to drunk people we mean the loud, excessively whooping drunk who maybe 40, but is acting like a 14-year-old having his first beer at a teenage party. To some extent you can blame The Hangover for this behaviour, just watch out for the overexcitable ‘wolfpack’ of accountants attending some dull conference.
5. The Increasing Number Of Families With Young Kids
Of all the places to take young kids, we think Las Vegas should be rather low down on your list unless they are the card shark of the 2nd grade. Despite having a number of attractions suitable for kids, Las Vegas remains ‘Sin City’ and it should not be moderated for the children.
A few years ago we visited with our then 16-year-old, which was bad enough. He wasn’t allowed to stand by us at the slot machines or sit in the bars but bizarrely, firing an AK47 at the gun range was fine. He was also handed (and accepted) quite a collection of hooker cards from the card slappers.
Despite All This We Still Love Las Vegas
So that’s our list of the 5 most annoying things about Las Vegas, however, we still think the pros far outweigh any cons and we can’t wait to return. Hopefully, we’ll be getting drunk in a smokey casino very soon.
