The new norm in Las Vegas resort fees? $50 a night at top hotels

Caesars Palace and two other Las Vegas hotels are raising their resort fees, following similar moves by competitors earlier this year.

The nightly fee at Caesars Palace and Nobu Las Vegas, a swank hotel within a hotel at Caesars Palace, will increase to $45 a night plus tax on Oct. 15. With tax, the new fee is $51.02. 

The resort fee at Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, an older, more affordable hotel just off the Las Vegas Strip, is going from $32 a night to $35 plus tax, bringing it to nearly $40 a night.

All of the hotels are owned or operated by Las Vegas casino giant Caesars Entertainment Corp., which is in the process of being sold to El Dorado Resorts. 

The new fees will bring the resort fees at the hotel "in line with relevant competitors,'' Caesars spokeswoman Kristin Soo Hoo said.

More detail:Las Vegas resort fees continue to rise with Caesars Entertainment

The increase comes despite an intense spotlight on the fee travelers love to hate, with new legislation in Congress and lawsuits against major hotel chains.

And it comes just a couple months after the CEO of Caesars Entertainment told Wall Street analysts rising resort fees are something the chain needs to be "a little bit cautious about.''

"I don't think we're there yet, but I want us to be very judicious and ... cautious about taking those rates any further.'' CEO Tony Rodio said during the company's quarterly earnings conference call in early August.

He called resort fees a "revenue stream that's hard to walk away from.''

The $45 fee will bring Caesars and Nobu in line with other top-tier hotels on The Strip. MGM Resorts raised fees at Bellagio, Vdara and Aria, its top Las Vegas hotels, to $45 plus tax earlier this year, as did Wynn and Encore.

Venetian and Palazzo, sister all-suite hotels on The Strip, started the $45 a night trend in 2018.