Re: Palace Station pissed me off

I emailed them about it and got the following response so I emailed them
back with my rebuttal
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Good morning John,
How are you today?

I've been at Palace for several years now and we have had the fee before I
was employed here.

I would be happy to explain the hotel service fee to you. All Station
Casino properties have implemented a service fee because we no longer charge
for the services individually.

We advise our customers of this charge when they book their reservation,
which is how you were informed.

The services are:
All local and 800 calls up to 30 minutes.
Use of the fitness facility
Line pass to all restaurants
Free notary service
Shuttle bus service to and from the Airport/Fashion show Mall.
20% discount off certain merchandise on the gift shop.
Coupon Book valued at $200

The reason our guests are charged this fee is because the revenue generated
helps maintain the services. Whether the services are used or not, it is a
mandatory charge.

I hope this explains our fee and the reasons for it. The good news is when
you are on an offer where your room is complimentary, the fee is
complimentary as well.

We look forward to having you stay with again!

Warm Regards,

Theresa Price
Hotel Manager

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My rebuttal
I think I understand it and I'm not mad at you anymore, i'm closer to just
pissed at the audasity of someone charge me for FREE services and discounts
(my ire now goes to expedia) Over the last 4 months I booked 2 trips to
your hotel one through travelocity (July 25-July 28) and I didn't pay a fee
when I checked out and one through expedia Nov 5-Nov 9). When I checked out
in July everything was fine no charges to pay, I suppose travelocity
included them which makes perfect sense to me. The price of the room was
the price of the room done. But when I booked through expedia there was the
$14.85 service fee. Expedia should have either included the $14.85 in the
price or told me there would be a $14.85 charge upon check out. How can I
do comparison shopping if no one tells me what the fees are. With that
said, I'll probably never stay in your hotel again because that fee doesn't
make sense, just raise the room rate $4.95 a day and no one has a problem.
Let me go over your list of 'services' as I see it.

All local and 800 calls up to 30 minutes. (most people have cell phones
and so they don't need this service, plus paying for an 800 call is silly
since its a free call and local calls only cost 50 cents at the pay phone
down the hall.) Therefore this service is not needed and certainly not
worth $4.95 a day.

Use of the fitness facility (I didn't know you had one. If you want to
attract customers by providing a fitness facility fine, but there is no
reason for me to pay for it. Personally I stayed fit by walking the mile or
so to the strip every day. You are located inconveniently away from
EVERYTHING.

Line pass to all restaurants It'd be nice if you told me. But to charge
someone so they don't want to wait on a line is sort of silly, Once again
if you want to encourage people to stay at your hotel by letting them skip a
line making them pay for it is insulting.

Free notary service I'm on vacation what do I need with a notary service
plus whenever I needed one it cost me only $2. Besides, you call it a FREE
notary service, free means free, not part of a $4.95 service fee

Shuttle bus service to and from the Airport/Fashion show Mall. (on the
check out receipt it also calls this a free service, see above) Your
shuttle bus wasn't convenient because of the check in times and the fact you
are in the middle or nowhere (have I mentioned that enough) Myt plane
arrived at around noon, but I can't check in to your hotel to 3, so I took
the 108 bus (cost me $1.25 down town and checking in my bags there. I
didn't go to your hotel until after 10 pm i think. How did I get there, a
nice convenient cat bus. The other shuttle in general if you want to get
any place you either have to walk or pay for another cat bus anyway, you
might as well wait for the 204 and take a transfer, cheaper, more convenient
and runs more often.

20% discount off certain merchandise on the gift shop. This is known as a
sale, no one should pay $4.95 a day for a sale. You want to be nice to your
hotel guests and let thme buy a few things at a cheaper price fine, but
don't insult us by making us pay $4.95 for it.

Didn't get a coupon book. Fun books are always free in LV. The closest I
got was that *** which mentioned the 20% discount and I could buy a 6 inch
sub and get one free. The gambling things said I had to join your shot club
or whatever it is called. I suppose the point is I didnt get a discount
book. And discounts are discounts, you don't pay for discounts.

So as you can see none of your services have any worth whatsoever. As a
matter of a fact I dare you to charge a fee for a 20% discount, a line pass
or a funbook.

My suggestion to you is cancel the fee and raise your price at least you
won't be insulting your clientel. I suppose you can go back to charging a
fee for the services, you'll find people won't pay for them and then you
won't need to have them. The local and 800 calling thing particularly since
too many people have cell phone and as I said b4 the pay phone are just down
the hall anyway.

Please reply refuting any of these points.

Next month I'm coming back to LV (Dec 5-9), I'll be staying at the 4 queens,
because of you, I had to email them to see if they have any fees. As it
turns out they don't, except there is a parking fee if I have a car. I
don't have a car and so I won't be paying that fee, but at least if I did, I
would understand what I was paying and why. I'd be as pissad at them as I
am at you if they made me pay a $3 parking fee if I didn't have a car. Sort
of like being charge for a free 800 phone call or a free shuttle bus
service.


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