A list of resort fees at each Atlantic City casino

Up-to-date as of 10/23/17.

If you’ve booked a room in Atlantic City, you are well aware that the price you see advertised is not the price you pay. Sometimes it’s not even close. Whether it’s a “comped” night that ends up costing $32 or an already-expensive $300 Friday-through-Sunday stay that balloons to more than $390, the fees and taxes are a frustrating element of booking rooms at casino hotels.

Well, when you throw in $5 toward self-parking...

Well, when you throw in $5 toward self-parking…

In Atlantic City, the hotel tax rate is a whopping 13.875%, and New Jersey tacks on another $5 in fees. (For comparison’s sake, Las Vegas has a hotel tax rate of 12% and no occupancy fee.) All of that is before you get hit with the resort fee, which is the hotel’s way of giving you a bundle of amenities at one low price keeping the advertised price low while increasing their Average Daily Rate.

To make matters more confusing, some AC properties include the $5 of New Jersey fees in the resort fee while others keep them separate. Plus the resort fee is subject to the 13.875% tax while the $3 occupancy fee is not, and hotels differ on whether or not the tax is included in the listed resort fee, and some casinos add tax on the $2 tourism promotion fee while others don’t. Digesting all of that?

In the interest of clearing this up, below is a list of resort fees at Atlantic City casino hotels. The “Effective Fee” is a combination of the resort fee, taxes on that fee, the $3 state occupancy fee, and the $2 state tourism promotion fee (and any taxes on that fee):

Hotel Resort Fee $5 NJ Fee Included? Tax Included? Effective Fee
Bally’s $23.71 NO NO $32.28
Borgata $15 NO NO $22.36
Caesars $23.71 NO NO $32.28
Golden Nugget $10 NO YES $15.00
Harrah’s Resort $23.71 NO NO $32.28
Resorts $17.08 NO YES $22.08
Tropicana $15 NO NO $22.36
Trump Taj Mahal $15 YES YES $15.00

10/23/17 Update: The tax on the $2 tourism fee seems to be just about universal. Darryl McEwen of Seven Stars Insider emailed to let us know that Tropicana is now $22.36 just like Borgata. Based on Resorts’ online booking system, it seems that their fee remains $22.08.

8/22/17 Update: Borgata no longer includes state tax in their $15 resort fee, and now also charges tax on the $2 tourism promotion fee (which we’ve always lumped in with the occupancy fee for simplicity … not so simple now). This brings the effective fee at Borgata to $22.36 and also explains why Caesars’ effective fees are $32.28 and not $32.

7/5/17 Update: Tropicana no longer includes the state tax or $5 occupancy in their $15 resort fee, which brings the total to $22.08, matching Resorts.

5/9/17 Update: Resorts has increased their resort fee again from $13.67 to $17.08. Caesars has increased their fee to $23.71. With the $5 occupancy fee and new tax rate of 13.875% this should work out to $32 even but for some reason it shows up on online booking as $32.28, along with tax on the $2 tourism promotion fee, the total effective fee is now $32.28. The table below is updated, and also reflects the new tax rate of 13.875% (down from 14%).

1/4/17 Update: Resorts has increased their resort fee from $10 to $13.67, but it includes the tax now so the increased cost to you is $2.27. The table below is updated.

11/11/16 Update: Borgata has increased their fee $5, so it is now $15 not including the $5 occupancy fee.

9/20/16 Update: Caesars Entertainment has increased the resort fees from $20 to $23.68 at its three properties (Caesars, Harrah’s, and Bally’s), meaning you will now pay $32.00 for a “comp” room. Also, Golden Nugget’s $10 resort fee no longer includes the $5 occupancy fee, and Tropicana has increased their fee from $12 to $15.

It’s important to note that these fees are waived for elite status players club members at many properties. Darryl McEwen, creator of Seven Stars Insider, provided the following info:

  • Caesars, Bally’s and Harrah’s: Resort fee waived for Total Rewards Diamond and Seven Stars cardholders. Note: You will sometimes be charged the $5 NJ occupancy/toursim fee. It seems it is more likely to be waived if you book through a host.
  • Borgata: Resort fee waived for My Borgata Rewards Titanium cardholders. Also, you can use comp dollars to pay the resort fee and the $5 occupancy/tourism fee.
  • Resorts: Resort fee and taxes waived for Star Card Red Carpet cardholders. It’s unclear if this includes the $5 occupancy/tourism fee. You can use comp dollars to pay the resort fee but not the occupancy/tourism fee.
  • Tropicana: Resort fee waived for Trop Advantage Black cardholders. It’s unclear if the $5 occupancy/tourism fee is also waived. You can use comp dollars to pay the resort fee and the occupancy/tourism fee.

So this is all worth keeping in mind next time you go to book an AC hotel (unless you have premium status in a player’s club that waives your resort fees, in which case you can ignore all of this). And it could be worse — Caesars just raised resort fees at many of their Las Vegas properties to $32 per night, which matches the fees at Wynn, Encore, Bellagio, Aria, Vdara, Venetian, and Palazzo.

TROPICANA TRAVEL SITE UPDATE: When we checked on 5/9/17, Tropicana was no longer charging hidden extra fees on third party booking sites. A $99.99 room through Expedia or Hotels.com totaled $128.87, which is the standard 13.875% tax plus their $15 resort fee. Yay!

12 thoughts on “A list of resort fees at each Atlantic City casino

  1. Chris

    What about parking? I think I remember seeing somewhere that the Caesar’s fee includes a voucher for parking (which is otherwise $5). Is that actually the case? Do the others do that too or only some? I’ve also been told it’s $5 per day with in-and-out privileges (at Harrah’s) but once been charged $5 total for a multi-night stay and once been charged $5 per day. Do the other’s offer in-and-out privileges if staying overnight? Sorry for making this even more complicated.

    1. Craig Post author

      Hi Chris,

      I believe the Caesars Resort Fee gives you a $5 parking voucher, but weekend parking at Caesars properties is typically well above $5. However, you don’t have to gamble that much to earn a parking voucher no matter what the parking fee is (I think 15 Rewards Credits).

      I’m not clear on the how other casinos do that, or handle multiple-day parking. Last time I went I got one parking voucher at Caesars that covered my entire trip, since I didn’t move my car. That’s not terribly helpful, though.

      This would be a good topic for another blog post!

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  5. Matt

    The state sales tax rate actually dropped from 7% to 6.875% as of Jan 1 2017, and will go down again to 6.625%, it was done due to an increase in the 20 cent plus gas tax that went up in November.

    That means the combined sales (3.875% instead of 4%), AC Luxury and Hotel Occupancy Taxes are currently at 13.875% for 2017 and then it will be 13.625% for 2018.
    http://nj.gov/treasury/taxation/pdf/pubs/sales/anj17.pdf

    1. Craig Post author

      Thanks, Matt! This explains the funny numbers for Caesars and Resorts. I will have to double check the final fees and update the post.

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