Over the last year properties along the Strip started rolling parking fees for valet and self-parking services.
In June, 2016 ten properties run by MGM Resorts (Aria, Bellagio, Delano, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, the Mirage, New York New York, Excalibur, Luxor and Monte Carlo) require visitors to pay for any parking over 60 minutes.
In 2017, Eight properties owned by Caesars Entertainment (the other big presence on the Strip) followed suit and also started charging for parking at Flamingo, Harrah’s, The Linq, Bally’s, Caesars Palace, The Cromwell, Paris and Planet Hollywood.
Before what has essentially become a split monopoly of the Las Vegas Strip, upheavals of the status quo, like charging for what visitors could find elsewhere for free was seldom attempted. Customers would just avoid one property that did something they didn’t like.
It’s a bit harder to do that when MGM Resorts' ten casinos roll out the same policy overnight.
Since their competition (Caesars Entertainment) did not want to see MGM visitors parking in their garages it was only a matter of time before the second half of the strip started charging.
As of this writing only a handful of resorts still offer free self parking on the strip. Some of those are Treasure Island, Tropicana, Wynn, Encore, Venetian, Palazzo and Circus Circus.
Personally I think, in a year or two after visitors get fed up with resort fees and parking fees and just generally being charged for anything and everything that some of these casinos will start finding ways to offer more gamblers and tourists free parking again.
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