Caesars introduced a deal on three of its budget-friendly hotels in the center of The Strip–one to consider if you’re heading to Las Vegas.

The details of “The Caesars $300” rate

Let’s jump immediately into the relevant details for what’s known as “The Caesars $300”:

• $300 for two nights (includes all taxes and fees, including resort fees)
• Comes with a $200 food and beverage credit valid at Caesars Rewards owned outlets
• Applicable Las Vegas hotels: Flamingo, The LINQ Hotel, and Harrah’s Las Vegas
• Two-night stay is required, cannot stay longer than two nights
• Room type must be “assigned on arrival”
• Valid for stays through the end of 2025 (generally weekends are excluded)
• No listed “book by” date for the promotion, but dates are filling up
• Package code is CZ300

Is this actually a good deal?

Let’s take a closer look at the deal to determine if it’s actually good. Let’s choose two nights in November that qualify for the promotion at The LINQ Hotel. First, you’ll see confirmation that the package is indeed a flat $300 for the two nights.

Let’s look at the alternative: the “semi-annual sale” for those same two nights and property. When you include taxes and fees, the $18 nightly base rate turns into $154 (!) for two nights. Vegas math.

In this example, the question becomes should you pay $150 for a $200 food and beverage credit? If you had aspirations of dining on The Strip at Caesars properties, I think it’s a good value. If you want to dine off-Strip and off-property, it might be less of a value.

Even if you were to zero out the room rate, resort fees alone would get you to $100 for the two nights. That’s more or less what you would be charged net of the food credit on the $300 deal. The main folks who would be worse off with this deal are those with Diamond status at Caesars since they pay no resort fees, so those $18 room rates truly are $18 + tax.

This is actually impressive and a bit surprising

Call me a bit of a skeptic, but I thought the concept of the resort fee would be here to stay for a long time in Las Vegas. It’s an extra “gotcha” fee that hotels can tack on to deceptively hide the true price of the room and commissions aren’t paid out on the fee. Over time, people might get used to the fees or just mentally block them out.

But what’s interesting here is “The Caesars $300” room rate eliminates any thought of the resort fee. They could have easily called this a simple “$0 room rate plus $200 f&b” rate, and then make you pay the resort fees and taxes on top. But they didn’t — and that’s what I find remarkable in this promotion. It’s an indication that they recognize that people are staying away from Las Vegas due to the prices and lack of transparency.

Caesars isn’t the first one dabbling with removal of the resort fee on The Strip. That would be Resorts World doing it over the summer. But Resorts World is a smaller player than Caesars. Together with MGM, Caesars practically runs most of The Strip. So seeing chinks in the armor when it comes to resort fees is a huge deal.

Plus, it seems to all but confirm that Las Vegas might not truly be dead, but it’s in need of a tourism boost.

Suggested reading:

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• Hyatt’s Weak Venetian News And Why It’s Not Unexpected
• Fun in the Sun: A Review of Grand Hyatt Baha Mar