Free Parking to End This Summer at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas

Article ByDavid Weir

July 18, 2023

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Posted in: Nevada Gambling News, US Casino News

The Las Vegas Strip is, of course, known for its nightlife and luxury casino resorts. But if you ask any local, they’ll tell you it’s also often heavily congested with traffic.

Motorists will be facing a further cut in free parking options, as two major properties on the Strip, The Venetian and The Palazzo, have announced the end of free self-parking.

A spokesperson for The Venetian Resort Las Vegas confirmed that the company will end free self-parking later this summer.

All three Las Vegas Resort locations, The Venetian, The Palazzo, and The Venetian Convention and Expo Center, “will begin charging for self-parking later this summer,” a Resort spokesperson said, as reported by KNTV Las Vegas.

Free Parking Less Available

The two properties join a trend of ending free parking at the Strip’s major casino resorts.

Owned by Las Vegas Sands up until 2022, the company’s late Sheldon Adelson proclaimed parking would always be free when he opened The Venetian in 1999.

However, after Adelson died in 2021, Sands sold The Venetian and The Palazzo (opened 2007) to Caesars Entertainment spinoff real estate investment trust VICI Properties, in partnership with Apollo Asset Management.

The new owner operators have now agreed to terminate free parking at the resorts at some point soon in 2023.

It joins similar decisions to end free parking by Las Vegas casino resort operators MGM Resorts International in 2016 and Caesars Entertainment, in 2017.

MGM temporarily reinstated free parking after the COVID-19 pandemic, but only for the first hour for nonguests (or three hours for Nevada residents).

The latest change at the Venetian Resort will also not be the same for everyone.

Complimentary self-parking will still be available for members of the resort’s Grazie Rewards program at the premier level and above. Additionally, complimentary valet parking will remain available for rewards members at the elite level and above, according to the resort spokesperson.

As of this report, The Venetian had not announced the exact date it would end free self-parking at its properties, nor if there would be any other exemptions.

“Further information regarding self-parking rates will be communicated in the near future,” the spokesperson stated.

Parking Dynamics

While the decision may be met with disappointment by some visitors, it reflects the changing dynamics of the city’s tourism industry.

No city casino resort properties currently offer free valet parking, which was an iconic feature of the Las Vegas experience over many decades. Recent four-time, award-winning hotel and casino resort Wynn Las Vegas still offers free self-parking, as do Treasure Island, Tropicana, and Circus Circus. Several casino resort adjacent malls and shopping precincts also offer free parking.

While Las Vegas visitors may often be found trying to find free and easy parking, Las Vegas Police are also working hard to ensure traffic crimes are kept to a minimum. Just this month, the recently formed Racing Apprehension and Intervention Detail (R.A.I.D) apprehended a suspect who drove through Las Vegas Strip casino resorts at high speed on a dirt bike.