Gambling Forums

[dewey089]

I quess I was not too clear on how that worked. I don't remember about the free water there and the pool is reported as tiny as are the bathrooms, but these amenities are so useful in the middle of a 16 day trip: a guest laundry (try to find that at the Mirage) and free wifi.
I can do up my dirty clothes and catch up on neglected email.
Also, I expected in my strip stay to eat a good bit of cheap food at Ellis Island, so I'll be very close. If I do feel too tired to play take out ribs and a good HBO movie might give me a break from the poker action. Super Eight is supposed to have great TV. Try finding that in the amenities of the resort fee places.

The National Broadcaster's Convention has pushed room prices up for April 11- 18 and the weekends, always more money, were $85 and $95 at lowly Imperial Palace. But I can't expect to find tourist filled poker tables and low room rates.

I hate a deal where I can't cancel. That was the deal I found on one of the broker sites. $58 a night, but nothing refunded if cancelled after booking.
Calling the hotel directly, they mentioned the AARP/AAA rate that was $62 a night rather than $58 a night. I can't beat that price in walking distance of the Flamingo strip corner or even in short Flamingo bus distance.
Even Gold Coast is more. And I can cancel the $62 a night Super Eight rate if I find something better last minute or get sick and can't go.

So, for the strip portion of my trip, I have two nights free at the Orleans, three nights cheap at Imperial Palace, two nights at the Super 8, and then five nights for $40 at Flamingo. Easy enough to roll my luggage for most of that last bit.

Also remember that I have no worries. I am alone and I don't care much about the room quality. It is nice to get nice for a good price. I don't want nasty. But small and old and worn but clean suits me fine because frugality is the only thing that lets me stay for 16 nights.
That weekend I won't be in the room if I am at all awake and alert and feel good about my game. I'll be looking for the Convention folks and hoping they play bad poker. Still, I may nap afternoons and play late nights so I want a room close to the games.

Up until now I have focused on free nights earned with 10/7 VP play or cheap nights downtown and perhaps a week at Laughlin with comped weekends on either end. With my transition to the strip for live poker with tourists, and away from VP, I have to pay more than the $12-$15 a night hotel rate averages I was used to for my trips.
This trip my room rates will average at most $39 ( tax included) and I save the expense of transportation to Laughlin which is worth another $8 in my trip average. I am counting on the softer poker games, win or lose, to give me the $19 a day difference by building larger pots.

[ACDUC]

Resort fees really bother me because they are so deceptive. MGM must be really hard up for money (after City Center it's no wonder) because they are becoming famous for padding the bill with resort fees. I have a friend who stays at the Monte Carlo and resents the deceptive resort fee. They advertise $49.99 for Sun-Thur, but don't broadcast the $12 resort fee. (It may be more by now.) Fine if you use their gym since the former fee was more than the resort fee. Not good if you don't use the spa. I really don't care about the free ice (isn't that a standard freebie) or the free newspaper. Why not offer a special resort fee to those who choose the amentities it covers? I consider it a way to trick the customer. Not a good way to get them to come back.

[dewey089]

Resort Fees are "hidden fees" and the intent is to be able to advertise one fee at one point in the booking process, and charge another later for those who don't read fine print, or to confuse cost comparisons. It is a trick for newbies or the uninformed traveler. Resort fees are often posted only in fine print places.

It works too for the casino. It skews all the tools consumers use to find the deals and often skews reported hotel prices in news reports and other publications as the authors ignore them when reporting rates and drawing conclusions. For two months in a row there were articles about how low the rates are getting in Vegas from a very respected, generally consumer advocate newsletter that members pay to receive.
Each month resort fees were ignored by the reports, so when they ranked low priced hotels El Cortez (no resort fees) came fifth when they should have come last. It is on thing to ignore resort fees when they are $16 and the hotel rate is a hundred or so. But in an article celebrating room rates in the 20's, the entire article is a joke.

I have read thread after thread on other boards, discussing and debating some great "sale" say Hooter's for $20 and failing to figure in the $8 resort fee. Over a dozen posts before I jumped in with resort fee info.

I just read a post comparing about equally Flaming and Mirage and after post after post, I finally pointed out to the newbie reading that if they got a price at Flamingo, that would be the price, but at Mirage the price would be $16.80 more that the room charge because of the resort fee.
I also just read Mirage's answer to a complaint. They said they were just satisfying their customers who wanted amenities like fitness room and free water but did not want to have to pay what it would cost if the hotel charged separated for those amenities. it was cheaper as a resort fee. I suppose it is too. Folks who just want a room and are resourceful enough to get free water while they play or buy some juice and get free ice in their rooms, probably would not pay for anything beyond the room.

On discount broker boards where lots of people shop for rooms in Vegas, one casino will look like a better deal than another, but it will actually be quite a bit more expensive because resort fees do not show up in the computer ranking of price low to high.
This may explain some of the reason casinos like the hidden fee.
They look better in the discounter's price lists than they really are.
At Priceline this is a particular problem. The fine print merely says that the casinos may charge extra fees and taxes. You won't know what property you are booking until after you book. So the fees are a total surprise, and the idea that you set the amount to indicate what you are willing to pay is a joke.

Another reason may well be that, as strange as it may seem, the casino is in competition with the discounters. I don't fully understand the details of their arrangements, but it is clear that the hotel competes with those discount sites.
One strategy of the hotel has been to offer to match the prices of the discounters. So, if you find a room on some site for less than what is advertised at the Orleans, you can call the Orleans, give them the site, and they will match the price. This keeps the customer buying from the hotel rather than the discounter, but it must be frustrating to the Orleans when the discounter has overbought and decides to dump their rooms in some huge sale.

With resort fees, the discounter has not bought the entire price of the room. No matter how little they dump their overstock for, the hotel still gets a minimum amount often as a consumer surprise at checkin.


Also the resort fees work as another carrot on the "play more" stick because they are often waived if play is sufficient so like food comps and drink comps the casino can now charge resort fee comps all requiring a review by the host who sometimes says, "Great, we'll cover all that" but more often says, "Gee you need to play just a little more this morning and come back" or " We can cover your resort fees but not your food bills"

So, by pricing in the fine print the casinos trick us, trick the media, trick the discounter room rate tools, and finally trick us out of the $9 rooms in August that the discounter felt had to be dumped and offer another incentive for the consumer to gamble for comps.

[LBoyd]

Sounds like a great deal Dewey. Please let us know how you find the accommodations when you get back.

I'm not sure I fully understand the rates you are citing, though. Are you saying that the rate for Super 8 is regularly $58 per night or $58 for both nights at the Super 8? With the AARP/AAA rate--is that $62 for each night or both?--do you have to be a member?

I also read a post where somebody wanted to know what the rooms are like at the Four Queens in Downtown Vegas. Do you know anything about the rooms? I've never stayed there.

Also, You Wrote:

[dewey089]

SUPER 8

You may have read what I learned about booking at Harrah's.
My next focus was on the hugely expensive rooms for April 16-17 at the Imperial Palace.
$85 and $95 did not set well with me, but at the same time I did not feel like going very far on the bus and that weekend, just after the National Broadcaster's Convention, would be a great weekend to look for easy poker tables filled with tourists.

I could not beat the price until I took a look at the Super 8 next to Ellis Island. Over the last few years this place has been getting better reviews. I am hoping it will be about like a downtown room.
I caught a price of $58 for those two weekend nights, but the price was not refundable if I cancelled. Then I tried the AARP/AAA price and hit $62 with the usual 72 hour prior to arrival cancellation fee.
So for a total of $6 I could book these rooms and still look for better deals and have the insurance of no cancellation fee if I could not make the trip.
NO RESORT FEES THERE

And here are the FREE AMENITIES:

Hotel Services & Amenities

* HOTEL AMENITIES/SERVICES:
* 24 Hour Front Desk
* AAA Approved
* Air Conditioning
* Airport Shuttle
* Alarm Clock
* ATM Machine
* Business Services/Copy/Fax
* Cribs
* Dataport
* Elevators
* Free Parking/Outside/Street/Bus/ Truck
* Guest Laundromat
* Heated Outdoor Pool
* Free High Speed Wireless Internet
* Ice Machine
* Interior Corridors
* Available at front desk
* Rollaway



* Safe Deposit Box
* Security
* Spa
* Vending Machines
* AMENITIES- IN All ROOMS:
* Phones-Free Local Calls
* Long Distance Access/International Access
* Satellite/Cable Television with CNN, Fox, etc.
* TV with Remote Control
* View from Room
* Wake-up Service
* AMENITIES- IN SOME ROOMS:
* Handicap Facilities/Ramp
* Non-Smoking Room
* Pets Accepted in 1st floor rooms only-$15.00 plus tax per pet, per night
* Pool View
* Suites Available


That sold me. Perhaps the rooms are not as nice as the Imperial Palace Delux, but staying there would mean that I could have free internet access and a laundry right in the middle of a 16 day stay. That is truly amazing!
I also like having HBO for a movie when I am just too tired to play and yet not ready to sleep. Their television is supposed to be better.
I don't need the free shuttle back to the airport this trip as I am heading downtown at the end of my trip and I'll get that from the El Cortez, but if I like this place well enough, it will be great on a future trip.

So I called and booked and saved $63. Norma was a great help on the phone. She answered all my questions and even told me that if I could get a Traveler's Coupon book, there are often coupons in there for this property.
Working with Harrah's Rewards and booking Super 8, in an hour of rebooking I saved $125.
This makes my 16 night stay an average of $34-$39 depending on what I do decide to do for my still unbooked weekend.