Just when you thought resort fees were a huge rip off, along comes this new angle.
It now costs an extra $25 a night for bookings over 7 nights in a calendar month booked at the El Cortez.
And what do you get for that fee?
Well, on your 8th night you get just what you got on your 7th night, only it costs you an extra $25.
Are they telling people?
I don't know. I saw it in the very fine print of hotels.com. Hey, its in the fine print so everyone should see it, huh?
My advice is just do 7 nights. Anything over that risks this fee.
I'm not yet saying to abandon this place, but the Gold Spike (with resort fee figured in )is about the same price as an EC Cabana room and has free wifi and a pool.
I think the bean counter theory is that after about 4 days or so, our bankrolls are fleeced, so they want us to move on and not take up space in their hotel. Actually on the Wizard of Odds board where I also posted to inform any readers, quite a few answers supported that casino/hotel policy as a good one, I suppose as opposed to me immorally using the hotel without being fleeced even comparing me to one of the homeless on an SRO handout program.
It now costs an extra $25 a night for bookings over 7 nights in a calendar month booked at the El Cortez.
And what do you get for that fee?
Well, on your 8th night you get just what you got on your 7th night, only it costs you an extra $25.
Are they telling people?
I don't know. I saw it in the very fine print of hotels.com. Hey, its in the fine print so everyone should see it, huh?
My advice is just do 7 nights. Anything over that risks this fee.
I'm not yet saying to abandon this place, but the Gold Spike (with resort fee figured in )is about the same price as an EC Cabana room and has free wifi and a pool.
I think the bean counter theory is that after about 4 days or so, our bankrolls are fleeced, so they want us to move on and not take up space in their hotel. Actually on the Wizard of Odds board where I also posted to inform any readers, quite a few answers supported that casino/hotel policy as a good one, I suppose as opposed to me immorally using the hotel without being fleeced even comparing me to one of the homeless on an SRO handout program.
I'm more steamed about that than about the EC itself, although letting this sit for a while has pretty much turned my emotions around.
What it is really about for me is the El Cortez was one of the places where we did not have to play those games, and I was just at the point of deciding to pay for rooms there and just do my whole 17 nights in one spot.
Almost anywhere else it might make sense. We had come to the idea that the El Cortez was managed to treat the customer rather than just compute the beans. Jackie set that standard. And most of the other folks follow it or at least they appear to follow it. No resort fees in spite of getting kicked around by the practice in press rankings. Pretty easy interpretation of that freeplay/freefood deal, a poker room brush who writes me a food comp without me asking because he hears I might wander over to Mamacita's for some horchata and sopa 7 Mares.
At the same time that they are doing this pull back on rooms allowed to rent, they offer for up to five nights at certain times of certain months a deal that makes rooms virtually free, and when I did that deal my last trip, it did what it was supposed to do. It opened up the Cabana rooms to me for the first time, and I liked them so I was willing to pay in November to stay there.
It also softened me up, and I played well beyond anything I have played in years there, and thought I might make that a pattern, start staying downtown again for my full trip, stop hopping from place to place. They had me.
And now they don't.
I find it strange that the emotional part of this does affect my reason, but I see it does.
I'm thinking about South Tower Vegas Club because the Plaza pool should open next year, and if renovation does not start at the Vegas Club there still will be deals there and i can use the pool at the Plaza. And part of feeling open to that place is they let me play my Vegas Club and Plaza ACG coupons back to back on my last trip at the same craps table and on the same day.
That craps dealer roped in an emotional part of me that I always deny is there.
Jackie knew that if he offered people a place where they felt comfortable, where instead of having to watch for every trick, folks could let down their guard and relax and not expect to be tricked except by the slot machines, that he would build a loyal and supportive customer base that could feel good about losing money. This trick disrespects everything that Jackie was as a man and might be still as legend if the EC wanted that to happen.
So I wonder if anyone will book a week in the beginning of a month, then book a few days at the end of the month and at check in find out they are to be charged $25 a night for the second booking, and shown the fine print to explain the charge. Anyone in that situation is going to feel tricked and angry, just as those paying resort fees without knowing they might pay them have felt.
As for me. Well, they may lose me for most of what I've booked already. If I am going to hop around, I might as well hop from free place to free place, and I won't be thinking about seeding the EC with play for a few free nights to add to my paid nights because I can't build enough nights there to really settle in and stay. I'll just use them as 7 nights where I can stay cheaply and not have to worry about my daily gambling average falling off.
I'll be playing in the places with better odds and offering free rooms. I'll be paying in places I have not yet seen, like the Suncoast that is now open for casino hopping with the new WAX running from downtown to there and a place that for the summer shows room prices less than El Cortez prices. I read there is great VP there. There is a shuttle to the airport so it might make a good place to start or end my trip.
EC will lose me because this new strategy of theirs makes my frugal hairs bristle. I won't be softened; I'll be alert and in the poker game of frugal room renting.
But maybe me and my kind don't matter to them in the long mathematical run and the uninhibited tourist with four days and $200 to gamble away in slots is better meat. I don't know how they figure my emotions in the mathematics. Jackie knew how to figure them in, but he is gone into the senility of old age now without the ability to add his thoughts on the matter.
One other thing they lose when they lose me is an advocate. I have written thousands of words in the past year praising the El Cortez, including a long justification on why a guy should book there rather than the Golden Nugget on their promotional Facebook page. They lost not only my meager play, but my free promotional prose.
All to force me out of their casino a few extra days a year
******************************************
Another of my responses to this question.
I made a one week reservation.
Then I made a separated three day reservation.
All through booking.com.
Booking.com accepted the reservations, but two days later called and said the the EC would not honor the second one.
That was before they started honoring all the reservations but simply charging $25 a night for any nights beyond 7 in a calendar month, even if the first 7 were 1-7 and the other nights 28-30.
I talked to the hotel manager three times.
The one way to get around this is if your "play" is good enough when you go to check out, they will drop this charge, which is basically a resort fee with no pretend amenities and another carrot on the stick to keep your gambling up there or else pay more for the room.
I asked if husband and wife (I know some trying this) could book back to back in different names, but the hotel manager told me in most cases they know these folks are connected and would charge the fee.
My play was live poker for the most part until last trip when I started seeding for the next trip with VP, but I'm not putting myself in a position to be constantly wondering if I'm good enough for day 8 at the EC. I want firm upfront reservations, not genuflection to a host for favors. If I get drunk and drop a few hundred, they win. If I remain disciplined and frugal, I win, but they still make profit on the room at those rates. If I get sick and need days in bed, I have the comfort that it did not cost me anything extra.
Meanwhile there are still a few days a month when you can stay free on their popular promo. I'll pay $60 a night for Cabana in October and get back $35 in freeplay and $25 in food each night I pay it. Then the ACG coupon still gets you 2 Pavillion for $34 with tax or $50 plus tax for Cabana. So, I did that. My 8 nights or more that I intended to book at $34 average a night evolved into just 4 nights, 2 on the free deal and 2 Pavillion on the $34 deal.
My other nights I booked at the Gold Spike at $12 plus $9 resort fee for weekdays and $27 plus $9 for weekends. I have not stayed there, but I have been curious.
Last trip the EC promo pulled me out of a Gold Spike reservation, and my play gave them a few hundred dollars profit. This trip I have no incentive to play a dime in VP and slots beyond my freeplay run through just once. The way I do the math, EC lost. And the way I do the math, they lose by not paying attention that I pay rakes for maybe 10 hour of live poker. I'm not saying they should comp me rooms like Harrah's does, but they might guarantee no latent acting resort fee for that sort of play.
Don here on the board said it is all, "Who you know." I don't know anyone.
English Dave after calling his travel folks a few times did manage to get assurance that his 2 week stay is still okay.
So there are exceptions.
I'm just soured by the whole hassle. I know the casino wants to fleece us and get us out of there quickly and the bean counters have figured that we take up space after a few days, but to be so blatant about it and so unwelcoming is just against all EC images I know, the kind established by Jackie and followed by most staff there.
Gold Spike has no such limitation. I have 9 nights booked there. I may shorten those if I get freebie come ons from other places.
Stratosphere charges a $7.50 resort fee and that includes tower access, but after 5 nights it caps "as a convenience to our customers" and you can book 28 nights in a row there and pay just 5 nights of resort fee.
For much less money I got an open pool and free wifi at the Gold Spike. Their gambling is not very good. (Well, I guess the BJ is not so bad and I'll probably play a bit of that. I hate staying at a spot and playing nothing there) However, there is nothing to make me play anything. If I get sick and have to stay in bed for a week, I will still have my wifi and not be pressured to play for some resort fee that will kick in if I do not.
I will have a dawn to dusk open pool. Unheated. But I'm pretty brave about cold water and I may just bring along a wetsuit.
I am currently booked 22 nights (Oct/Nov) at an average expense of under $21 a night fees and taxes included. How the EC expects to attract folks like me and soften us up for a kill in this market I can't speculate.
However, I will say that board posts where I thought I was just informing folks of this new hidden and renamed resort fee to avoid having them find a surprise at checkout, have elicited plenty of support for the [B]casino's side of the issue.[/B]
I'm amazed at that.
Much of it is from folks who don't stay at the El Cortez or can't imagine anyone staying for more than 7 nights. Some of it is rather naive suggestions that the EC is swamped with the near homeless and so must keep them at bay. Why would anyone suffering a financial setback book a Cabana room for $34 a night when they could rent a three bedroom apartment in Vegas for that by the month and get a laundromat in the basement or when they could for $110-$125 get a week right down the street at the Eden Inn and in both cases not have to worry about their rent increasing when the next convention comes to town?
However, like the inflation of drink prices at the new glitzy bar, this sort of move indicates that the EC is moving on up along with the whole Fremont East neighborhood. I celebrated this until I remembered again that it just eliminates one more frugal alternative as the clientele evolves into the "its only money" folks.
The only way around the fee is to book 7 nights at the end of one month and 7 at the beginning of another which the hotel manager admitted I could "technically" do.
But I suppose they are working on that loophole as well.
Or perhaps saner minds will emerge. One post on the Facebook page said that for now they had to abide by this new restriction which meant the person writing it thought it was a bad idea too. It is a bad idea. Perhaps they will rescind it.
Almost anywhere else it might make sense. We had come to the idea that the El Cortez was managed to treat the customer rather than just compute the beans. Jackie set that standard. And most of the other folks follow it or at least they appear to follow it. No resort fees in spite of getting kicked around by the practice in press rankings. Pretty easy interpretation of that freeplay/freefood deal, a poker room brush who writes me a food comp without me asking because he hears I might wander over to Mamacita's for some horchata and sopa 7 Mares.
At the same time that they are doing this pull back on rooms allowed to rent, they offer for up to five nights at certain times of certain months a deal that makes rooms virtually free, and when I did that deal my last trip, it did what it was supposed to do. It opened up the Cabana rooms to me for the first time, and I liked them so I was willing to pay in November to stay there.
It also softened me up, and I played well beyond anything I have played in years there, and thought I might make that a pattern, start staying downtown again for my full trip, stop hopping from place to place. They had me.
And now they don't.
I find it strange that the emotional part of this does affect my reason, but I see it does.
I'm thinking about South Tower Vegas Club because the Plaza pool should open next year, and if renovation does not start at the Vegas Club there still will be deals there and i can use the pool at the Plaza. And part of feeling open to that place is they let me play my Vegas Club and Plaza ACG coupons back to back on my last trip at the same craps table and on the same day.
That craps dealer roped in an emotional part of me that I always deny is there.
Jackie knew that if he offered people a place where they felt comfortable, where instead of having to watch for every trick, folks could let down their guard and relax and not expect to be tricked except by the slot machines, that he would build a loyal and supportive customer base that could feel good about losing money. This trick disrespects everything that Jackie was as a man and might be still as legend if the EC wanted that to happen.
So I wonder if anyone will book a week in the beginning of a month, then book a few days at the end of the month and at check in find out they are to be charged $25 a night for the second booking, and shown the fine print to explain the charge. Anyone in that situation is going to feel tricked and angry, just as those paying resort fees without knowing they might pay them have felt.
As for me. Well, they may lose me for most of what I've booked already. If I am going to hop around, I might as well hop from free place to free place, and I won't be thinking about seeding the EC with play for a few free nights to add to my paid nights because I can't build enough nights there to really settle in and stay. I'll just use them as 7 nights where I can stay cheaply and not have to worry about my daily gambling average falling off.
I'll be playing in the places with better odds and offering free rooms. I'll be paying in places I have not yet seen, like the Suncoast that is now open for casino hopping with the new WAX running from downtown to there and a place that for the summer shows room prices less than El Cortez prices. I read there is great VP there. There is a shuttle to the airport so it might make a good place to start or end my trip.
EC will lose me because this new strategy of theirs makes my frugal hairs bristle. I won't be softened; I'll be alert and in the poker game of frugal room renting.
But maybe me and my kind don't matter to them in the long mathematical run and the uninhibited tourist with four days and $200 to gamble away in slots is better meat. I don't know how they figure my emotions in the mathematics. Jackie knew how to figure them in, but he is gone into the senility of old age now without the ability to add his thoughts on the matter.
One other thing they lose when they lose me is an advocate. I have written thousands of words in the past year praising the El Cortez, including a long justification on why a guy should book there rather than the Golden Nugget on their promotional Facebook page. They lost not only my meager play, but my free promotional prose.
All to force me out of their casino a few extra days a year
******************************************
Another of my responses to this question.
I made a one week reservation.
Then I made a separated three day reservation.
All through booking.com.
Booking.com accepted the reservations, but two days later called and said the the EC would not honor the second one.
That was before they started honoring all the reservations but simply charging $25 a night for any nights beyond 7 in a calendar month, even if the first 7 were 1-7 and the other nights 28-30.
I talked to the hotel manager three times.
The one way to get around this is if your "play" is good enough when you go to check out, they will drop this charge, which is basically a resort fee with no pretend amenities and another carrot on the stick to keep your gambling up there or else pay more for the room.
I asked if husband and wife (I know some trying this) could book back to back in different names, but the hotel manager told me in most cases they know these folks are connected and would charge the fee.
My play was live poker for the most part until last trip when I started seeding for the next trip with VP, but I'm not putting myself in a position to be constantly wondering if I'm good enough for day 8 at the EC. I want firm upfront reservations, not genuflection to a host for favors. If I get drunk and drop a few hundred, they win. If I remain disciplined and frugal, I win, but they still make profit on the room at those rates. If I get sick and need days in bed, I have the comfort that it did not cost me anything extra.
Meanwhile there are still a few days a month when you can stay free on their popular promo. I'll pay $60 a night for Cabana in October and get back $35 in freeplay and $25 in food each night I pay it. Then the ACG coupon still gets you 2 Pavillion for $34 with tax or $50 plus tax for Cabana. So, I did that. My 8 nights or more that I intended to book at $34 average a night evolved into just 4 nights, 2 on the free deal and 2 Pavillion on the $34 deal.
My other nights I booked at the Gold Spike at $12 plus $9 resort fee for weekdays and $27 plus $9 for weekends. I have not stayed there, but I have been curious.
Last trip the EC promo pulled me out of a Gold Spike reservation, and my play gave them a few hundred dollars profit. This trip I have no incentive to play a dime in VP and slots beyond my freeplay run through just once. The way I do the math, EC lost. And the way I do the math, they lose by not paying attention that I pay rakes for maybe 10 hour of live poker. I'm not saying they should comp me rooms like Harrah's does, but they might guarantee no latent acting resort fee for that sort of play.
Don here on the board said it is all, "Who you know." I don't know anyone.
English Dave after calling his travel folks a few times did manage to get assurance that his 2 week stay is still okay.
So there are exceptions.
I'm just soured by the whole hassle. I know the casino wants to fleece us and get us out of there quickly and the bean counters have figured that we take up space after a few days, but to be so blatant about it and so unwelcoming is just against all EC images I know, the kind established by Jackie and followed by most staff there.
Gold Spike has no such limitation. I have 9 nights booked there. I may shorten those if I get freebie come ons from other places.
Stratosphere charges a $7.50 resort fee and that includes tower access, but after 5 nights it caps "as a convenience to our customers" and you can book 28 nights in a row there and pay just 5 nights of resort fee.
For much less money I got an open pool and free wifi at the Gold Spike. Their gambling is not very good. (Well, I guess the BJ is not so bad and I'll probably play a bit of that. I hate staying at a spot and playing nothing there) However, there is nothing to make me play anything. If I get sick and have to stay in bed for a week, I will still have my wifi and not be pressured to play for some resort fee that will kick in if I do not.
I will have a dawn to dusk open pool. Unheated. But I'm pretty brave about cold water and I may just bring along a wetsuit.
I am currently booked 22 nights (Oct/Nov) at an average expense of under $21 a night fees and taxes included. How the EC expects to attract folks like me and soften us up for a kill in this market I can't speculate.
However, I will say that board posts where I thought I was just informing folks of this new hidden and renamed resort fee to avoid having them find a surprise at checkout, have elicited plenty of support for the [B]casino's side of the issue.[/B]
I'm amazed at that.
Much of it is from folks who don't stay at the El Cortez or can't imagine anyone staying for more than 7 nights. Some of it is rather naive suggestions that the EC is swamped with the near homeless and so must keep them at bay. Why would anyone suffering a financial setback book a Cabana room for $34 a night when they could rent a three bedroom apartment in Vegas for that by the month and get a laundromat in the basement or when they could for $110-$125 get a week right down the street at the Eden Inn and in both cases not have to worry about their rent increasing when the next convention comes to town?
However, like the inflation of drink prices at the new glitzy bar, this sort of move indicates that the EC is moving on up along with the whole Fremont East neighborhood. I celebrated this until I remembered again that it just eliminates one more frugal alternative as the clientele evolves into the "its only money" folks.
The only way around the fee is to book 7 nights at the end of one month and 7 at the beginning of another which the hotel manager admitted I could "technically" do.
But I suppose they are working on that loophole as well.
Or perhaps saner minds will emerge. One post on the Facebook page said that for now they had to abide by this new restriction which meant the person writing it thought it was a bad idea too. It is a bad idea. Perhaps they will rescind it.
No comments:
Post a Comment