Sam's Town Room Offers

I hadn't checked our bconnected offers online for the last 2-3 weeks but had a pleasant surprise in doing so this a.m. my 'new offers' included gold card offers and $100 in free slot play for oct./nov.dec. 2014.
as stated previously on this thread, gold card offers had previously come in the wife's name, but none since the first of the year. we have stayed 5 days this year but in previous years had probably averaged 21 days a year at ST. this will certainly change our fall visit plans. LOL

"Saying your "level of play" keeps you well into Sapphire level is not a precise enough measure of play to judge the change of your offers. You need to track coin in per day. You can easily be well into Sapphire level and yet have offers vary.

Just for example I will tell you that I am well into Sapphire too, so one could describe my level of play just like you have, and yet my offers include a Gold card because my average play per day is much higher than yours."



That's a valid point; I should keep a gambler's log. Somewhat related to that, I recently spoke to a ST person who called regarding an upcoming reservation. I mentioned the diminishing offers and she looked at my account. She said, "Oh, you had a very successful trip in March, so that's probably why your offers diminished." I said "You mean then it's based on win-loss rather than coin-in"? She waffled between the two and ended with sort of a hybrid answer to the effect that there is a variety of factors. I'm guessing that she was guessing.
It's an interesting game that we -- and the casinos -- play.

This doesn't surprise me one bit because I had previously been told by hosts at Plaza/Las Vegas Club that your win or loss on your trip was taken into consideration among other factors (I'm sure that some of these factors also had to do with what game you were playing, what denomination it was, how long you played and maybe also how much coin-in you put through plus also probably the game's Theoretical Return).

I don't know if they are still doing this but they might still be doing this. And so this can happen anywhere.

RecVPPlayer

I do not doubt intelligent folks could forget 1) comps can be taken away from winners 2) have been, and so reported here which is about like being kicked out of an airline FF account or club. Mgmt reserves all rights. I heard it at SC a while back, graveyard shift and the boss was addressing a punter in the industry as if, 'surely you know if you win from us our incentives to you can be cut.' So, I've been backed off, not back-roomed; been short-payed when I let 'em, but like pete t says, 'wont get fooled again'. Good luck!

I have no doubt Ignore is right re. comps and wjkomo is right on in saying you should track coin in, but I still don't know how anyone can figure out casino marketing and their offers. that's why we try to go with the flow, and over the last 12-15 (?) years have tried to stay in the good graces of both Boyd and Stations and balance their offers against each other, figure out our gaming budget and then make decisions on when to go.
What I can state with certainty:
in 2012 I had a once in a lifetime year at ST; we stayed 12 nights and my end of the year win/loss statement showed a plus $20,105.
in 2013 we stayed 17 nights and my est. win/loss was (-$11,045).
never ONCE in that span did my monthly offers change; three free nights and $25 in slot play. no calls from hosts (most of whom had been dismissed, anyway), added mailers, etc.
in 2014 for various reasons we have stayed only once, 5 nights in March and our est. COMBINED losses for the wifie and myself was 5,740.
now, all of a sudden, my bconnected inbox is overflowing with top of the line perks.
gold card offers for oct./nov/dec. with $100 in slot play for each visit.
pbr bull riding tickets, five free nights, gold card and $100 slot play.
tickets for the show 'Wicked' (!!), five free nights, gold card and $100 slot play on two different dates.
so, what do I take from this? I don't know.
oldtimers on here will remember when ST used to send only one offer per mailing address.
since we both now receive offers, the wife's room offers have varied a lot more, including the aforementioned gold card for much of last year.
we certainly don't qualify as high rollers.
the wife does play any and all kinds of machines a lot LONGER than I do; I play $1 VP, $10 blackjack and hit the sports book.
we have never asked for anything in advance; although when we have had a reservation in place I would inquire about a room upgrade to one of their 'M' class rooms, which is only slightly bigger and comes with the minifridge.
I made a lame joke in an earlier post saying the gold card offers will dramatically alter our fall travel plans. but it is a NICE perk for the 'average' jane and joe. as corny as it sounds, we do like ST in dec. because of the way they decorate for christmas, and will definitely take advantage of that offer then.
frankly, we have had better gaming luck down the street at boulder station this past year where former ST host johnny difulvio has comped us rooms.
but the thought of free meal atd billy bob's will undoubtedly lure us in again.

excuse the 'senior' moment.
I meant jmradford and not 'ignore.'
one other thought/question regarding comps/room offers, etc.:
do casinos take into account wife/husband combined gaming play?
or is it all computer generated based on your player's card number?

Well jmradford is now not the first person that I know of who was called "ignore." That happened to me once before several years ago.

RecVPPlayer
Not Ignore

It may surprise people, but for the most part, the people working in the slot club booths are not privy into what is the criteria for marketing offers. They try to "help" you by giving you an answer, any plausible answer, and an answer like this one she gave you cannot really be validated. So the customer assumes he/she has been given the correct answer. Your follow up question showed her lack of confidence in her answer. I can tell you from my experience, that wins and losses do not affect MOST casino's offers. Station Casino's seem to be an exception and has been known to penalize winners.

This is 2014, and these are multi billion dollar corporations, managing the business with data and tools. Anyone running a casino should know that even if the odds are in their favor, there will still be winners, and most of those winners will be back to lose. Makes no sense to penalize them.

I will go on to tell you this, even HOSTS are not privy to the criteria for marketing offers, although they may be better educated than the slot club people and their answers may be closer to reality. Hosts often readily jump from casino to casino in their careers. Can you imagine if they had detailed knowledge of their competitors marketing systems?

This kind of information, detailing exactly the criteria for marketing offers is confidential and is really only known by management and top marketing personnel. Slot club employees and even hosts are pretty much pee-on's in the bigger picture when it comes to running a casino.

Don't assume just because you got an answer, that it is correct.

What we do know is that for most casinos, most of the time, average coin in per person per day is the main criteria. On top of that is the theoretical loss for that type of machine. In other words, VP coin in gets valued much lower than slot machine coin in. Yes, casinos can and do tinker with their offer criteria, but after tracking my offers in several casinos, I can tell you that my offers change like clockwork in step with my average play per day.

Update: I've now returned to the "3-night comp" status, apparently, since the B-Connected website shows me having that offer for Nov. & Dec. In Sept. we just had the scattered free night here or there, which is of little value. October, which is when we'll be in town for 20+ days, it's NADA! Yes, nothing at all. Go figure, it's like they know when I need the room offers and withhold them just for that month!

Things are back to normal at Sams. Finally got the gold offers back for Jan & Feb. Booked Jan today and got a suite from my host.
Probably helps that I lost 5K there on the Oct trip. Fortunately Orleans was nice enough to give my 2 royals on the last day of the trip, so it was a pretty good trip.