Muliple Free Play offers that demand hotel stay

I have double booked many times over the years and never ran into any problems since I gamble most at the properties that are giving me the goodies. They always keep sending me offers afterwards, so I can't be annoying them too much by not actually using their rooms! BTW - I have NEVER been checked out by housekeeping just because I didn't use the room. It shouldn't be news to most folks here that some people seldom/never get to their rooms during a weekend in Vegas - too much to see and do and you only have so much time, especially if you can't make weekly visits to Vegas like some here! Sleep isn't always a priority. Offhand I can think of more than a couple times where 24 hours or more went by before I got anywhere near ready to head to my room.

Good point, Ric at Joes... and you wonder why fast food joints now limit the number of napkins available... some don't even have table-top napkins anymore, and give you precisely two paper napkins on each tray or in each bag at the drive thru.

Let's look at some of the changes that have gone on in Vegas over the past few years:

6/5 blackjack
end of full pay video poker
reduction of comps
layoffs of personnel
higher prices for rooms
higher table minimums

now, let's consider some of the reasons why the "good ole Vegas" no longer exists...

higher costs
higher costs
higher costs

MoneyLA, I hear where your coming from and you are helping to make this a nice discussion. I know nothing about comp programs and casino marketing. All I know is the very worst that will happen after I take these offers is that if I don't play enough the offers won't be that good next time around. I have only been to these casinos one time and that was last October. You have to remember that I received nothing from them on that trip and spent a lot of money with them. Now I will get a little of that back in comps. I would be crazy not to accept them since I will already be in town. But I am not going to try to sleep in four different hotels just to get those comps, that would be really crazy.

Gee... now its official, the Sahara is closing.

If so many "players" are staying in "multiple rooms" youve got to wonder what the "real" occupancy rate in Vegas is? I wonder how much money the gaming companies could have saved by NOT building and furnishing new rooms that never were actually used by their comped players? Or by "phantom" guests?

If you ran a casino hotel, would you rather a guest slept in one of the hotel rooms and gambled elsewhere, or would you rather the guest gambled in your casino and slept elsewhere? And it's not like Vegas hotels are anywhere near 100% occupancy and the hotel room not being slept in could necessarily go to another guest who would play in the casino and sleep there too

I would think by now the folks who run casino hotels are aware that this happens and if it were a problem for them, they would top requiring that you check in to use the free play. that said, the only times I have ever double booked was to get someone else a comped room. I feel some obligation to play if I have a comped room and don't like to spread my bankroll too thin

Just curious: for those of you who check in at a hotel to get your free play but don't stay in the hotel and don't even visit the room as some suggest... do you leave a tip for the housekeepers? (I guess you can't tip if you don't at least go to the room.)

I wonder if Sue suggests to the players at the Alliante players club desk that they should also play at some of the MGM and Caesars and other casino properties so they can get free room offers and free play offers on future visits and to spread their play around town?

edited to add:

KarenTN wrote: "don't like to spread my bankroll too thin"

that is a very smart thing, because that is how you will keep your comp/free play offers. eventually the casinos catch on and if your play doesnt meet expectations in a few months the computers will cut you, or your host will cut you. you can get only so much milk out of an unfed cow.

So now I am a phantom guest? LMAO. These offers are for the beginning of the week, not the weekend. The hotels are half empty anyway. I really don't understand your concern any longer. Which of these casinos do you own stock with?

I dont have to own stock in a casino to be concerned with others raising costs for a casino/hotel. Just as I dont have to own a restaurant to be concerned with customers taking extra straws or napkins (see Ric's post). What I am is a gambler who wants to get the best gamble from a casino, and I see the best gamble getting eliminated (6/5 blackjack, lower pay tables at VP, higher table minimums, laid off dealers, elimination of boxmen at craps) because of other costs. Im all for keeping costs down so casinos can offer the best gamble possible (full pay VP, 3/2 blackjack, boxmen at craps, lower table minimums, etc.)

If you feel you are losing to the casino more than your free play and vacant hotel room are worth, then keep doing what youre doing. If that helps the casino make more money it will help me get a better gamble. If you really are losing much more than your free play and room is worth, please-- keep losing. Please.

It doesn't matter how we feel. What counts is the Casinos think their offers are returning more $ than their costs. What's more important is they actually have a way to measure it. This means the double booked people who continue to get offers are returning more to the Casinos than those pikers who only snag a single room. How? They obviously gamble enough to cover the costs of all those freebies, but aren't costing the casino for power, water, lights, maid service...This holds true as long as the hotel isn't full. Maybe you hadn't noticed but Hotel Occupancy in Las Vegas doesn't approach 100%.

As for Rick's McDonald's Straw analogy, how do you think the local McDonald's owner would feel if that kid had been purchasing 50 big macs out of his own pocket (for the football team) every week for for the whole season? No sodas, and the 25 straws were really for his cocaine habit...but the bottom line at that point, Rick is messing with one of his best customers....and I doubt he cares about that 25 cents worth of straws he lost.

Let me put it to you like this...At AlanLeroy's Nudist Casino, I make MORE money when a hot chick comes in and loses 10K and I don't actually have to give her free food or a free room. That's as opposed to the fat old dude who loses 10K, stuffs his ass at the comp buffet and vomits all over the free room. What would you rather have? The hot chick or the fat old dude?

Well, alanleroy... I dont think that Ric was tlking about the best customer who buys 50 big macs and takes 25 straws.

And, I dont know about the AlanLeroy Nudist Casino and the hot chick vs fat dude scenario being true.

And I think that you and a lot of other people in this discussion like to justify a bad faith practice that cannot go on forever because they eventually will catch up to you. BUT....

and this is very important...

BUT if you truly are losing to the casino MORE than what your free play and comps are worth then PLEASE continue.