CET Allegedly Removes Meals From AC Laurel Lounges

I think as long as Diamonds, Plusses and Elites get their coveted Saturday night comp rooms, those folks losing their collective sh!t over the Laurel Lounge debacle will stay with CET.

Maybe I'm wrong, who knows.

 

Rooms are ADT based for availability so not really tier dependant. I know some 7 Stars that can't get many weekend nights...
But, I do think this change won't impact their bottom line much. Maybe it will make things better for the other players at higher tier levels. If its less crowded the better.
It will cause some issues midweek at most places are closed for lunch midweek. CAC is basically Starbucks or Cafe Tazza for lunch M-Th.

 

pretty sure diamond was 10,000 TC at first, or $50,000 coin in. But, it is true that it was a lot harder to earn diamond back then and so the population in the lounge was much smaller.

Here's my challenge with the whole lounge question in AC...you have big resorts with lots of restaurants and you can give out tons of freeplay/restaurant comps that should be better than your crappy lounge. If someone is actually a good player (say, losing $5k a year minimum of theo)...ok, give them free drinks and some snacks, fine. If someone is better ($15k a year or at least $1.5k/day)...fine, you can use some food comps for a proper meal in an exclusive lounge - Amphora/7 stars lounges make sense to me at the right ADT/gross annual loss threshold. What is the value in running a dumpy lounge with cheap food at a low RC cost to too many people?

A lounge makes a lot more sense at Harrahs Metropolis - the dining options at a small joint are limited, drinks cost money under state law, and it's a unique way to recognize someone who loses $10k+ a year to you when you don't have shows, 10 restaurants, etc. That isn't AC!

 

In the beginning, Diamond only took 10,000 tier credits. So actually $50k/$100k.

And Diamond really meant something then. Suite upgrades were automatic. Lots of other perks and comps.

 

An odd thing I kind of enjoy doing is exploring casinos' old websites from the 1990s and early 2000s on the Archive.org Wayback Machine. This is from the Total Rewards FAQ in December 2004... it seems "Base Reward Credits" were what we now know as "Tier Credits":

How many Reward Credits does it take to get X?
A Tier Upgrade: Earn 3,000 Base Reward Credits in the year to get Platinum status and 10,000 to get Diamond status.

And for those curious, here is the Total Rewards benefits table from that same time. Some icons didn't load in the archive... though it's pretty easy to figure out that they're Gold / Platinum (3,000) / Diamond (10,000).

I find it very interesting how FEW "listed" tier benefits there were back then... even though the offerings on the whole were apparently a whole lot better.

 

For the AC CET market, they don't give out restaurant comps to most players. They've gotten a lot tighter with food comps and even high level players are told use your RCs first now. Without the 5xRCs even a decent player isn't earning enough RCs for a dinner. $10,000 coin in on slots earns you a whopping $20 in RCs (without any multiplier). In AC lounges are basically required. The customer base would boycott anyone without one. They all have some sort of lounge.

As for the RC cost, I believe its just for matched players for CET. It makes zero sense to ever use RCs to pay for that lounge as the amount of play required to earn the entry fee is so high that you should be able to make Diamond Plus easily rather than pay for entry into the lounge 5 or 6 times in a year. AC has historically had matches even when the national programs didn't do it, but only to Diamond(CET) and Gold(MGM). I wonder how it will look if that goes away.

Total Rewards was fairly revolutionary back then with its 'tier based' benefits. Prior to this program the benefits were pretty worthless for most programs and these few benefits were things only 'VIP' hosted level players were able to get. Basically, they brought comps to the masses in a watered down format from the hosted players.

 

I hear you. Caesars is, in general, not as good at the food comps game as MGM is. I much prefer how MGM works - I think it drives better engagement. $100 of food comp costs you, what, $60 bucks at the prices they charge? Plus you get cash pay for overages/guests/etc. and help support your other dining offerings staying open to attract new business. Why do you want to offer a lounge instead of 8 restaurants or 15-20 across three casinos?

I agree you need lounges for competitive reasons buy why do you care if someone who loses $1,000-3,000 a year is boycotting you? That customer is a nit unworthy of the costs of operating a lounge. You want lounges for real players. There shouldn't be people paying credits to get in a lounge at baby diamond at all. Diamond plus is too low end to go in for free and expect decent benefits; there's a reason Amphora costs money for Gold (which is fairly equivalent, although probably slightly harder to earn given CET's voluminous bonus offers).

Has anyone reached out to hosts to discuss if they plan to offer more midweek food? Anyone with a pulse can already get a room midweek in AC, especially off-season

 

Same logic they used for getting rid of the ones in Vegas.

Year 1
"We need to reduce costs in the Lounges. Let's cut back on the food and just do snacks, etc."

Year 2
"Our numbers in the Lounges have decreased in the last year. Our guests habits have changed, we should get rid of the Lounges and just do a free drink special for our slowest bar for our high level folks between 2-4."

Year 3
"Our new drink program is a success, but we need limit the number of free drinks people can get to reduce expenses. I got it, we'll do 4 vouchers that can be used at most bars so that one bar isn't slammed between 2-4!"

 

I wouldn't run a diamond lounge in Vegas, either! A simple VIP check in area with free sodas and snacks for 7 stars/MGM Platinum and up is all I'd run, plus maybe a higher end tower/area at a Caesars or Bellagio that has a better offering for real VIPs who lose $2.5k+ a day. Lounges are a waste when you have tons of bars and restaurants where you can comp to your heart's content up to the amount you're willing to give. Anyone who is a good player can get plenty of free food and drinks if you design your program well

AC is close enough to Vegas in terms of amenities that it's difficult to justify a sitting lounge for meh players

 

Borgata is much worse for backend comping food for my play level, like maybe twice a year they'll do it. Caesar's is still comping some of my meals but I have to zero out my RCs beforehand.
Only difference is Borgata offers including twice a month reward points and CET has killed its monthly dining credit offers.
Borgata has better reward point earning rate also.

Completely agree with this. They need to adjust the requirements. Hoping its one of those we'll cut benefits down this year and update the benefits for next year when Feb rolls around, but I doubt it.
Also note that I believe a fair amount of people earn Diamond at CET and match to Gold at Borgata then play there for the lounge. The theo required to earn Gold is high for a lot of the AC lounge lizards(my term for grinders that sit in the lounge for hours). If match goes away I might go back to Borgata. The lounge lines at dinner time at Borgata on weekends can be over an hour at times.

I met the new GM and made a comment about lack of midweek lunch options and got no response...

 

Got to Caesar's AC website and see how many restaurants show up at open midweek at noon. You'll see 4 places of which 1 is room service and another has the wrong times listed as they are now closed until 2pm M-Th.

 

As much as I used to be in the camp of 'screw them for getting rid of the lounges', I really don't hate their logic here. It's nice in Vegas to be able to use my $10 daily food credit for a slice of pizza and the 4 free drinks to stock my room fridge with Fijis and Gatorades - before even dipping into any 'official' comps. Plenty of free booze on the floor while I'm playing anyhow. I'd trade the LL at my local for this perk as well if it were an option.

 

You do realize the 7 Stars Lounges in AC serve either Macallan 12(Harrah's) or Glenlivet 12(Trop or CAC)? I realize that's not LL level but your comment includes the $10 food credit which means 7 Stars level.

 

No I was talking about Vegas and the LL specifically. For areas that offer 7* lounges (basically AC and Hammond), probably makes sense to leave those lounges alone.

 

Gordon Ramsay Pub shows 8 am to 10 pm on both the Caesars AC and Gordon Ramsay websites. Is that not the case?

 

Was closed until 2PM when I was there in December during midweek and I was there a few times. Also showed on the sheet my host had as being closed until 2PM. Website is horrible at being updated.

 

So the demand on property is so bad that only two places to eat are open...how can there be enough demand to keep a lounge with free food open using a reasonable amount of labor and food waste? The cost/benefit on that has to be terrible vs. giving out more food comps

To be fair, you can get 4 nice cocktails with the vouchers per day as well, doesn't have to be gatorades

 

I don't think its due to demand as people are annoyed at it. The LL line those days was stupid long, but I skipped line as a 7 Stars.
It might also have to do with the food quality being piss poor at almost all the places there now. I used to actually walk over to Bally's to get some Johnny Rockets before but I sort of no played them too much there.

 

Do you still get into the 7 Star lounge with upper level Diamond? I thought at one time Diamond elite or Diamond Plus could get in?

 

Elite used to get in for 1500 RCs for a while, but it pissed off the 7 Stars too much so they ended that.