Does anybody on here quite understand how a CR account plays with the actual process of booking a room on the Caesars website? I find it very interesting that the website hides entire room categories when I'm logged in that are displayed when NOT logged in. At times this makes sense. For example, as a Diamond I'm pretty aware that booking a Deluxe Room at the Rio doesn't matter; I'm going to get something better from the normal sized rooms. So they only show me Deluxe Rooms as a category. At other times it's completely absurd. For example, the "Caesars Suites" portal if you want a special large suite. Whole categories disappear when i log in. In fact, for August 15-20 (dates of my upcoming Vegas trip), only the Hakone Suites at Caesars even show up. There are plenty of rooms at many resorts if I log out. What's really fascinating is pulling up a rate calendar for a specific room type such as Carioca Suite at Rio. If I'm not logged in, the category doesn't display sold out. Log in? Most weekdays are sold out. This all flows from my idle curiosity about the cost of "living it up" room-wise. P.S. Any recent experience of pay-for-upgrades at the Rio?
What I found is that starting about 2 years ago, when you are logged in and have selected specific dates, the TR website will only show you room types you can get comped. With a few exceptions. For example, for some reason, when I'm logged in and I select Caesars Palace, it will show me rooms I can get comped, plus NOBU rooms. Sometimes PH will show me the two top-end suites. I found the same thing was true even if I called. Last winter, I wanted to book a Masquerade Suite at Rio because I heard it was really cheap for a string of dates. When I wasn't logged in, I could see the prices and they were cheap. When I logged in, it wouldn't show me that room. When I called, my TR# had already been entered as part of the phone call. and the rep said there was no availability. So I ended up booking it while I wasn't logged in, and then added my TR# when I checked in. I'm not sure why they started doing that. Prior to that, they would show you rooms you couldn't get comped - you'd have to pay whatever the going rate was. But at least you could book them.
While I agree with mostly what Chuck said, sometimes it's dependent on the player. For your dates, I show most of the suites at Caesars available for booking while logged in or not. If logged in, the rooms are like $10-$20 a night cheaper. What's funny is, on the rate calendar, I show Friday was not available for most of the suites, yet I am able to book it. Made it all the way to the end right before confirm reservation. CET website was a lot better 2-3 years ago. I have problems using offers sometimes where the days I want show offer available, but I am not able to book it online and have to end up calling to make the reservation.
I've also seen this: On a night when you can get SOME room comped, it will not show you other room types. On a night when you can't get ANY room comped, it will show you a discount for some rooms and MAY show you other room types (at full price). There's been a few threads about this: https://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/index.php?threads/cet-not-seeing-all-rooms.157019/#post-1741246 https://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/index.php?threads/cet-suite-pricing-question.159924/#post-1789901
From what I can piece together between my experience and my discussion with the VIP hotline, the answer is actually fairly simple. The goal of the algorithm is to show you what you can get for free first. The theory is that if you are using the website and know to put your player's info in and have it available you are probably someone who is looking for comps and discounts so the computer wants to show you that first. As to the suites specifically the way it was explained is that they only reserve a handful of suites to be "comped". If you qualify to have a suite comped and the ones reserved for comps are not sold out it will appear. If you don't qualify, they will often appear with a rate. However, when you are not logged in and willing to pay rack rate, you get the bigger pool of rooms available which will often show as availability. Even my host said they won't ask you to pay for a room which you qualify as comped, simply because on the back end they would comp it anyway, which is entirely counter intuitive to what they want to do.
But it's not a question of showing you comped rooms first. It's a question of showing you other rooms at all.
I wish there was a toggle switch or filter for comped rooms. That way you can see what you're comped or show all available rooms. They have a toggle for king, non-smoking, etc so why not for comps? I say this because, from a UX perspective, they're pushing away players that are willing to pay for nicer rooms. I know this was the case for me until I started reading up on it.
@Chuck2009x that's because in the mind of the computer there are no rooms available for you. Basically the computer is not using all available rooms at its disposal, only the rooms that should be at your disposal. If they are all gone then it's "sold out". So if you normally qualify for a comped room on NYE, but all the comped rooms available for NYE are sold out the computer will tell you they can't get you a room. However, and this is especially true if Diamond, the hotel is never actually sold out more than 72 hours in advance, since there is guaranteed room availability with 72 hours notice in AC and LV
CET should really start offering all rooms that are open to everyone and give diamond members a discount on suites that is equivalent to what they are willing to comp. I hate the system where it simply shows comp rooms and I have to pay full rate for everything else.
Yeah, especially since they tout a discount on rooms and suites as a benefit of being Diamond. For how much money these companies rake in, I'm really surprised to see the likes of IHG, Marriott, and Hilton having a better UX. It's really not that hard...
Yes, that's what we're complaining about. There's a workaround. The workaround is to log out and book the room. Why make me use the workaround when all I want to do is pay the hotel full price and make the entire stay risk-free for the casino, because they won't have to pay a dime to the hotel unless I earn it?
This is why I've funneled my Vegas play to other resorts and only use CET for the local watering hole (aka Atlantic City). Pretty soon that'll go away too. Sort of sad as they've effectively turned off a consistent player mid-level player.
Even if I look at say Tuesday February 4 at the Rio... Only Deluxe rooms are available. There appear to be NO rooms other than Deluxe at my disposal...
A bit tangential but... The reservations computer has this quirk too: Now that we are within 48 hours of check-in, my comped reservation automatically transformed/upgraded to: NS 1K SAMBA M/V. There's definitely undocumented magic that happens behind the scenes.
I was just poking around looking at some booking options and I think there's one other variable in play. I think you have two comp value numbers with CET. A max per stay and a max per night. The max per stay determines how many consecutive nights (up to 5) you can get comped. I think the max per night number could exclude you entirely from certain room types. So you might have a max per stay of $900 and a max per night of $230, and you put in a string of 5 nights and any one of them is over $230, I think it won't show you that room, even if the total for the entire 5 nights was $900 or less. I think they do the same thing at MLife, except they will show you the room type and let you book some nights comped and others at a discount (this is for a Tower Premier One Bedroom at Luxor): I could be wrong - it could be that the total for this stay would exceed my stay max, and they just cobble together nights that will stay under that number. But I think I have been previously offered a fully comped stay at Luxor where the total price for 4 nights was just over $1,000.