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Resort fees Caesars, I'll take MGM now

Discussion in 'LV Strip Hotels' started by Dutchfly, Mar 1, 2013.

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  1. Dutchfly

    Dutchfly Tourist

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    Since there is no financial benefit on taking Ceasars properties over MGM because everyone is charging RF's now, I will definitely choose Monte Carlo, MGM Grand, and Mirage over PH, Flamingo or Ceasars.

    What are your thoughts? Is this a smart move of Ceasars, or will there be less people checking in in their hotels? ( besides me)
     
  2. BeeeJay

    BeeeJay President of The Red Lobster Hostess Satisfaction

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    I think they probably thought they had to do it to compete financially, but I think they underestimate the effect on their target customer.

    Interesting the mix of properties you listed from both companies, I would probably rate like this:

    #1 Caesars
    #2 P.Ho.
    #3 Mirage
    #4 MGM Grand
    #5 Monte Carlo
    #6 Flamingo

    I think Caesars is a little nicer than any of those MGM's you mentioned. P.Ho thru MGM Grand probably tied. Monte Carlo and Flamingo a notch below.

    Honestly I could see it being the last straw for some subset of the Vegas visitor. Those people will prob consider other vacation destinations.

    For me, I decided long ago that Vegas was getting less of my money every time they lower the bar on service or value. I put them in the penalty box. If they raise prices $1, I'll lower my spend $2. Fuck 'em.

    I'll still go but they get their $100 for the room, and $200 less at the tables. :beer:
     
  3. leo21

    leo21 VIP Whale

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    Resort fees Ceasars, I'll take MGM now

    I think if people were serious before about doing the complete math with fees, the hotel offering the best deal will win out pretty often, especially if the people who used to advocate for the fees as a good value were honest and not just MGM apologists. CET will lose some business but supply and demand dictates that some room rates will fall and they will adjust. At the mid range, this is going to hurt but at the low end, unless my perception is completely off, CET may still be the better option on the strip.
     
  4. Busyman

    Busyman VIP Whale

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    Smart man.

    No Aria, Bellagio, or Paris make the list?
     
    Last edited: Mar 1, 2013
  5. Dutchfly

    Dutchfly Tourist

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    Ceasars is maybe top of the list, but their prices are much higher.
    Personally I think Monte Carlo is best value for money. Good location, Nice staff and fair rooms. Only reason I chose Ceasar property was because of the Resort fees. Since there is no difference anymore, Monte Carlo will definitely be my spot!!!
     
  6. Busyman

    Busyman VIP Whale

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    I want to stay there at some point. I stayed in Citycenter my last go round and gambled there a decent amount. I like the location and what's in it.
     
  7. Judge Smails

    Judge Smails Tourist

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    For me as a low roller at $40 a hand BJ along with $10 craps and some $1 slots CET still might be my better option. Excluding Caesars I can get Sunday-Thursday comped and a cheap casino rate or sometimes weekends comped depending on the property. I am not sure that level of play will get me much of anything from Mlife. Comped + resort fee is better than reduced rate + resort fee.

    Rooms aren't a huge deal to me so as long as I can sleep, shit, shower and shave. I will say that I won't stay at IP/Quad. If it is a guys trip it is usually the Flamingo for the pool. The wife does value a nicer room and hotel with better food options so it has been Paris or paying some out of pocket for Caesars.


    I will give Mlife a few hours of play during my trip. Probably at the Monte Carlo since I will be drinking at The Pub anyways. Will see if that gets me anything at all in the future.
     
  8. Funkhouser

    Funkhouser In Charge of the Big Door

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    I completely disagree about the PHo having stayed there 3 of my last 6 trips to Vegas and having all different variations of rooms in the place.

    PHo gets points for Casino layout, Miracle Mile Shops, location, and Buffet
    PHo loses points for service, room quality, common area upkeep, pool, entertainment and lack of good dinning choices. Earl of Sandwich and PF Changes gets old.

    Yes you could go across the street to Cosmo or Bellagio, but I like having that stuff in the hotel I am staying at. Mirage is now screwing around with their layout, dining options, etc while MGM tries to figure out how to improve an underperforming property.

    Spending my money I would take Mirage over PHo anyday. I think the rest of the list was pretty spot on.
     
  9. waverunner

    waverunner ------VEGA$------

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    Wow, i plan on doing the same thing for May and Nov. I have comped rooms at RIO and Bally's and i will use my TR card but will put some action on my new MiLife card mostly at Monte Carlo (my favorite place before i switched). I love free rooms, especially Bally's and from what i hear RIO is not too shabby as well (have never stayed there). I am a low roller, my bank roll is about $400-$500 per day for 5 days. But it's sufficient enough to enjoy my favorite place in the whole wide world.
     
  10. Viva Las Vegas

    Viva Las Vegas Elvis has left the building

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    I don't stay at either CET or MGM unless comped. I played CET outside of Vegas last year, but I didn't play much during my comped Vegas stay (PHo - mainly Poker and some Blackjack). Their VP pay tables are too weak. I'm done w/ MGM as their comps dried up for my level of blackjack play ($50-$100).

    I'd rate the rooms based on what I would take for a comped standard room w/o resort fees:

    1. Aria
    2. Bellagio
    3. The Hotel
    4. MGM Grand
    5. The Mirage
    6. Planet Hollywood
    7. Bally's (North Tower - I never stayed in the South tower & thus cannot rate)
    8. Caesars (#3 if room was not Roman Tower)
    9. Mandalay Bay
    10. Paris
    11. NYNY
    12. Harrah's
    13. Flamingo
    14. Monte Carlo
    15. Luxor
    16. Excalibur ("Widescreen")
    17. The Quad
     
  11. KBT2012

    KBT2012 High-Roller

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    I think it's a good move.

    The only CET property I've stayed at that I've enjoyed is CP and that was in the Augustus tower.

    My top:

    1. Aria
    2. Bellagio
    3. THEhotel

    Since I play poker and craps - I'm never really attempting to even be rated so I also very much enjoy staying at Wynncore as well.
     
  12. Funkhouser

    Funkhouser In Charge of the Big Door

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    Why put Mandalay Bay so low on the list. Besides being way F'in south, I think the property is pretty nice, except for recent stabbing.. Definitely better propery wise then PHo or Ballys due to the pool and food / dining options. I would only ding the place for location which is a big deal if you want to hang on the strip. I could easily do a whole weekend and never leave MB
     
  13. TylerH50

    TylerH50 Low-Roller

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    I plan an annual conference for my Business in which I just signed the contract last week. The primary reason I chose Planet Hollywood for our event was no resort fee, because my company picks up the bill for 30% of the 100 or so rooms we are going to book. I felt like the P Ho was a better value than the MGM or Mirage for instance because of the $20+ resort fee.

    I may have picked MGM or The Mirage if I would have known about the resort fees before signing the contract.
     
  14. Viva Las Vegas

    Viva Las Vegas Elvis has left the building

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    Mostly location. I really like The Hotel (check in, excellent rooms, quick elevators), and would suffer location for room quality. With a standard MB room, the two drawbacks are location and the elevator situation (when I stayed at MB there were always lines of 20-30 people waiting for elevators and it took several minutes before you were able to board for the entire weekend from noon to mid evening).

    To me, outside of MGM Grand (Sigma, BJ, Emerils), I treat the strip as though it ends at City Center / PHo. I hate walking the no mans land between PHo and MGM on the east side of the strip, and do not care for any of the MGM casinos besides MB on the west side.

    I agree that you can spend a weekend w/o leaving MB and be fine. I never stayed in a standard MB room but I have been in one. The room was fine, but if I had the option to take a comped standard MB room and comped PHo, I think the PHo standard is slightly better and I like the location a lot more.

    The MB suite I stayed in was pretty nice. I loved the The Hotel rooms as well. I really liked my high floor Augustus Tower room overlooking the fountains at Caesars. I'd likely take that specific room over a standard anywhere on the strip with the exception of Wynn/Encore and The Cosmo.

    And I'll never pay for a MGM or CET room in the future unless they have some crazy deal (except if they build a new hotel, since I've stayed at every casino on the strip - well except Sheldon's which I will avoid until he moves on). If I'm going to spend $140 +, I'd rather stay at Cosmo or Wynn/Encore than the high end MGM/CET rooms. If I am going to low roll my trip, I rather stay Downtown, at the Riv/Strat/LVH/Orleans or elsewhere. Neither MGM or CET offer competitive gambling anywhere on the Strip beyond good $25-$100 BJ rules at Aria/Bellagio/MGM. Since MGM is no longer comping this level of play (they won't front end $300 level beyond a few days according to a poster in another thread) I may play socially or hit and run there, but not for comps / long periods. There are too many better options (earn comps or pay and earn backend comps) elsewhere, at least for now.
     
  15. numeno

    numeno VIP Whale

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    Absolutely agree.

    MGM Properties were not a $15-$25/night difference for me. I would easily pay $100 to stay at Mirage over Paris and maybe even the lower ones like Monte Carlo or NYNY.

    That wasn't the case though.

    - MGM doesn't want to give me comps more than 2 months in advance so I have to hope they are available
    - MGM doesn't want to comp me more than 3 nights
    - Getting a free room at MGM is much more difficult than CET.
    - I'm sure there are many more.


    Moving from Paris to NYNY for my March Madness trip would have been a ~$300-$400 difference for 7 nights. Yes, I want to avoid resort fees, because I want the best deal. Paris is still a far better deal for me.



    I feel for every comparable hotel across properties, the MGM property is just better. They are better maintained. They have better food choices. Just in general better resorts. It has never been a difference of $20/night for me between comparable properties. It has always been more than that with MLife. Most of this has to do with CET being very generous in comped rooms.
     
  16. Sisyphus

    Sisyphus Low-Roller

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    My last 2 stays at Flamingo have cost me less than $75, and the next one in April will follow suit. Even with the resort fee I'd still be paying about $150 total. The same time period at MGM Grand would have run $350-$400, plus $90-$120 in resort fees. Given the difference I have no problem continuing to stay at Flamingo or any of the other Caesars properties.
     
  17. StormHawk

    StormHawk Yuma, where I work in software.

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    99% of vegas visitors are not "savvy" visitors. You are the 1%. People aren't going to switch brands, heck most people have no idea who owns what or that there are big companies that own 2/3 of the strip.
     
  18. heatherlovesvegas

    heatherlovesvegas VIP Whale

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    That's my feelings pretty much, I LOVE the MGM resorts. I'm not a High Roller so I can stay wherever I want. Overall I still just pick whoever is the best rate, still. If it's $49 to stay at PH and $99 to stay at Mandalay Bay, I'm not passing up PH. But, I feel like I stayed at CET properties a lot more recently because it ended up being a better deal without the resort fees. Also the $19 fee at PH is still less than the $28 fee at MGM.

    Also what little gambling I do, do MGM sends me FAR better room deals than Caesars ever has.

    But yes, I agree with what is said about, people aren't savvy and don't really notice or care. Which actually kills me! I love when I'm inline to check in and I hear someone paid like 5x more than me for the same room. Really, 2 seconds of googling could of saved you hundreds of dollars.
     
  19. Busyman

    Busyman VIP Whale

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    I like spending less where I can so I can spend more elsewhere.

    Hell, at it's core, that's less gambling money to play with. Lol

    It's all about where I have the OPTION to spend less and where don't have the option at all.
     
  20. LV_Bound

    LV_Bound VIP Whale

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    You will still get better/more offers by sticking with CET properties.
    If you do switch, expect less in number of nights comped and Free Play.
     
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