Cal "walking" guests

I have a reservation at the Cal next week and was called this past week basically telling me they wouldn't have a room for me because of construction delays. Said they are short 130+ rooms. They offered me rooms at a non downtown Boyd hotel. Sams town, Orleans etc. very frustrating. Offered a comp and food credit but I'm already on a comp room offer. Has anyone else had this happen?

 

Moderater Note:
Moved this to it's own thread and gave it the title. I think this is very important current info and would hate for it to get lost in the other Cal thread.

 

Ouch
That would piss me off.

130 rooms short? How do you overbook that many rooms?
I quit staying at the Golden Nugget for booking me a King twice and then not having 1 available at checkin. That's not even acceptable to me twice in a row in the days of computers.

Maybe they shouldn't have elected to shut down a complete tower to remodel and done it a floor at a time.

 

Completely agree. I am not a happy camper right now. I told them they shouldn't book rooms under construction if they weren't sure they would be available. The response was they weren't expecting delays of 3-4 weeks. And the remodel on the other tower was only behind less than a week which they budgeted for this time as well.

 

That's not a "walk". That's a "drive". Sorry... a "PAINFUL drive".

If I was in this position, I would tell them that I want them to take care of my accommodation costs at a comparable downtown hotel, but will still play at the Cal, to honour the comp.

To me, this is unacceptable. Renovations happen, I get that. But to take not just a booking... but a comp booking (i.e. effectively guaranteed gambling revenue for the casino), this is just stupid. Think about it... you gave the Cal your play before, knowing you'd receive comp offers in return for your play. Those comp offers would generate more play. That additional play will generate more comp offers - lather, rinse, repeat.

You played and stayed at the Cal because you want to be downtown. Not on the strip. Not on the boulder strip. Not in Reno. Not in Atlantic city. Not in Biarritz. Downtown. While their objective is to get you in the casino and play, your objective is to go to Las Vegas and have a good time. They're certainly looking out for their interests by trying to keep you on a Boyd property. But they're in no way looking out for your interests, which are to be downtown.

I'd send a terse email to your host, reading to the effect of...

"Not interested in staying in a hotel that isn't downtown. If you are unable to accommodate this reservation in a downtown Boyd property, I kindly request that you take care of arrangements at a comparable property elsewhere in the area. In consideration of the comp room offer, I will provide my usual amount of play at the Cal. Not staying downtown is not an option for this trip. Therefore, you are to either provide this downtown accommodation as outlined, or cancel this comp offer, and advise me when I can redeem the same at a later date."

 

Thanks for the information. We are going next week, but staying at MSS as the CAL was booked for part of our trip when we tried making reservations in May. My son does have reservations at the CAL from August 4-11....I will tell him to double check his reservation.

I heard that instead of renovating the east tower floor by floor (as they did to the west tower), due to asbestos in the east tower that they were totally closing the entire east tower for asbestos removal.

 

I think this is terrible. I feel their accommodation offers suck big time. They should have bitten the bullet and provided you with accomodations at other competitor hotels downtown. After all, that's where you want to be, not on the Boulder Highway or off the Strip.

I think part of the problem is the Vacations Hawaii junket that they have running between Vegas and Hawaii. It's a Boyd-owned gambling junket that requires the Cal to always keep open so many rooms for this junket.

I'm surprised they couldn't find you a room at MSS or Fremont. What a bunch of B.S.

 

Look at the good side of this - at least they contacted you in advance to let you know and they offered a room at another property.

Call them back and be kind to whomever you speak with. Let them know you're upset about it, but understand it's out of their control entirely for the room issue availability and is there a way they can find a room downtown for you?

Being kind and immediately telling the person I'm dealing with that I know it is not their fault (and 99.9% of the time, it isn't in these situations) has 100% of the time gotten me something close to what I had before the snafu. This has even worked on canceled flights when I'm in the airport. Be kind and gracious even though you may be absolutely furious about it.

 

And I just checked the Boyd site - they seem to have rooms all next week available at MSS. Let the person on the phone know that you had noticed there are rooms at MSS available and ask if those might be an option for you.

 

I'm seeing sold out Thur, Fri, Sat. at MSS
????

 

Bad situation -- I'd be pissed !
Work them HARDER for a room somewhere else Downtown !
*
BTW
GOOD CALL ! .......SHOCK

 

Originally the Cal was going to work on the upgrades at east tower floor by floor, as they had done in west wing. However once started they had to close the whole wing off because of possible asbestos and plumbing problems. Estimated time of completion is early September.

 

I didn't see that - and that's why I say call. Unless a convention has blocked out every room at a hotel, they generally hold a couple in reserve for special guests!

 

Hard 6...that really stinks. I get it that stuff happens,...however, you want to stay downtown. Anything at Fremont? This is what I see at MSS.

 

Plaza still have rooms available, I would see if they will put you there, if you cannot get them to honor your reservation. They are trying to get by as cheap as possible by putting you in one of their own hotels. I am surprised that their sales team would allow walking comp guests. That would never happen in my hotel. I would ask to speak with sales or players club when I call. If the front desk does not communicate well with the sales staff, they are probably looking at the cheapest way for the hotel to get out of their pickle, which is walking a comp guest. Front desk would not look at the gambling or RG loss.

Walking guests is never fun. I have had to send people across the lake from Seattle (30 minute drive) when the city is sold out, and an emergency came up.

 

As said, at least they called.

As to "how does this happen"? Pretty easy. You can figure, buffer and adjust for construction delays but sometimes $hit hits the fan and the fan is on high. You gotta know some folks there are struggling to deal with it.

 

Emailed my host after reading this thread to make sure we were in a suite in the West Tower.
Reply I received..."I requested a West Tower suite, but there is no guarantee". Aug 4-8.

 

Sorry to hear it happens to OP.
But, hotel full happens all the time, no big deal.
And in a comped stay you have the least priority when it happens.
In theory the casino/hotel can cancel the comp anytime for any reason or no reason.

 

Sure they can cancel whatever they want.
But is that a good business practice?
This isn't akin to having dinner reservations and your table being unavailable.
And it is a big deal. They are in essence making changes to someone's vacation plans.
This changes where he stays, eats, gambles, how he travels in Vegas etc. It changes EVERYTHING.