Had a surprising experience at Venetian that hasn't happened before. Stayed for 3 nights under the $250k dual slot tournament offer (day 1 is $100k and if you make the top 10, you play day 2 for $150k pool... I've played 6 or so of these and have yet to make it to day 2 but have come close). Played what I thought was my normal rate, not particularly down a lot nor up a lot. May have bumped up my average bet a bit, but otherwise seemed about the same as past trips. The afternoon of my third day, my host emails and asks if I've been charging food to my room. At Caesars, I have too many points that I don't even bother charging anything to the room since I can get the tax taken off when using points. And hosts won't comp off charges unless first depleting points (for me, anyway -- I've heard other higher players will get charges comped without touching points). So I've gotten used to not bothering charging anything to the room. At Venetian, now that I can use my points via their new card (previously it was annoying to go to the rewards desk and ask for a comp voucher), I just use points. Or more accurately, I go elsewhere. I responded to my host that I've been eating off-property. and is there anything she'd be able to comp. She then said she could comp up to $400. So I grabbed a friend, went to Milos straight away, and ordered $400 worth of food. --max
Since Adelson isn't there any more, many things have changed. I received (small) backend comps twice.
A hassle-free proactive straightforward host experience with a full belly afterwards (maybe not full at Milos but certainly at least a content belly)! Thanks for posting, always great to hear stories like this
About 10,000 tier points, bouncing around on $3.50 slots and $1 video poker. I'd say less video poker this trip (and I really need to stop at Venetian -- their paytables are awful). No tables. Oh, also about 6 hours of live poker, but that would probably go against any backend comps. --max
Based on the exact offer on which you booked, I am going to presume that you stayed in a base-level room on the Venetian side. This was the dual slot tournament from earlier this month (April 2021), right? Let's start with the $400 of available back end. Conservatively, let's call comp value 30% of theo. You would have needed about $1333 of theo beyond "earning the room" (plus the equivalent value of the resort fees of $45 per night -- unless getting it waived like you did with your offer means that you do not need to cover it with your play) to get the $400 of back end. If Venetian was being kind and gave you 40% of theo as comp value, then you needed about $1000 of extra theo beyond the room. You did not indicate if you earned just under or just over 10k Grazie tier points -- so I am just going to estimate 10,000 tier points right on the number. I am going to also presume a total of three gaming days to strictly match the three nights of your hotel stay, even though we're really talking about total trip theo here. Furthermore, I will presume that poker at Venetian is counted quite differently from the other forms of play in terms of the possibility for back-end comps for two reasons... poker rates for suites are a thing (there are some awesome useful data points in there...) poker is not at all built into the loyalty program in a meaningful way 100% of your non-poker play was on machines -- slots and video poker. All indications are that VP earns 4 tier points per $1 of theo the same way that slot play does. 10k tier points means $2500 of theo generated over three days. I'm not sure how much play you did after your host informed you that you had an extra $400 in your comp bucket for the trip. Here is the estimated comp value your theo generated... 30% of theo = $750 40% of theo = $1000 You're not getting offered back end prior to check-out day unless your play has already covered the casino's cost for the room (and any offer throw-ins you had to cover before back end). I presume that you checked in on a Thursday or Friday and checked out on a Sunday or Monday -- meaning two weekend nights and one weeknight. I am going to make the educated guess that the poker rates are simply the casino rates -- $149 for a weekend night and $99 for a weeknight. (Those are probably higher on holiday/event nights. I'm having trouble seeing casino rates ever being higher than poker rates.) $397 would be the cost to the casino for the room for a three-night weekend stay. I went back to review my last two Venetian stays, and it looks like comp value is closer to 31-32% of theo. For sure, somewhere in the 30-35% range. I will just go with 31% to be safe. I will also presume that you only need to cover resort fees with your play if they appear on your folio. So... about $797 of comp value. About $2500 of theo (around $825-850 ADT). Comes out to comp value being just under 32% of theo. Close enough. That also comes close to confirming how the casino rates work there for the base-level rooms, and that you got exactly what your play was worth.
@Cageet -- yes, I was already Grazie Elite (really hate their new level names) before that visit, and now spitting distance of Paiza Gold, which I'll hit on next visit. Before they redid their loyalty program, I was Gold but never reached Platinum. I'd say the best thing about Elite is the 2 p.m. late checkout and the $.02 comps per 1 pt. Gold will be better at $0.025 per 1 pt, but that's about it. Thanks for the analysis, @JulianC. Yep, I was there for the April dual tourney, upgraded view at Palazzo (but otherwise base), Fri to Mon checkout, no resort fees (I know some get charged it for comped rooms, but I always verify with the host and at checkin), just under 10k tier (didn't want to be exact in case Venetian is reading). I more mentioned playing live poker because that was different from my other trips, not that it would've had an effect on comps outside of the piddly $1/hour earned. I'd agree with you that rack rate is likely the same as their poker room rate for playing X hours of live poker/day. What I thought was more interesting about the experience is that this is the first time a host contacted to tell me I was leaving backend comps on the table, which I thought was a nice thing to do, and they could've just not said anything and I would've felt the same (certainly before, I'd played more than that and never heard from them). But kudos to their customer service that I left happier and armed with the knowledge that I can do another 10k and expect $400 backend comps. What I'd really like to know is what play level I need to automatically advance to the second tournament vs. qualifying. That always seems elusive, and I would trade the backend comps for that entry. --max
My educated guess is that it takes $1k ADT. You were a little below that this last trip. The floor for that offer level is probably around $500 ADT -- maybe even as low as $400 ADT. Basically, you would need to play the equivalent of going from 0 to comfortably past Grazie Elite every three-night trip.
I didn't realize you could automatically advance from play (outside of the tourney) during the Dual Slot tourneys. That's interesting information to know for the future. I know that this is possible for the triple Red, White & Blue tourney for 4th of July. 7,500 points gets you in the final Blue tourney. It's stated in the offer. Also, I think I will preemptively contact my "host" who only has a Casino Marketing title and let her know I'm coming about 1 week out. Just to make sure she's on duty during my stay so that I can follow-up on backend comps before I leave. I'm gonna hit up a steak house or two. Thanks for the inspiration and idea.
Yes -- whenever checking the final leaderboard, you'll see ADVANCED for the top 10... but if any already gained entry into the second tourney from their offer, it'll say ALREADY ADV, then it then goes to the next person. There was one dual tourney where the top 26 went in, because 16 had already qualified. For some reason, they don't mention it in the offer, nor does the slot emcee talk about it. --max
That makes sense, thanks. My host already put me into the next dual in June and the Red White & Blue tournament in July, maybe I can nudge her into auto-advancing me. --max
For anyone following this thread and is interested in what's needed to qualify for the second half of Venetian's dual slot tournament, I just posted here: https://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/index.php?threads/venetian-slot-tournament-requirement.184886/ --max
