What Happens To My Non-Expess Comps?

If Express Comps are figured at 5% of your theo and MGM casinos offer 30%-40% of your theo back in comps what happens to the rest if you're not getting free rooms? If you get a free stay offer they are going to apply the comps to the comped hotel and food you charge to your room. If you just want to go to a restaurant they are going to tell you to use your express comps.

What happens to all of the extra comps for someone that doesn't get free room offers or a host? Do they build up or are you just getting the short end and having them reset every trip?

 

My understanding is that "primary" comps don't accumulate or carry over. If you can talk someone into applying them, you get them. If not, they are gone.

In the case of a person who has booked an mLife offer (comp or not, even non comped players may get cheaper rooms/free play/resort credit), my understanding is that they will have a certain face value they associate with that offer, and until your primary comps top that face value you get nothing extra.

How much you can get them to apply comps after that point might depend on how important a player you are, and how good a negotiator.

 

30% - 40% is not what they offer. It is their ceiling.

Casino marketing has the same conflicting dual-mandate most marketing departments have which is to lower costs and raise more business.

Hosts and other marketing representatives are incentivized to give you the minimum amount of comps they can get away with. That may be 10% or it may be 40%.

Always take as much as you can. It will not carry over. If you take zero comps they will not change you down to hand you anything.

If you have a history of accepting a low comp rate a good host should make exceptions for trips where you need comps above their ceiling. If they don't then they don't appreciate your business.

Just like with women, don't be blinded by the one with the hot body and sexy legs who only cares about herself. Appreciate the one who appreciates you and you'll be a happier man.

 

I don't know if they carry over, but I have had the experience of being overcomped the next trip when I was undercomped on a trip.

For example, two trips ago I overplayed my offer by a decent amount. I just got on a long break-even run at craps and never left the table. My host removed all my charges, but I'm quite sure he'd have removed more if I had it. The next trip my up front offer was more than what my average play supports...in fact it was more than what my previous trip's play supported. I felt like it was a little bit of 'make up' for being undercomped the previous trip.

I have no evidence to support this except for my numbers, and the fact that my next offer after the one where i was overcomped was back to my previous level.

 

So I just returned home from a weekend in Vegas at Mandalay Bay. Here's my story:

I charged a few things to my room and I also used my express comps for a couple meals instead of charging them to my room. In the end my bill should have added up to $242.

My last night there I knew I wasn't going to buy anything else or have any more meals, so I went to the Mandalay Bay MLife desk and asked the girl to use whatever was left of my express comps and apply them to my room charges. There were $26 in express comps on my account at that time. She said she'd take the $26 off.

When I go to check out the next morning my bill was $130, not the $216 I was expecting. They ended up comping my Sunday night hotel charge (when I originally booked, they gave me Friday comped and were going to charge me $85 for Saturday and $55 for Sunday plus resort fees for Sat/Sun).

So I'm assuming they just applied my non-express comps to my room without me asking.

My play at Mandalay Bay did NOT warrant much. I gambled a LOT more at MGM Grand, Excalibur, and NYNY.

 

mike_m235 is mixing up marketing offers with comp rates.

Marketing offers are not individualized. The way MGM works is during each cycle they generate between 10 to 15 different offer levels that they send out en masse. The offers are numbered.

They will assign you one of those offer numbers based on your play but others who play more or less may receive the same offer because each level encompasses a lot of players.

Offers for higher limit players are usually just good for the recycling bin because these players are already comped more than the top offers MGM sends out in bulk.

For lower limit players the offers can be much more or less than the comp rate. But they only expect a small number of the total to use the offer so it should not cause them to lose money.

If you overplay your offer then you may be assigned the next higher offer level in the next cycle. It is done automatically without human input.