In a quandary about dropping a host and/or staying elsewhere (partly ranting)

This is my first post in a LONG time (not a regular poster, but always an avid reader), and it will be a long post….

We are Platinum-level members at M Life, and have been for the past 3 years (just made Platinum again for 2014 during our recent trip). We average two 3 to 4 night trips per year. This past trip was a 5 night stay. We play only slots, and hubby likes the high limit slot room for some of his play.

My husband is in a motorized wheelchair due to extreme leg weakness from multiple sclerosis. So, our requests are really “needs”.

We have had our current executive host for little over 2 years. In the beginning, everything was fine. He was (still is) pretty responsive to my emails and took care of the fine details and “additionals” we require for our stays (ADA bathroom with roll in shower, manual wheelchair, commode over toilet).

Our usual offers include a 2 bedroom tower suite at the Mirage, where the second bedroom has the ADA facilities (that is the reason we are offered a 2 bedroom suite rather than a one bedroom version), handicap shuttle from/to the airport, FB credits and show tickets when the offer includes them, and sometimes freeplay.

Here is the issue….

On two of our trips, one was September, 2012 and the other was just this past week (September 23-28), proper arrangements were not “arranged”.

Last year’s trip was a disaster with room type mixup (took us 4 hours to get into another room), food comps mixup, staff having problems with getting a commode for the toilet (most didn’t know what that is), and with the handicap shuttle breaking down in 100 degree weather going back to the airport.

This past trip, there were issues with the location of the tower suite (“sunset” view was assigned to us). Is it too much to ask for volcano view…one that does have the second (lockout) room with the ADA bathroom? And, the commode was nowhere to be found (I ended up speaking with housekeeping and they found one the NEXT day), and the manual wheelchair, which was in our room during previous trips now had to be “guaranteed” with a credit card imprint before I could bring it up to the room. Oh, yes…there was NO handicap shuttle arranged for us to go back to the airport.

Also, we had no “up front” food/beverage comps this time. It would be based on our play at the slots. Three of the four meals we charged to the room (about $200 worth: in-room breakfast for 4 persons, Carnegie Deli breakfast for 2 and coffee and 2 pastries from Roasted Bean) were comped off at VIP checkout.

But the most expensive meal (STACK for 4 persons at $400) was not comped. And, our host was not on site and was unavailable until later that evening. An on-duty casino host was asked about comping off the STACK charges, and we were told to use our express comps (about $200 worth in our combined account). So, we told the VIP rep to go ahead and take our comp balance and we charged the rest to our credit card.

I emailed our host, who said he’d look at the account and would reverse the express comp charge and to credit the credit card for the STACK charges (if our play during the stay warranted that).

Comes Monday, and the express comp balance was back. Comes Tuesday, and our credit card is charged for the entire STACK bill.

Yesterday, I emailed our host asking if it is correct that he will not be comping the STACK charges. I heard back from him today. And here is his response:

“Sorry for the confusion. The account got a little messed up because they had comped your room, twice. So it appeared that we were way over on comps. Well I went through, discovered the mistake and am setting it right. So then I will knock off that Stack charge. This is being done today. Sorry for the confusion.”

Now, here are the critical questions on keeping our host or getting a new one (and possibly moving to another venue)….

If I had NOT questioned the credit card charge for STACK, would our account at M Life still indicate we were “way over on comps”? Would/could this affect future trips’ comps had the error not been discovered? And, why did I need to contact him first? Shouldn’t he have emailed me Saturday/Sunday or Monday to let me know whether or not he COULD do anything with the STACK charges instead of having me see those charges on our credit card account and THEN having to contact him about them?

We got the usual excuses for things that should have been taken care of or “should have been in the system” for our requests during our stay. And, he did add $500 in freeplay to our account for the mix-up with the suite.

I also realize that, at VIP checkout, if our suite was comped twice in error, that the on-duty host would/could not have comped the STACK charges.

I guess that the bottom line is that I feel that I should not be “babysitting” our requests. They should be handled correctly, and without excuses (valid or not). Each trip, I spend hours being frustrated because our requests have not been properly executed.

And, I do touch base with our host about a week or two before our trip, and I spell out what we expect. He has even responded back that he wished all his clients were so good about what is needed.

Am I wrong to think our requests/needs are not so extreme, and should be properly handled during each and every trip?

Thank you for hanging in there to the end. I feel better now….and I hope your eyeballs are not bleeding from reading this diatribe!

I value the input of the people who contribute to this forum, and I truly appreciate any information and suggestions.

 

I'd start making some inquiries to other properties. Lay out exactly what your play is like. Lay out what your needs and wishes are.

See what they can do.

This part is optional... next trip get your Mirage room comped up front, stiff them, and play at the new place, meet the host, etc. See for yourself how it would work with their rooms etc.

I wish you both well and good luck.

 

Thanks, Royal Flusher.

Actually, this past trip I did inquire about staying at Planet Hollywood because we had show tix to see Meat Loaf. We would have split the trip to 3 days at the Mirage and 3 days at PHo.

I contacted a host there and laid out what we were getting at the Mirage. He responded that, without much previous play at CET, he could comp up to 6 nights (which would have been our total stay) in 2 adjoining rooms. And shuttle service from/to the airport. Also would examine our play for further comps had we stayed there. He could not give us a suite, though. He knows we are Platinum at M Life, too.

I did not mention in my OP that we had guests join us for 3 of the 5 nights. That is the other reason we needed the second bedroom. I did tell both hosts about this, though.

 

it just sounds like simple lack of attention to detail by both your host and the staff. unfortunately most people these days don't pay attention to details. it's hard to find people who do. so it just sounds like you want to find a new host or find a new property entirely. I know from experience that these types of requests are handled very differently depending on the property you're staying at. only the top notch properties are able to handle special requests seamlessly and never mess up. even the nicer ones, but not top notch will usually mess things up and I always have to double and triple check to be sure my requests are done correctly.

your host should have dealt with the Stack charges and double comping issue on his own without your prompting, however, you didn't really give him much time. I always give my host a week after a checkout to get everything taken care of. he has lots of other players and is very busy, so I don't bust his balls about figuring everything out for me the day I checkout. you only really gave him 2 days and expected him to already have figured everything out. that's not really reasonable.

but I won't let your host entirely off the hook as the fact that some of the arrangements weren't made is his fault. whether he just had a bad week or is just not a very good host I don't know.

what kind of coin-in/theo are you putting in each trip? a lot of what I would recommend depends on what you can or can't get at each property based on your play.

 

Unfortunately, you should not have to "babysit" these requests but at hotels in LV with thousands of rooms you do have to constantly monitor and recheck any sort of arrangements which are out of the ordinary.

Given your situation I would consider moving to a higher end hotel. MGM is comping people into the Four Seasons now and given what you get at mirage you would probably qualify. That property would deal with all of this seamlessly, they are set up globally to deliver high touch service and handle special requests. I wish you all the best but be prepared for PH to be a complete train wreck from your special needs perspective. They struggled to deal with routine requests in my limited experience there.

 

Hi, Shifter:

I am not sure how to figure coin-in, but our combined play at the slots this past trip gave us almost 145,000 in M Life points. At Platinum, I think there is a multiplier in play with the points. Also don't know how to figure that. Our daily bankroll is $1,000 each, and mostly went through that on a daily basis (losing). We each play at least 4 hours per day (mostly more than that, though). I play mostly pennies and hubby plays a little of everything (even the high limit slots).

You are correct that I should have given my host more time on the STACK charges, but his reply indicated that he 1) checked, and saw we were over comped from the double room comping, so no STACK comp, or 2) never checked in the first place. He did get the express comps reversed, though. Both of those requests were sent via email while we were checking out in VIP last Saturday, so I assumed he had ALSO check the STACK issue. Thank you for responding!

 

Yeah, so, in my anecdotal experience with hosts is that typically they dont check anything without your prompting. In a perfect world, yes your host would be all over it. But in Las Vegas, YOU have to take full responsibility to check all charges and to contact your host to get things straight. Your host sounds fairly typical and I think you will not find better service with a different one.

 

I have found a wide variety of service from hosts in Las Vegas, AC, NOLA, and other places.
There are some very good ones.
I have not had any problems since I switched to Aria in Las Vegas.
Every time I go to AC though I have similar billing issues at Borgata and Harrah's and inevitably have to call the host to get it fixed.
My Borgata host has been unresponsive so I am making a change there.

 

alright well at that level, I think you're doing good to get the 2BR suite at Mirage. you won't be able to get similar at a higher end property like Aria or the B where they might take better care of your requests. but you could try one of those places next trip just to see.

 

Wow... I spend way too much time on here reading post after post.

But, sorry to say... I just could not bring myself to read the whole post. It appears a few others are more patient than I am and I hope they helped you out.

 

Thanks for responding, dankyone!

I will think about contacting a host at Four Seasons. I looked at their website and hosts were not listed specifically for that hotel, only for Mandalay Bay (or would it be the same host group?). We may be due for a change of venues, and the south strip might be just what we need!

Anyone have a good host suggestion for either Mandalay Bay or Four Seasons?

 

Thanks, Nittany1....
I think you have MUCH more host experience than I have. Our current host is our second one, and we only have one host for any property!

Huddler....
If we need to babysit our special requests, what good is a host other than to personalize your stay by giving a face to the comping situation? Unfortunately, I think you are correct about the "typical" host. I know we are not exclusive clients, but we still drop loads of cash at the Mirage. I guess we feel a bit entitled to having someone who acts as it he cares.

Nostresshere....
Yup, got good advice! I know I can count on the folks at this forum to come through exceedingly well!

Thank you both for responding!

 

^^^ Sorry, I meant "thank you ALL for responding!

 

You would work through a host at Mandalay Bay for a stay at the Four Seasons, I have not stayed there for a long time so I don't have a name for you

 

Muchas gracias, dankyone. I sort of assumed there are no Four Seasons hosts, but often that information is hidden WAY down in a sub webpage!

So, might anyone have the name of a good host at Mandalay Bay?