Went to El Cortez in 2023 and pushed through enough play to get 2000 points in two days, leading to a box of See's Candies and offer sheets sent to my house for 3 nights + $40 free play + $40 F&B. Fine, sure, we like El Cortez a lot! We used that offer this past June and wound up pushing through enough VP/slot play to get to 5000 points in two nights (lost probably $1K in total?), garnering me a great El Cortez polo shirt and offer sheets of...3 nights, $40 free play, $40 F&B. I was watching a recent Matt Bridger vlog and he brought up that he had gotten some low offers from El Cortez but contacted a host and wound up being pushed up to $500 free play. If I have any inclination of playing there in 2025, should I do something similar and is it realistic to expect them to reassess and give me a superior offer? Alternately, should I expect that a quarterly mailer might have something improved about it for Q1 2025? Ultimately their offer is basically the same as Plaza and The D's offers, and I played nowhere near the same amount in either as El Cortez.
It never hurts to ask. That said, I think you'd have a better argument to make if you were able to present a better offer that the host could match from a competing property.
I just read a trip report from a friend I know who visits and plays at the El co. He mentioned that his marketing mailer had been very minimal for a current trip. The El co sends out four mailers a year, three months apart. He talked to a host as to why his mailer had decreased, and she did some research and determined that each quarterly mailer that goes out, only takes in to account, the amount of play you did during the precious quarter. If you didn’t play there during the previous quarter, then your mailer would be poor….also of note was that any remaining ‘coin dropper’ machines now only earn comps or free play at .02%…..so, not enough to buy a pack of gum……it used to be a great place to get a decent EV, but over the last several years all of that has changed. It used to be our home casino, but those and other cut backs caused us to have to leave.
I did some sleuthing, and I think El co has revamped their comp program. A far as I knew, their top tier used to get 4 nights, $100 food and $200 in free play. It looks like the new system plays out like this..... Tier 1 = 4 nights, $300 food, $500 free play (once per month) Tier 2 = 4 nights, $200 food, $300 free play (once per month -- blackout dates may apply?) Tier 3 = 3 nights, $100 food, $200 free play (once per quarter) Tier 4 = 3 nights, $100 food, $100 free play (once per quarter) Tier 5 = 3 nights, $50 food, $50 free play (once per quarter) Tier 6 = 3 nights, $25 food, $25 free play (once per quarter) Tier 7 = 3 nights (Sun-Thurs) - Casino rate on weekends, $25 food (once per quarter) Tier 8 = Casino rate room (once per quarter) The monthly offers are based on past play and are revaluated after each visit. I used to be tier 1, but I have slipped to tier 2, but that still improves what I was getting on the previous system.
I was tier 7 in December and called to see if I could use that offer in January and the host told me that I only get 2 free week days and no food. I am thinking that maybe sense we did not get there in 2024 they have cut my offers to this, now we are looking for other options to cover those days we really like and would prefer the El Cortez but this is the second time they have cut our offers the last time in 2023 we had 3 nights anytime and $100.00 FP & $ 75.00 FB it didn’t seem like we short played them but the next offer they cut us to 3 week night and $25.00 and now just 2 free nights.
Again, if you don’t play there every quarter, your offers will decline. There are better options that won’t cut your offers if you don’t play that often (D, Golden Gate, four queens).
This has not been my experience. I only get out there about 2-3 times a year. My offers have been consistant.
At my last and only visit, during the @EastCoastVegasFan! get together in July, I had earned 3,480 points mostly playing $2 per credit video poker, although I had mixed up a little bit of the old school coin machines which are $10 a point. So roughly $7,500 coin in, plus whatever points I got from playing a three point molly on $5 craps, and got Tier 7 for this quarter. I have not been offered anything for the next quarter yet. I generally stay at the Stevens properties as they are more central but did consider staying at El Cortez for the past trip, although when Circa is available as a comp it is hard to drop down to the El Cortez.
Interesting I haven’t seen my latest El Cortez offer. I’m actually thinking I might use it and mix it up a bit staying downtown.
My observation had been that El Cortez offers stop being sent out (and likely also stop being generated) after 18 months of inactivity. However, I think that got reduced to 12 months of inactivity. My last play at El Cortez was in June 2023. The last time I received an offer (snail mail or email) was in June 2024, covering July-September 2024. The last time my offers lapsed was for the July-September 2022 offer period, where I did not receive that offer in June 2022 after my previous play at El Cortez had been in late December 2020. (My next play after December 2020 was in mid-June 2022.)
VPdevotee we really do not track but we were well over their 1941 promo every day and it was a split of 70% slots & 30% VP probably around $3000.00 coin in a day just checked Stations we also stayed their 5 days between Green Valley Ranch & Durango Station are coin in was $8878.00 coin out was $9021.00 this I believe got use no comps there but I believe we played more at El Cortez and the rooms cannot as expensive as GVR & Durango Station, we had 3 comp nights at the Virgin and decided to use them in place of El Cortez so we are covered and we decided to pay out of pocket for 1 night at the Tuscany.
I have had the same experience. That being said I never gave El much play other than low limit BJ, so I didn't ever get anything other than 'casino rate'. But I stopped getting quarterly mailers after a year of not playing there.
