CET host questions

[Chimp]

Dan you don't have a host because you're a pain in the butt.
But we love you.

Haha! Agree.

[coach belly]

It is getting tougher and tougher to book comp rooms online. I'm not sure if this is a bug (easily could be, knowing CET)

I can book online, but never got comps anymore. It always gives me a rate.

When I use the flexible dates calendar for Atlantic City it may show a certain rate, but when I click "Select Room" the rate per night often comes up $0.

The calendar also shows rates for Sun-Thurs and COMP for Fri & Sat, which is the opposite of what would be expected.

These are relatively recent changes, so there's a bug or something screwy going on.

I've also had better results recently by calling, whereas for years the online system was reliable and preferred.

Something changed.

[nerakil]

Booking through the 800 number is such a quick process, I don't know why I ever would go through my host again. The whole process takes maybe 5 minutes.

CET: "Thank you for calling Caes..."
"BALLY'S!"

CET: "For Bally's Las Vegas, please press or say 1. For Bally..."
SMASHES 2 KEY

CET: "Thank you for calling Bal..."
PUNCHES IN TOTAL REWARDS NUMBER

CET: "For further assistance please say one..."
"NEW!"

CET:"Your call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes."

LASHAWNA: "Thanks for choosin' Bally's, muh name is LaShawna, may I have yo name please?"
"THE NAME'S NERAKIL! I WANT TO BOOK THIS MON-FRI, KING BED NON SMOKING!"

"Can I please verify your city and date or birth,"
"BUMBLE***** MO. FEB 28, 1900!"

"Thank you. Okay I show availability, all 4 nights complimentary. Can I go ahead and book it for you?"
"YES, AND E-MAIL ME THE CONFIRMATION NUMBER!"

"No problem. Your e-mail on file is dandruff at pokerfraudalert dot com?"
"YES. K THANKS. BYE!"

Compare that to when I tried to book a weekend stay at Caesars in AC through my host. I e-mail her on Wednesday, but she never responded to my e-mail. So I texted her, but she never responded to my text. So I called her, but she never called back. And then it was Monday, and she called me at work.

[Rob.Singer]

It's not difficult, and like I said, if you know how to do things just a bit more than the guy on the street, you'll get a comped room online far easier than any other method for any days of the week....anywhere. I'm guessing Alan can't because he's coded differently for some particular reason. Dan is probably considered a trouble-maker of some sort since he usually brings chaos to the table. But for the regular-Joe seven stars, it ain't that hard.

[RS__]

Booking through the 800 number is such a quick process, I don't know why I ever would go through my host again. The whole process takes maybe 5 minutes.

CET: "Thank you for calling Caes..."
"BALLY'S!"

CET: "For Bally's Las Vegas, please press or say 1. For Bally..."
SMASHES 2 KEY

CET: "Thank you for calling Bal..."
PUNCHES IN TOTAL REWARDS NUMBER

CET: "For further assistance please say one..."
"NEW!"

CET:"Your call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes."

LASHAWNA: "Thanks for choosin' Bally's, muh name is LaShawna, may I have yo name please?"
"THE NAME'S NERAKIL! I WANT TO BOOK THIS MON-FRI, KING BED NON SMOKING!"

"Can I please verify your city and date or birth,"
"BUMBLE***** MO. FEB 28, 1900!"

"Thank you. Okay I show availability, all 4 nights complimentary. Can I go ahead and book it for you?"
"YES, AND E-MAIL ME THE CONFIRMATION NUMBER!"

"No problem. Your e-mail on file is dandruff at pokerfraudalert dot com?"
"YES. K THANKS. BYE!"

Compare that to when I tried to book a weekend stay at Caesars in AC through my host. I e-mail her on Wednesday, but she never responded to my e-mail. So I texted her, but she never responded to my text. So I called her, but she never called back. And then it was Monday, and she called me at work.

Caesars is #2.

[Dan Druff]

nerakil, 100% true.

That's exactly what I do. I remember doing this in front of my girlfriend earlier this year and she was surprised how quickly my room was booked.

Though I don't appreciate you stealing my e-mail for your Caesars reservations.

[Dan Druff]

It's not difficult, and like I said, if you know how to do things just a bit more than the guy on the street, you'll get a comped room online far easier than any other method for any days of the week....anywhere. I'm guessing Alan can't because he's coded differently for some particular reason. Dan is probably considered a trouble-maker of some sort since he usually brings chaos to the table. But for the regular-Joe seven stars, it ain't that hard.

LOL "troublemaker who brings chaos to the table".

Actually, I'm not.

Honestly I am shut out of online comp reservations simply because I am overcomped in the system, so it doesn't think I qualify for comp rooms. The system isn't smart enough to see that I'm Seven Stars and that should override the situation.

I prefer making reservations in this order (where I will only do the next one if I can't do the one above it):

1) Online
2) 800 number
3) Local property host (if not Vegas)
4) Vegas host

Vegas hosts do the least for me (and I can hear the disdain in their voice) because they see how big time overcomped I am in Vegas, and resent me for it.

Hosts at other properties (especially ones I've been to before and have a good play history) are much nicer and more cooperative, but I still prefer not to deal with them, and just book myself.

As I can't do online anymore, I just automatically call the 800 number now. However, the 800 number can't book Rincon for me (this seems to be common for Rincon), so there I need a host to override it.

[lucky]

Today my host called me out of the blue and set me up with 4 night stay during thanksgiving weekend.......well this tells me that he is getting paid even when I use the 800 no....or maybe it is because of the royal I hit last week and they want their money back...... He is going to be pissed when I just play my 400 odd free play and run outta there....

[Alan Mendelson]

Today my host called me out of the blue and set me up with 4 night stay during thanksgiving weekend.......well this tells me that he is getting paid even when I use the 800 no....or maybe it is because of the royal I hit last week and they want their money back...... He is going to be pissed when I just play my 400 odd free play and run outta there....

Yes you can hit and run but future offers will evaporate.

[lucky]

i have just been playing my free play for the last 2 months, any idea when the system will catch up to me....3 months or 6 months

[Alan Mendelson]

The computer offers are updated every six months, but you have to know where in the cycle you are. Your last two months might be, for example, the end of the cycle which means the offers will drop off soon. On the other hand, if your last two months were at the beginning of the cycle then you have another four months before the system catches up to you.

By the way, I just got a slight increase in my offers from Caesars. Instead of getting offers of $200 or $250 (free play or merchandise) my offers are now at $250 or $300. I am hoping that there will be another increase in the next cycle (whenever that is) but I am still getting better offers from my host at Bellagio including full RFB. My free play offers at Bellagio have ranged from $500 to as much as $2500.

[Rob.Singer]

Today my host called me out of the blue and set me up with 4 night stay during thanksgiving weekend.......well this tells me that he is getting paid even when I use the 800 no....or maybe it is because of the royal I hit last week and they want their money back...... He is going to be pissed when I just play my 400 odd free play and run outta there....

Again lucky, why do you care if some host gets pissed at you for anything? You're the customer, which means you're the boss. If his casino is taking a chance on you getting roped in with the free play but instead of losing some money you leave with some of theirs, that's what the name of the game is.

There's no such thing as casinos "wanting their money back" by having some host call you with another reel-'em-in offer after someone hits a royal. All they want is your and everyone else's action. They have the long-term working for them and the more play they get the better their bottom line. Hosts are nothing more than a catalyst for this to occur.

[Rob.Singer]

Dan, if you believe you're what you call "overcomped" which leads to your not being able to make online reservations, then you indeed are being considered a flagged troublemaker to them. All it takes is you irritating the wrong person or someone who knows that wrong person, and you will get flagged.

[Alan Mendelson]

I still think that being told you are over comped is a euphemistic term for saying we don't want to be bothered with you.

Dan when does your over comped status turn into under comped status?

[RoeIncarnate]

Hi chimp, thanks for the heads up......I guess based on ur experience I ll just leave it...coz traveling on water isn't one of my strengths...

Lucky my wife gets sea sick. However we've done two cruises and she had no problems. Talk to the booking agent and they can help you get a room that will sway less.

The large ships are also have stabilization systems in them and don't move much.

Also go to the pharmacy and get a pair of the motion sickness wrist bands. They have worked wonders for my wife and extended family.
http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/anti-nau...Mg0aAkEB8P8HAQ

[Dan Druff]

I still think that being told you are over comped is a euphemistic term for saying we don't want to be bothered with you.

This is both correct and incorrect.

You are incorrect in that I am being told I am overcomped as some sort of euphemism. It's not. I really am overcomped. It's a simple mathematical formula, where the system says that a player is entitled to X amount of comps, and I have long exceeded X (due to my usage of guaranteed Seven Stars benefits).

You are correct, however, that they also don't want to bother with me.

Dan when does your over comped status turn into under comped status?

You love to say this, but I don't understand what you mean.

One can only be undercomped if he utilizes TOO LITTLE of what he is entitled to by his play.

For exampe, a regular VP player who never stays in the hotel, doesn't ask for RFB, and rarely redeems offers would be considered undercomped.

I am the exact opposite of undercomped. I use more comps than my play justifies, so therefore I am tagged as overcomped and am not given anything beyond that.

[redietz]

Everyone should aspire to do what Dan does. Rob, you are a host-hating, get-the-most-out-of-the-casino person. Why do you not like the way Dan squeezes the system? If you're going to extract max and beyond value from the casinos, pretending you're too nose-in-the-air upper class to be bothered with the details of getting max value seems weird. It's two different messages for your followers to say (1) do the opposite of what casinos want, but (2) Dan's way of doing it is too detail-oriented for me.

The casinos don't want people who do things like Dan. So, Rob, that should dovetail with your message exactly.

Keep squeezing them, Dan.

[Rob.Singer]

Everyone should aspire to do what Dan does. Rob, you are a host-hating, get-the-most-out-of-the-casino person. Why do you not like the way Dan squeezes the system? If you're going to extract max and beyond value from the casinos, pretending you're too nose-in-the-air upper class to be bothered with the details of getting max value seems weird. It's two different messages for your followers to say (1) do the opposite of what casinos want, but (2) Dan's way of doing it is too detail-oriented for me.

The casinos don't want people who do things like Dan. So, Rob, that should dovetail with your message exactly.

Keep squeezing them, Dan.

The answer is multi-layered but very simple: I play for the money and not the comps. Hosts, regardless how anyone here might be duped by them, are not the player's friends. They have one agenda with their voice and an entirely different one going on in their mind. I'm not believing that any player is ever "overcomped". No one would ever have even the slightest idea on that enuf to proclaim it. And I know gamblers well enough to understand that they will say anything that makes them feel like they're "winning" or getting the better of the casinos.

But you're not correct by saying I don't like the way Dan squeezes them. On the contrary, being someone who likes to see casinos lose their butts, I wish everyone always took advantage of everything their benefits offer. The only criticism I might have of Dan is in his approach & control method. I disagree with how hot-headed he gets over 20 bucks since he's seen some healthy 6-figures in the gambling arena before. It's like penny-pinching, and that tends to control a person in everything they do, which is nowhere near healthy for anyone. Whenever I get "cheated" or taken advantage of financially, I look at it as how important it is in the overall scheme of life and proceed from there. Too many times I've seen Dan hurting enormously over basic peanuts, and that will get the best of him before he gets to retirement age. It's just advice.

[Alan Mendelson]

I really am overcomped. It's a simple mathematical formula, where the system says that a player is entitled to X amount of comps, and I have long exceeded X (due to my usage of guaranteed Seven Stars benefits).

This doesn't make sense. If you are using the guaranteed Seven Stars benefits then you cannot be overcomped -- because you are using just what you are entitled to.

Overcomped would mean getting offers, free play, gifts, tickets, extra rooms, free meals, spa visits, airfare that you are not guaranteed or ordinarily offered. A host can "overcomp" you by giving you too many extras. But if you are just maximizing what you are guaranteed and entitled to as a Seven Stars you are not overcomped at all. Perhaps you are using more comps and offers than other Seven Stars might be using -- like me who doesn't use the cruises -- but that's not being overcomped.

[Dan Druff]

I really am overcomped. It's a simple mathematical formula, where the system says that a player is entitled to X amount of comps, and I have long exceeded X (due to my usage of guaranteed Seven Stars benefits).

This doesn't make sense. If you are using the guaranteed Seven Stars benefits then you cannot be overcomped -- because you are using just what you are entitled to.

Overcomped would mean getting offers, free play, gifts, tickets, extra rooms, free meals, spa visits, airfare that you are not guaranteed or ordinarily offered. A host can "overcomp" you by giving you too many extras. But if you are just maximizing what you are guaranteed and entitled to as a Seven Stars you are not overcomped at all. Perhaps you are using more comps and offers than other Seven Stars might be using -- like me who doesn't use the cruises -- but that's not being overcomped.

I don't know why you are redefining the meaning of "overcomped". This is not my term. "Overcomped" is a longstanding term in the casino industry, so why are you changing the definition?

Your definition of "overcomped" is actually "predictive comping".

That is, a host has the power to comp you benefits you haven't earned yet, based upon your expected play for the trip. But that's not being overcomped. That's a host giving you comps in the advance, with the expectation that you will earn them anyway. And if you fail to put in the amount of play expected of you, then it's unlikely you will ever get predictive comps ever again -- at least not from any of that company's properties in that market.

The actual concept of "overcomped" is very simple.

For every dollar of theoretical loss you generate through your play, you are entitled to a percentage of that in comp value. (I'm not sure of the exact percentage, and I believe it's somewhat variable, but that's not important here.)

So if you have generated X amount of theoretical loss, then you are entitled to Y amount of comps, where Y is a percentage of X.

If you somehow redeem more than Y amount of comps, then you are overcomped.

Seven Stars benefits are indeed guaranteed, but they still count against your comp balance. So if you redeem a ton of Seven Stars benefits and don't play at all for several stays in a row, then you will likely become overcomped, even if a host doesn't give you anything extra.

While it is inconvenient in some ways to be overcomped (because hosts don't want to help you if you need anything), it is indicative that you have been playing the comp game well.

Or, simply put -- if the casino doesn't really enjoy having you as a customer despite putting in 150,000 tier credits' worth of action, then you must be doing something right.