Drop In vs Drop-in

[Alan Mendelson]

I just had a "communication problem" with a host.

We were discussing a free play offer. He offered me a particular amount of free play for my next trip and said it reflected my "drop in play." That threw me off because I had a good amount of play on my last "drop-in" visit.

In fact, we were talking about the same thing -- a three-hour visit I had to his casino.

I wrote about my 3-hour visit as a "drop-in" while he wrote about me having a "drop in play."

So, here's my question:

Do you interpret "drop-in play" and "drop in play" as meaning the same thing or do the words have a different meaning?

The host's actual sentence in the text message was:

"I will consider your drop in play."

My sentence was:

"My drop-in play was large."

In the end he said "from now on I will use a hypen."

[Dan Druff]

No, huge difference.

Drop in means your play has decreased.

Drop-in means you play without staying in the hotel (which is good for them, but wreaks havoc upon their system, as they automatically consider any hotel stay to be 2 nights minimum for ADT purposes).

Not sure how their system processes drop-in play, but my guess is that it's messing with your ADT (maybe it still considers it play over a 2-night visit), and that's why he is considering upping your free play).

[Alan Mendelson]

The problem was -- and perhaps I didnt make it clear -- he was talking about my "drop-in" while I thought he was talking about a "drop in" without a hyphen.

[arcimede$]

His words were ambiguous and most people would interpret it as you did. No doubt he was using in-house jargon that he never considered might be taken another way.