I hadn't been to Caesars since February. Back then, they were building the self-parking charging system, but it wasn't ready yet.
It is live now. It started on April 3, just three days ago.
I drove into the garage, and immediately was blocked by one of those "arms". True to Caesars form, it was already counter-intuitive and confusing.
You have four options, which is honestly way too many:
1) Scan your Nevada driver's license (for 24 hours of free parking)
-or-
2) Insert your room key. Does it charge you? Who knows? It doesn't say.
-or-
3) Insert your Total Rewards player's card. Platinum, Diamond, and Seven Stars get parking free. But do you get a ticket at that point? Who knows? It doesn't say.
-or-
4) Press the button to get a ticket.
Confused yet? I was.
Even worse, this was not laid out well on the panel, so you had to really study it to figure out that you had 4 different options.
I almost pressed the button for the ticket, but then saw the other options and inserted my Total Rewards card.
It did nothing.
I then noticed that I had to insert it upside down (with the magnetic stripe up), so I did that.
It gave me some kind of technical error message. Nothing like, "Could not read card, please try again", but some sort of weird error code which wouldn't make sense to the average person (or even a technical person like me).
It then told me to press a button and take a ticket, but I was skeptical, as it hadn't yet read my card properly!
I pulled my card and tried again. It read it properly that time, and said something like, "Welcome, TODD", and the gate opened.
No ticket was dispensed! So how do I get out? Who knows?
I drove in, and parked.
I got to the hotel check-in. A fairly new employee checked me in, and asked, "How many cars do you have?"
I quickly blurted out, "One", and then realized I might be making a mistake. Was she charging me for parking? (Rates are $10/day, even for hotel guests, though Platinum and above are supposed to get it for free.)
She replied that I wouldn't be charged because "The system knows you are Seven Stars, and will waive it."
I didn't trust that answer, knowing CET and their incompetence, especially with new systems like this.
I then asked her the tough question, which made her head spin: "So if Seven Stars get parking for free, why do I have to register a car with you guys at the front desk? I can park for free without staying here, so why not just let my Seven Stars card handle the parking, and not associate it with my room?"
She replied, "Well, you need the car associated with your room so it knows you're a Seven Stars and it won't charge you."
I answered, "That makes no sense. If I wasn't staying here and just came to play, I could just come in and out of the garage with my Seven Stars card, and pay nothing. So why can't I just do that? Why do we have to attach it to my room?"
She was still confused. "Well, umm... we just have to so... ummm... well, the system needs to know."
Made zero sense. I told her that I didn't want any cars listed related to my room, and that I was afraid it would erroneously charge me (or even worse, take my RCs without my knowledge.)
She refused to do this, and finally went to get her supervisor when I wasn't accepting that.
Her supervisor told her that I was right -- that there didn't need to be a car associated with the room. The supervisor apologized to me and said, "She's new here, and this parking system is only a few days old. So many people aren't up to speed yet."
Anyway, my advice to you would be to register ZERO cars to your room when checking in, even if you're a Platinum or above. I'm still not sure how the system will work when driving out (I assume I'll have to swipe my card again -- why?) But perhaps it will just read my license plate or something and let me out. I think MGM's works that way.
One nice upgrade that was done (presumably to justify the parking charge) was a list of number of spots available on each level. This has existed at the Wynn for like 10 years, but it was nice to finally see it added at Caesars. Now if they could only make some Seven Stars only self-park spots...