WaPo article about hotel bargains

[jdog]

"I arrived early but could not enter my room before 3 p.m. without paying a $30 early check-in fee. So, I nursed an $8 cup of coffee and waited." LOL... Gotta love Caesars! This is why I'm done with Caesars Vegas. The author is staying at their flagship property and they won't let her check in.
Agreed, Flamingo is a dump, but really most of Caesars properties are among the worst on the strip. Paris is probably the best. My buddy stayed at Harrah's a few years back, which was shortly after the renovations, and said it wasn't too bad... but the clientele on the other hand...

I've never stayed at Park MGM, but can't imagine it being too great with the old, smaller Monte Carlo rooms. But generally I'd take any MGM property over Caesars. However I've never stayed at Luxor... I may eventually succumb to my curiosity of the weirdness.

Minibars are nothing but a PITA. I've had to get the desk to take off erroneous minibar charges more than once. I guess if you're VIP and you can get everything comped off, then who cares? Apparently enough people get hammered and consume the overpriced items that it's worth the extra profit to them.

The concerning trend is that younger people don't seem to mind being nickeled and dimed for everything. Charges for parking (even for hotel guests), charges to check in early, charges for late check out, resort fees when there are no resort amenities... a lot of this didn't even exist not so long ago.

[Dan Druff]

This is a dumb article.

I monitor Caesars property rates frequently, and I've never seen a $39 rack rate. I have no idea how she got that, or if she's not telling us the whole story. She claims to be booking it through Vegas.com, which usually has rack rates, but perhaps there was some special on a night when they were super empty.

But it's highly misleading to make it sound like the average person can score a $11 room at Flamingo and $39 room at Caesars, as long as they stay on a weeknight.

I just looked up the Caesars site right now when not logged in (and in incognito mode), and I don't see anything cheaper than $24 (Harrah's), with almost all nights being over $50 everywhere. There is one day in the next month where Caesars is $80, while the rest are all over $100, and often multiple hundreds of dollars, even during the week.

She also quickly mentions the $50 resort fee, as if it's nothing. So the $11 room at Flamingo is more like $60, which is a huge difference.


The article should instead be covering the best VALUE properties on the Vegas strips -- places you can stay fairly cheaply, which aren't complete dumps.

There are three value properties:

Harrah's
Horseshoe (former Bally's)
Park MGM (former Monte Carlo)

All three of these typically give you very good value for your money, and aren't shitholes.


It is actually frustrating when non-gambling friends ask me, "Where should I stay in Vegas?", I give them the above 3 properties to look at, and then they book some shithole like Luxor. Then they complain later that Luxor was a dump. I ask, "Why didn't you book Harrah's?", and their response is, "Well Luxor seemed like a good deal so I just went with that." I ask if they even looked at Harrah's, and they say no. FYI, Harrah's is usually cheaper than Luxor, and is way better.

The article really seems like a paid placement but I didn't know that WaPo did that. Maybe that has changed... It isn't a Caesars thing but she did mention vegas.com.

Flamingo may be a dump TBH but the garden thing in the back and the history makes up for crummy rooms so it is a wash. Clearly I don't care that much about rooms. If you're trying to get laid but outside that shrug why give a fuck.

Luxor is shitty as fuck. If you want weird unique experiences. Weird ass elevators. Weird ass hallways. Weird ass casino. Weird ass lack of hot water..........

I care about the rooms to a degree.

I'm not a snob nor a chaser of luxury. I basically want a room which is clean, comfortable, issue-free, and quiet, and a hotel with decent customer service and middle-class-or-better clientele.

Harrah's and Horseshoe tick those boxes (except the issue-free part sometimes, but hey, it's Caesars!)

Flamingo just doesn't feel right to me. Rooms are small, you can feel its age (and not in a charming way), and the whole thing feels like a low-end experience. Additionally, the people there tend to be trashier than Harrah's/Horseshoe, despite a similar pricepoint.

[Dan Druff]

"I arrived early but could not enter my room before 3 p.m. without paying a $30 early check-in fee. So, I nursed an $8 cup of coffee and waited." LOL... Gotta love Caesars! This is why I'm done with Caesars Vegas. The author is staying at their flagship property and they won't let her check in.
Agreed, Flamingo is a dump, but really most of Caesars properties are among the worst on the strip. Paris is probably the best. My buddy stayed at Harrah's a few years back, which was shortly after the renovations, and said it wasn't too bad... but the clientele on the other hand...

I've never stayed at Park MGM, but can't imagine it being too great with the old, smaller Monte Carlo rooms. But generally I'd take any MGM property over Caesars. However I've never stayed at Luxor... I may eventually succumb to my curiosity of the weirdness.

Minibars are nothing but a PITA. I've had to get the desk to take off erroneous minibar charges more than once. I guess if you're VIP and you can get everything comped off, then who cares? Apparently enough people get hammered and consume the overpriced items that it's worth the extra profit to them.

The concerning trend is that younger people don't seem to mind being nickeled and dimed for everything. Charges for parking (even for hotel guests), charges to check in early, charges for late check out, resort fees when there are no resort amenities... a lot of this didn't even exist not so long ago.

If you're Diamond or higher, they don't hit you for the early check-in fee. For example, last year I needed to check in at 1, because I had a WSOP event at 2. No problem at all, and no charge. Didn't even have to ask for it to be waived. VIP room just checked me in and I was on my way.

And if you're not, you can sometimes talk the front desk employee into it.

But in general, if you don't have a decent status at a Vegas property, you're going to have a worse experience and much less flexibility.

[accountinquestion]

"I arrived early but could not enter my room before 3 p.m. without paying a $30 early check-in fee. So, I nursed an $8 cup of coffee and waited." LOL... Gotta love Caesars! This is why I'm done with Caesars Vegas. The author is staying at their flagship property and they won't let her check in.
Agreed, Flamingo is a dump, but really most of Caesars properties are among the worst on the strip. Paris is probably the best. My buddy stayed at Harrah's a few years back, which was shortly after the renovations, and said it wasn't too bad... but the clientele on the other hand...

I've never stayed at Park MGM, but can't imagine it being too great with the old, smaller Monte Carlo rooms. But generally I'd take any MGM property over Caesars. However I've never stayed at Luxor... I may eventually succumb to my curiosity of the weirdness.

Minibars are nothing but a PITA. I've had to get the desk to take off erroneous minibar charges more than once. I guess if you're VIP and you can get everything comped off, then who cares? Apparently enough people get hammered and consume the overpriced items that it's worth the extra profit to them.

The concerning trend is that younger people don't seem to mind being nickeled and dimed for everything. Charges for parking (even for hotel guests), charges to check in early, charges for late check out, resort fees when there are no resort amenities... a lot of this didn't even exist not so long ago.

Just think at some point our grand schools will spit out a MBA. This MBA will sit around with his thumb up his or her ass looking at porn trying to figure out how to justify their salary. He will then come up with the idea ... if he can just erroneously put small fake charges for the minibar ! A lot of people won't bother to correct. They do some back of the envelope math. Just a few lines of code in the right place... or some other way to implement it.

"bad sensors". Or the plan was put in when the sensors were introduced. The vendor of the machines was like wink wink hey mr CEO.. our sensors have a false register rate of 2% a year.. you know what that means?

Fuck Las Vegas.

Late late stage capitalism when it is all taken to the next level.. that will be interesting. Caesars just might kill their guests and take the money. Stay tuned.