Total Rewards Contest Ends This Weekend

The big Caesars Entertainment Total Rewards promo ends this weekend with prizes only for the people playing May 18th- 20th in a Caesars Entertainment casino with their Total Rewards card being used. This seems a strange way to end the promotion which up until now has been online with card holders entering codes from Caesars Entertainment social websites. If you do happen to be in Las Vegas this weekend or have a Total Rewards property you could win prizes such as a trip to the London 2012 Olympics or $600k of TR Marketplace gift cards.

M Life New Ways To Earn Tier Credits

For a long time MGM's slot card was no where as good as Harrah's now Caesar's Total Rewards card but since introducing the new card called M Life that is slowly changing. Now you can also get tier credits when you spend money at some of there restaurants, bars and entertainment places which is a nice addition to the slot club. Total Rewards has had this feature for a long time but its nice to see M Life adding ths so you now can earn comps on non gambling things at MGM properties.

"Rio" Goes After The Locals Market

A locals hotel and casino is one that is away from the strip or downtown and caters to local residents of Las Vegas instead of tourists. The "Rio" since it opened because of its location is technically a locals property but is still fairly close to the strip and has mainly gone after the tourist visitor. Recently the "Rio" has been making a big push for the locals market which is a great idea especially in this economy. Right now being a Nevada resident gets you things with your such as 25 percent off "Rio" restaurants and 50 percent off 'Carnival World Buffet' or "Rio" casino bars. Other discounts include 2 for 1 tickets to the entertaining Penn & Teller show or $25 tickets to the oily men of Chippendales check out the riolocals.com website for more details.

Harrah's Becomes Caesars

Harrah's Entertainment Inc has made the move it talked about a couple of years ago and has renamed itself Caesars Entertainment Corp after its flagship Caesars Palace hotel and casino. The move wasn't really a surprise as they telegraphed the move before. The move is to most likely designed to propell the image of Harrah's which is a huge middle market operator to a more upscale image and, maybe make it more attractive to investors. Other than a letter head change it won't effect visitors to Las Vegas as most likely things such as their successful Total Rewards programs will continue as is.

Hotel Pet Peeves

Okay let me share some of my general pet peeves when staying in hotels in Las Vegas. First off when you get to the hotel is long check in lines of over an hour. First of all i understand that hotels keep their staffing levels low and don't want extra front desk personnel standing around when its slower. When the lines get long every supervisor in the hotel should be able to jump on the desk and help check in customers, nothing bugs me more than having empty check in computers while people wait in long lines. Why not have computer check in stations like they do at the airport where people could check in themselves using there check card or maybe even slot card like Total Rewards; The desk personnel would then just have to verify ids's etc, this would be a nice option and in the long run would save the hotels money but in the current economy i cannot see it happening. Okay next pet peeve is resort fees which is a fee charged to your room daily on top of the price you pay for the room. The resort fees are usually about $10-$20 a day and include things that in the past were free like, in room safes or coffee pots, access to fitness center or pool and unlimited free calls. The resort fees can add up to $100 or more if you are staying for a week and do provide extra income for the hotel but include the price in your nightly rate don't nickel and dime your customers. Not everyone does this and Harrah's for example makes a big deal that they don't charge resort fees so thank you Harrah's. Also some other properties don't charge a resort fee or hotels like the Orleans charge a small resort fee at $5 per day so shop around and, add fee to your daily room rate when comparing. Okay last pet peeve is two things in the hotel rooms one is the strip on the bottom of the bed which looks like a blanket but is just a cloth decorative strip to make the bottom of the bed pretty. The other thing is the big bowl sinks on top of the bathroom counters yes they look fancy but you have to bed over side of the bowl and then they have a tendency to splash water. Okay got these off my chest if you have any others just leave them in the comments.

MGM Players Club Needs Work

Recently MGM announced they will be updating their players club and improving the website which in my opinion is long overdue. MGM announced that they would start with smaller properties back East and then in the next year get to the Las Vegas properties. The MGM website for players is no where near as easy to use or as advanced with offers as Harrah's Total Rewards or even Boyd's B Connected website which is a shame. Before you think i just prefer those companies in fact i often stayed at MGM properties at the Luxor for example either every month or every other month (yes i travel to Las Vegas a lot). Then late last year my MGM card became locked so i asked at the players club in the Luxor if they could unlock it so i could book rooms in the future, they said i would have to call they couldn't fix at the hotel. Once home i called and got a recorded message that said because of year end and tax season they weren't taking calls until the new year this was end of November. I called several other times in the new year and, got a voice mail that said they are busy assisting other customers and leave a message. I did this several times and even though the message said they would call me back between 9am-5pm PST they never did. I receive email offers all the time from the Luxor and, other MGM properties all the time but as i cannot log in to receive i now book rooms at the Flamingo, Rio and Orleans. The point of me sharing my personal experience is the players club should breed loyalty to a company and MGM should consider getting the new website going in Las Vegas as soon as possible.