Does anyone intend to stay for more than one week at the fabulous El Cortez Resort and Casino? So, what is the big deal? What they are saying is that the reduced rates they charge apply only to recreational gamblers and if you intend to live at the hotel you will have to pay rack rates. And if you are a gambler and intends to stay more than 7 days, I am pretty sure casino services will be happy to accommodate you at a casino rate, or maybe even in a comped room.
The answer is yes, there are many folks who want to stay for more than 7 nights. I was one of them. I'll go for 22 nights in Oct/Nov and wanted 14 in Cabana rooms. I had 8, was cancelled, even moved my air to see if I could set up for a possible 14 nights in a row (7 in Oct and 7 in Nov) but by that time the deal I had found had dried up and the new deal was the Gold Spike. Ended up with just a week in October and most of the rest at Gold Spike. If EC sends me any free rooms, I could poke them into November, but I probably won't now.
I personally know 6 people inconvenienced by this rule change. One from England had changed his booking because of my praise for El Cortez Cabana and so had to go through calls to the travel agent and more rigamarole before told that his booking would be honored.
As for the gambler getting so many deals. If you are a live poker gambler, you won't be followed at all so the EC won't know you are there. We fall between the cracks at the EC.
The casino's desire to fleece us more quickly and then move us out makes more sense to me as their reason for doing this than does the theories that revolve around hundreds of transient travelers swarming into the El Cortez.
Basically, I think they want to get our dough and move us along.
I find it interesting, however, that it seems to have gathered a good bit of sympathy from gamblers on discussion boards.
I think of it like the move by some casinos to 6:5 blackjack, clearly in the casino's favor. So is JOB 6/5. I guess we need to start celebrating when casinos make moves to fleece us more efficiently.
Perhaps we all should get behind the recent downgrading of Palms VP as well. After all, we want what is best for the casino, right? It is perfectly fine for them to fleece us. And horrors, we would not like to take any advantage of any deals. Baa, Baa...here we come.
The argruments that include reference to the rush of the homeless to the EC seem ridiculous to me.
I doubt that any near homeless in Vegas are staying at the El Cortez. I play poker with some guys at the EC who have periods of being down and out, and they don't rent at the El Cortez. They get much better deals in nearby hotels.
In fact, for $900 a month, a guy could rent a three bedroom apartment in Vegas with laundry facilities and decent television and skip the one room Cabana.
Or contrast this policy with the policy of the Stratosphere. There we can rent for 28 days. And rather than a resort fee of $25 being added after day 7, the resort fee of $7.50 is only charged for the first 5 days and then dropped while the amenities stay the same. So over a 28 stay, for about $1.30 a day resort fee I could have free access to the Tower, to the pool.
I could have coffee every morning and watch the sun come up over Vegas. Then i could go swimming.
Since I gamble at the El Cortez, mostly on the live poker table, although the staff there knows me by name, they have no way to follow me. I suggested to the hotel manager that perhaps my staying at the poker table for 10-14 hours a day might be enough to the casino's advantage to drop the $25 charge, and he said he would bring it up at the next meeting.
I have not heard anything. Remember I am not looking for a comp, unless we now think of waiving a resort fee as a comp.
However, I'm not booking with the promise that maybe, if my play is enough at the end of my 7 day stay, they will allow me to stay longer. I can' imagine anyone doing that.
And while I know the argument that live poker players are not often seen as worthy of comps, I have two free nights this trip at Harrah's and another for $30 based only on poker play at Imperial Palace, O'Shea's, and Flamingo. They seem to want to attract me to play and their games are softer than the EC.
Those are comped rooms on top of hourly comps not just waived late acting resort fees.
Instead I have scaled back my plans for booking at the EC because the Gold Spike, a few steps away, has cheaper prices and no limits that affect flexibility in booking. Currently, I am down to just a week in October at the El Cortez, with the per night rates cheaper than my original 8 days were in November using their give away night offer as If Four Queens gives me free nights, I'll be reducing that stay, probably by 3 closer to the time. The video poker is better at the Four Queens. The Gold Spike gives free wifi and a pool and while they charge an $8 resort fee, when the room rates are $12, it is still a good deal. Wouldn't it be logical that they might attract a tourist who just wanted a room?
Also, Vegas Club comes up as the LVA number one value this month with $16 and no resort fees mentioned. If those prices hold once the Plaza opens, they will be a great frugal choice as well with a nice pool amenity and an upscale casino right across the street.
Right now they'd make a cheap place to live.
If you wanted to live in a casino.
A scan of the current housing crisis in Vegas should be enough to convince anyone who wanted to stay for a month, that there are great deals all over town if gambling in the casino is not the draw.
While the EC Cabana offer last trip encouraged me to play some of their VP and lose, this time I'll invest in other venues for my 22 night trip in Oct/Nov. This whole thing 7 night limit thing soured me.
Perhaps the EC will gain some money fleecing folks for just a few days and tossing them. I have not seen that their rooms were often all booked up, but perhaps the new Freemont East Rennaisance will cause that to happen as the economy improves. Or perhaps all the folks on discussion boards who seem so attracted now to the EC since they have discouraged the homeless so efficiently will book their stays and take up the slack of the frugal folks who will be moving other places. At any rate, they no longer rate as a frugal, flexible choice for those of us who are able to go to Vegas for more than seven days.
However, for those of you who want the casino to fleece you quickly, make sure the EC is on your list. Their VP is not the best in downtown, but then why would you want to play where you had much of an advantage. How can the casino fleece you if you are going to be one of those demons from hell, the "advantaged player?"
