presumably you're getting better deals than me due to your status. I've never gambled at MGM and so am basic 'member'.

I've got $2.6k for 10 nights at Vdara at similar dates to yours inc tax and resort fees

The "friendly floor" part got significantly harder since they started tracking poker hours with player cards. Floors can still manually adjust your hours, for example if you claim the dealer didn't swipe your card properly, but that leaves a full paper trail that no floor wants.

Totally different than the old system where the floor just signed off on you meeting the requirements.

I also booked last fall. It's 100% refundable, so I just guessed on when my WSOP event would be and booked that week. (I guessed right.) If I booked now I think I'd only get 1 night comped and it would definitely be a higher nightly rate on average.

I just did my taxes and I blew about $500 gambling at MGM properties according to their tracking system. My wife and I play blackjack or craps as cheap as we can, and never for more than an our total per day. Maybe we get something because of our action, but it can't be much. We gamble very, very little.

do you just present your mlife card along with your credit card when you get the restaurant bill, or do you have to charge it to your room?

We charge everything to our room.

And the great thing is you can charge to your room regardless of which MGM property you’re eating at.

I booked in December so maybe it would also have been cheaper a few months earlier too, but yeah, something got you the elevated status and guessing that helped too

I might play a few video poker sessions this year so we'll see if that makes a difference, but otherwise I've never played in the pits

Years ago I did. There was a weird period of time where Vegas was always busy and typical room rates were $200+ on weekend days. The 3 places with poker rates, Venetian, Bellagio, and Wynn had the lowest (poker) rates, other than the super-dives. Wynn and Venetian used your loyalty card to track times, which is why I liked them best. Bellagio was hit or miss, because you had to count on a Soprano-like character to correctly log your time on a business card thing.

Bellagio has been using players cards to track hours for roughly 10 years now.

I did say it was years ago. It was after 9/11, Wynn opened in 2005, so my guess it was prob around 2006-2008.

At the risk of the politards derailing this thread... there seems to be an admitted push to eliminate resort fees or at least have them transparent in their pricing.

I haven't been to Vegas since pre-pandemic, but I've got the itch. I cashed in all of my Caesars Rewards points buying crap from their rewards catalog at 1:2 pricing (lolme), so I have no status anymore.

I obviously know about the fees, but it's annoying to have to click thru all the way to booking your room to see the final price. I think up-front apples to apples pricing benefit the consumer, especially the ones who don't know about the fees, by forcing them to compete with advertised price.

Anyhow, we can only hope.

Hidden fees are illegal in a lot of countries. For good reasons.

The fact that Vegas was bold enough to let it get to a point where the resort fee often times is higher than the actual room rate (on weekdays at lower tier properties) speaks volumes to how much they've been able to get away with.

I usually stay at a friends place when I come to visit, but now he has kids and stuff so its not really ideal anymore for him or myself. Last time there I stayed at linq and didnt really have any issues, except i found the beds to be really uncomfortable. any suggestions on where to try and stay next time where i might have better luck with more comfortable beds? thanks in advance.

Vegas Strip resorts pretty much have an accurate price to quality ratio. the more you spend, the better your room/the resort will be.

So it comes down to working through how much you're comfortable spending and then choosing the resort within that price bracket that is in the location you want.

unless you want to stay in a resort without a casino...a Hilton, Wyndham type property. IN which case the quality will probably be a little better for the same price but you won't get the same Vegas vibes within the property

i recently booked a three night stay late march, and i knew resort fees were coming but the amount at the end made me immediately open a second window and try to book the same thing again in case there was a glitch.
the price was indeed different the second time, the equivalent of adding the resort fee on twice.
needless to say i booked the one in the first window

Anyone know if you can get instacart or other grocery deliveries to Polo Towers? Also, is there a refrig/micro in the rooms?


booked on airbnb June 2nd-17

Well the Hampton Inn near the Tropicana has a bar, and they have hookers, so there is that.

I've used walmart's same day grocery delivery to the rio front entrance and that works really well.

So Rio is not too bad if you just want a bed to sleep on before & after grinding the next poker game? Are there horrific experiences from those that actually stayed there during last year's WSOP or since?

Just to clarify, you're aware that the WSOP isn't at Rio anymore?

That means if you want to stay there during the series you need transportation or Uber / walk roughly 1.5 miles each way.

I doubt that would get rid of resort fees, they would just be better disclosed.

It doesn't really matter anyway once they have to to list a price that includes all fees and ideally also all taxes.

If you book a flight it just says $199. You have the option to click details to see how much base fare, airport surcharges, kerosene surcharges and taxes are, but who cares about that?

If the hotel website shows me $220/night I don't really care what percentage are room rate, resort fee and taxes. Both $200 room rate + $20 taxes and $150 room rate + $50 resort fees + $20 taxes get me to the same $220 total.

the real sign of progress is when state tax is just included in the sticker prices of all goods too instead of added at the register. that's always seemed weird/annoying to me as a foreigner

Yes, I got used to walking between the WPT Wynn World Championships to the Horseshoe/Bally's area for 1.5 miles in December, so I don't mind the shorter walks from Rio to Horseshoe / Aria / Venetian. I'll also play at Golden Nugget & Orleans, so I may as well stay at the Rio for as low as $13/night than at the Horseshoe for $56 - $249/night.