This doesn't leave me feeling optimistic.

Those of us who rent cars in Vegas will now just stay at non-MGM properties.

As for poker, this will certainly hurt, as it will turn some players away.

That validation machine was gone when I was there in August. Had to play some poker to get the free parking--so they paid me to park there.

if mgm wants to treat poker players so well, then why not allow comps to go on the M-life
card and use them anywhere? Caesars was able to do it, so keeping comps separate to work with bravo is BS. CET has best comp system, you just use your card, no printing of
silly comp slips, why can't MGM do this?

Supervisor at Bellagio said it was because if they integrated it with Bravo, it would open up their entire M-Life system to ba accessible by the Bravo company, which they considered a security risk.

Agree.

It's also embarrassing that in 2016 you still have to go to the poker room to get food comps printed out at MGM. Aren't they the big dog in Vegas?

I still have to go to poker rooms to ask for printouts at Venetian, South Point and at Wynn I have to ask them to put a comp on my card.

I guess you're ok with it.

South Point gets a pass because they have a half ass poker room owned by a rich business man.

Venetian/Wynn need to fix the annoyance as well but MGM is considered the king of Vegas and IMO it's a joke how poker players have to go get a printout.

Even the Hard Rock casino's in Florida have recently gone to being able to use your poker comps like a credit card with your players card. They have always charged $10(or something close to this) for Valet, with small discount if you have players card and free if you are upper level card. Garage and lot parking always free of course tho.

The key was the comps are handled by the casino now instead of the poker room and coming out of the jackpot fund like a lot of rooms do. Slot players could always use comps like credit card.

The cost would be a drop in the bucket to a behemoth like MGM.

this is the press release from MGM

http://mgmresorts.investorroom.com/i...4171&item=1091

I'm curious to see how they will "improve my parking experience" lol

my suggestion, lap dancers at each spot...

Geez, their corporate lackey claims customers have been asking for new parking fees. Even CES didn't stoop that low as a justification for resort fees.

"Our guests expect and deserve an enhancement to this aspect of our resort experience,” said Corey Sanders, MGM Resorts International Chief Operating Officer. “We’ve taken into account our customer feedback and carefully planned these improvements"

They say they have taken into account customer feedback. Lol yeah right. I've read a bunch of angry comments so far from customers who are angry about having to pay for parking.

The arrogance amazes me. They say they are going to start charging, and at the same time they say they are doing customers a favor because they are charging.

And I don't want to hear about how it's only $10. Valet will be $17 and that doesn't even include tips. And the parking fees won't stay at $10. They will charge more just like they charge more over time for everything else. Once they realize they can get away with charging for parking, then charging more makes a lot of sense. If charging $10 doesn't chase people away, then what's to stop them from charging $15? And then later $20? And then $30? Etc.

I really don't know which is worse.
Customers are just begging to pay for parking and get stuck in line behind people paying. lol. the resort fee thing is almost as bad considering 1)they won't waive them if you don't want to use any of the bs they cover 2)ces put billboards all over town advertising they have no resort fees and pointing out what a scam they are then did a complete 180.

The company capitalized on its “no resort fee” policy last month by launching a Facebook page that invites consumers to “join the fight against Las Vegas resort fees” and a hotel booking website for the company’s Las Vegas properties called vegasnoresortfees.com, which the company hopes will pop up when consumers surf the Net for hotels that don’t charge the fees.

“I don’t think people will get used to paying these fees,” said Michael Weaver, Harrah’s vice president of marketing for the Las Vegas region. Just as consumers will choose airlines that don’t charge baggage fees, Weaver said some hotel customers are avoiding hotels that charge resort fees.

Hotels don’t charge the fee to provide extra value to consumers because the services they bundle aren’t things most visitors use, Weaver said. Instead, the fees allow hotels to advertise lower room rates and are anathema to a company that generates most of its profit from repeat customers.

and

"The company started a "no resort fees" Facebook page, which drew tens of thousands of followers. In 2011, the company held rallies parading showgirls from the Jubilee show at Bally's down the Strip with signs reading "Just Say No to Resort Fees!" and "Our Money, Our Choice!" They wrapped casinos with ads about their lack of resort fees charged by other casinos. At the time, the company claimed it had saved Las Vegas visitors $37 million a year by not charging the fees."

Also, if they wanted to treat poker players well, you'd think you would be able to use the comps at all the restaurants, not just the bottom tier.

that is the real benefit of CET comps, you can use them just about anywhere and
anytime you want.

mgm limits you to where you can go, and makes you print a slip, which
in most cases isn't going to be the exact amount of your bill, so you end up losing comps or
paying cash out of your pocket depending on how well you guessed to the amount you ask for on the ticket.

It's just the usual marketing guys babble. Whenever they want to screw someone over, it's always about customer experience that needs be improved or w/e. Curious to see how their experience will improve when they suddenly notice a drop in casino attendance

The only customer feedback I can imagine is that MGM Grand parking is too friggin' far from the hotel/casino.

I'm sure the main reason is that they have the new arena and just announced a big new parking structure next to it. No one will want to pay to park there for arena events if they can park for free at Monte Carlo or something and then walk a bit.

First things first I feel for the Valet workers at MGM resorts. I assume charging for Valet will essentially kill the tips those works depend on. In L.A. the only tips the Valets usually get are rounding up to $5 or $10 bills (I.E. Jones Resturant in West Hollywood has a Valet for $4.50 so the Valets often are just getting .50 tips as patrons give them $5 for parking feeling validated in the 12% tip on the $4.50 valet charge.)

So if they are charging $10 for parking at upper level resorts and $8 at the mid-level resorts then the valets at the upper-level resorts will almost ALWAYS get no tip from conventioneers and tourist and may get $5-$10 from tourist and gamblers.

The valet workers at the mid-level resorts that charge $7-$8 will still at least get tips from people who give them a 10 or two 5s or a 20 and only ask for a 10 back.

But charging for Valet parking will hurt the blue collar Valet workers most of all in this corporate profit scheme to appease wealthy shareholders.

They will be charging more for valet than they charge to self park. I heard $17.

I find that extremely difficult to believe. In fact, I believe that the exact opposite would be true: that by charging $4.50 instead of an even dollar amount (be it $4 or $5), the restaurant is ensuring that the valet workers get an additional 50 cents added to their tips. IOW, rather than tipping $1, $2, or other even dollar amount, patrons are now tipping $1.50, $2.50, etc.

I can't imagine that even lowlife nit poker players would stoop to tipping valet only 50 cents.

BTW, I normally tip valet both on entering and exiting, and the cost of the valet service (if there is a cost) never enters into the determination of how much to tip.

I heard $17 tossed around in the Monte Carlo room last night, but the Sun News article didn't give a proposed dollar amount for valet:

"Valet parking will cost more, but some parking at the Circus Circus hotel and the Crystals and Mandalay Bay Place shopping centers will still be free."

Valet at $17 will kill their valet business, which I assume is just fine by MGM. And if all the casinos start charging for parking, it might kill the rental car business. As for the people driving in from CA and Arizona- which is a huge part of the Vegas customer base- I don't really know what happens other than people being pissed off. I really do hope this becomes an immediate catastrophe for MGM, otherwise it will be everywhere in a few months.

Kill the rental car business? In reality this will "kill their business" not at all. The 1% of the 1% of the 1% of LV visitors who read 2+2 will continue to be outraged but no one is going to not go to LV because of it. Chances are pretty good that tourists will just add the $10 to the cost of their trip - anyone flying to LV and/or staying at an MGM property isnt changing this over $10.

The only people really "hurt" by this would seem to be local grinders who hit 2-3 casinos in a day. But then again, I'm guessing they will have a card level high enough to get those fees waived. <-Pure guess.

CET IMO will have to follow suit. Or more importantly, will want to follow suit if it looks like it has succeeded. Money is money to them.

The only disaster I can see is massive lines of people waiting to get into the parking lots.