Quote:
Originally Posted by that_pope
No, it was always the case if they are booked up they won't honor the poker rate.
Well, they told me repeatedly that the policy had changed very recently, but to be honest I'm not at all sure in what way it is now different. I think primarily it is that the poker room no longer has any authority to change the rate on their own.
One other possible "new" difference: the poker room manager also told me that, if I ever did choose to return, that I should call the poker room directly, and have them verify that the occupancy rate is lower than 90% at the time of the booking, and that they could somehow work some magic to "lock" the poker rate in at the time of the booking.
(The fact that this is exactly what I did, save for having the room manager magically "lock" the rate in, wasn't lost on her. But she said this was something new for them that they couldn't/wouldn't have done 2 months ago when I booked it.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by MinRaze
Oh no! I just booked a room based on previous posts on getting a poker rate room of $69/night with ~6hrs of play per day. Please post more info since I have a few days to cancel with no charge. Is this a new policy from the new personnel? Bummer and thanks.
Since you asked...
On Sunday I was playing my last session, people asked where I was from, and my sordid tale came up. One of the regs (actually a dealer who was playing while off the clock) told me that the previous day, a similar thing had happened to some players who had come in from Cali, and the Poker Room Manager had been able to intervene with the Customer Service person on duty and was able to get them taken care of, so she suggested I try the same.
So I spoke to the poker room manager. She took my card, and said she would see what she could do. It took a long time. Like, more than 3 hours. So long that I even had to leave the casino before she had any resolution, and she got back to me by phone afterwards, and left me a voice mail. I appreciate that she took this time to try to help. (If anyone here wants to point her to this post so that she knows I appreciate her effort, please do.)
But the final resolution wasn't a good one (as far as I'm concerned).
Paraphrasing, she said the customer service guy said there "wasn't much he could do about it", because the rate I had gotten ($179) was "better than the rate he was able to get the guys from Cali". She said she thought I was being forced to pay something closer to the $400 rack rate, and that $179 was "only $50 more than the poker rate of $129".
My contention: the reason I was able to get a rate of $179 is exactly because the casino was projecting nowhere near 90% occupancy at the time I booked, which should be further reason to grant me the poker rate that was promised at the time.
In summary, since CAZ was "only" cheating me out of $50 a night, they didn't feel like there was anything they should do to make it right. **** that. I appreciate that she tried, but in the end nothing was done to accommodate me.
I try never to say never, but it is fair to say that I will almost certainly never play at CAZ again. Even if I do pop by to visit friends in Phoenix again, I will stay somewhere else, and will likely minimize my poker play, if I play at all.
What should you do? Up to you. But I will say for certain that you cannot count on CAZ not to screw you in whatever way they want to. The poker room staff, who are otherwise very nice and friendly, will have no authority to do anything to fix it. Also, note that I was told the official poker rate was now $129, not $69. To be honest, I don't remember what rate I was told it would be, but I vaguely recall it being south of $100, so who the hell knows.
As a coda to my story, here are my stats from my 3 night stay:
* 23 hours of 20-40, @ $14/hr = $322 in time rake generated
* 4 hours of 8-16, for whatever additional rake that is, call it $40
* $2000+ "donated" to the local player community - heh
So $350+ in rake generated, compared to $150 in extra room fees they got from me. This would be fairly typical playtime for me, maybe even a little light since I was pissed off and hung out with friends more than I might have otherwise.
They can say goodbye to ever getting that from me again. Penny wise (read: thieving), pound foolish.
Last edited by Lattimer; 04-14-2014 at 05:18 PM.