Two and a half years in, here are my gripes with the room. I apologize in advance. This came out way longer than it should, but I feel there are things that need to be said.
1. As has been said numerous times, the comps system is utter shaite. We know it, you know it, the staff I talk to knows it, everyone knows it. It's unnecessarily cumbersome and it doesn't work well to boot.
The reason that makes it particularly irritating is that the reason it's designed this way is in order to offer a nominally higher comp rate for marketing reasons. However, the actual effective rate is lower because of all the costs associated with it.
Setting prices as you see fit is one thing. We may like it or not, but it's your prerogative. Setting prices in a way that actively wastes our time and makes our experience miserable is a totally different thing altogether. I know that you are not responsible for this system, but you can't snap back at us when we get angry about it. We have every right to be angry.
Anyway, practically speaking, I can't speak for anyone else, but I would personally accept a lower nominal rate equal to the effective rate we are paying now-let's say $1.75 per hour-if it means I can use my comps as I see fit without anyone's approval.
2. Related to that is the sense that we are getting nickeled and dimed in every step of the way. The comps system is exhibit #1. The new kiosk not accepting comps is exhibit #2. You re effectively saying "come and enjoy yourselves at National Harbor. While you re here, enjoy the most generous comp rate in the industry and use them to buy food from any place in the casino... except that tiny kiosk selling snacks and drinks 20 feet away from you".
Like DCmidnight says, maybe your upper management is determined to squeeze every penny out of their customer pockets. If it's so, you shouldn't act surprised if bad blood starts brewing among the natives. It's like the reg who when a big fish comes at a table, immediately switches to be at his direct left. That maybe good for his short term bottom line, but it leaves a sour taste in the mouth. It's also probably bad for business long-term.
In case you think I am being a unique sourpuss and/or a professional internet complainer, I can report that over the past couple of weeks I came across at least 2 or 3 people at the tables noticing unprompted that the kiosk isn't allowing use of our comps. That may or not be a lot. My bet is on the latter being true.
I do have to note that I know enough about economics to suspect that if we were allowed to use comps at the kiosk next to us, there's a good chance the kiosk wouldn't have opened in the first place. Ok. But the gift shop downstairs should always have accepted comps. I know the one at Maryland Live does.
Why yours can't?
3. Nickel and diming comes in many forms. What I discussed so far involved pricing. The other side of the equation is quality and promptness of service. A place can make an extra buck not only by obfuscating their price hikes, but by cutting corners on the product they deliver. This brings us to Snacks. It's a great idea to have a 24 hour deli next to the poker room. Since no one else does it in the area, you deserve extra kudos for that as well. Unfortunately the implementation leaves much to be desired. First of all, the food isn't good at all. We aren't talking here about having food that one likes. We are talking about food that isn't passing the threshold of acceptablity. I tried Snacks 6-7 times. I tried the salad, the croissants, the burgers and the breakfast. Out of all, the breakfast was sort of acceptable in the sense that if it's 3AM and you are really hungry and you don't want pizza, the breakfast plate will do. Croissants are obviously better in both Bellagio and Starbucks. The salad I got was half frozen and tasting more like plastic than grean leafs. Burgers and fries are like pizza in the sense that even bad burgers and fries are good. However, the ones at Snacks really put that theory to the test. The ones I got at Snacks felt like fake food to me. To put it another way. After eating them, I had an intense desire to drive back home and prepare a home cooked meal in order to remind myself the taste of food again. It's just isn't good and I refuse to get it ever again.
However, I want to be fair. Although I have heard many people with a similar view to mine, I have heard some people say that they like the food or some food options at snacks. So, maybe it's just me being overly picky. So let's say that the quality of the food is arguable.
What is inarguable is the slowness of service. Most players don't realize this, because they order through food runners, but I chose to go the place. The first time I ordered a burger, it took an inordinately long amount of time, even if I was second or third in line when I came. The second time, I took out my stopwatch. I was first in line, I didn't see any food runners around and I ordered the burger and fries which is as standard fare as can be. It was a lucky table drawing day and these happen at 15 past the hour. It's been a long time, but I think I ordered food around 2:30 pm and I received it 25 to 30 minutes later. Because of this, I distinctly remember eating in a rushed way in order to make the drawing, eventually having to get up having to take the food and all its greasiness at the table.
After this, I decided to take out my stopwatch on my next visit to Shake Shake. It was around the same time of day and Shake Shack was far busier than Snacks. It took them 12 minutes to bring out my burgers. All in all, I think that even with all the walking involved going to Shake Shack, it takes less time to get a burger from them, eat a meal and return to your seat than going to Snacks.
Then again, this shouldn't be all that surprising. When you order at Shake Shack, their kitchen is open and you do see 10-12 people working like busy bees to prepare your meal. Shake Shack has survived and thrived in a genuinely competitive market so it has the know how of delivering a good product fast. Snacks hasn't and I am pretty sure that if you transported it in a genuinely competitive market like downtown DC, it wouldn't last two months. I can't tell how many people work at the back of the house at Snacks, but I suspect they are understaffed.
To an extent the difficulty of making Snacks be faster and provide better food is understandable. The way the casino model works, you give us money that we have to spend on your food business. You have a captive audience and a localized monopoly, so the incentive isn't there to be better; if anything it's the opposite. In this regard MGM isn't different than most other casinos save those operating in a genuinely competitive environment like Vegas. Moreover, it's hard to build a successful restaurant even if it operates in a competitive market. It's a truism that most new restaurants fail, right?
Having said all that, there are a few things you should try IMO if you want Snacks to become better. Hire more people. Spend some more money on quality ingredients. Focus the menu on a few things done well, instead of many things done badly. More importantly try finding people who take pride in their work and are conscientious about it.
The key however is for MGM corporation to care about making it a better place. If they don't and just want to maximize margins for the next quarter, this place will never get better.
4. The USB charging ports in many tables, especially the ones at the back in the 2/5 area with the new tournament clocks on haven't been working on for ages. I remember reporting this problem many months ago, I think it was last September and nothing was done about it. Then this past couple of weeks I have had enough and complained to a different supervisor on 4-5 different occasions. The 5th supervisor I complained to told me that the room had put some order in the relevant department for some time now, but he didn't know when that department would deal with this issue.
Then finally, a couple of days ago, I discovered that most of those charging ports have been fixed. Thank you! Much appreciated! If you keep fixing things like this, you will subdue a lot of critics like myself.
All the same, little things like this that fester for a while are a big reason why people get the impression that no one cares or minds the store. On the other hand, if what the supervisor told me is true and the fix didn't happen for a long time, because another department was unresponsive, it's another sign of a big, dysfunctional corporation. If it is so, yet again, you have my sympathies, but don't turn around and mock us when we get frustrated.
5. The Wifi is virtually unusable, especially after the move to the second floor. I ve played something like 35 hours over the weekend, so my experience is fresh. Even at 5 in the morning when there is the fewer number of people in the room, the wifi just wouldn't work properly. My typical experience went like this: Two to three minutes trying to get my phone to connect to the network. Go on the internet, load a page, read something, then try to go to another page only to discover I have been disconnected. Rinse and repeat.
Like I said, it's been like this since the move to the new room.
I don't know what it is, if you need to add more antennas or capacity or something, but you really need to talk to the casino's network specialist and fix this. Once you do, you need to remain vigilant about it. Networks are vulnerable and people are prone to increase the consumption if they work well, which in turn presses additional pressure on them.
6. No Call-Ins. I suspect that 4_4 will disagree with me again, but I will reiterate my position as succinctly as I can. I don't want to jump a place in the line against anyone. As far as I am concerned everyone should call ahead. What I want, what I wish is not to needlessly wait for hours in the casino when the waiting can be done as I am doing other things I would be doing anyway, like putting clothes on and driving to the casino. I don't understand why this is an unreasonable request.
On the plus side, I do appreciate the staff. The vast majority are competent at their jobs, courteous and responsive to requests, even if often times they take a great deal of unwarranted ****. I can genuinely say that I don't have a problem with anyone and I certainly appreciate competent dealing more now that I have the chance to play at a nearby casino who had just hired a lot of new dealers. I also do appreciate some other things improving, like finally adding rails on the elevated area so that we can go straight to the other side. Switching bathrooms is also a great idea, although it should have happened from the beginning.
Please take this criticism to heart. Over the past few weeks, you rejected criticisms of MGM as unwarranted negativity coming from haters, quit the place for a month and after your return you have a mocking attitude towards those who criticize you. To me that's self-defeating behavior. Good business isn't built on kumbaya singing, but on honest and unflinching feedback. Perhaps a great deal of what is wrong isn't your fault, but then again, it definitely isn't the players' fault either.
To the extent the that the problems reported are the upper management's fault, I urge you to forward all relevant feedback to the responsible decision makers. At the very least, they should see first hand the reaction to their choices.
And please, as a first easy step: Have the wifi fixed.
Last edited by OvertlySexual; 06-12-2019 at 06:11 AM.
