$25 fee added to your 8th night in one month booked here

Just when you thought resort fees were a huge rip off, along comes this new angle.
It now costs an extra $25 a night for bookings over 7 nights in a calendar month booked at the El Cortez.
And what do you get for that fee?
Well, on your 8th night you get just what you got on your 7th night, only it costs you an extra $25.

Are they telling people?
I don't know. I saw it in the very fine print of hotels.com. Hey, its in the fine print so everyone should see it, huh?

My advice is just do 7 nights. Anything over that risks this fee.
I'm not yet saying to abandon this place, but the Gold Spike (with resort fee figured in )is about the same price as an EC Cabana room and has free wifi and a pool.

Yeah, okay. I agree.

Ain't nobody who likes to see things only in fine print.

I mean if I'm booking for three nights they ain't gotta tell me nuttin' 'bout no 8th night, but if I'm booking at or near where its gonna be relevant then I sure want to see it and I don't wanna see it in print so fine that its meaningless. And why one somebody else's website but not their own?

Now the actual existence of that 8th night surcharge? H'mmm... thats a different matter. I don't like it. I don't see no need for it. Yet I do realize that any casino is gonna value two four night guests far higher than they are a gonna value some 8 night guest. Most casinos figure that after 3 or 4 nights, they've got all the money out of you they gonna get. They just want you to go home and come back next year with more money, they don't want you hangin' around.

I think the next time you read some fine print it will be on a portable computer out by the Gold Spike's pool. I don't blame you one bit. Despite all the advantages the Hell Cortez may offer you... it only takes one slap in the face for you to change your mind. Fine Print is always a slap in the face. So are stupid and absurd "extras".

In my total boredom mode I went on line to the El Cortez website to compare what happens if I book a 7 night stay versus an 8 night stay. The website would not accept a booking for greater than 7 nights and gave a phone number to call.

The model used by some companies (like EasyJet in the UK) is that the more you want of a particular item, the more you'll be willing to pay for it. They also do various things like sell of the first block of a flight cheap and charge more as the plane gets fuller. Anyways, I can see why the El Cortez might go for this sort of model. It may fail for them, but if they find they get better revenue from a four night stay (per night) than an 8 night stay, then it's probably a good move for them. If too many long stayers move on elsewhere and decide not to come back, then they'll lose.

But if they feel like after the 7th night they aren't get value from the customer.... I wonder what percentage of their current clientèle this hits (and what percentage of their casino take is that clientèle).

If you're with somebody else, book 7 nights in your name and 7 in theirs. There's ways around everything.

Quote: EvenBob

If you're with somebody else, book 7 nights in your name and 7 in theirs. There's ways around everything.

I go solo, but I am looking for some hot bit of stuff that will do this deal with me.
"Look honey, this is not about you and me, this is about the 7 day limit on rooms."
But then I've had that in my fantasy for a long while. It is more likely the El Cortez will decide to give 7 free nights to everyone whose name begins with the letter D, than that will happen.

On the other hand, I'm an old retired guy and I can change my air next trip to overlap a month and book 7 in October and 7 in November. I went two days into October last year to catch 2 more free nights at Orleans when the comped nights were 2 a month.

I know an old couple doing just what you suggest. I wonder if at the second check in they will be told that because they are married and live at the same address, the second booking is considered more than 7 nights and so there will be a $25 charge per night, sorry about that Ma'am.

What it is really about for me is the El Cortez was one of the places where we did not have to play those games, and I was just at the point of deciding to pay for rooms there and just do my whole 17 nights in one spot.

Almost anywhere else it might make sense. We had come to the idea that the El Cortez was managed to treat the customer rather than just compute the beans. Jackie set that standard. And most of the other folks follow it or at least they appear to follow it. No resort fees in spite of getting kicked around by the practice in press rankings. Pretty easy interpretation of that freeplay/freefood deal, a poker room brush who writes me a food comp without me asking because he hears I might wander over to Mamacita's for some horchata and sopa 7 Mares.
At the same time that they are doing this pull back on rooms allowed to rent, they offer for up to five nights at certain times of certain months a deal that makes rooms virtually free, and when I did that deal my last trip, it did what it was supposed to do. It opened up the Cabana rooms to me for the first time, and I liked them so I was willing to pay in November to stay there.
It also softened me up, and I played well beyond anything I have played in years there, and thought I might make that a pattern, start staying downtown again for my full trip, stop hopping from place to place. They had me.

And now they don't.

I find it strange that the emotional part of this does affect my reason, but I see it does.
I'm thinking about South Tower Vegas Club because the Plaza pool should open next year, and if renovation does not start at the Vegas Club there still will be deals there and i can use the pool at the Plaza. And part of feeling open to that place is they let me play my Vegas Club and Plaza ACG coupons back to back on my last trip at the same craps table and on the same day.
That craps dealer roped in an emotional part of me that I always deny is there. And Teddys review helped as well.

Jackie knew that if he offered people a place where they felt comfortable, where instead of having to watch for every trick, folks could let down their guard and relax and not expect to be tricked except by the slot machines, that he would build a loyal and supportive customer base that could feel good about losing money. This trick disrespects everything that Jackie was as a man and might be still as legend if the EC wanted that to happen.

So I wonder if anyone will book a week in the beginning of a month, then book a few days at the end of the month and at check in find out they are to be charged $25 a night for the second booking, and shown the fine print to explain the charge. Anyone in that situation is going to feel tricked and angry, just as those paying resort fees without knowing they might pay them have felt.

As for me. Well, they may lose me for most of what I've booked already. If I am going to hop around, I might as well hop from free place to free place, and I won't be thinking about seeding the EC with play for a few free nights to add to my paid nights because I can't build enough nights there to really settle in and stay.

I'll be playing in the places with better odds and offering free rooms. I'll be paying in places I have not yet seen, like the Suncoast that is now open for casino hopping with the new WAX running from downtown to there and a place that for the summer shows room prices less than El Cortez prices. I read there is great VP there. There is a shuttle to the airport so it might make a good place to start or end my trip.

EC will lose me because this new strategy of theirs makes my frugal hairs bristle. I won't be softened; I'll be alert and in the poker game of frugal room renting.

But maybe me and my kind don't matter to them in the long mathematical run and the uninhibited tourist with four days and $200 to gamble away in slots is better meat. I don't know how they figure my emotions in the mathematics. Jackie knew how to figure them in, but he is gone into the senility of old age now without the ability to add his thoughts on the matter.
One other thing they lose when they lose me is an advocate. I have written thousands of words in the past year praising the El Cortez, including a long justification on why a guy should book there rather than the Golden Nugget on their promotional Facebook page. They lost not only my meager play, but my free promotional prose.
All to force me out of their casino a few extra days a year

Good luck finding that "hot bit of stuff" to spring for the room on the eighth night.

This is really the equivalent of a resort fee being imposed for any night beyond Seven.

Dewey have you called them directly or just through Hotels.com?

I talked to them after my second booking was rejected. I booked seven days with booking.com and then three more. 8 of them were in November so Elle from the EC told booking .com that they could not honor the second booking. So I called to find out what was up. At that time there was no fee. The rule was 7 nights in a calendar month. It was pleasant conversation, but basically from the hotel manager at that time I learned that they had this rule, and he told me not to book later in my 17 day trip as I had thought I might do, at least two nights with the ACG coupon. Basically, I told him how long I stayed in Vegas and asked, "So you are telling me that wherever I book, once I have booked 7 nights in one month I should look other places?"
"That's right." he said.

Then while canceling my 3 night booking, I noticed that since 2 of the 7 were in October, I could still book 2 more and I called back. At first the clerk said no. I asked to speak to the manager again because I had just talked to him and he had told me "in a calendar month" not "in a row" So she went to ask and came back with yes. Then I told her that I would not extend my cabana but book two pavillion rooms with my ACG. She went back to the manager again and then she let me book those.

So I posted that all over the place, including here. On Facebook the answer was interesting. They said

"Sorry for the new policy Dewey. We regret the inconvenience it has caused you however it is a newer policy that for now we must adhere to. Hope your stay is fantastic in Las Vegas!"

That "for now" told me that the poster expected some change. I encouraged others to post on Facebook, but you know folks will post on the discussion boards they feel most comfortable with but rarely complain to the people who reallly might make a difference. I found that around resort fee issues, bus issues, and this one as well.

Okay, so having posted that earlier rule, when it changed I thought I better post an update. Facebook did not let me know it had changed, but someone on another board saw the fine print and let me know.

I think if they got some feedback from folks who gamble there, it would be modified again.
The only thing that the hotel management said was if at the end of my week my play was good, they would extend my nights. But who goes to Vegas hoping to have nights extended. I know of a guy from England who went through a travel agent and booked the Cabana rooms (partly on my enthuiasm by the way) for 2 weeks and so far his agent has said it looked fine since the booking went through. I know of one older couple who were allowed to rebook their last night but they had to check out and check back in.

My play except for last trip is minimal since I go to access their live poker game and my attendance there is not followed in any way. So I don't look very important to them. In fact, I guess I am not.

It's nice to have regular customers. It's even nicer to have lots of regular customers. I can see the incentive to dissuade a person from booking a single room for more than a week. I wouldn't want my hotel to start looking like an SRO with daily maid services.