[ScoopLV]

I think most locals object on principle. Parking in Las Vegas is supposed to be free. You shouldn't even have to think about "where should I park?" We're not Los Angeles or New York.

And now the "budget conscious" local no longer has free parking. It's gone the way of the $2 buffet, free smokes, and generous comps.

I see this as a positive -- for the exact same reason I see taxes and restrictions on cigarettes as a positive.

[BBMW]

Given that a lot of the Vegas casinos are interchangeable, this could be a decision point for people with a car. If the choice is staying at Monte Carlo and paying $10/day to park, and Planet Hollywood and not (picking two casinos in roughly the same location and class), people who have cars may very well pick the latter on that basis. If MGM goes through with this, the other casinos are going to be watching for changes in their revenue. If they see an uptick, they may very well not fall in line.

[ScoopLV]

It amazes me how many people think the casinos care about patrons who balk at parking fees. They are exactly the sort of guests casinos DON'T want. This is a scheme to separate the wheat from the chaff, the wine from the dregs, the players from the cheapskates -- nothing more.

[BBMW]

^
There's a lot of money it that there chaff. Read up on the career of Bill Bennett.

MGM has too many rooms to fill, and too many slot machines to put bodies in front of, to only cater to high end players. Wynn could get away with that. Certain MGM properties could. But not the mass of them. They need mid-market and below players to fill places like Excaliber, Circus Circus, Luxor, Monte Carlo, NYNY, MGM etc.. This is 20,000 plus rooms. The players that would stay at these places, WOULD likely care about the room charge.

[ScoopLV]

You're not thinking like a casino. The number that matters is revenue per square foot. Filling the resort with people who love Larry the Cable Guy and Guy Fieri hurts that number -- whales don't want to rub elbows with hicks, rubes, and bumpkins. Hicks, rubes and bumpkins not only balk at parking and resort fees, they balk at any food which isn't on the dollar menu. They balk at any drink which isn't swill sold cheap.

Jettisoning the flotsam is nothing but good for the casinos. Let Station deal with the riff-raff.

[BBMW]

Not all properties hunt whales. Not all can. If you have single 1-2000 room hotel casino, that's set up to be high end exclusive, you can do it. If you're a 3000+ room, starting to get old, kitschy themed refugee from the early '90s, not so much. Casinos as big as what you have in Vegas need to pack in a lot of bodies to flow the cash they need.

And in point of fact, several casinos do both. Look at the MGM Grand. I just looked at their website. Some nights in March, I can book a room for $59/night. At the same time, they have one of the premier whale tanks in Vegas (the Mansions.) Do the people staying in the Mansions ever interact with the people staying in the $59/night rooms? No. They've set it up that way.

MGM Grand has 5,000 rooms and it needs to keep them full. If a room isn't rented for a night that's room revenue they'll never recover. And if the room is empty, the people who aren't sleeping in that room are not pumping $20s into the slot machines downstairs. Now, do you think someone looking for a room for $59/night is NOT going to care about getting hit up for another $10/night for parking, when they can find an equivalent room, for an equivalent price up the strip somewhere, without getting charged for parking? And if they do book up the street, what's the dollar total dollar loss to MGM? Because they're not going to let the rooms sit empty. If they see the rooms aren't renting, they'll drop the price and/or spend more money on advertising/marketing/promotion.

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

You're not thinking like a casino. The number that matters is revenue per square foot. Filling the resort with people who love Larry the Cable Guy and Guy Fieri hurts that number -- whales don't want to rub elbows with hicks, rubes, and bumpkins. Hicks, rubes and bumpkins not only balk at parking and resort fees, they balk at any food which isn't on the dollar menu. They balk at any drink which isn't swill sold cheap.

Jettisoning the flotsam is nothing but good for the casinos. Let Station deal with the riff-raff.

[ScoopLV]

It's not about hunting whales. It's about jettisoning the riff-raff. Cheapskates who balk at $10 parking, a decent meal, and are only there for the free show or the free attraction aren't just not contributing -- they're sucking away revenue by lowering the bar. THEY AREN'T WANTED.


I foresee a future where most locals simply cannot afford to spend any time on the Strip. (Just like they cannot blend in on Rodeo Drive or mid-town Manhattan.)

[BBMW]

Without the riff-raff, Vegas would collapse. Who do you think is mindlessly pumping $20s into the slots? Do you even get my Bill Bennett reference? If you don't, you don't know nearly as much about the casino business as you think you do.

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

It's not about hunting whales. It's about jettisoning the riff-raff. Cheapskates who balk at $10 parking, a decent meal, and are only there for the free show or the free attraction aren't just not contributing -- they're sucking away revenue by lowering the bar. THEY AREN'T WANTED.


I foresee a future where most locals simply cannot afford to spend any time on the Strip. (Just like they cannot blend in on Rodeo Drive or mid-town Manhattan.)

[ScoopLV]

I know what the casino execs tell me. Circus Circus is an outlier. I don't know why you can't wrap your head around the fact that the casinos don't want cheapskates -- when they do everything they can to prove it day after day with resort fees, parking fees, $20 shots of mid-tier bourbon, $100 steaks and similar.

Seriously, what's it going to take before the moochers start taking the hint?

[Sqibbcakes]

Originally Posted by BBMW

^
There's a lot of money it that there chaff. Read up on the career of Bill Bennett.

MGM has too many rooms to fill, and too many slot machines to put bodies in front of, to only cater to high end players. Wynn could get away with that. Certain MGM properties could. But not the mass of them. They need mid-market and below players to fill places like Excaliber, Circus Circus, Luxor, Monte Carlo, NYNY, MGM etc.. This is 20,000 plus rooms. The players that would stay at these places, WOULD likely care about the room charge.

And how many states had casinos when Bill Bennett was prominent---------ONE!