I just heard on another site about a new scam at the Hard Rock Casino here in Las Vegas that I thought I would warn you about. I called and verified the info and it is true.
Hard Rock Casino/Hotel has implemented a new, mandatory three night minimum stay for weekends!
This means you have to book Friday, Saturday AND SUNDAY nights - even though most people leave Sunday as, like normal folk, they work on Monday.
Then, when you check out on Sunday, after paying for that night, they turn around and re-rent the room.
Fuck you Hard Rock.
I have noted the change on my website, but just wanted to let you all know about their new scam to squeeze money out of their guests.
The site where I read this also said Palms does the same, but when I called they said, “we only do that when there is a three day weekend with a Monday - like Memorial Day or if there is some other big Monday event in town.”
So, for the time-being, I will not press Palms on their policy, but Hard Rock deserves all the bad publicity they can get for this shameless scam.
Good info to know. We never stay there because a) we are far from their target demographic and b) we get free rooms at other hotels all the time. But a scam to be wary of, nonetheless. Thanks.
One way to keep them from doing this would be to leave Sunday but not check out, then call them on the phone Monday to check out- at least that way they can’t rent the room twice.
I’m not sure I understand why this is being referred to as a “scam.”
They told you up front that you had to book for 3 days, and you agreed. After you left, when the room was vacant, they rented it to someone else.
If you had rented a room for one night, checked in at 5pm, but at 7pm had an emergency that required your departure and checked out, would it be unethical for them to rent the room to another person who wanted it? At that point, it’s an empty room.
I was thinking the same thing. I very rarely if ever “check out” of a hotel. Usually the bill is accessible from the room television. How would they know to rent it unless I told them I left?
However, once I am gone, I guess it really doesn’t matter if they rent the room. I am gone anyway. Keeping it for no reason is pointless. Too bad there isn’t a way to find someone that needed only one night before you left. Although with my luck they would clean out the room including tp and lightbulbs and I would be stuck with a nice fat charge on my credit card.
I think they got tired of losing the business of the people who wanted the extended stay through the weekend but could never get a room because the Fri/Sat crowd from California had already booked them all.
Say Bob and Sally from Iowa want to stay for a week in Vegas. They’re going to pay some hotel for a 6 night stay. They want to stay at the Hard Rock. They call up and of course the Hard Rock has openings but none of them on a weekend because Ian and Shasta from LA have booked Fri and Sat. So the Hard Rock gets full occupancy on the weekends but sits empty on the weekdays cause nobody can get in for their desired 6 days.
Kind of like how season ticket holders get prime seats. They paid for the undesirable games as well as the select games everyone wants to go to.
Exactly! Offer made, consideration exchanged. Mutual transaction. Ain’t gonna use the room Sunday, but don’t want to pay? Stay somewhere else. Vegas has no shortage of rooms.
I consider it a scam because the vast majority of people who come here for a weekend arrive on Friday and leave on Sunday for their trip home - very, very few can actually stay the Sunday night.
I consider it a scam because they are forcing people to pay for a service they neither want nor need.
Do they tell you upfront? Yep.
Can you elect to go elsewhere? Yep. (And I hope people do.)
But forcing an extra night on your customers, knowing full-well they neither need the room nor want it - and will not make use of it so Hard Rock can turn around and book the room again for full price…well, that sounds and smells like a money-grubbing scam to me.
“Scam” implies fraud, or dishonesty. There’s none involved here.
This is just bundling in a form that’s inconvenient to some people. Lots of businesses have minimum charges and minimum levels of service. I can’t buy a tablespoon of milk or a four minute massage, but there’s no scam.
True, but when you buy a quart of milk, you can use the whole bottle, and you can still enjoy the entire massage. The people who stay at the Hard Rock are paying for a service that they cannot use at all (spending Sunday night at the hotel). Maybe “scam” isn’t the right word, but certainly you’ll agree that Hard Rock is acting unethically.
Nope. Not a scam and not even unethical. It might not be a business model that I like or care to participate in, but I have that choice.
Is it a scam that part of my cable TV bill includes 2 Catholic channels, 2 Spanish language channels, and 1 golf channel? I’m not Catholic, I don’t speak spanish and I don’t play golf. So I can’t use all my channels, DARN IT!!
The Hard Rock offers a 3-day package. You get to take it or leave it.
Wait, does this mean that you cannot choose to forgo the package and book two nights at a higher net rate, but that if you’re staying longer than one day you HAVE to buy the 3-day package? Because if the first choice is there, there’s no problem, but the latter does bother me quite a bit – as others have mentioned, my concern about this strategy is that absent serious rejection from the market, it eventually becomes the standard elsewhere and THEN there would be no choice, or only poor choices.
As far as I know, a lot of the Strip hotels require a 3 day minimum stay for big weekend like New Years. At first it doesn’t sound so bad, but when the older hotels like the Tropicana and Flamingo are charging minimum $300/night for a basic room without a view of the strip :eek:
Maybe the Hard Rock is finding that their weekend guests stay an average of three days. They also cater to a more upscale group of people than Average Joe Las Vegas tourist.
I just went to their website and did the online room reservation deali-o. I found that for upcoming weekends into May, I could not book just one or two weekend nights, it said rooms unavailable. If I do the three night (Fri-Sat-Sun) There were rooms available (for same weekend). The rates I came up with seem to be pretty much out the range average people would want to spend on a room. The two room plans that came up as available were:
Mountain View King Room:
Friday April 20- 529.00
Saturday April 21- 529.00
Sunday April 22- 159.00
Pool View 2 Queen Room
Friday April 20- 649.00
Saturday April 21- 649.00
Sunday April 22- 279.00
I also found if I push the stay weekend date into June, It will allow for booking just on Friday and Saturday night.
I also think scam is the wrong word, more like marketing ploy or just plain old lets make more money.
Then again this is a town that thrives on excess and plain old fashioned greed.
If you want to stay at their hotel, yes they are “forcing” you to pay for Sunday night, whether you intend to stay that night or not.
But I see the word “scam” is bothering people, so how about I change the wording:
Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas: New Rip-Off
Better?
And LVgeogeek, thanks for the back up info. When I called and asked at the front desk, they told me the three day minimum policy was for every weekend, which you seemed to prove - at least into June. I am sure most of the casinos require the three night minimum on the big three day weekends - which is to be expected anywhere in the world - but to the best of my knowledge, none demand a three night minimum it for a regular weekend.
My guess is that a lot of potential customers will balk at the new policy, but some won’t care and will pay it anyway if they have their minds made up to stay there no matter what. Will watch how it plays out and see if they keep the policy (or re-instate it) after the summer doldrums when they probably can’t afford to play this game.
It is not a rip-off. It is revenue management. Don’ like it, don’t stay there.
See, the Hard Rock is a business. They want to make money. They believe that doing this is going to make them more money. There are some pretty advanced revenue management software solutions out there that are used for these kind of things (I know, I fix some of them*).
A whole shitload of hotels do this and similar things (wanna have some fun? Try implimenting rate hurdles at a big hotel that is serious about revenue management. It is a pain in the ass). They do it to maximize their revenue. They do not do it so they can double book hotel rooms**. The don’t like double booking much (note, some places do double book, but usually not much, the hotels know what the attrition is and book against that). They also do not book expecting the guest to leave early. Why don’t they book expecting the guests to leave early? "Cause if the guests who are in-house don’t leave early you end up with a ton of really pissed off people who want a room.
The Hard Rock probably believes that they can fill the rooms with the new rate set. If it does not work, they will change it.
Slee
*In fact I have fixed the Hard Rocks software.
**I know more about hotel availbility than I ever wanted. It can be suprisingly complex sometimes. It is a bitch to troubleshoot and hotels, including the Hard Rock, freak when it is off and they double book.