It is now a week later and I will get this posted today.
Hi everyone, it's a slow day at the office so I am going to try to
knock out this trip report while it is still somewhat fresh. This
will be a very, very long trip report.
We got back from Thanksgiving at the Peppermill in Reno on the Sat
after Thanksgiving after leaving the Sunday before so I have now
finished clearing my VP e-mails.
First let me thank Babe for posting her very interesting and readable
trip report. I think we are perpetually off a cycle to ever meet at
the Peppermill.
Then let me add my small bit of knowledge or misinformation to the
discussion of "free" rooms at the Peppermill. We used to get free
room coupons from the swipe or in mailers. One time I was booking a
room for my daughter and our host at that time asked if we might have
any spare mailers that did not say, "Would be charged to your comp
account". She said if so we could use those and not have our comp
account charged. We had two nights and she booked the rooms using the
code on those coupons. We were not charged for those rooms at
checkout or on our comp account. On a later trip, in a discussion
with the personnel in the VIP room, who I don't believe qualify as
hosts, they categorically stated that all room comps, even when
coming in with a host comping the room upfront came off comp
accounts. I believe that they are unaware of the marketing and prize
comps, although since I have not had a room prize as a card swipe in
quite a few trips the marketing department may have stopped offering
free rooms, which would go along with the general downgrade in coupon
offerings.
Our host also told us to book over the internet, I think because we
were booking so early that there was not a casino rate established
and he was afraid it might be higher. He told us that he would change
after we got there if the casino rate was a better deal. It turned
out the casino rate saved us about $50 on the whole stay. We are
Platinum cardholders and we have never had rooms comped up front or
after for that matter. Finally in January we are getting 2 nights of
a 13 days stay comped, but they are the Imperial Suite rooms. We
stayed in a Spa Suite this trip, as it was fully a vacation.
I'll go to the trip details now and save the comp, points and coin in
comments for checkout, which was quite interesting.
We flew in on America West, which meant connecting in Phoenix from
Houston. Had its good and bad points. Good, no long layover and
chance to stretch made the flight seem shorter to me. Bad, very tight
connections, barely time to reach connecting flight and buy food
because America West has no food on flights less than 3 hours, not
even to buy.
Meet at airport by limo, baggage came fairly quickly, and off to the
Peppermill to rest, veg and gamble.
Since we had awakened at 2:30 am Reno time, arrived at 12:30 pm. Reno
time, when we arrived at the Peppermill and our room was not ready we
just collapsed in the VIP lounge, we tried to get the room rate
switched to the Casino rate but even though the check in guy was
baffled by the internet rate on our account he couldn't do anything
about it without consulting a host but promised to get back to us and
tell us when our room was ready. After waiting about 45 minutes a new
person was on the desk so I went up to her and asked if the room was
ready. She said yes and was also puzzled about the Internet rate but
promised to check with the host on duty to get changed to casino rate
and to call me with what happened. Needless to say I never heard from
her again and whenever I saw her in the VIP lounge she never said
anything. So I think relying on anything much they tell you or
promise to do is pretty chancy.
We had room 655 which was a corner spa suite and much more spacious.
It only had a small, maybe even a 17 inch TV and no refrigerator,
although a call to housekeeping brought one up in about 5 minutes. It
lacked the flocked wallpaper, which I heard one reviewer say scared
her children, and was pretty bland and I agree felt a little shabby.
The large space and steam shower made up for only 1 sink.
We did our daily card swipe, ate something in the coffee shop, I
think I had a Cobb salad the remains of which provided 3 meals for me
in our room. I played a little Video Blackjack and my husband took a
flyer on the 25-cent multiplay multistrike, lost quickly but when I
wandered away he recovered it all with a 40k on the 3rd level and
quickly quit. We then collapsed into bed about 6:00 pm after being
shut out on the 5:00 pm drawing.
We awoke about 3:30 and went down to eat breakfast and see what
changes had been wrought in the casino. Sometime when I have the time
I am going to write about 3 pages on the insanity of trying to get
the Banana nut macadamia bread with the Peppermill breakfast, which I
like to do with the early bird specials.
We confirmed that the only hundred play was at nickels and since we
had not gotten any free play good after November 9th, except for $20
in the coupon mailer, my husband was not going in at $25.00 a hand.
So he played 20 hands at JOB and I played the NSUD on the machine
next to it. We put in about $11,000 thru and both lost moderately. I
also played a little spin poker, which is still full pay for nickels,
but fewer machines. We had lunch at Oceana. I really like their
luncheon specials. This time I had the Shrimp Quesadilla's Oceana is
my favorite restaurant at the Peppermill. I like being able to carry
in a glass of Pinot Grigo from the bar. Most of the bars do not have
it and when I asked a cocktail waitress one evening for it she could
not get it for me.
Tuesday my husband was discouraged at VP and decided to see why I
liked playing Video Blackjack so much. I like it because it is a
switch from VP, especially when losing. We played in the high limit
lounge; the entire trip never saw more than one other person in
there. We put about 9-10 k thru.
One major thing we noticed is that the Wheel of Fortune dollars and
the Mega Millions machines were gone. There was a bank of quarter WOF
machines hidden back in a corner with very few people playing, maybe
because of the cold air coming from the Sports Book construction. We
could not believe that a casino would remove these hugely popular
machines, even temporarily. I assume they will be back after
construction is finished.
On Wednesday we mixed VP and video BJ, put about another 10K thru. We
also met with our host who arranged dinner for two in the Steakhouse
as a comp since we had never received the yearly birthday present
card, which we assumed would have been $50. On check out of course
this had been charged to our comp account, but when we called our
host he said no that it was supposed to be charged to a promotional
account (his phrase) and should not have been charged to our comp
account. So there are at least some comp's that will not be charged
to your account. He was supposed to send us a e-mail confirming that
this was put back in our account, not yet received, but he was going
on vacation.
Thursday since we were not winning or even staying basically even at
VB we switched back to VP, my husband was playing at a 50 or 100
play, still 20 hands and I usually could find a NSUD not too far
away. Nothing exciting to report except that for all the hands my
husband was playing he still could not buy a $.05 royal. About the
same cash thru Thursday. I played about 6 hours of craps Tuesday thru
Thursday as well total, the cool thing was getting a $25 tip
Wednesday and a $100 tip Thursday which I shared with the crew at the
table, blowing their minds as I am a strict $2.00 bettor. The $100
tip was for throwing about 4 eights for the guy at the other end,
while he had at least $500 in chips placed on the 8. I had actually
walked away with my few chips, since I never throw what I am betting
on, when he called me back and said he would like to buy me dinner
and tossed me the chip. That seemed a sign so I put down my $25 match
play coupon and he promptly rolled a 7 on the come out for me. That
actually put me in the black for craps on the trip. I lost my match
play mailer coupon betting against the Cowboys.
Since we were trying not to eat a lot and had the Steak House dinner
the next night we had Thanksgiving dinner in the Coffee shop. I do
not like sage stuffing and gravy, but the soup and pumpkin pie were
very good. I had the Prime Rib the next night at the Steak House and
again was not impressed. Didn't seem any different from the one at
the Food Court.
One time when we stopped at the information desk they said that we
were down as having a bad address, even though the address they had
was correct. It could only be corrected at the cashier's. The first
time we went there they couldn't find the error and it took another
visit for a supervisor to resolve. She said that it noted that mail
was returned. I wonder if that was the missing birthday card and also
why no free play, although we had been getting tournament invitations
and got the quarterly coupon mailer.
Friday. This is the fun part
My husband was playing the 100 play for 20 again and I was playing
quarter NSUD next to him. I had figured that if I could hit the 4
deuces I would stay in budget for the trip in regards to losses.
About an hour or so in, I hit draw and the next image that hit my
eyes was Jh, Kh, Ah, Qh, 10h and win 4000. It was so fast. I had
always worried that if I ever drew a royal that I would mess up the
hold keys, so it is partly a relief to know that it is done
automatically (not that I expect another in my lifetime) but cuts
short the savoring. After I tipped the cocktail waitress that just
somehow showed up (she really didn't know, she didn't even know how
much a royal paid), I hauled out the camera phone and took a few
pictures. Then I just stared at it for a while. I began playing again
and about 30 minutes later hit the 4 deuces. Interestingly this was
the same machine I had hit Royals on on successive days our last
trip, with my husband's money, holding 1 and holding 2. So maybe it
felt it owed me. My luck rubbed off on my husband as he caught his
only nickel royal of the trip soon after. So I was feeling pretty
good about my luck and when m husband took off for the room to catch
up on some things, I said I was going to play until my luck changed.
I played a little spin poker and cashed out about $50 ahead, I went
over to the quarter WOF to play 10 spins, on the 3rd spin hit the
bonus, won about $60?, decided to play 20 spins, hit the bonus again
won 30. Quit ahead. I then went over to the Qube bar to try for the
10 coin progressive, I hit 4ok twice in about 20 minutes and made
another $200. These are still the same only tired, sticky buttons,
bad screen machines as always. Decided to try live blackjack. Sat
down and 1st hand was blackjack. Had a very good run, so good in fact
that the table deferred to me cutting the cards. Left up about $50.
Decided to play my $50 match play at the craps table. Put it down,
1st throw was a four, if only I had waited, the next two throws were
11's. My luck turned and I lost when the shooter threw a 7.
That evening before dinner my husband was playing a fifty play (20
hands) and I was again playing NSUD next to him. I put in about $125
and shortly hit the 4 deuces again, at one time in the evening I was
up to over $400, but cashed out before we went to bed at about $250.
So I was pretty happy when I went to bed that night.
We got about 4 Mr. Money swiping our cards, two (1 each) were
automatic plays on Mr. Money and the other two made you hit something
in video poker. We hit on both while playing side by side with our
own cards (from a linked account) and the first one gave us no
problem with the one hitting not being the one in whose name the card
was, the second time they were all "this is against the rules, but
I'll do it just for you". We never made more than about $22 to $27 on
the Mr. Money machine itself. The other card swipes were pretty good,
peppermill points and free food as well as match plays and a couple
of Peppermillion drawing cards.
Now about the numbers. We put in 1427 points. When we checked out
from the VIP lounge the person who checked us out was not on the
hosting side, she said she was the hotel liaison. She had the office
across from the VIP check in station in the VIP lounge. She said that
we had $100 comp that she could apply to the bill (rooms were all on
the bill at the Casino rate). I questioned this as I said that the
info desk had confirmed on our first day that we had around $100 comp
left from prior visits, so I said we had put thru a lot of money and
no comp? This is when she said that we had used $80 of that for the
Steakhouse comp and I said that was supposed to be to make up for the
lost birthday present and not charged to our account. She said well
it had been and she would have to talk to our host. I said well then
what about the comp we earned this trip. This is when it gets
interesting: She said we had a theoretical loss of $1407 for the trip
and that their policy was to return 25% of that in comps. So I said
okay where are our $350.00 of comps for this trip? I later did a
computation that took our 1427 points times $50 and got $71,350 and
compared it to $1407 theo divided by 2% which would be coin in of
$70,350. Pretty close. 2% theoretical loss times 25% equals .50 which
is what has been estimated as the comp rate and decided that these
were pretty good numbers to work with for Peppermill comps.
Anyway back to her explanation, she said that they evaluate based on
the past 12 months and although on our last trip in July we were not
over comped, on our trip in May we were. So she was saying that the
official comps in our account that we earned this trip were deducted
and put against some prior period. May was the trip that when we
checked out a newbie in the VIP comped all our room charges and said
that when we checked out the next day we still would have around
$1100 in our comp account to more than cover food and stuff. (This
was the trip on which we made Platinum). The next day when we checked
out we were told that the room charges went against our comped
balance and had even put it into the red and that we still owed for
the food and stuff. That is when they told us that comps always went
against your account and that the newbie had just not updated the
balance when he told us there were comps remaining after the rooms
were comped. Okay, but then in July we did not use any comp, saving
for our fall vacation, so if there was any recouping to be done it
was done in July as evidenced by the fact that we had a positive
balance coming in this trip which she never denied and that it was
only around $100 dollars. If this is what happens then why not just
get comps for all your food as you go and don't leave them anything
to play with.
She then claimed that she was on the hotel side and our host would
have to explain what had happened. We called him from the airport and
he promised to put back the Steak House comp and that we could use
all our earned comp for this trip against our bill. He was supposed
to e-mail us with a confirmation of this but so far we have not heard
from him.
If this is not straightened out we will be gone from the Peppermill
after 8 years of 4-5 times a year visits. I really like what Mark
says about the Silver Legacy spelling out all of this and knowing
exactly what you have earned and are due.
This is really long, but "THE READER WAS WARNED"
My daughter and I have a girl's trip planned to LV Dec 19-22 so we
will be able to compare the cities and gambling, as I have not been
to LV for about 7 or 8 years.
Hope everyone is having very happy holidays and successful video poker
Trish