Las Vegas Specials & Casino Trip Reports

For the first time ever I got an email offer from the VIP services section of Mandalay Bay with some really good rates that covered my planned trip in November. (From what I understand, the VIP services section are the Casino Hosts for players that average bet $25/hand or more for 4+ hours per day) The email referenced a very very old player's club number I had before Mandalay Bay was merged into the MGM/Mirage group. I have a totally different player's club number that came from the old Mirage and is what I have been using for the past several years at MGM/Mirage casinos. So I figure that Mandalay Bay is digging through the bottom of the barrel to drum up business and pulled this old obsolete player's club number to send me an offer.

The offer was for rooms at Mandalay Bay at the rate of $69 weekdays and $119 weekends, with $25 of Freeplay thrown in. The catch was that the maximum number of nights you could book online was three. My trip in November is scheduled for four nights, so I wondered if they might stretch the offer to allow four nights if I called the toll free number they listed on the offer email. After a short wait I was connected to an extremely nice lady and I explained the situation.

She said no problem, the forth night would be at a "Player's Rate". Last time I tried something like this it was with the Mirage and they wanted more for that forth night alone than the other three combined, so I was a little worried what the rate would end up being. Anyway after I gave her the code on the email and the dates I wanted to stay she came back with the rates. The first night would be $35, the next two nights which are a weekend would be $65 each and the forth night would be the player's rate of $79. I was in a bit of shock as this was much lower than even the email listed. I asked about other fees and was told the only other thing added was a 12% tax, there were no resort fees or other hidden charges.

I went ahead and booked the reservation and was surprised when they didn't even ask for a credit card for a deposit. I asked and was told they would get the credit card at check-in. I also asked if they would send an email confirmation and I received it a few minutes later.

In looking over the confirmation I noticed that there weren't any room rates listed on it and this worried me a bit. So later in the evening I called back and got a different person. When I asked about the confirmation not having room rates he said yes they get questioned about it alot, but their computer system doesn't send out rates on the confirmations. He read back to me the same rates as I was quoted earlier and gave me his name in case there were any questions later.

As I said earlier, this is my first time dealing with Casino Hosts and VIP Services, so I don't know if this is common or not. What keeps going through my mind are the stories of the MGM making reservations at low rates and then later saying it was a mistake and not honoring them. I don't want to arrive at the Mandalay Bay in November to find that suddenly my $35-$79 rates become $235-$279 rates. You know the old saying is that if it seems too good to be true then it isn't. Can I trust these people? Does anyone have experience with Mandalay Bay VIP Services?