I’ve noticed that some people I talk to never charge anything to their room or are hesitant to do room charges for various reasons. Sometimes it is for their own money management. Sometimes they don’t want to leave a card on file for room charges or have the hotel put a hold on their card. Sometimes they see it as a security precaution, erroneously thinking that if they don’t charge anything to their room, nothing will be charged and they don’t have to check their bill when they check out. I charge as many of my expenses as possible to my room. This is why.
Comps
A host or players club rep can’t comp things at the end of your trip, based on your play, if you haven’t charged them to your room. Also, if there is a wider variety of charges, they seem to be able to comp more. A host doesn’t say, you have x amount in comps and applies that to your total bill. They look at your charges and say they can cover this charge, that charge, part of another, etc. It helps to have a mix of food, beverage, entertainment and services if you want to maximize your comps.
If you are booking a room using a promotion or myVEGAS Reward that includes a food and beverage or resort credit, you will need to charge things to your room or the credit will be wasted.
Convenience
You can typically do room charges back to your room from any casino in that brand. That means if I am staying at ParkMGM, I can charge back to my room from other MGM properties like the Mirage, Bellagio, Aria, Vdara, Nomad, New York – New York, MGM Grand, Signature, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay and Delano. The same is true with Caesars properties (Harrah’s, LINQ, Flamingo, Cromwell, Caesars Palace, Nobu, Bally’s Paris, Planet Hollywood), and smaller brands like Wyyn & Encore, Venetian & Palazzo, etc.
Money Management
It is easy for me to pull up my room folio on the TV to see my current expenses and the totals. I can also use that to make sure there aren’t extraneous charges before checking out. It is easier to take care of those issues when you see them than when you are in a rush to check out.
Hi Mark, if the credit card hold at an MGM property is $200 and I went to a restaurant and the bill came to $250 and I wanted to charge to my room what would happen in this case?
As you charge things to your room, they do new credit card pre-authorizations. You should have no problem charging a $250 meal to your room. It will increase the amount held or pre-authorized on your card though and will reduce the available credit on that card.
Well, for someone like me who plays lot in Caesar’s and have lots of Comp $ points (Reward Credits) to spend, there are certain moments that I never put bill on the room because of the tax not being waived.
If I eat in a steakhouse that accepts Reward credits 1 to 1 because restaurant is directly affiliated with Caesars Ent, then I always pay directly with my Reward Credits. For example, let’s say if the bill is $100 + $8.35 tax = total bill $108.35, then if I pay with reward credits right away on the restaurant, it waives $8.35 and it will only deduct $100 amount on your RC balance. But if I tap this bill to the room and pay that bill later with RC, it will charge the whole bill with the tax and it will deduct $108.35 from my RC balance. That is why when I eat on those kind of “Restaurants that are directly affiliated with Caesars Company”, I always pay directly with RC right away.
But sometimes, there are certain benefits on putting the bill to room. Sometimes, there could be a restaurant that doesn’t take RC at all, or maybe just not taking RC 1to1, but accepting it as 2to1(meaning if the bill is $30, when you pay with RC, they take $60 amount of RC), because it’s not directly affiliated with Caesar’s, sometimes in certain place, it is still possible to put it to the room, and it became possible to pay with your RC when you are checking out later, even though you still have to pay tax. Making it possible to pay with RC later, when it’s not possible on restaurant, sometimes it’s helpful to burn those comp$ RC if you have too much… But this doesn’t always work. Certain place and system, they still make you charge for 2to1 even if you put on the room later.
Not just restaurant, but also spa experience, I used Caesar’s Palace Qua Spa when I was Diamond like 2 years ago pre-covid, they said for Diamond member I get discount and it is $20, but you cannot pay with RC and get discount at the same time. So if I am paying with RC then I have to pay full $55 or something. So I asked whether I can just tap it to my room, and they said yes, and discounted bill of $20 got tapped to my room. And later on, it became possible to cover that $20 by me paying with the RC when I am checking out. Well this was 2 years ago before Caesars revamp all the price and policy of spa now, so it maybe different now.
But anyway, my point is that for someone like me who is always willing to burn the Reward Credits whenever I can by having them too much, sometimes it’s better to waive tax by not putting on the room and just pay right away, or on the other way around, sometimes it is better to put it on the room, because it makes you possible to pay with RC when you normally can’t on sight.
So it’s case by case depends on system.
You are correct. There are occasions where it might be more beneficial to pay with points.
I am a big fan of paying with points in order to avoid tax.
That’s not something the average visitor can do, though.
The post is about the more common visitor experience of either charging something to their room or paying with cash/card at the point of sale.
I just got back from a trip where I didn’t charge anything to my room, but that was in order to make the bookkeeping easier since the room was covered as a business expense (and was not comped). This was an exception to the rule, though.
Thanks for reading and thanks for your input.
Take Care.
I charge everything to my room.
Night/day b4 checkout, get comped and or have them use my credits.
This way: 1) I know I’m getting the reward points added to my account. 2) No taxes with comps or using points.
Tip: Indian run casinos, if no drinks are comped, only charge them to room ON your dinner bill, they usually get lost in the shuffle.
Tip2: Use your Casino CCard and have all tips etc. charged to it. Caesar’s CCard has 5X rewards on their property’s charges.
Those are all very good tips. Thanks for sharing.
Take Care,
Mark
Hi. The only thing with this is we keep a comp balance and they take it first. 🙂
That is something to consider as well. One way around them using your comp balance is to use that balance to pay for things during or before your trip; basically spend it down.
I still recommend charging things to your room as a general rule, though (unless you want to pay with points/comps in that moment).
One benefit to paying with points at the time of purchase is that tax typically isn’t added wehn paying with comps. It is when you charge it to your room, though.
Take Care,
Mark