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This is No Way to Run a Casino by Scan Recently on Frank Scoblete’s private Golden Touch Craps message forum, a poster asked why the new Revel Casino in Atlantic Citywas not performing up to the vaulted expectations. As usual, the boards knowledgeable posters were able to highlight some of the problems. Below are my thoughts as well as suggestions from some GTC posters. Not run by career casino executives. They started off on the wrong foot and alienated people. Their "we are doing this our way" attitude conveyed an arrogance that turned off many AC players. The CEO of Revel is not a career casino executive. Does anyone think that Steve Wynn, Sheldon Adelson, or the late Dennis Gnomes or J. Terrance Lani, would have opened an Atlantic City casino in this fashion. No Tiers During the initial opening all players received the same level casino rewards card. This was a huge turn off to players they were used to having their elite "high roller" status recognized in several different Atlantic City casinos. Diamond player at Caesar's properties are not likely to start at the lowest rung and fight to work their way up. UPDATE: Revel has now changed the policy but in many cases it is too late. No Buffet The management of Revel intentionally omitted a buffet. Their position was they did not want the lower level players that seek out all you can eat buffets, as patrons. It is likely true that a good portion of the buffet people come with small bankrolls, but in the long cold winter months, it is better to have some players with small bankrolls than no players at all. More importantly, the majority of players do not want to stop playing to sit for a two hour meal in restaurants such as American Cut which will cost around $100 per person. No Bus access The Revel does not have facilities for tour buses. Like the buffet grazers many of these people are lower level players. Even so, to a casino the bus people are like krill to a blue whale. They are not big but there are a lot of them and they can easily fill their belly on them. Terrible Web site. The web site looks as though it’s main focus is to push the upcoming concerts. I have found that the room reservation features is wonky. The biggest problem is, it does not have a feature that allows a player to log on and check his/her comp balance or casino offers. Room Price The Revel has set the room prices at two and three times the price of other Atlantic City Rooms. This may be a ploy to make rooms, that they are generally comping, seem very valuable, but it turns away the person that has no Revel Gaming history and wants to stay and check out the hotel, casino and amenities. I conducted an experiment. that revealed that a person can FLY to Las Vegas ROUNDTRIP and stay at a strip hotel for LESS than a week stay at Revel. I picked a 7 day period in August at random. One person staying in a standard room at Revel from Thursday August 16, 2012 to Wednesday August 22, 2012 will have to pay $1,434. As per Expedia, for the same period, a person can fly round trip from Newark Airport To Las Vegas, then they can stay on the strip at Aria for $1252, or at MGM for $1011, or Monte Carlo $857 or Excalibur for $713. Room Policy The Revel opened with a policy that requires a minimum two night stay. That was a big mistake. Atlantic City is a locals market. That is just the way it is. The people in the surrounding areas, for the most part, are sophisticated. If they want to go to a resort for vacation they will hop on a plane and go to an island in the Bahamas, or maybe head to Aruba, or Mexico etc. The Revel strategy of assuming people would use the little spare time they had and spend a week battling for a chair at a relatively tiny pool is asinine. "Revel Beach" is a construction site The Revel was completed (for the most part) before the beach was ready for sun worshipers. So anyone coming to visit what has been billed as "Revel Beach" had to go further down the boardwalk to lie in the sand. Pool and Deck. The Revel in and out pool is very nice. There are also a couple of smaller pools. The problem is the hotel has almost 1400 rooms. The pool is undersized for a property of that size. Deck chairs are gone early, so unless you get to the pool first you are out of luck. Eventually, the beach will be opened and guests will lie on the sand. But guess what? Looking at that beach, it is no Wildwood, it is relatively small. I do not see much space for sun worshippers. The Target Demographic. The Revel is aiming for the partying "twenty something" crowd thatfrequents the night clubs. This group thinks nothing of blowing a weeks pay to buy a $600 bottle of Gray Goose vodka, just so they can sit in the clubs VIP section. This is certainly good short term for food and beverage revenue. However, Revel does not take into account the older casino goers that do not want to be around the rowdy crowd, with obnoxious behavior and the inevitable fist fights. Therefore, they go elsewhere for their casino play. Pennsylvania Rules blow them away As with all AC properties they cannot compete against Pennsylvania's player friendly blackjack rules. Comps Whether it is accurate or not Internet message boards are rife with posts about Revel being tight with comps. This has become the conventional thinking and comp seekers are avoiding Revel. |
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