Sounds like you play enough to double-dip offers. No reason to choose one or the other.

MGM Grand has nice rooms and suites since the renovation. I like the rooms at Manadalay Bay too, but I don't particularly like the casino. Aria is very nice. I'm not a fan of the Bellagio -- it's fancy, but in a rich-grandma way.

I've heard good things about the Mirage, but haven't stayed there yet.

I don't mind the "premium suites" at the MGM, but not a fan of how low their ceilings are in the basic rooms. The casino at Mandalay Bay is a joke.. it's like the casino used to be a giant convention room and they decided to put slots there.

Mirage's rooms feel and look like MGM's renovated rooms at the Grand Tower. Renovated and has a nice feeling but the bathrooms are just meh. Never been to a suite at the Mirage though...

Personally, I think Aria and Cosmo have the best basic rooms on the Strip. Never been to Wynn so can't say...

One thing that really irritates me is when casinos require you to book a (comped) room in order to get your freeplay. They usually have a shorter line for invited guests, so it isn't a huge time issue, its just wasteful to have 2 (or more) rooms sitting empty. Makes me feel bad.

It's nice when you have friends who don't gamble enough to get free rooms at nice hotels.

Some people sell the rooms, but I would not feel comfortable selling it to a stranger, and I'd rather give it to a friend for free.

That's funny and I agree. Bellagio is nice in a "rich-grandma" way. I don't know what it is but it's just not for me.

Wynn is nice, but I just don't like the location on the strip.

IF you guys ever have extra rooms at Aria or Cosmo, even on a fairly short notice I will use them! My status has suffered lately as my focus has changed to poker.

I agree, I can get free rooms from MGM everywhere but Aria and Bellagio. They do not like to give those away!

Do you need a new friend? Ha ha, j/k.

I agree that it is nice when you have a friend that needs a room. Unfortunately, this usually turns into a bigger hassle than it is worth, especially if you and the friend are both arriving on the same day. You fly in, get your rental car, check-in at your hotel, and are all set to go, but wait, now we need to walk back out to the garage, get in the rental, drive to another hotel, park, check-in there. Arrange someplace to meet up with friend and give them the key (and they are stuck with bags until this happens, etc).

It's one thing if I'm going to be in town for a week, and I fly in at 2 PM. But my typical trips are like this coming weekend where I will be arriving this evening, and leaving late Sunday night. Losing several hours on Friday night really kind of sucks on short weekend trips.

Also, I agree that it would never be a good idea to sell a hotel room to a stranger. You are still liable for any damage after all.

My friends are usually coming from the same place that I am, sometimes on the same plane. As for bags, that's what the bell desk is for.

Also, rental car? I fly in and get in the limo that the casino sent for me. We are probably going to be hanging out in the same place anyway (we are friends, after all) so we just take the limo to one hotel, check in, drop stuff off in the room, and then take a cab (or maybe a limo if we have planned far enough ahead to reserve it -- probably not) to the other hotel. This is all on the strip so a cab ride is in the $10 ballpark.

I've done this before and it was really no hassle at all. It took no more time than it would if we were staying at different hotels (both in our names) and were meeting up after checking in.

I'll add that the coordination isn't as hard as you made it. When you check in at Cosmo, you can "put someone else on the room" without giving them spending/charging privileges. This allows them to go up to the desk and get a key when they arrive. Have done this many times.

As far as I know you can also do this at CET and MGM casinos but you have to actually be the one to check-in (although I am not sure what the rules are at Wynn). I have done this from time to time with no problem for people staying with me.

I also agree on the hassle part. After flying into Vegas, the last thing I want to do after finally getting my stuff to my room is go take a cab to another casino to to check into a room for someone else. I barely find enough time to do everything I want to do in Vegas as it is. Now if the friend(s) are coming in on another day (or significantly later that day) at a time that is convenient to me, that would be different.

Apparently Cosmo is no longer giving Identity points for table game play. Sounds like you can still get comps based on your play, but no tier status.

See the fine print on this page: http://www.cosmopolitanlasvegas.com/...dbenefits.aspx

Deleted because I just read the article on vegaschatter.com

Looks like they also lowered the tier requirements significantly. When I got Platinum earlier this year the requirement was 80k... now it is 50k.

They also made it faster to earn points on VP. It used to be 1 pt per $7.50; now it's 1pt per $6.

So, while it took me $600k coin-in to get platinum, you can now do it in $300k.

Also, assuming that a pt can still be exchanged for 1c freeplay (I actually don't see that anywhere on the page) that raises the freeplay from 0.133% to 0.167%.

Cosmopolitan Identity Perks
 

just recieved a 2 night comp offer for being a new identity member. first played about 3 weeks ago. 25-100 bj for about 7 hrs - lost $2000, accumulated 1200 identity points.

must use by may so that will probably be my first and last stay at cosmo. definitely not playing table games there. maybe some vp.

I don't really understand the new policy of table games not giving identity points. I can see them not wanting to give freeplay for table game play (that is standard) but not giving tier advancement is strange. Will the host just give you the higher tier after you've played enough? There is no way that the people who play in the ultra top secret high limit room on the 2nd floor with the good booze (ok, maybe it's not that secret, but, even with the signs, it took me about 10 min to actually find it) are going to be walking around with Silver cards.

This is why MGM, CET, and probably most other programs have seperate concepts of "tier credits" and "rewards points".