In slot forums, the conversations about hosts continue. One player recently was emphatic that the getting of a host is assigned to a higher tier. Presuming four tiers in a casino program, if you reach the third tier, you should ultimately end up with a host.
STATUS: It’s not status.
As noted in the previous pieces on hosts, your trip budget is going to have more to do with it than anything else, with your trip frequency being in the mix as well.
The problem with using status as the metric for when you get a host is the simple fact that status isn’t truly tied to any metric of financial value. Tier matches, point multipliers, daily bonuses, and so on can all reduce the level of effort to get a given tier, and so that’s the first problem.
The second problem is that in many locals markets, like Atlantic City, players can grind away each week with tiny budgets and reach a higher tier. These players certainly have value to the casino, as they’re on property a lot and likely spending enough money over time, but a host is usually focused on a given visit, and the amount of spend per visit isn’t nearly enough for a host to offer value.
Meanwhile, hosts are looking for players that they can grow through loyalty and return visits, and that requires budget. So players spending $100/week at a casino and working their way to the third tier is nice, but it isn’t host worthy.
Some companies will assign a “VIP number” to those higher tier players, and it’ll be a more personal approach than a standard phone number, but it’s ultimately a group of people with limited power other than great customer service skills to make people feel a bit more special, and they can sometimes access things a basic reservation agent can’t.
It’s a nice coincidence that players who have a healthy budget, one that might get a host’s attention, are also players who thanks to that budget can tier more quickly. That can give the illusion that tier matters, and while for some things it does, in the case of whether you’re going to get a host, that’s not what they’re looking at or for. It all comes down to that trip budget.
Where did you get your info? For slot players, it’s your CICO that matters. I am only second tier at the Cosmo, but I get wraparound suites, $300 food and $300-$1500 in free play. I am considered a grinder who sits at a machine for hours on end. My average bet is 1.25 to 5.00. My budget is usually only $500-$1000 a day for 3 days. I have an amazing host. I get more attention than someone who drops a couple thousand in high limits in a short time frame. It’s coin-in, coin-out. Not budget.
Hi Tammy, and thanks for the comment! Fair note, and I do cover coin-in/coin-out elsewhere on the site. I would argue even more important than raw coin-in/coin-out would be your theo and/or actual loss (and I know players at Cosmo who regularly discuss this number with their host). While my answer may have been simplistic, the question I think is still answered fairly. Without reasonable budget (and your $500-$1000 daily is a healthy budget; many players go with a lot less), you can’t get enough coin-in/coin-out going to get noticed by a host.
There are a lot of locals players, for example, who will go to their local casino frequently with $100, grind it out, eventually make Caesars Diamond or something like that, but their average trip budget doesn’t leave any room for much of anything comp related, let alone a host. There are many players who think they just need to reach a tier and they’ll have a host reaching out to them. Tier’s probably the least interesting metric a host can review, and that was the overall idea of this post.