Player Club Wars -- Venetian vs. Harrah's
The Venetian and The Palazzo (both under the same ownership) have been revamping their Club Grazie player's club with some extras that we found interesting.
We, like casinos, use Harrah's Total Rewards program as the benchmark. So you know if any tiered player's club elects to go head-to-head with the giant, they either need to offer some unique or better benefits.
To start, the Grazie level is what everyone receives when first signing up for a free card.
Every $1 playthrough in slots gets you 1 point ($3 for video poker). Harrah's is $5 for every 1 point, but it breaks down differently because you earn rewards credits at varying levels, and it takes less points to earn more at Harrah's. If that makes any sense.
We're placing Venetian's Gold Level (30,000 points, $30k playthrough) at the same as Harrah's Diamond Level (11,000 points, $55k playthrough). So 1 point at Harrah's roughly equals 1.6 points at Venetian.
Back to Venetian's Gold Level, earning 2500 points will get you $15 in freeplay or a $10 gift card (acts as a $10 comp) or $5 in cash. Factoring in the extra bonus reward credits you receive, the Harrah's equivalent would be about $10 in comps. At some casinos around the country, Harrah's now offers conversions of your bonus reward credits to freeplay at the rate of half your comps, so $5 in freeplay. Venetian is the better value here at 3x.
If you're staying at the hotel and charge anything to the room, you'll receive 5 points for every $1 charged. At Harrah's, you now receive 1 bonus reward credit point for every $1 charged and then 1 tier credit for every $5. Strictly for tier level, that means you can get to the next level by charging $6,000 at Venetian or $55,000 for Harrah's. A no-brainer there. For comps, it's $6,000 vs. $11,000, so Venetian is still the winner there.
Moving up to Gold Level, members now earn points 50 percent faster at the rate of 1.5 for every $1 playthrough (1 point = $2.50 playthrough in video poker). A great deal that essentially keeps you at Gold at a third less play -- $20k playthrough. Harrah's is still $55k for Diamond.
And even better is the room charge: 20 points for every $1 charged. That means just charge $1500 per year to your room and you'll maintain Gold.
Gold Level also gets you things like access to the Gold Lounge (the Diamond Lounge is the much better deal but also more crowded), and a free shuttle to and from the airport. Harrah's has something similar for Diamond members, but at the cost of reward credits.
Harrah's has the upper hand in being able to use points for any of their hotels around the country, whereas Venetian just allows you two in Las Vegas. But what two they are -- all suites and luxury all the way.
Venetian also has higher-class restaurants and the slot machines have a bit higher payback.
To us, it's clear: Venetian's the way to go.
You can decide for yourself at Total Rewards and Club Grazie.
(Note we've left out the top two tiers in both programs because it isn't achievable to the bargain hunter.)
