Yo-11 Minutes: Episode 2 "Reno Moves? RIO Las Vegas Comps + more"

Yo-Eleven Minutes
Mostly Vegas. No BS. Casino Experience +more
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Yo-11 Minutes: Episode 2 "Reno Moves? RIO Las Vegas Comps + more"
On today's episode:
-Trager puts the YO! in Yo-11 minutes
-What is the deal with Reno making moves lately?
-RIO's new comp program is a game-changer.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Yo 11 Minutes. Yo 11 Minutes mostly Vegas, no BS, casino Experience and more. Michael Trayger is Casino and travel loyalty expert, who also helps people turn their travel dreams into reality. And now Michael Trayger, how's it going? Michael?

Speaker 2: 0:15

It's going great. You know what I've been wanting to say, though I haven't really done like a yo 11 minutes yet, so I've been, I've been waiting to do that. You've got to like channel more New Jersey into your yo, yo, yo, 11 minutes, yo. But before someone brings it up, it's funny when you refer to the yo 11 at Craps, which is basically a yo is an 11. So when you say yo 11, it's a little repetitive because you're really saying 11, 11. That's right.

Speaker 1: 0:47

It's like a yeah, latch, latch, victoria restaurant is the restaurant restaurant.

Speaker 2: 0:52

That's right. Or ATM machine is machine machine. But I love, I love talking about dice. I also love listening to the crap Vegas podcast with Vegas, duffy and small whale where all kinds of Craps conversations come up. But the other, the other thing which I think they've probably discussed and I've discussed over the years, is why a yo means the number 11. And that's because the number 11 sounds, depending on your accent, like a seven, and seven is mostly bad, depending on the plan of dark side. It isn't necessarily, but that's why they basically came up with a yo for 11. So you could say can I have a yo, can you, you know, can I have a two way yo, for you know five and five, or something like that. So I think that's sort of interesting and I needed to be mentioned. And also my Jersey yo had to be mentioned. Yo, yo, you're thinking about it now.

Speaker 1: 1:53

Right, I had to think about it and yo 11. And then that's too rocky. I think that's too rocky.

Speaker 2: 1:58

Yeah, that's not, that's not Jersey, that's that's more rocky, which could be Philadelphia. We're not sure. We'll probably hear some comments from somebody Close enough. They're right. They're right next to me, exactly so. So, but, vestra, what's going on today?

Speaker 1: 2:13

All right, let's get started with the news and views. The next home in the bottom men's basketball will not be in Vegas. In fact, the next home for Nevada men's basketball will be at the Grand Sierra Resort Arena. Owner Alex Marullo announced to Wednesday. The arena will seat 10,000 spectators for basketball, said University of Nevada President Brian Sandoval, while our events center, the team's current home, seats 11,536 for basketball. The proposed arena will be built on the 140 acre Grand Sierra Resort property, along with the new hotel and convention tower. 800 new hotel rooms, 300 new residences and upgrades to the resort's Grand Bay water feature Arena would be privately funded and what Marullo called a $1 billion investment. The Nevada system of higher education and a casino spokeswoman confirmed that no university funds or taxpayer dollars would be used for the basketball venues construction. And that's going to do it for the news. Now for the views, trigger. What do you think about what's going on in Reno?

Speaker 2: 3:14

I think very quietly in the background, reno is starting to make some interesting moves and Reno's getting a little bit of attention and I'm sort of thinking and I've heard a couple people say this, but I've experienced it myself that Reno is a pretty good value. It's a really good gambling value and now that Vegas is really expensive for the average tourist and for the low roller, people are looking at some other potential options and Reno is a great an option people might have not considered before, when Vegas was more of a value destination. So something interesting that's developing and you could see it just in little data points like Laurel lounges. Caesars has no more Laurel lounges in Las Vegas, but they have Laurel lounges in Reno and you can actually access them without copays as a diamond, just a regular diamond. So little things like that which are of value.

Speaker 2: 4:21

Also really good things like really good video poker. So I'm sort of interested to see the further development of Reno. I happen to be a real fan of Tahoe. I'm also sort of a fan of Reno too. So it's interesting to see what's happening. But I think it's sort of in the infancy of things shifting a little bit and there being more development. So this is just another example, but it's definitely something to think about and definitely a topic that we will be coming back to quite often especially with.

Speaker 2: 4:52

Zorkfest in Tahoe Two weeks.

Speaker 1: 4:56

So see, to me, reno is something I should be keeping my eye on out there might have to give Reva Reno a shot. Haven't haven't even gone there yet, but definitely like to do that. All right, and now it's time for the team.

Speaker 2: 5:14

So the big tease is Players clubs and especially with regard to the fact that there's going to be a new players club at Rio and, as I've mentioned a number of times before, whenever there's new new players club. But there are definitely opportunities. We've seen great opportunities with mirage rock or a hard rock Taking over the players club program. You love that mirage rock yeah, that's gonna keep calling it that forever anyway with with hard rock taking over their program and their status matches and they're and they seem to really be engaging at Rio, engaging from the host level. I've heard of some friends who've you know hosts have reached out to them, who have transferred from some other very popular strip properties. But also the chief gaming officer From Rio, dreamscape, has been on the Vegas message board and he's been talking about how they're going to do it right With regard to gamblers. Another interesting thing he said in this post on the Vegas message board and it's definitely something you should check out is that Tier matching has ruined loyalty programs around the city and they're going to be more focused at Rio at matching offers and Giving a good gamble then, not necessarily just matching people's tier status or handing out top tier loyalty benefits, as he claims, which we all know someone you don't even know if they earned that status. Maybe they matched the status, so they're being a little bit, a little bit smarter about how they're approaching attracting gamblers. But I think it's definitely something that we're going to want to watch at Rio, in addition to the fact that renovations are underway and the there's gonna be a lot of work done on the property, but it's it's gonna be a while until it's all done. And some of the new rooms were recently showcased by Las Vegas locally. We also mentioned mentioned that showcase in one of the one of Meltzer's Vegas news on Travelzork, and they newly remodeled rooms in the Eponima Tower. I believe a few are starting to become ready and all of that tower is going to be done sometime in Q1 of next year nice.

Speaker 1: 7:36

So Really are they? Since you mentioned that, the the room renovations and what they're doing there, I remember that Rio, one of the biggest cells for Rio, what would they? What they compensated for as being separate from the strip, you know they had all suites, every room was a suite. Are they gonna be keeping that going forward?

Speaker 2: 8:00

absolutely, and the claim that Las Vegas locally mentioned on on their tweet was that they're designed to look like apartments near Eponima Beach in Rio de Janeiro. This is when we cue the girl from Eponima one of my favorite songs.

Speaker 2: 8:22

But but yes, it's still, and and this it's important to it's important to explain that Rio was one of the first properties called Rio all suites, and these were very large one bedroom suites, very large hotel rooms basically. And Because some people will argue it's not really a suite unless there's a separate door in a bedroom Mm-hmm, I don't know if that's necessarily true. And the other property on a strip that's known for suites is Venetian and Palazzo, yeah, which has a similar kind of concept with regard to room type. Where you have these large, these large suites. What Venetian and Palazzo was able to always do is some of the rooms, they were able to have a little bit of a Elevation, you know, between the living room area and the regular area, whereas Rio it's just, it's just one large room. So it'll be interesting to see. But what's cool about it is you still get a room with a great footprint, definitely One of the largest, one of the largest rooms in Las Vegas, even if you don't want to call it a suite.

Speaker 1: 9:25

Got it good to know now, before we get going. Is there any words you want to say to the, the folks at home?

Speaker 2: 9:32

Thank everyone for tuning in. We're sort of developing this format, having a lot of fun doing it. We want to sort of dive into a couple of news stories here and there, not always focusing on Vegas, but we definitely want to look at this whole comp Vegas Experience and also, you know where you know the things that you're interested in. We would love to hear about it because it's gonna Be rather timely. We definitely think it's super exciting or at least I do that you've got things happening at Mirage, you have things happening at Rio and, of course, we have fountain blue, the most difficult hotel in Las Vegas to spell.

Speaker 2: 10:15

That will be opening soon, which is true I and I think somebody said it I think somebody said it the other day, I think it was, it might have been a small whale on Twitter that basically said that's a tough, that's a tough name. It really is, and I'm pretty good with my spelling, but I always have to speak. Think about spelling fountain blue. So that will be, or a fontaine blue. That's exactly so. That's also, and we haven't even touched on some of the thoughts there, but we'll be coming up in a future episode because there's going to be a lot to talk about, and that's about all that's on my mind today.

Speaker 1: 10:52

Well, luxury travel, booking Travels or travel, visit us at travelsorktravelcom to plan your next amazing vacation. In addition to Travels or Travel, you can visit us at the Travels or website, which focuses on casino travel and casino experiences. We also have an engaging Facebook group where we talk a lot about travel and casino loyalty, as well as share experiences. Please join the conversation on social media. You can find us easily. All social platforms are at Travels or we'll see you next time.