# M casino



## spatenfloot (Oct 2, 2009)

For those with a car or don't mind a cab ride, I'd recommend you try the M casino next time. It is south of the strip but not a long drive, just down from South Point. It is a nice place with newer slots and good food. They even had $5 craps table which is a nice change from the strip. Self service soft drinks too. It is a classy place, but not pretentious.


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## DeniseM (Oct 2, 2009)

Is this in Las Vegas?


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## ricoba (Oct 2, 2009)

DeniseM said:


> Is this in Las Vegas?



Yes and No.  It's Las Vegas metro, but I think it's actually in the City of Henderson.

It's just off the I 15 south of Vegas, easily visible from the freeway as you come into Vegas from CA.


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## BevL (Oct 2, 2009)

Here's their website for directions, etc.

I think I remember seeing this place.  Next time we go to Vegas we really must rent a car although I see something about a shuttle service.

http://www.themresort.com/


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## Fern Modena (Oct 2, 2009)

Yes it's in Las Vegas.  It is at the SE corner of Las Vegas Blvd and St. Rose Parkway.  If you are driving from California, you'd get off I-15 at St. Rose.

Here's my personal take on The M.  Its my closest casino, the next one being South Point, and the next after that Green Valley Ranch.  When Anthony Marnell opened The M, he had a lot of promotions for Sun City Anthem,  He really tried to be accommodating.  There were a lot of problems, not enough help, etc., but that seems to have evened out.  I've never won much money there.  Their restaurants are at Strip prices, although there are a few "senior specials"  in the coffee shop.  The buffet is very good, but they have had trouble keeping up with the people.  Items are often in need of replenishing.  They *do* have free wine with dinner if that floats your boat.  They don't have any amenities other than the Spa and a drug store (which you can shop at with points).  It is nice to look at inside, but I don't seem to win there.

South Point is my place of choice.  Besides the casino, where I have a better win record, they have bingo, bowling, movie theaters ($3. for seniors with club card during the day) and reasonably priced restaurants.  My granddaughter and her boyfriend often go to the sportsbook on weekends, and they rave about the burgers at the deli.  They say they are huge and tasty (course, it is hard to get a bad burger in Vegas, if you stay away from fast food).  The buffet is middle of the road, low priced, and has a Mongolian BBQ station.  The Silverado Steakhouse is well priced, and steaks come with salads and potatoes.  There is a good Mexican Restaurant, with a Margarita Bar right outside (often $1. 'ritas on Fridays), a coffee shop which also serves Chinese, and more.

Some people like one thing, others something else, so why not try them both?

Fern


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## ScoopKona (Oct 2, 2009)

I still go to M occasionally for their dinner buffet. All you can drink beer and wine, good sushi selection, easy to get your money's worth.


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## SunSand (Oct 2, 2009)

When we were in Las Vegas last week, we became huge fans of the M Resort.  My wife and I loved the buildings atmosphere and the food.  The buffet food quality is terrific, and the price includes wine and beer.  We also loved their deserts and pastries, they have a bakery where you can buy individual pastries to take back to the condo.  We just thought the whole building was well designed and it had a great vibe.  Maybe its because I won money at the M Resort and got killed everywhere else?   All casinos seem to look the same, but this one was a cut above.  If you're staying in the far south strip area, its worth a stop.

JT


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## MULTIZ321 (Oct 3, 2009)

In a different Tug thread about Las Vegas Strip Hotels - the M Hotel and Resort Casino was mentioned as a possibility to consider as a location to stay.

A comment was posted to be alert to the fact that if you decide to stay at the M Hotel and Resort, a $25 per night Resort Fee is added to your bill


Richard


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## JeffW (Oct 3, 2009)

I'd also add that I think the M buffet is very good.   I think you get $2 off if you have one of their player cards.

Not sure how they are doing with hotel stays, as that $25/nt resort fee is just nasty.

Jeff


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## Elli (Oct 3, 2009)

ScoopLV said:


> I still go to M occasionally for their dinner buffet. All you can drink beer and wine, good sushi selection, easy to get your money's worth.


We were there just recently for their lunch buffet - I didn't think we got our money's worth, and I didn't see beer or wine included in the lunch buffet.


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## MULTIZ321 (Oct 3, 2009)

Elli said:


> We were there just recently for their lunch buffet - I didn't think we got our money's worth, and I didn't see beer or wine included in the lunch buffet.



From the M Resort Studio B Show Kitchen Buffet website - Choose from over 200 dishes daily - Beer and Wine included with Lunch and Dinner


Richard


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## mrsstats (Oct 3, 2009)

We were there for lunch about 2 weeks ago.  The wine is at the end of the buffet line.  I loved the buffet.  Think it was one of the best we had while we were there.  Even with paying full price.


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## John Cummings (Oct 5, 2009)

MULTIZ321 said:


> A comment was posted to be alert to the fact that if you decide to stay at the M Hotel and Resort, a $25 per night Resort Fee is added to your bill.
> 
> Richard



Charging a resort fee is becoming a fairly common practice at many casino hotels. Usually they range from $5-15 /nt. with $12-15 being the most common. The resort fee is nothing but a gimmick so the casino hotels can advertise lower rates. The resort fee is not optional. It includes free valet parking, use of pool etc. which are normal at all the casino hotels so just think of it as adding to the nightly rate for the room.


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## Bill4728 (Oct 5, 2009)

Resort fee = use of the pools and valet parking??

It does sound like resort fee is just a stupid way of saying our nightly stay price is too low, so will charge you this fee for things you should be getting free anyway.


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## JeffW (Oct 5, 2009)

Stolen from a flyertalk.com post:

Orleans charges a $5.00 per room, per night resort fee, which covers the cost of unlimited local and 800 calls, gym access, 10 minutes of free internet daily in the business center and in-suite coffee.

(Before the resort fee, they had public access internet free).   If you use all of these services, then yeah, it's cheaper than the previous 'ala carte' prices.  However, my guess is there's no significant increase in usage of these, so they're probably pocketing a lot of extra income with little to not extra outlay in costs.

Jeff


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## John Cummings (Oct 5, 2009)

Bill4728 said:


> Resort fee = use of the pools and valet parking??
> 
> It does sound like resort fee is just a stupid way of saying our nightly stay price is too low, so will charge you this fee for things you should be getting free anyway.



You are absolutely correct. We stayed 4 nights at the Agua Caliente Casino Resort in Rancho Mirage, California 3 weeks ago. They charge a $12.00 resort fee. They told me at check-in that it was just a gimmick so they could advertise a lower room rate. They comped me for everything so took the fee off. The Station Casinos Alliante Casino hotel in North Las Vegas charges a $15.00 resort fee and told me the same thing last May.


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## JeffW (Oct 5, 2009)

Really no different from airlines listing prices based on "one way travel, taxes and fees not included", or more recently, unbundling the cost of baggage, preferred seating, etc.  My assumption is that perhaps more than ever, there are a lot of travellers who strictly make choices based on lowest price returned by a search engine.  The higher up on the list (lower price) you can get, the more customers you're likely to attract.

Jeff


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## Bob B (Oct 7, 2009)

We stopped over at the M on Monday for breakfast and surprise surprise, they no longer serve the breakfast buffet.  They had a small version in the coffee shop, similar to a standard hotel buffet for $10.  The food was good but there wasn't much to choose from.  The hotel/casino seemed extremely empty.  This reminded me of the old Resort at Summerlin, which then became the JW Marriott (I think) and now is the Rampart(?).  The M was a beautiful place but I get the feeling they are tanking, based on the lack of people.


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## JeffW (Oct 8, 2009)

I'm both surprised and not.  Surprised, because M has a very good buffet, and I didn't think that expensive a price.  Not surprised, because dinner buffet can pull in locals, whereas I guess breakfast is probably just for tourists.  At least Red Rock Casino and Green Valley Ranch, both casinos built way away from the Strip, I think had decent local housing around, that they can pull from that when tourists don't want to venture that far away.  M Resort I know has a lot of recently built housing developments near it, but I don't think they are as well to do, so maybe people without as much discretionary spending.

Maybe M needs to try the Red Rock promotion - offer a buy one get one free coupon every day, for every meal.  We took advantage of that when we were in Vegas in April, and was a little surprised it was still in effect in August.

Jeff


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## John Cummings (Oct 8, 2009)

Eliminating breakfast buffets is not uncommon, for the casinos frequented mostly by locals. I have also seen some casinos that have closed their lunch and/or dinner buffets on certain days of the week, etc. They lose a lot of money on a buffet if they don't get enough business.


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## JeffW (Oct 8, 2009)

When I emailed the news to my brother in law (we vacation with his family in Las Vegas annual), he had a good suggestion - maybe M should drop the cost of there resort fee. 

Assuming a casino pulls most it's breakfast guests from people staying on the property, maybe them closing breakfast is a sign that their occupancy rates are not doing well.  In August, they were advertising nightly room rates for less than $40.  However, I'd wager that the market that price is attracting is not too keen on a $25/night resort fee tacked (could make them wonder, what else will I get nickled and dimed about).  I'd speculate that a flat nightly rate of about $60 might do better.

Jeff


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## John Cummings (Oct 8, 2009)

The $40 rate is more likely to initially attract people to their web site. There are many web sites for Las Vegas that list the hotels with their rates. You usually don't find out about the resort fee until you are in the booking process.

I did actually test out the M web site. They had no availability for mid-week in October. I then tried November mid-week and they have availability starting at $100 /nt but it shows that there were $0.00 for fees. I did not see any resort fee.


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## BevL (Oct 22, 2009)

Travelzoo is featuring a special for this hotel.  $89 for weekends and $59 for weekdays, includes shuttle from the airport and when I clicked through, it didn't show any resort fees.

Here's a link if anyone wants to try it out for a night or two:

http://hotels.travelzoo.com/las-vegas-hotels/673914


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## ricoba (Oct 22, 2009)

BevL said:


> Travelzoo is featuring a special for this hotel.  $89 for weekends and $59 for weekdays, includes shuttle from the airport and when I clicked through, it didn't show any resort fees.
> 
> Here's a link if anyone wants to try it out for a night or two:
> 
> http://hotels.travelzoo.com/las-vegas-hotels/673914



I would still ask the hotel directly about the resort fee before booking through a consolidator like travel zoo...

In my view that $25 per night at the M kills it for me, considering I can get the Golden Nugget for $39 per night, the Fremont for $30(or less) and comped at the Orleans.


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## John Cummings (Oct 22, 2009)

ricoba said:


> I would still ask the hotel directly about the resort fee before booking through a consolidator like travel zoo...
> 
> In my view that $25 per night at the M kills it for me, considering I can get the Golden Nugget for $39 per night, the Fremont for $30(or less) and comped at the Orleans.



Travelzoo, like BookingBuddy is NOT a consolidator. You don't book anything through them. What they do is search the Internet for the best deals being offered from Hotels, airlines, etc. I have subscribed to both Travelzoo and BookingBuddy for a few years. They e-mail a list of the best deals ( typically 20 deals ) for airlines, hotels, etc. to their subscribers. It is a free service to the public.

When you click on each deal, they provide a link to get more info or book it which is typically the hotel's or airline's official web site. In this case with the "M" the link is directly to the M's official web site where you actually book it.

The rates you quote are fine but I would never stay at any of those places. The Golden Nugget is OK but I will never stay downtown. I have been there, seen it, and done it. I wouldn't stay at the M neither because of the location. In any event I don't pay anything for Las vegas hotels so it is academic to me. I am not implying you are wrong. I am simply saying that most visitors to Las Vegas prefer the strip.


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