Thursday, May 06, 2010

MGM to Improve Players Club

MGM will improve their current loyalty program according to today's earnings conference call. The new Players Club will be tiered, will track all consumer spending (not just gaming), and will be more transparent and easier to use.

This is great news because the old system didn't make much sense at all to me. You would get points but never be sure how to redeem them or how much they are worth. Also it never seemed that playing would improve your hotel rates outside of a few selected mailers.

With Harrah's Total Rewards everything is right in front of you in terms of what you've earned and what you need to earn to reach a certain status. Harrah's also has everything linked to their website, so you can just log on to see what rooms you can get for what price depending on your play.

I'm not saying Harrah's is perfect. Certain things about them leave a lot to be desired, but at least Total Rewards is easy to use. MGM probably has better properties, but in the past I would lean towards Harrah's because it seems like it is easier to get free or cheap rooms using Total Rewards. Maybe with MGM's new system that might change, and both rewards programs will be on a more even playing field.