Station Casinos Loves Locals? I Don’t Think So.

When Station Casinos launched their “We Love Locals” campaign they ran full page ads in the local papers for a couple of months. Since then they’ve also launched a website.

My question is, “Why should we believe you?”

It’s interesting that in speaking to friends and colleagues, I have yet to run into someone who doesn’t roll their eyes and utter a, “Sure they do!” comment when I bring it up.  And it doesn’t seem to matter if they have an experience of one of the properties as a gambler or when visiting a restaurant or other entertainment on site.

Our own experience was enough to launch us on a quest for a new place to go for our Sunday brunches:

We were in habit of visiting the buffet a couple of times a month. On the receipt was an request for us to complete their customer survey.  In return they would give us a ‘buy one, get one free’ code for our next buffet visit.

We would complete the survey, get our code, and use it the next time we wen for our Sunday brunch.

On our final visit, the cashier gave us back our receipt and said management had stopped that offer and it was no longer valid.

Mind you, there was nothing on the receipt about an expiration date, not a note about management reserving the right to change it’s mind without notice.

The Buffet manager responded to us with shrugged shoulders and an, “Oh, well.”

Any complaints we made went unheeded.  We stopped going AND we shared our experience with anyone who would listen.  Plus we found another place to go for our brunches (More on that later).

That was a couple of years ago.  More recently, a business colleague wanted to go to the buffet at Red Rock for lunch.  I thought, “Okay.  It’s been a while.  Station Casinos has gone through some rough times.  Maybe they’ve changed.”  WRONG!

We arrived for lunch and went to the back of a short line.  The dining area, clearly visible from where we stood, was fairly empty.  We stood 30 minutes waiting to pay for our meal. This is how you show locals you love them.

Even the wait staff, all doing their best, had trouble with service and smiles.  Likely a trickle down.  (I saw what looked like the same manager walking the floor while we were there. )

There’s a massive disconnect here.  If, in fact, loving locals was a truth for Station Casinos, we’d hear more raving fans actually raving, vs customers like us who will only be dragged back in under protest.

There are too many choices for people here in Las Vegas for businesses not to be paying attention the the messages they send and the experiences of their customers.  I choose to vote with my dollars – someplace other than a Station Casino property.