New York woman gets WABC-TV (ABC 7) to shame Aria into refunding over $1700 in bogus hotel charges
Still trying to fully understand this story, but here it is:
From what I can tell, Marguerite Spagnuolo and her boyfriend/husband stayed 10 consecutive nights at the Aria during the 2019 WSOP. They got the 10 consecutive nights by pulling a check in/check out trick, where they would first use his comps, and then when those nights ran out, they'd check out and she'd check in on her comps (or vice-versa, it's not clear).
Marguerite had the foresight to go down and secretly record herself asking the front desk employee if everything was comped, and getting an affirmative answer. Making such secret recordings is legal in Nevada, as it's what's known as a "one party consent state".
Anyway, what happened from that point is unclear, but upon checkout they got a bill initially for like $2300, and ended up ultimately being charged over $1700, despite the promise that the rooms were comped.
She attempted to complain to various people at the hotel, including her host, and got nowhere. Eventually she took this to ABC 7, for their "7 On Your Side" segment (where they basically go to bat for screwed consumers), and Aria was shamed into giving them a "courtesy comp" and refunding the money.
However, I still didn't understand how all of this occurred in the first place.
I reached out to her on Twitter, and asked how this happened, and she told me this:
This still wasn't very clear to me, so I asked her to DM me more information, but she's apparently sleeping right now and hasn't received the message yet.
It does appear that the hotel stay was in her partner's name, and not hers.
In the meantime, I looked at some of the texts they flashed during the ABC 7 report.
One clearly shows the casino host texting, "The room only, the rest depends upon your play", which indeed would strongly imply that his room was comped regardless of how much he played.
However, another text from the host after the bill came stated, "They are investigating with the girl on front desk to see where did she read that all stay is comp, it was a note that per me only 3 nights are comps and I told you in the text the same thing, please look at previous texts."
So here the host is claiming that only 3 of the 10 nights were comped, and that previous texts indicated that. He seems to be insisting that the girl at the front desk simply got confused.
I am going to need more info here before deciding who was right and wrong in this matter.
I will say that it is highly unusual for a property to give someone 10 consecutive days of comp rooms without attaching it to play requirements. Usually the most you'll get promised is 5 nights. However, she did say that she was able to extend that by using her partner's comps followed by hers, which is actually allowed and not against hotel policy. However, for whatever reason, the Aria seemed to believe that only 3 of the 10 nights were comped, and there doesn't seem to be any kind of mid-stay checkout on the bill, so it really does appear that somehow Marguerite's partner believed he had all 10 nights comped.
Very confusing, and I'm still trying to figure it out.
In Aria's defense, I will say that you aren't entitled to 7 extra comp nights just because a front desk rep gets confused and accidentally agrees that you're getting that, if all other communication indicated 3 nights.
I need to see more information to determine what really happened here.
One thing to keep in mind is that you should not count on hosts to fix hotel billing issues. While you can get them to correct comp errors, once they refuse, the host is unlikely to help you, as they are not working in hotel customer service, and any "fix it" comps have to be play-justified to their boss.
Therefore, when shit like this happens, you need to reach the hotel general manager, NOT your host. Many players make this mistake, figuring that the host is their point of contact and the person who "takes care" of them.
I'll post more info as I get it. Maybe I'll even have her on radio if she wants to come on later today.
