Do
those line passes, coupons, and “VIP access” purchases
really work in Las Vegas nightclubs?
So you’ve
been sifting through the internet looking at information on Las
Vegas nightclubs, and now you’re wondering if you should
buy one of those “line-passes” that will supposedly
whisk you straight past the two hour line for an amazingly low
price? I get this question all the time, and unfortunately the
odds of this actually working at any of the top clubs in town
aren’t that good.
Sites like Vegas.com
are absolutely amazing when it comes to the sales process on show
tickets and in providing general information about Las Vegas,
but they have been struggling for years to come up with a way
to make working with Las Vegas nightclubs a smooth and profitable
process. So far, as our nightlife industry becomes even more lucrative
and the lines of people waiting to get in keep getting longer,
they seem to be getting further from making that a reality. Successful
clubs must have a certain level of discretion at the door (limiting
the entrance of large groups of males, letting in the crowd with
the right look, etc), and anyone attempting to blindly sell no-wait
access (to the more popular clubs) over the internet will ultimately
have their customers often running into the same problems that
they were trying to avoid in the first place – lines.
All of the
doorman I’ve spoken to on the matter have basically covered
themselves by saying “it is our policy to try and honor
those things, but a lot of the time there isn’t much we
can do.” So in the end, while the cashier will certainly
use your receipt so that you don’t pay cover again (which
will be the same price you paid online), there is absolutely no
guarantee that purchasing a line pass will actually allow you
to skip the line. Especially at any of the top
clubs on their busy weekend nights. In these situations, you
might find yourself better off tipping
the doorman, or simply hiring an independent VIP hosting company
to walk your group past the line.
What
about those Vegas Passport packages?
Another big
seller online, both directly and through resellers, is the Vegas
Passport package. For about $120 they will give you a very
well-designed book that has loads of passes to the majority of
the clubs in Las Vegas as well as a number of coupons to local
restaurants. I get asked all the time if this book is worth buying,
and at the end of the day it all comes down to what you expect
to get out of it. If you are looking to walk up to any of the
actual top clubs in town
on a weekend night and get whisked past the line without
paying cover, it probably isn’t going to happen. You can
look at the venues offered and the nightly restrictions to see
that nearly all of them are clubs on nights without terribly long
lines to begin with. But if you are planning on club-hopping to
a lot of the smaller clubs on the Strip, or to the bigger ones
offered on their slower nights, then this might be a
worthwhile investment as you will have covered the cost of the
book just after a few times of not paying cover (a few times as
in four, and that’s assuming you couldn’t get on the
guest list via the NapkinNights.com guest
list area).
So while I
wouldn’t go so far as to say this is a great way to “skip
the line and be VIP,” it could be a solid way to save money
on cover charges if you plan on bouncing around to at least four
of the clubs featured within the package on the nights that they
are able to do anything for you.
What’s
the deal with the passes actually issued by the clubs?
A couple of
years ago nearly every club in town would print off hundreds of
thousands of promotional passes that would guarantee everything
from no wait, to no cover, to God himself coming down from the
heavens and getting you past the line (ok, maybe not). But as
nightlife in Las Vegas has evolved, most clubs have completely
stopped printing off these coupons, and those that do typically
don’t offer a whole lot with them any more.
If you happen
to run across one of these passes online (or by some scruffy dude
carrying a bottle of jack daniels on the Strip trying to sell
you one), don’t treat it as anything more than possibly
a way to pay less when you actually get to the cashier. If there
is a line, you probably won’t be skipping it as you’ve
only got a coupon….that doesn’t make you a VIP (in
spite of what the pass might imply).
And, for that
matter, make sure that it is even a valid pass in the first place.
There probably will be restrictions printed on the pass that will
range from it not being valid on holiday weekends, only being
good before a certain time, only to be used by those lacking a
penis, and of course the dreaded "management reserves all
rights" which means they can choose to not accept it for
any reason they feel fit. A right in which, many use often.
