21'er at Marquee for Gareth Emery - Vegas Virgins

[dorsia]

Hey all,

Four of my buddies and I are gonna be heading down to Vegas the weekend of April 4th-7th for my friends 21'er. We are all recently 21 and have never been to Vegas before. We are staying at the Cosmopolitan in a wraparound terrace suite and have a confirmed reservation for bottle service at Marquee the night of the 5th for Gareth Emery.

So for now we have two bottles taken care of to cover the $1200 minimum and I am wondering how much should we expect to bring for tipping? What is the etiquette like there? Do we tip the bouncer or hosts in cash? What about tipping security? Are we allowed to give out drinks to girls and bring them to the table? Can we pour our own drinks or do we let the waitresses do that and tip them?

For getting into the club, is our cover waived? What time should we expect to get there? I've been reading through some forums and the site and saw that we can contact the hosts at the clubs beforehand. Is that something we should think about doing?

Also, being some of the younger people in the club, will we be treated any differently than say older customers who have more expendable cash? I don't just look like complete douches not knowing how the Vegas club scene works and I want to treat the staff with respect.

I know this is A LOT of info, but I want the night to go as smoothly as possible. We will also be doing the same at XS the next night for Martin Solveig and I'm assuming it will be pretty similar.

Hopefully if all goes smoothly, it should be a pretty epic weekend! Thanks in advance for any responses, I really appreciate it!

[Jhaulotte]

I would arrive pretty early in hopes of getting the best location possible, maybe 1030 or so. If youre getting a table you wont have to pay a cover, just meet up with a host and they will walk you in. You guys can pour your own drinks and pour them for girls all night long, there your bottles.

[ocam]

Your post is a little confusing because you say you have bottle service with a 2 bottle min, but then ask whether you should contact a host? How have you booked your table? Online through some table reservation form request?

For 5 people, I would tip:
*$100-200 to your host (or the person that seats you if not the host)
*$50-100 to the the security guard patrolling your area
*$20-30 to the busboy
*$0 to the server (your 20% auto gratutity goes primarily to her)
*$0 to the bouncers outside the club (you have bottle service and don't need to tip the bouncer like you would if you were GA)

Make sure just one person in your group does the tipping, so you don't end up each tipping the same people.

You will not pay cover, since you have a table - just get in the bottle service line. If you have a host (i.e. you haven't just booked through some online booking form), then message/call your host when you get there and ask them to walk you in.

If you have a host, then you should get in touch with him and tell him your proposed tip, so you can swing the best table your tip can buy (bigger the tip, better the table - but you have to get there early before the best tables are gone).

You can bring girls to your table and pour them drinks; or you can ask your security guard (if you've tipped him well) to go and pull some girls to the table. I've never had a problem pouring my own drink / drinks for girls.

Cash is king. You have paid for a table and will get premium service. I can't see what issues you'd have with other, more wealthy patrons, even if they were paying more?

[Chali2Na]

Also, being some of the younger people in the club, will we be treated any differently than say older customers who have more expendable cash? I don't just look like complete douches not knowing how the Vegas club scene works and I want to treat the staff with respect.

Don't worry about what other people are doing. If you spend your night thinking "damn, I wish I was that guy", you won't have fun. Honestly, I can't remember a single time going to a club where I even noticed what was going on at another table. I'm in my own little world.

In the end, if you tip your host well, tip the runner, tip security, are courteous to the waitress (which means engaging her in conversation at appropriate moments), you can't be any more douchey than some trust fund jackoff with a dance floor table who nobody in the club likes serving.

Also, the folks at Marquee aren't interested in treating you as "lesser" customers, because it goes beyond the interaction that night. If you have a bad experience, then you'll tell your friends, who might not want to go to Marquee in the future. That's future business a host might miss out on. Sure, maybe the Sultan of Brunei isn't one of those friends, but hosts very much appreciate repeat business and referrals. It's all part of the game.

[dorsia]

Thanks for the quick responses guys. To clarify, I'm not the one who booked the table and was just wondering out of curiosity about the host. It makes sense ocam that he would have contacted a host already.

For the tipping, you say one person should take care of it? I assume you mean whoever threw down the credit card for the table. For tipping the host, security, and bus boy, I assume that's cash? Do we just give it to them or include it when we receive the final bill?

[ocam]

Thanks for the quick responses guys. To clarify, I'm not the one who booked the table and was just wondering out of curiosity about the host. It makes sense ocam that he would have contacted a host already.

For the tipping, you say one person should take care of it? I assume you mean whoever threw down the credit card for the table. For tipping the host, security, and bus boy, I assume that's cash? Do we just give it to them or include it when we receive the final bill?

It doesn't need to be the one who put down for the table. What I mean is that just have 1 person tip on behalf of the group (i.e. so the same person doesn't get tipped 3 times by different people in your group). Just get each guy to contribute 1/5th of the estimated tip amount before you walk into the club. And yes, tip in cash - unfortunately they don't walk around with credit card swipe machines ahah Give it to them when you first meet them - in your hand while you shake theirs (not too sly, cos it's not like this is a drug deal). Have a read of my post here for some general nightclub bottle service hints: http://forums.jackcolton.com/showthr...678#post202678 (scroll up & down for some other posts that might be useful to you)

I'd tell your friend to contact the host and see whether they could do a table in x location for a $y tip (you have to know where you want to sit, and also how much you're willing to tip the host)

[dorsia]

Okay that makes sense, thanks man. Again, we have never been there before so I don't know where to sit. We're big edm fans and are stoked for Gareth Emery. We're not looking to drop a ton of cash just to be right on the floor, but where would you recommend to really enjoy the show that's reasonably priced at Marquee? (for the amount of tip you suggested above)

[artedm]

dorsia-
Since you have never been to vegas before I think you should keep in mind that XS and Marquee are the two biggest highest grossing nightclubs in the world right now. Translation: "Dance floor" tables for typical Friday and Saturday night are probably around $7500-$10,000. crowd size passing thru is probably over 5,000
(Calvin Harris had over 10,000 people pass thru this past Saturday at Surrender)

For a 2 bottle min $1000-1200 your probably going to be OUTSIDE. Probably not even able to see the DJ.

I just don't want you to be all excited and then when your walking in you walk thru the club to the outside patio and the host says here is your table and you guys are like WTF.

Have a look at the XS and Marquee table floorplans then have your friend call and ask like where is our table going to be then go from there. If its a crap table location just do entry.

Some plan to think on:
Thursday night you can get deals on bottles b1g1 or cheap entry $20 into a club-maybe Tao.
Free limo/free entry strip club.
Friday pool parties will be open/ Friday night your hotel key should get you free entry to Gareth
Saturday opening of Encore Beach Club at Wynn with Guetta/ Martin Solveig at xs
Sunday opening of Wet Republic at MGM Grand with Calvin Harris/ Redfoo at xs

Not saying you shouldn't do bottle service/ get some kind of daybed at a pool party- just have an idea of the table location!

[dorsia]

Thanks for the insight artedm, I had a feeling that being close to the stage would be a little out of our price range - makes total sense to me. We definitely don't have the budget to afford 10k for a night, so we won't be getting our hopes up too much! All in all we're looking to have the best time on our budget and from what I'm seeing with the responses here, I don't think it will be too much of a problem!

How far does tipping your host / contacting the host early and proposing said tip get you? Say for instance we were to tip the host around 150-200 when we get there? and is it even worth it to do that if we were to be sat outside...? Where would you recommend we say we would like to be sat given our tipping budget?

[artedm]

dorsia-
Have a look at this table price chart for XS on NYE
http://www.vegashotelhunt.com/blog/w...xs-nye2012.jpg
NYE is the most expensive day of the year so prices are probably 2-3x higher then normal.

Have a talk with your host and ask how much it is to be inside. Its probably going to be double the cost and I don't think your going to find a host who is going to give inside vs outside table for $200 tip.
That being said its worth thinking about do you want to spend $1500-$1700 outside vs $3000+ inside vs $200 $50x4 for entry.
But talk with the host see what they are thinking...

[ccc]

If you're budget is tight you might get more mileage out of a daybed at a pool party.

[dorsia]

I think we're still gonna go for it and maybe throw in a little more cash to see where that gets us. Honestly, being that we have never partied in Vegas, I think it will still be fun - even if we are sitting outside. I heard the patio is really nice as well so I think were just gonna say **** it and do it haha.

A question about bottle service - I'm assuming they are all 1.75L bottles. How fast does that generally vanish on a typical night if we have 5 dudes? My buddies and I are pretty strong drinkers, but two will definitely be a stretch between just the five of us. I see us giving out some of it to girls and the like as well.

If we were to finish the bottle, would it be more beneficial to order another (probably the cheapest one) or can we ask the waitresses to bring us drinks from the bar?

[ccc]

The standard size in Vegas is 1L. 1.75l are magnums and usually double the price of the standard bottle. The server will get drinks from the bar for you if you don't want another bottle.

[dorsia]

thanks man, I appreciate it.

[Chali2Na]

I think we're still gonna go for it and maybe throw in a little more cash to see where that gets us. Honestly, being that we have never partied in Vegas, I think it will still be fun - even if we are sitting outside. I heard the patio is really nice as well so I think were just gonna say **** it and do it haha.

A question about bottle service - I'm assuming they are all 1.75L bottles. How fast does that generally vanish on a typical night if we have 5 dudes? My buddies and I are pretty strong drinkers, but two will definitely be a stretch between just the five of us. I see us giving out some of it to girls and the like as well.

If we were to finish the bottle, would it be more beneficial to order another (probably the cheapest one) or can we ask the waitresses to bring us drinks from the bar?

Get two 1L bottles of vodka, and you'll be fine. Magnums are actually a rip-off (technically). They're usually just double the price of a liter, but not as much alcohol as two liters. They just look cool because they're giant bottles, so that's really what you're paying for. Back in the days when everything was based on bottle minimums, magnums counted as two bottles though (at least, it did in a lot of places).