Question about nightclub's 'line'.

[Isagar]

Hi guys, kind of a newbie here with nightlife. I have a few questions that I can't seem to understand.

1. Regarding waiting in line, I see on a club description 'avg waiting time 45 min - 3 hrs' etc. My first question is, by the end of a busy night (friday/saturday etc), does everyone waiting in line eventually all get in? Or will there always be people left out on busy nights?

2. What are the actual reasonings behind such long wait times (2-3 hrs)? Is it because the club purposely slow down the entry to give it a sense of exclusiveness? Or is it that's just the speed they operate at (checking Ids etc)?

3. Last but not least, I know one of the most common way to skip past the line is to handshake the doorman. I know different nights will have different prices for a walk thru, but will this method 'always' work no matter how busy the night?

[maxutilsperusd]

1. It really depends on the number of people in the line. Given enough patience, most people would eventually make it in, but many people give up long before the amount of time it might actually take to get through a longer line. A lot of clubs in Vegas hit capacity on a regular basis. Then it becomes a situation of one-out, one-in.

2. Both of those are possible reasons for a slow line. A line is free advertising of a venues popularity, yet not having people in the club means not having those people buying drinks in the club, so there isn't much of a reason to artificially slow entrance to create a line passed a certain point. Checking IDs does take time and depending on the club they might have a limited staff for this purpose, but the largest factor would be whether or not they are at capacity and looking at the one-out, one-in situation.

3. Relying on the doorman is not the best plan at all. You can sometimes do that, but you are leaving your entire situation in someone else's hands. A host will typically do a walk-in for the price of the GA ticket + $20, this can be confirmed before going, and is a much more reliable method. Pre-sale tickets are usually cheaper than GA tickets and will have a shorter line in most cases, although a couple of clubs are currently not giving priority to pre-sale tickets but allowing you to pay an additional fee to enter a shorter line. This new practice is highly controversial and limited to the Wynn/Encore venues as of now, so if you are going to any other properties pre-sale tickets are also a viable option for getting in faster.

[artedm]

no one likes waiting in line
if you plan it right you should not be waiting in line or just have a short line.
General admission lines in vegas are always usually a disaster.

[Dyur21]

I had huge success with presale tickets on a trip a month ago, little or no line to wait in. Each time we showed up before 11:30 (1:00 for day) and virtually walked right in. Compared to previous trips this made the experience 100 times better. This did require some degree of planning ahead of the trip.

The news that Wynn/Encore properties are not giving priority access to presales is concerning. If grouping presales with the GA line became a general practice presales would have zero benefit aside from getting you a somewhat cheaper price; if that is the case I think presales would go away because the the $$ benefit woudl not outweigh the benefit of being free to choose your night as you go. I do think that I read on the Wynn/Encore website that hotel guests get priority access to get into XS and Surrender, not sure if that is true or not.

[Isagar]

Thanks for the reply guys, I do have a few additional questions now.

Firstly, being from Australia and never been to the US, the idea of a 'host' is very new to me. I'm not aware we have such service here down under. Is it something unique to vegas club's/high end clubs?
Also, assuming if I am going to handshake the doorman, should I always go to the head doorman? Or is any able to do?

Secondly, regarding the 'one in, one out' rule, like in Australia for example, people could go outside of the club to have a smoke or such etc and then be able to come back in, is that not the case with Vegas? Like when you exit the club you're out and have to que up again?

[artedm]

1. you want to have something arranged before hand either presale ticket or a have contact info for someone. It really also depends on the club/event/ if its a holiday weekend or not in terms of how busy it will be.
2. you can smoke in vegas clubs

Thanks for the reply guys, I do have a few additional questions now.

Firstly, being from Australia and never been to the US, the idea of a 'host' is very new to me. I'm not aware we have such service here down under. Is it something unique to vegas club's/high end clubs?
Also, assuming if I am going to handshake the doorman, should I always go to the head doorman? Or is any able to do?

Secondly, regarding the 'one in, one out' rule, like in Australia for example, people could go outside of the club to have a smoke or such etc and then be able to come back in, is that not the case with Vegas? Like when you exit the club you're out and have to que up again?