RANT: What is with Hotel arcades?

mhkohne

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I don't take too much time to hunt down machines 'in the wild' as it were, but if they present themselves, I will often drop in a few quarters. Over the weekend I was in Ocean City Maryland and stayed at the Grand Hotel. It's a bloody nice place. Nice lobby, great rooms (efficiencies - little fridge, microwave) good rates (because it's off season - during the summer, I can't afford to stay there), clean, nice view of the beach, right on the boardwalk. Overall, an excellent hotel.

We take the kids down to the game room (on the way to the pool area) and my son wants to play a game. The change machine is out of order, and the front desk has no quarters to give. Grammy finally finds a few and so does my wife. After 4 or 5 quarters, they manage to rack up 3 credits and he plays (yea, it took quarters but didn't always register credits. Nice).

We have a quick look around and of 6 or so videos and 3 pins, and I'm thinking that trying to rustle up quarters to put into the rest is a waste of money. (One pin had a bad DMD, another didn't look like the lights were working, etc, etc).

Why the HELL doesn't the OP TAKE CARE OF THIS SHIT! I mean, really, you can't keep the CHANGE MACHINE full and working? It's FALL. The place isn't more than 20% full, even at the lowered rates they charge. And the equipment is allowed to stand dead?

HOW THE HELL DO YOU EXPECT TO MAKE MONEY IF THE GEAR DOESN'T WORK!

I know I don't know anything about operating arcades in the field, but dammit, if you aren't going to have them working, why have them on location at all? What's the point of being in the business, if you aren't going to do business?
 
It's FALL. The place isn't more than 20% full, even at the lowered rates they charge. And the equipment is allowed to stand dead?

This is a good bet as the cause. It's off-season, so the op/management/whoever goes "well, we're only losing a little money, it's not like there's a ton of people, I'll get to it next week". That or the OP is so overloaded by all the machines on their route that got busted during peak they haven't quite gotten to that location yet.
 
mhkohne not sure if you've ever gone, but if you go to Qmart in Quakertown, there's actually a decent little arcade there! In fact, I'd almost say the arcade was almost the nicest place in the building (really redneck farmers market).

Zerns up in Gilbertsville has some interesting games, some of which are for sale, but a lot of them are beat.
 
mhkohne not sure if you've ever gone, but if you go to Qmart in Quakertown, there's actually a decent little arcade there! In fact, I'd almost say the arcade was almost the nicest place in the building (really redneck farmers market).

Zerns up in Gilbertsville has some interesting games, some of which are for sale, but a lot of them are beat.

Yes, I've been to both (we go every month or two). I've been very pleased that Quakertown's equipment is always functional - I usually drop a few quarters in their pins when I'm there, and the kids always play something.

Zern's is neat, but yea, some of their stuff is pretty beat. Last time I was in, it mostly seemed to play, but the pin we were playing had some bad digits on one of the player displays, making it hard to figure out how bad my wife beat me. I was sad to see that their red tent is gone - I had noticed it before, and I wanted to play it now that I know a little more about them.
 
It could also be that because the hotel is on the boardwalk, the games aren't used that much. There are 3-4 huge arcades within a 10 minute walk of the hotel (although I'm not sure if they're still open now with the offseason). These games might not get that much attention from users due to the proximity of those arcades.

It's also possible that the hotel owns the games and that the hotel is the op?
 
The op might also be simply using the hotel as free storage.

If not, then it is probably just because it is off season. Replacing a DMD could set the op back $150 + labor. That machine probably doesn't make that much all year! This is a big reason why pins have disappeared from routes - they don't make enough to justify maintenance.
 
I used to work for an operator that had a several hotel 'arcades' on my route. We would do routine service once a week, and also go if someone from the hotel staff called in a problem. The main reason most of these games break, or appear to be neglected is that most of these 'game rooms' are unsupervised, and parents let their lil' bastards use the games as a jungle gym. I can't tell you the number of times I've seen them just dump the kids off in the room, while mommy and daddy go have some alone time. Oh, and they would dump them off without giving them any money, expecting all the games to be on free play, or, God forbid, expect either us or the hotel staff to just throw quarters at them. So what did they do? Well, hanging on a steering wheel seems to be the most popular activity, followed closely by a good game of "how many times can I smash this Happ gun against the cabinet before it breaks". Rounding out a solid third was "hey, let's see what we can shove in the coin slot to get free games". I understand that there are some hotels that maintain (or lack there of) their own games, but the number one thing that needs to be done is keep them supervised. We tried to explain this to all of them, and they just told us it would be too expensive to put a camera in there, or at least have one of the managers pass through there once an hour. So, we started charging them extra per service call that wasn't scheduled. Some got the hint, and the vandalism problems magically disappeared.
 
So what did they do? Well, hanging on a steering wheel seems to be the most popular activity, followed closely by a good game of "how many times can I smash this Happ gun against the cabinet before it breaks". Rounding out a solid third was "hey, let's see what we can shove in the coin slot to get free games".

Very true, also applies to campgrounds and laundromats, for the most part.

So, we started charging them extra per service call that wasn't scheduled. Some got the hint, and the vandalism problems magically disappeared.[/QUOTE]

And some just threw the op out.
 
I don't take too much time to hunt down machines 'in the wild' as it were, but if they present themselves, I will often drop in a few quarters. Over the weekend I was in Ocean City Maryland and stayed at the Grand Hotel.

What were you doing in OC this time of year? It's cold outside. I have seen neglected machines in every hotel I have stayed in accept one that was in orland FL. Those cabs were pristine. The others from the past were non working,food spilled on them and anything else you could think of. Shame
 
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When I used to do service calls for a couple hotels, I can tell you in all honesty, the hotels make no money.

The hotels I serviced owned all of the machines, and they consider it a money pit, but it is considered another 'luxury' like the pool or the continental breakfast. The hotel won't call me out to repair just one game - since they pay by the hour. So they wait until there are problems with at least a couple of the games before they call, that way they can get me to repair them all at once.

That probably isn't how all of them work - but I'm sure it's how a lot of them do.
 
The poster a couple above made the best case for it, you've also got to understand that most decent ops won't put games in locations like this. They just don't make money... so the only people that will put them in there are the people that can't get better locations. The reason they can't get better locations is because their games suck and their service sucks.
 
What were you doing in OC this time of year? It's cold outside. I have seen neglected machines in every hotel I have stayed in accept one that was in orland FL. Those cabs were pristine. The others from the past were non working,food spilled on them and anything else you could think of. Shame

Mom got a bench dedicated to Dad (it's at the end of the boardwalk, facing the inlet - there's a double row, his is the rear one on the left hand side) and she wanted us to go see it. Yea, OC is cold outside, but it was pretty relaxing.

I think RyDawg probably has it - someone probably doesn't want to pay for fixing the damn things, so they are leaving them broken until the spring. They are probably leaving the coin changer empty so that they don't have to do as many refunds.

You guys are certainly right about the arcades - I went into one that was open and it had a pretty good array of fun stuff (including a dozen pins) mixed in with the ticket-dispensing slot machines. (As a side note, I still find ticket-dispensing slot machines to be VERY weird).
 
Don't forget the other little bastards favorite maneuvers. one being oh, lets see how many hundred times we can roll this track ball eventhough we arent even really playing. Another is seeing how fast they can spin the steering wheels. Now for the encore, let me take out that car key I stole from dad and carve out Jamie Loves Wayne into the side art!

Doh!!! (_8{|}
 
hey you PA guys, goto DAVE AND BUSTERS, christ there is like 3 in the area (1 in pymouth meeting mall, 1 on columbus blv in philly, and 1 in the frnklin mills mall in philly)

.. that place is exactly what arcades use to be and more!!! I know the games have changed, there mostly new big interactive games.. but the idea of food and games and beers is the right idea.. Not only that, they have guys that walk around and fix games and take care of what ever is broken, just like the old days... If that placed changed the layout of the games to "CLASSIC" stuff, they would be the best around!!! Now they do have some clasic machines (like 4) but they are multis and you can pretty much sit there and play any classic...

There is a PUTT PUTT like 3 streets away from me that i would love to buy. Id turn that into the old arcade and minutre golf.. Man that place use to be sooo packed back in the 80's, that they would have a township cop there on weekends just becuase it was so crowded.. Now a days your lucky to see people there!
 
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