Casino News Understanding Comps

Hard Rock’s Unity Program: What We Know About the New Unified Loyalty System

Unity by Hard Rock logo
Written by Joshua

It’s been known for some time that Hard Rock has been working through a plan to integrate all its cafes, hotels and casinos under a unified loyalty program called, a bit on the nose, Unity.

They said it would roll out in 2022, and now more details are becoming available through their various websites. They also rolled it out at one casino that just opened, Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana.

Here’s the basics that have been shared so far.

Earning Comp Dollars

Unity Points are earned based on spend on both gaming and non-gaming, which makes sense given this will also work at Hard Rock Cafes. The earning rates are as follows:

  • Earn 3 Unity Points for every $1 spent at participating Cafes and non-casino Hotels.
  • Earn 1 Unity Point for every $1 spent on all other non-gaming spend in participating Casinos.
  • Earn Unity Points for every $1 spent gaming in participating Casinos. Earning rates at Casinos vary by location.

While it might seem disappointing to not have a clear earnings rate at the casinos on gambling, this isn’t a change, as the Hard Rocks in AC and Florida, for instance, never had an established earnings rate for gaming, and it was largely based on your theoretical loss.

The presumption is, similar to the current MGM Rewards program, theoretical loss will remain a key part of the calculation, and so games with higher house edges will earn at a quicker rate. And for the cafes, you earn up to a 3% rebate on your spend – not too shabby!

Unity Points have a six-month inactivity expiration, so you’ll need to be sure you get out a couple of times a year at a minimum. But having access to them at both Hard Rock Casinos and Cafes is an interesting perk, similar to what Landry’s does with their restaurants and comps earned at Golden Nugget casinos.

Earning Tier Credits

Tier credits are also earned everywhere, based on your gaming and non-gaming spend. It works a bit differently though:

You earn 1 Tier Credit for every $1 spent in participating cafes and non-casino hotels, as well as on dining and retail outside of the cafe. Tier Credit earning rates will vary at each casino based on your game play. Your Tier Score will reset at the beginning of each year.

Hard Rock website

So you’ll earn 1 tier credit per dollar on non-gaming spend, and similarly no published number for gaming play. Again, not too unusual for Hard Rock properties.

We do know the tier structure as well, which is four tiers:

  • Star: First level granted automatically upon sign-up
  • Legend: Earn this tier at 4,000 Tier Credits
  • Icon: Earn this tier at 15,000 Tier Credits
  • X: Invite Only tier with no publicly shared targets

To get an idea of what might be included at each tier, you can see what’s rolled out at Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana in their tier chart. The standard sorts of features, such as escalating discounts with higher tiers on spend and tier celebration rewards, are found here.

This doesn’t mean each property will be identical (other national programs do have some differences between markets and properties), but it gives a decent idea of where this is headed.

Hard Rock Cafe’s switchover is scheduled to be in June, with most of the Hard Rock casinos moving later in the year. It’s anticipated that tier credits and comps will be ported over as the casinos migrate.

While a long time coming, players at multiple Hard Rock Casinos, and those who also like the Hard Rock Cafe experience, can finally take advantage of a unified program where all spend and gambling will earn towards a unified tier and comp bucket!

About the author

Joshua

My name is Joshua, and I’m a slot enthusiast who works in tech as a marketer by day, and dabbles in casinos periodically during off-times. Know Your Slots will reflect my interests in understanding the various ways you can play slots, travel, casino promotions and how you can get the most out of your casino visits.

13 Comments

    • Presumably you can pick it up at a Hard Rock property that has rolled Unity out. If you’re not sure where that is, I’d encourage you to contact your local Hard Rock property directly for some guidance!

  • Just thought I would drop this nugget for fun… my friend who has lost over $100,000 at Unity this year finally got the X card…. Expires in 60 days lmao

    • Hey Richard – the good news is they’ll keep the status for the following year, albeit whatever status that aligns with on Unity presuming that casino is switched over for 2023.

    • You didn’t specify which casino, but as a general rule statuses last a tier cycle. With Unity however switching over, they are transferring players to the matching status on the new program, and it’s my understanding Unity is on a calendar year. So it will simply depend on when the casino switches over to Unity. Most are doing so going into 2023, so the expectation is that most players will be matched to their new tier once Unity takes effect.

  • Have you heard when Hard Rock’s Wild Card Rewards Program in AC will switch over to Unity? We’re planning a trip to AC and was hoping to tier match to Rock Royalty. They have some nice perks for matching that the new Unity program doesn’t feature. Lastly, do you know if the Wild Card program in AC is linked to the Unity Program (ie. can you tier match in both programs)?

    • Hi Renee – I honestly don’t know what’s going on with the timing of the Unity rollout there. It had been originally said the goal was to move everyone over by the end of 2022, but that hasn’t happened. They have, however, already taken the most difficult step of updating players card numbers for players who played in Florida (whose players card numbers seem to take priority in the migration) and Atlantic City. My AC players card number was changed to be identical to Florida, so I imagine that’s part of the changeover that’s been completed.

      They have promised that whatever your highest tier is among the various programs will be your tier under Unity, so there should ultimately be no need to tier match. However if you’ve never played in AC, there is a tier match program in place to match your card, so in the interim that would still be possible.

      • Thanks Joshua. We plan to go to AC within the next couple of months and wouldn’t want to miss out on the Wild Card Upgrade. Please do a post if you hear anything!

Leave a Reply to C Belair X