Archive for the ‘Cheap Las Vegas Hotels’ Category

Finding a cheap las vegas hotel

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

fabulous_las_vegas_signSince very few of us have a travel budget that qualifies as “unlimited,” you are going to want to snag the best (read: least expensive) rate you can for your hotel room during your vacation so you can enjoy yourself and spend more money on fun than a place to sleep. There are many ways to go about getting a great rate on a great Las Vegas hotel, and making use of them will land you the cheap Las Vegas hotel you’ve been looking for.

The following tips could prove invaluable to you, so as you plan your next trip to Sin City, keep them in mind while you hunt down and book your hotel:

  1. Go for off peak times. If you book your room during an off peak time for the hotel, you are much more likely to get a cheaper rate than the standard “rack rate.” “Rack rate” refers to the maximum amount of what you would pay if you just walked in off the Strip and asked for somewhere to sleep. By choosing an off peak time and booking your trip ahead, you will bypass the rack rate and get a better deal. Off peak for many Strip hotels is considered to be Sunday through Thursday nights, as well as during the summer months, the weeks leading up to Christmas, and the weeks directly after Christmas. For other hotels – the business and convention hotels – off peak times are the weekends, since conventions and business events are generally held on weekdays.

  2. Make use of a membership card. If you are a member of AAA, AARP, any corporate rewards programs, a credit card rewards program, a frequent flier program, or anything else along these lines, make sure to mention this when you book your room. It may turn out to be worth decent discount depending on which membership you have.

  3. Go for an older hotel. It’s no secret that Las Vegas is a city full of the wow factor, and hotels compete fiercely with each other for clientèle. New hotels are generally much more flashy than the older hotels, and you will find that they are also much more expensive. If you go for an older hotel, they will make up for being in the less flashy department by offering better room rates.

  4. Go low key. For a lot of people, the hotels in Las Vegas are the attractions themselves – casinos, fountains, shows, other entertainment. But just because a certain hotel has something you want to see does not mean you have to stay in that hotel to enjoy it. Instead, you can book a cheaper room off the Strip and head over to the fancy place to take in the show. You save money and still get to do what you wanted to do in the first place – a win-win situation all around.

Planning is key when you want to get a good deal on a cheap Las Vegas hotel, so do your research before you book and you will find it won’t cost you an arm and a leg to head out to Sin City after all.

Cheap Las Vegas Hotel Options

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

Cheap Las Vegas Hotels

Cheap Las Vegas Hotels

A trip to Las Vegas does not have to cost you an arm and a leg (unless you have a gambling habit and aren’t very good at it, of course!). It takes a little planning and forethought, but if you are armed with both, you can take a great vacation to Las Vegas, see everything you want to see, do everything you want to do, and stay in a nice place while you’re doing it without breaking the bank entirely.

Room prices in Las Vegas fluctuate often and can vary wildly, so this is where the forethought part comes in. If you have a certain time frame in mind for your trip but the prices you find for the hotel rooms are outrageous, check the prices on the surrounding dates. You just might find that the rates are drastically lower. The reason for this is that Las Vegas is a city that hosts tons of conventions throughout the year, and when one is in town, rooms will be scarce and expensive if you are not one of the people attending any of the conventions. When the convention is over, then the room prices will be much more reasonable, and this is especially true of hotels on the Strip.

As a general rule, room rates are higher on Friday and Saturday nights. As another general rule, room rates are lower Monday through Wednesday. If you aren’t locked into having to go on a weekend, and you aren’t locked into having to go on a particular time, being flexible about when you visit can really help you nail down a low room rate.

For those of us on a budget, the Imperial Palace is a great hotel to stay in. It is not the fanciest place in town, but it is located in the middle of the Strip so you have easy access to all of the surrounding attractions. The rooms are nice and clean and feature walk out balconies, and the room rates are very reasonable. Add that to the low table minimums they offer, and you have an all around winner of a cheap Las Vegas hotel. However, if you are traveling with kids, and want a hotel that will be more amenable to them, Circus Circus is a great kid friendly hotel with reasonable rates.

If you have your heart set on a certain hotel that is not exactly in the “budget” category, you can still often get a better rate anyway. Rather than just accepting the “rack rate,” ask for a discount. The “rack rate” refers to how much you would pay for a hotel room if you just walked in off the street and asked for a room. Since you will be planning your trip in advance because you are a smart traveler, you can score a better deal by shopping around and then calling the hotels themselves to ask the manager about a better deal. More likely than not, they will be happy to hook you up!

Get Rated For A Cheap Las Vegas Hotel

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

Cheap Las Vegas Hotels

Cheap Las Vegas Hotels

It is no secret that hotels in Las Vegas can get pricey. If you would like to plan a trip to Las Vegas but are on something of a budget, don’t worry – it is possible to get some fantastic deals on hotels, food and more anyway. One way to go about doing it is to get “rated.”

Most Las Vegas hotels have several different tiers for their room rates. One tier is the “rack rate.” The rack rate refers to the price you would pay if you just wandered in off the Strip and asked for a place to stay. The rack rate is not going to be the least expensive room rate in the hotel, but fortunately for you, people rarely end up paying that rack rate, and you aren’t likely going to have to, either. Instead, you should aim for the “casino rate,” which will be considerably less – and could even lead to you getting your hotel room for free. Yes, you read that right – for free.

If you let the hotel know that you will be spending time in the hotel’s casino while you are there, you will likely be given a lower room rate. The hotel wants you to stay there and spend more money, so they are going to try to make that as easy as possible for you to do. Once you are there at the hotel, the absolute first thing you should do is get a players card from the casino. This is what is going to help you get free stuff, from rooms, to food, to room upgrades. The casino term for free stuff is “comps,” which is short for “complimentary.” When you are sitting at a gaming table and you are given a free drink, that’s a comp.

Players cards are often referred to as “slot cards,” but they are not only valuable for use at the slot machines. They are also good to have for the gaming tables themselves. The cards are what will get you the great free stuff, so make sure you use them and hang onto them. When you use a slot machine, insert the card into the machine BEFORE you start playing. When you’re done, don’t forget to take it with you, because it is recording your activity and lets the hotel know you are spending time in their casino, which they like.

If you gamble at any of the tables, put your card down on top of your chips when you sit down at the table. The dealer will give it to the pit boss or floor man, and they will set you up to get rated. You are rated on your average bets and how long you play, so try to be there for at least an hour. You do not have to be what’s considered a “high roller” to start getting comps, but anything less than ten dollar bets will be seen as a waste of time, as will you getting up and leaving a table after only 20 minutes.

After you’ve got all this activity recorded on your card, present it while you are planning your next visit, and depending on how much you’ve played, you may find you are offered a drastically reduced hotel room rate or even free nights – a great way to get a cheap Las Vegas hotel for your vacation.

Best Time to Visit Las Vegas

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

There is not really a bad time to visit Las Vegas on vacation, regardless of whether you want to go for the shopping, the shows, the gambling or all three. Las Vegas is a city that offers so many different options in terms of things to do, places to go, and things to see that you can find something to make your trip great no matter what time of year you decide to visit.

That being said, depending on the goal of your trip, there are some times that are better than others in terms of making your trip as pleasant and fun as possible for you, your family, or your travel companions. For example, if you are looking for cheap Las Vegas hotels, deals on shows, and more, you want to head out to the city during its off season. The off season in Las Vegas is admittedly a rather narrow time period, but worth aiming for if you want a great vacation for less. Hotel prices drop when the weather gets hot, so look to July and August. Hotel prices also tend to drop in January and February, since Christmas and New Year’s are very busy times for Las Vegas. In the ensuing drop off in people flocking to the city, you will find some great deals for your stay.

If your prime objective is to hit the casinos, you will find far fewer fellow tourists on the floor on a weekday than you will on a weekend. Weekends in Vegas can be a crowded affair, since many people come up from Los Angeles and other cities for a quick break. The only exception to this general rule is that if the hotel you have chosen to stay in is having a convention – then the place will be crawling with people. To avoid that, put in a call to the hotel before you make any concrete plans to see what they might have going on during your planned stay.

If gambling is your goal and crowds aren’t a problem, then the other best times to hit Las Vegas are during the Super Bowl or the opening weekend of March Madness. This is obviously the ideal time for sports fans, but even if you are not big on betting on games, you will still have a blast. Prices tend to ratchet up a little during this time, but since it’s also technically occurring during the off season, great deals can still be had if you look for them.

All in all, as said before, there is no real bad time to visit Las Vegas. It’s a city that was built to have a good time, and you will have one no matter when you decide to go. Even if you aren’t interested in gambling, and are there for the entertainment, most shows in Las Vegas run year round, so you should have no trouble there unless you really want to catch one of the seasonal holiday shows. Just keep in mind the goal of your trip and plan accordingly, and you will have the time of your life.

Booking a Cheap Hotel in Las Vegas

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

Let’s face it: heading out to Las Vegas, Nevada, can end up making for a pretty expensive trip, especially if you are a fan of the gaming tables and like to play the slots. So when you are planning a trip out there, you want to do it as cheaply as possible so you have more money to spend on the fun stuff. At first blush, all of the fancy hotels with all of their lights and bells and whistles just scream “expensive!” but it is definitely possible to find clean, well kept, inexpensive places to stay in Las Vegas – a nice hotel that isn’t going to cost you an arm and a leg.

 

The first place to look is not at the hotels on the famed Las Vegas Strip, but rather the hotels in the Downtown Las Vegas area. The Downtown area is the business center of the city, and home to all of the high rise buildings that aren’t on the Strip. The main attraction here is the Freemont Street Experience. Here, you will find many great hotels and casinos that are all attached to each other and to the street itself by an enormous canopy. The canopy is embedded with over 2 million lights, and features a state of the art sound system, and each night, beginning at dusk, amazing Light & Sound Shows begin. Some of the shows are about Las Vegas history, and others are about things like race car driving and science fiction stories pitting humans against aliens.

 

The Freemont Street Experience was conceived to help draw more attention to the hotels and casinos there in that Downtown area, since many people still flock just to the Strip alone. That’s unfortunate, because while the rooms in these hotels tend to be smaller, they are also much less expensive than those rooms you will find on the Strip – and that is why you should consider staying here instead if you are looking to keep accommodation expenses down in order to be able to spend your money on other things.

 

Another great thing about this Downtown Las Vegas area is that it’s famed for its inexpensive late night eating specials. A great, affordable meal can be found nearly everywhere in this part of town, which will lower your expenses even more. And what’s more, if you do plan to spend the money you’ve saved on hotel accommodations at the gaming tables, the casinos here are less steep than they are on the Strip, as well – table limits are much lower.

 

Among your options are the Four Queens Hotel & Casino, Fitzgerald’s Casino Hotel (which has a fun “luck of the Irish” theme), and the famous Golden Nugget Las Vegas, which is not only the largest hotel and casino on the Downtown area, it’s also one of the oldest establishments in the entire city. So if you want to find a great room for a fraction of what it would cost you to stay on the Strip, look to the Downtown area for cheap Las Vegas hotels.

Cheap Las Vegas Hotels

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

Getting a cheap las vegas hotel doesn’t mean you have to stay off the strip or in some run down old casino. If you know where to look and more importantly when to look you can get very cheap rates at some of the big name hotels right on the strip. Contrary to what most people would have you believe the cheapest prices on Las Vegas hotel rooms are not found on the big travel sites or through any travel agents. The best place to find a cheap las vegas hotel is by going directly to the hotels website and looking at their current promotions. Many times you will not only get a much cheaper room but you can also get other perks such as, dining credits, match play and free play credits, 2 for 1 show tickets and many other perks not found on any other websites. In addition to all of these extras most hotels are now offering a “best rate guarantee” so you know that you are getting the best deal anywhere and if you happen to find a better deal somewhere else they will happily match it.

Also the timing of your trip can save you hundreds of dollars on your hotel stay alone. The rate at any of the strip hotels will be considerably less during the week than on weekends. If you are going to vegas simply to sight see or gamble then it would benefit you to go during the week. You will miss the crowds and can find rooms a some of the premier strip properties for less than $40/night. 

While Las Vegas doesnt really have an off-season like many other tourist destinations it does a several different times when it is slower than normal. The biggest off-season is just after the National Final Rodeo in december you can normally get a room on the strip for less than $25 during the december 10th thru december 22nd time frame. Other than that the only other off-season is during the month of august due to the intense heat in the desert. I have been to las vegas in august and I will say while it was very hot it was not unbearable and did little to hamper my enjoyment while I was in town.

The best time of the year to get a cheap las vegas hotel and also have the best weather possible is during the February thru April time period. You will not find the absolute cheapest hotel rates but you can still find some very good deals and the weather will be perfect. Also during this time it seems that the town is just busy enough to be enjoyable with out feeling overly crowded.