Finding Internet Discounts for Las Vegas Hotels

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Isn't that what the commercials tout? The idea that the gambling, nightclubs, drinking, five-star eateries, and world-class shopping might bring out the wild side in all of us is not such a far cry from the truth. What you don't want staying in Las Vegas, however, is your money. What follows is a guide to using the Internet to research and find the best possible deal on a hotel in Sin City. Once you get there, however, the rest is on you. Before you begin to book, you need to make the decision as to whether you'd like to stay on the strip or off the strip.

The strip is the nickname for the piece of land you see in every movie or television show that depicts Las Vegas. It is a long road, with a multitude of hotel/casinos with nightlife, and hundreds of restaurants, places to shop, and shows to attend. It is, quite frankly, the middle of the action. Off the strip refers to the land immediately surrounding the strip, where there are also hotels with casinos, but there are a few more choices in terms of non-gaming hotels and quieter places to stay, in general. There are luxurious accommodations to be found in Las Vegas, both on and off the strip, so your first decision must be made before you attempt to book. Once you decide on your location, it's time to sign on-line.

Tip #1: The Travelzoo website (www.travelzoo.com) contains a wealth of discounts right at your fingertips. Travelzoo receives solicitations from travel agencies with their best deals on hotel rooms and airfare in places all across the country. An excellent user's tip is to subscribe to their weekly newsletter, and the sales are delivered right into your electronic inbox. In addition to the "Las Vegas" link on their hotel page, there is almost always a deal on Las Vegas lodging in the weekly newsletter.

Tip#2: The main travel websites, such as Expedia, Orbitz, and HotWire (www.expedia.com, www.orbitz.com, www.hotwire.com), all offer excellent deals on Las Vegas hotel rooms, especially if you monitor the website regularly. By doing this, you can find out immediately when they're running specials on Sin City hotel rooms, and book accordingly. Sometimes, the rates dip under $100.00 per night for some very exclusive hotels. The key to these websites is to view them at different times during the week. They add their own fees to the booking, but if you catch it at the right sale, the fees are completely negligible.

Tip#3: Check out the official travel website of Las Vegas, www.vegas.com. Not only do they give you excellent discounts on both on and off-strip location hotels, but they enable you to read restaurant reviews, purchase show tickets, and even book tours of the surrounding area all on the same site. It truly makes vacation planning easy and affordable. One of the most clever pages on this website allows you to view the price offerings for every hotel they work with, in your chosen date range, while in alphabetical order. It's an organized planner's dream.

Tip #4: Most recently, this author read an article that suggested consumers go beyond booking websites and specifically to look at the hotels themselves. In several instances, I have found that the on-strip hotels have had a cheaper price when I looked at them through their own website, as opposed to a booking engine such as Expedia. The hotels I found that this held true with the most often are as follows: Excalibur (www.excalibur.com), New York, New York (www.NYNYhotelcasino.com), Harrah's (www.harrahs.com/lasvegas), Bally's (www.harrahs.com/ballyslasvegas), the Flamingo Hilton (www.flamingolasvegas.com) , Tropicana (www.tropicanalv.com) , and the Mirage (www.mirage.com). Caesar's Palace, the Palms, the Wynn, and the Bellagio normally held true to search-engine prices with little difference (and in some cases were more expensive on their own websites!).

Tip #5: My Las Vegas Rooms (www.mylasvegasrooms.com) has some of the best last-minute pricing available on the web, in addition to some of the best pricing around, in general. They have no booking fees, and often offer to beat any price you can find on the Internet. Easy to use, this website has most recently been offering rooms at the Stratosphere, a hotel at the top of the Vegas strip, starting at just $28.00. They offer some incredible deals.

Tip #6: Let the buyer beware, discount websites that are specifically targeted to hotel bookings, such as Hotels.com (www.hotels.com), and Hotels Cheap (www.hotelscheap.org) are some of the easiest to navigate. However, when dealing just with Las Vegas bookings, they only offer sufficiently discounted rates on hotels that are off the strip. The prices for on-strip location hotels tends to be quite a bit higher than most of the other sites listed in this article.

To summarize, make the decision to go to Las Vegas and have a wonderful time. Before you go, decide whether you'd like to stay on the strip, or off the strip, and look for hotels on the Internet accordingly. Enjoy your vacation, and make sure to come home with a little money in your pocket. Good luck to you!