I recently returned from a weekend-long vacation in Las Vegas. On Friday, I discussed the transportation portion of my trip and gave rental car options and bus options. Today I am discussing lodging options. Lodging
There is an abundant amount of lodging options in the city of Las Vegas. I love to stay at hotels. I love it so much that my fiancé and I used to do “stay-cations” at home in Denver that was until recently when a work colleague gave me a website-The Bedbug Registry, www.bedbugregistry.com. This website is now a basis for where I will stay at any hotel. Not only do I look at the Bedbug Registry but I also rely heavily on the reviews from www.tripadvisor.com.
I usually use www.hotels.com for booking my hotel rooms. On this trip, however, this website was outrageously priced for the hotel I wanted to stay in – The Stratosphere. I love the Stratosphere. It is far enough away from the strip that it’s not so busy, yet it’s clean and convenient to access by car.
I suggest signing up for hotel promotions through their websites to once again learn of secret or upcoming sales. I received an email from the Stratosphere offering better rates than hotels.com. I usually use hotels.com or any other third party sites to obtain points towards free stays. In my experience hotels.com offers the best rewards program that is easily redeemable and in a quick turnaround time. On this trip I had booked my room at the Stratosphere using the company’s website and promotion directly.
That was until I saw a commercial from www.trivago.com. I decided to do a search to see if I was getting the best rate. To my surprise, the Trivago website offered the same exact room at $170 less than the best rate I could find. Hotels typically rise in price from Tuesday through Thursday. On Friday they tend to drop in price especially if you are looking to stay at the hotel over the weekend. Hotels would rather sell a room at a lower cost than receive $0 and the room remains empty. Last-minute deals can work in your favor only if there is not a convention or sell-out of the hotel. I would not recommend waiting until the last minute to book a hotel unless it’s a quick staycation.
Once again it all depends on the days of the week and time of the year you are traveling to Vegas. Summertime rates soar while it is less in the Fall and Wintertime. Also be on the lookout for major conventions taking place in the city as that will increase the price of hotels based on the demand. Because I was arriving on a Wednesday and staying through Monday I was able to get the hotel for $27/night as opposed to arriving Thursday which would have made the rate $178/night.