Priceline Hotel: Advice/help sought

[bryananaylor]

My wife and I are two fairly active seniors from UK. We are planning a trip to USA starting from Las Vegas for three nights commencing 25 April 2006. We will not have a car and so want to be very near or on 'the strip'. We are looking for about 3* level and are trying to make our budget stretch as far as possible. So far we have found little availability at less than $170 per night - which is more than we had hoped to spend. There don't seem to be the plethora of deals that we have been told are usually available. Have we chosen an expensive/bad time? Our dates are not variable. Any advice? Grateful for any help.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Vegas deals are most plentiful from Sun-Thursday, with rooms on the weekends often costing 2x-3x as much. As well, it's much too early to find bargain basement prices for Vegas (not that they're guaranteed to come, but you'll not likely find them this far ahead of your arrival... especially for the weekend dates).

To really get the best deal you may also want to consider SPLITTING YOUR BID... let us know if this is an option or not.

I would book a cancellable back-up (such as the NYNY for $150/nite) and then take a closer look at this in the Dec/Jan timeframe.

[TravelGuy]

4/25/06 is a Tuesday, so you'll qualify for those good weekday rates. I would suggest signing up online to join slot/players clubs. They'll start sending you room offers, which can be quite good, like these recent ones.

MGM Players Club.

Cesear's Connection Card

[thereuare]

Ooops, i was looking at Auguest '06... thanks.

I did however get the prices i was checking correct, so the NYNY rate above is a valid one.

[bryananaylor]

Thank you both. Your replies are very useful. We suspected that we were trying to get things organised too early but it is good to have that confirmed. We will also look at the players clubs - that seems a very attractive route. :)

[bryananaylor]

Ooooooops!

forgot to answer your question re splitting our bid. With only three nights in LV we wish to make as much of our time there as possible - moving from one hotel to another is therefore not something that we would welcome - particularly if the savings are modest.

May we also ask a supplimentary question. As we are planning to go from Vegas to the Rockies and back(Zion, Bryce, North Rim, Monument Valley, Arches, Denver, Estes Park, Salt Lake returning to Vegas circa 4 June for a couple of nights) is there any merit in approaching any of the hotel chains to get a deal covering the whole trip - or a large part of it? :)

[thereuare]

I'm doubtful that contacting the chain would do much good... many hotels are now franchised and although branded the same, share very little other affiliation. As well, how many room nites in total are you talking about... 10? 15? 20? Although a 'big' trip in your eyes, this likely isn't worth the trouble (revenue-wise) for multiple hotels to try to coordinate with each other.

[bryananaylor]

Thanks again. Very sage advice. We are planning a 42 day trip but only about 35 nights in hotels.

I believe that you are right - we will stay with the KISS principle. :)