Priceline Hotel: 5* or 4* 4/1/04-4/4/04

[vegasduchess]

My parents are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary and would love to go back to where it all happened. I want to book them somewhere cool, but do not have the money to pay $200+ a night. Does anyone have suggestions for bidding on 5* or 4* for these dates.

:)

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

If you give an idea of the maximum you would like to spend (before fees and taxes) we can better provide a bidding strategy for you you to follow.

Also, please add if you are familiar with and understand the concept of RE-Bidding: Bidding again before 72 hours as there are quite a few in this area and this will help you get the best price. Feel free to ask any questions you may not understand about re-bidding and we'll be happy to explain it further.

[vegasduchess]

I would like to stay under $150 per night if possible. I have heard of people having great success with bidding online for these properties.

And I am familar with the rebidding process.

:)

[thereuare]

Although it's getting better, i think Vegas is one area where the deals at the higher end properties are not that great, with the exception of Venetian on short notice and when utilizing Hotwire's Double the Difference guarantee. However, sometimes you can get lucky... and isn't that what Vegas is all about?

Bally's website is offering your dates for $99/$139/$139 which seem pretty good, i believe is cancellable up to 48 or 72 hours (double check this yourself), and would probably make a good back-up while you try Priceline/Hotwire.

For the Strip:

I'm doubtufl you'll have success for 5* at this point in time, but if you want to try anyway i would start at $100 and raise $5 per re-bid.

For 4* you have 4 re-bids, so i'd start at $75 and raise $5 per re-bid. We can re-evaluate in a week or so if you're not successful.

IMPORTANT: many zones in this are do not have 4* hotels, but do have Resorts... these are NOT re-bid zones since you could be upgraded (you probably already know this, but just trying to avoid any crucial mistakes)

[StSebastian]

There's a 7500 person convention at Venetian that weekend, and two other major conventions of over 21000 people in town that weekend. Plus the 900 strong American Society of Breast Surgeons at Bellagio.

Rates are going a little high at the moment, and if you want to guarantee something, then you'll have to go ahead and book. Being the weekend before Easter and Palm Sunday isn't going to help either. Airfare is quite difficult for that weekend. Your best bet is probably an air-hotel package if they're going to have to fly -- I can pull up one for the weekend for $522 (MGM), $526 (Luxor), $666 (Mandalay), $701 (Bellagio) from the East coast through Southwest Vacations (RDU-LAS, all prices are per-person). Subtracting out the airfare cost of $315 (if booked separately) then your hotel costs are under $150 per room per night (($522 - $315) * 2 / 3 = $138 for MGM per room per night).

If they could go Sunday - Wednesday instead and miss the weekend, that same package drops to $369 (MGM), $389 (Luxor), $509 (Bellagio). The airfare doesn't get much cheaper, but the hotels do -- airfare of $285 comes out with a hotel rate of (($509 - $285) * 2 / 3) = $149 for Bellagio, or $56 per night for MGM. At that price you might want to upgrade them to a nicer tower or room in the hotel.

If Southwest doesn't work for you, you could try your own airline's vacations package program. All of them have one. No guarantees, but sometimes that price will be better than anything else you could get.

You might even want to talk with a travel agent. Sometimes they know special deals or packages that aren't widely published or known, and definately be sure to tell whatever hotel after booking that it is your parents 25th and they're back to the original wedding town to celebrate. They might not get anything, but sometimes hotels will do something special like an upgrade on arrival or flowers or something nice. I'd expect the Vegas hotels to be able to do something.

Last thought...I've seen this and never called them to ask about it, but you might want to chat with them and see: http://www.venetian.com/package.cfm -- It would be $172 per night, but guaranteed, and there's some other freebies that come with it.