Priceline Hotel: Early planner

[MachoTime]

I love to plan trips way ahead of time. We will be in Las Vegas for 6 nights in March 2005. The flights are booked.

My first choice is the Mirage. I really enjoy their poker room.

Bellagio has a nice poker room also,but I don't need to spend the extra money. I've stayed at the Bellagio before and I've stayed at Bally's ($69) and walked across the street to play poker at the Bellagio. Caesar's or the Venetian are close enough to Mirage.

Planning too early hurt me this March in Vegas. I got a $70something a night deal at the Golden Nugget. My plan was to play poker at Binnions. Binnions was closed in March. I had to take taxis to the Mirage every day.

Any advice? Thanks

" The early bird gets the worm. But the second mouse gets the cheese."

[thereuare]

We'll need the actual dates of your stay in order to help.

I'll also add that Vegas is the ultimate "book a cancellable back-up and then try to beat it as you get closer" location.

[MachoTime]

Thanks for your reply.

Checking in March 12, 2005, Checkout March 18, 2005.

[thereuare]

I took a quick look and the only advice i can offer is to wait!

Most of the discounters don't even have rates published for your dates so whatever you do find will most likely be the default 'rack rate.' Even QUICKBOOK (usually pretty good for Vegas) doesn't show any rates yet.

Two things i will mention to at least get you thinking:

1) You may have a difficult time with a Saturday arrival

2) Since Saturday is typically so much more expensive then Sun-Thur, if you're going to use Priceline you may want to SPLIT YOUR BID or perhaps lean more towards Hotwire (since Hotwire averages their prices throughout the stay rather than have a bid equal to the most expensive nite of the stay needed to win the bid). Fortunately, in my opinion, there are a lot of great deals to be had in Vegas outside of Priceline and Hotwire.

[MachoTime]

Thanks again for your advice. I took your advice and took off the Saturday night and bid $110 for a 5* on the strip. No luck yet.

To bid again I need to add another zone. I don't know of any 5*

hotels in the airport area. Would you try it and bid more or just be patient?

[thereuare]

You are waaaay to early for this. Book yourself a cancellabe back-up where you will be happy and then revisit this at the end of the summer (at the earliest)... chances are your best deals will come in Jan or Feb (yes, of '05).

You should also read, learn, and understand PRICELINE RE-BIDDING as this technique will enable you to bid multiple times at the 5* level in the Vegas area per every 72 hours.

Unless you are targeting the Venetian, i think your best deal is going to NOT come from Priceline or Hotwire (but we're about getting the best deal possible... even if it's not thru an 'opaque' service)

[MachoTime]

Thanks for your advice. This is going to be fun.

[mr.drew]

Myself and some buddies go to Vegas every year for the Kentucky Derby, and always try to book rooms early. However, this far out, there are no deals. The only rates are standard rates, if they are even available at this point. (sites like Expedia and some others won't have rooms showing as available at many properties this early) The flights are not sold out, they probably are not even priced yet by the airlines. Since the airline tickets are gas-price sensitive, they usually sell tickets at most 3-6 months in advance, but there might be some exceptions.

My advice to you is to start looking in earnest around November or December 2004, you might see a couple deals. After that, it will only get more and more expensive as you get closer to your trip(if you book directly).

Only try for the Venetian on Priceline, unless you like the Westin Casuarina as a 4 star option on the strip. I stayed there in May 2004, and it wasnt bad at all, but I think priceline should make it 3* or 3.5* at most.

[MachoTime]

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it.